Well...

If you're a little crazy, you could try this:

I did something similar years ago with a CDRW drive. In my case it was a flash which just hung. I went to bed and when I got up in the morning it still had the "Wait...Do Not Turn Off Your Computer" stuff on the screen and the progress indicator hadn't moved. I hit the reset button and the whole system took forever (well, about five minutes) to get through the bios drive detection section. It was like the MB knew that SOMETHING was on that channel, but couldn't decide just what it was. It never could fully boot with that drive attached.

I took an old system I had running in the corner and booted to a system disc with NO drives of any kind attached. I then hot-plugged the dud CDRW drive, then ran the firmware upgrade. It hesitated a while, probably because it couldn't determine what the previous (halfway-flashed) firmware was. I was then able to re-flash the firmware successfully.

I would suspect that this would not work in every situation, and told myself that I was just very very lucky. This was back when a 4X CDRW drive would set you back $200. If you've got an old board lying around and want to try it you might be as fortunate as I was. There is a chance that you'll not only fail to revive the drive, but blow out an IDE channel (or the whole daggone board) in the attempt. In my case I figured it was worth a shot, as the drive alone was worth eight times as much as the old MB I resurrected it in - kind of like an 8-to-1 shot coming in at the racetrack.

DO NOT try this in your main system, unless you're prepared to replace the whole shootin' match.

If I were you I would contact the manufacturer and see if they can help you. They might have more information specific to your particular brand. (Though I suspect that they will just tell you that you are screwed, it wouldn't hurt to ask). I would also see what advice others in this forum might be able to offer. The fact that what I described here worked for me does not mean that it is the only way - or the best way - to solve your problem.

Let us know how it turns out, and I hope you are feeling better.


Prof
(The Gambler)