Stuck on “reading file 901.ROM” – why EeePC 901 BIOS EZ-Flash isn’t working for you, and how to fix it
I had some fun last night flashing my EeePC 901’s BIOS up to the latest version. I got the firmware from here and followed this guide.
My Eee sat there displaying “reading file 901.ROM” for about five minutes until I gave up and turned it off.
After a bit of Googling and a bit of thinking, I found the answer: the 4GB pen drive I was using was too big. I’d formatted it in FAT 16 as required, and allocated a tiny 20MB partition so it wasn’t over the size limit. Even so, EZ-Flash wasn’t able to read from it. The limit seems to be 2GB, but I haven’t tested this – luckily I had an old 64MB pen drive lying around from 2003! Even better, it was already formatted in FAT 16! 😀
I’m documenting this here to help anyone who has this problem in the future. Good luck!