I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Asus M2N4-SLI - when I turn on I get no beeps, fans whirr but nothing on the screen.

I just bought a 1TB Sata drive and XP sometimes wouldn't recognise it. Googling suggested updating the mobo BIOS so I used the Asus windows utility. But I got a Fail to verify EEPROM with new BIOS image
message.

Next time I turned off and on - whirring but no beeping and nothing on the screen. So it looks like I've zapped the BIOS and googling suggests this is what you see - or don't see - if that happens.

Supposedly you can take the battery out, switch a jumper for a few seconds to reset the BIOS. Didn't work.

Supposedly if you start the PC with the driver CD it'll magically repair the BIOS - didn't work.

So it looks like I need a new mobo.

So I'm thinking - do I just get a new mobo or is it worth buying a new cpu and graphics card too?

Currently it's an Athlon AM2 4200 dual core, 7300LE 256Mb graphics (I dont play games on it) and 4GB DDR2 6400.

I was generally happy with the peformance before. If I do buy extra bits I don't want to pay more than about £150 mobo, cpu and gfx and I want to keep the existing memory.

I was thinking of just getting something like this
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/160850

or this
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159001...ctype=extended

and keeping all the other bits.

What do you reckon?

By the way - thats the last time I ever upgrade my mobo bios :dunce:

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

does the initial screen come up where it tells you the amount of ram etc?

if it does and you can get in to the bios there is a way of updating or downgrading the bios, from within the bios but off the top of my head i cannot remember.

i did something similar when i updated the bios on my asus striker II extreme mobo, it started locking up and crashing etc with the new bios on it, i had to use a floppy disc and follow the instructions from the asus website to get the bios back down to the very 1st bios and then flash up to the version that was stable for me.

hope this helps also try the asus forums if no help found here but wait for zingle or someone like that as they know more than i do.

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

No, don't see anything. Get nothing at all on the screen, no beeps or anything.

It doesn't crash, it just doesn't work :)

Doesn't pick up bootable CDs either.

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Does it even power on?

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

If it was the bios then the bootblock hardwired into the system would reflash the bios with the original disk (but not sure which port the CD has to be plugged into perhaps it might be worth asking in the ASUS forums??)

I'm running the same board in this desktop and it's been quite reliable..

Pity you're so far away as I would have hot-swapped the chip for you and reflashed it..

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168321

I really like the Asus AM2/AM2+/Am3 boards myself used quite a few now and they have been solid.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150466

you could go quad core with the mobo and use the 7300 LE seeing as you dont game

Ive never had a problem using the Live update but it is the riskiest way . Bios updates are so easy now without using windows you just click an F8 and tell it where the bios file is no more AWFlash lol

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Thanks all. Yes, it powers on, fans whirr away, but nothing goes out to the screen and clearly XP isn't trying to start as I don't get the leds flashing on the keyboard.

I think it did try to reflash itself because the DVD light went on (and when I booted with a usb stick with the bios flash utility and bios file the light on the USB stick went on)

But no joy.

I've decided any more time trying to fix it is a waste. Unless anyone has a magic answer I'm going to buy my way out of it :)

Thanks for the suggestions Zing. I'm a bit wary of Asus now :) oh and the mobo needs to have 4 memory sockets as I've got 4 1 gig sticks.

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

why be wary of asus you broke it lol

---------- Post added at 08:50 ---------- Previous post was at 08:49 ----------

At a guess what you should have done when it said failed to verify would be to perhaps run the update again or try to flash it with a different bios revision before the reboot

---------- Post added at 08:55 ---------- Previous post was at 08:50 ----------

It is a bit worrying that the crashfree bios does not appear to be so crashfree. Perhaps Asus may do something about it seeing as a feature of the board failed

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Not all ASUS boards are crash free ;) it tends to be only top end..

If the bootblock isn't working (but I would suggest still to ask on the asus forums as to which port the CD needs to be attached to) then the ONLY two ways of fixing it would be either to reflash using an eeprom programmer or use an identical board and hot swap the chips to reflash..

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

I was reading his manual to see if he missed a jumper or something his board is meant to support crash free ;)

It does say in the manual IDE so maybe if a Sata optical drive is being used ?

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Sowwy was getting confuses with dual bios as I had on my old P4 Asus board..

Thier version of crash free (3) is to back-up the bios to a USB data stick.. As I do have the same board if the OP wants to send me a small USB data stick (got non here as I've not needed one for a long long time) I can do a backup and send it back to them..

Other than that an IDE CDROM should work as there's no way that the hardwire bootblock can become corrupt ;)

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

To be fair it was Asus's own software that broke it, when I was trying to fix a problem caused by their other software not working properly ;)

Tried that, just couldn't get it to work.

Maybe. With the cost of sending the thing back to them and the time it'll all take to sort out I'm not going to give them the chance.

---------- Post added at 19:06 ---------- Previous post was at 19:05 ----------

No, IDE. Followed the instructions in the manual to the letter :(

---------- Post added at 19:08 ---------- Previous post was at 19:06 ----------

Thanks for the offer Kymmy but I've already tried the USB and CD options. Don't want to waste your time as well as mine.

I've decided to get a replacement mobo that isn't an Asus.

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

If you're gonna throw the board out then I wouldn't mind it as a spare..

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Once I've got everything working again I'll pm you :)

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

:tu:

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Sorry, should have said: IF I ever get everything working again ;)

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

A word of advice if you ever decide to flash your BIOS again...

NEVER flash in Windows if your system isn't 100% stable, or even better, avoid flashing in Windows all together, if something goes wrong during the flash process then you're pretty much knackered. Do it through a DOS boot CD or the feature provided by your Mobo.

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Unless you just want an excuse to buy a new mobo of course ;)

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

i have always flashed in windows and if my cpu was oc'd i always took the oc of 1st as that can cause issue's.

my next build will have either of these in it

ASUS
OR
GIGABYTE

with the 4ghz overclock and probably another 6gb of ram in it but not to sure yet which to choose, but im leaning more towards the asus because i really like the look of that board.

with the waterblock for my watercooling system as well just to keep the temps right down as much as possible

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Oh, wait a minute

Just tried it again and this time I notice that the cpu fan only spins for about 5 seconds when I turn on before stopping.

Would that be a symptom of a bad bios?

And will it fry the cpu or will the mobo still kill power to the cpu even if the bios is bad?

I could just buy a new cpu to go with my new mobo ;)

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

The power good signal is controlled by the board (including the bios) if the bios is unreadable then the PC should power off before it initiates the POST (which is controlled by the hardware and then by the bios)

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Thanks Kymmy - hopefully it's not getting to POST because the mobo isn't getting the power good signal, and not because there's a charred cpu :)

I left it like that for a minute and couldnt smell anything sizzling so that's a positive.

I'm not sure what this board does if you power on without a cpu

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Well, I spoke too soon :(

New mobo but that doesn't POST either. So looks like it's the CPU after all. I'll find out for sure on Tuesday when Mr Dabs brings me a new one :)

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

have you tried a different pSU at any point?

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Yes, new PSU - and the cpu fan spins so I'm pretty sure it's not a power issue.

Using a new mobo, psu and graphics card.

The things that are the same are the CPU, the memory, the case and the drives. I suppose it could be the memory but I'd have thought it wouldn't stop the PC from POSTing. If the new CPU doesn't fix it that's what I'll look at next.

And I did try a different screen too :)

Irritatingly the case doesn't have an internal speaker so I don't know if there are any beeps.

On the bright side, assuming I eventually get it fixed I've got myself pretty much a brand new PC :)

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Bad RAM can stop the POST routine.

Have you tried using only one stick of RAM (all of them on their own) and mixing and matching slots? Could be a RAM slot failure also, or just one stick of RAM that's died completely.

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

Well, the new processor that arrived this morning did the trick .. even though I haven't taken it out of the box yet :confused:

Tried taking all but one memory module out - it started up fine :)
Tried pairing up a second - easy peasy :)
Put a third in - everything working :)

Put the fourth in expecting that to stop it from POSTing - but the thing carried on anyway. :D:D

I'm confused - if the memory works fine, not sure what the problem was before. But I'm not knocking it :)

Going to reinstall XP now (new mobo, new graphics card) and when that's all working switch CPUs

Apologies for all the smilies :) I'm just relieved I have a working PC at last :D

Re: I think I've zapped my mobo bios
 

crap in a slot perhaps . Computers do strange things :)