I think I've zapped my mobo bios

[cookie_365]

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

[damien c]

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.

[cookie_365]

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.

[webcrawler2050]

Originally Posted by cookie_365

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.

Does it even power on?

[Kymmy]

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..

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

[cookie_365]

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.

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

[Kymmy]

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..

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 ?

[Kymmy]

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

[cookie_365]

Originally Posted by zing

why be wary of asus you broke it lol

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

Originally Posted by zing

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

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

Originally Posted by zing

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

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 ----------

Originally Posted by zing

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 ?

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

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

Originally Posted by Kymmy

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

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.

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by cookie_365

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.

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

[cookie_365]

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

[Kymmy]