I think I've zapped my mobo bios - Page 2

cookie_365 · 30-08-2009, 14:57

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

boroboi · 30-08-2009, 16:01

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.

cookie_365 · 30-08-2009, 17:47

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

damien c · 30-08-2009, 18:09

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

cookie_365 · 03-09-2009, 20:28

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

Kymmy · 03-09-2009, 20:31

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)

cookie_365 · 03-09-2009, 21:03

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

cookie_365 · 12-09-2009, 15:24

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

12-09-2009, 16:16

have you tried a different pSU at any point?

cookie_365 · 12-09-2009, 16:43

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

boroboi · 14-09-2009, 14:42

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.

cookie_365 · 15-09-2009, 13:17

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

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.

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

15-09-2009, 13:49

crap in a slot perhaps . Computers do strange things