bios disaster

Fraservet

Fraservet

Fraservet

Associate
Joined
14 Jan 2008
Posts
54
got all my new gear, assembled everything.
plugged in and booted straight away.
p5kpro motherboard - went to flash the bios to the latest version for my e8400 in ezflash (bios).
it wasn't detecting the usb drive in the front socket, so i decided to shut down rather than unplug and move. Pressed escape to leave ezflash utility, went to black screen for a bit then switched off.
now it won't post, all the fans spin up, but nothing on the monitor - and fans stay at 100%.

all sorts of warnings in the manual about powering off when flashing - but i escaped the utility and didn't tell it to flash, and it turned itself off.

is there anything i can do - tried resetting cmos thingy, but made no difference.

please help
 
it seems like the BIOS was not flashed corrrectly, the best option would be to ask/beg the retailer/manufacturer for an RMA, you may want to not mention the BIOS flash ,or look for somewhere that may sell a BIOS chip, provided it is not soldered on.
 
Try resetting the BIOS using the jumper and then power the PC up with the jumper in the reset position. The other thing to try is removing the battery and the power connectors to the mobo from the PSU, leave them off for a few minutes, put them back and try again.
 
If you have a mate with the same board.....

1) put his working BIOS chip into your board.
2) boot in BIOS ready to flash (EZflash) or start the BIOS flash program.
3) Before actually running the update remove his working BIOS chip (YES with the power on :))
4) Put in your knackered BIOS chip
5) start the BIOS update.
6) restart when prompted.


Voila!! One fixed BIOS chip.

Congrats - you've just completed your 1st successful "Hotflash" of a BIOS chip :)
 
You didnt start the flashing - not your fault. Ignore BIOS scare stories. Reset CMOS. Fail? RMA board. You did nothing wrong. Do not invalidate warrenty by trying above.
 
IAmATeaf said:
Try resetting the BIOS using the jumper and then power the PC up with the jumper in the reset position. The other thing to try is removing the battery and the power connectors to the mobo from the PSU, leave them off for a few minutes, put them back and try again.
Click to expand...

That is risky, on some boards it shorts out the CMOS to make sure it is cleared, if powered up in that condition it fries the board, on some boards it doesn't. A read of the manual is advised before this is attempted.
 
IAmATeaf said:
Try resetting the BIOS using the jumper and then power the PC up with the jumper in the reset position.
Click to expand...

Bad advice :eek:
Applying power to a mobo that has a clean short on a power trace can and does on many motherboards destroy ic's/components!
Some new mobo's have built in protection to prevent damage when muppets do this but not all do.

I thought new Asus mobo's come with BIOS recovery feature :confused:
Try booting the PC with the supplied CD in your rom.
However if your getting absolutely nothing on screen then I'm afraid that it's unlikely to work.
Personally I wouldn't be assed to RMA and would simply hot-flash the BIOS with another motherboard that use's the same socket, done this a few times without any problems.
 
asus boards have soldered on CMSS chips, so it will be a RMA job.

I was under the impression this did not invalidate the warranty, if your having crashes one of the first things your told to do is flash the BIOS.

EDIT: I wouldn't want to do a hot flash with soldering Iron :p
 
Last edited:
Nick644622 said:
That is risky, on some boards it shorts out the CMOS to make sure it is cleared, if powered up in that condition it fries the board, on some boards it doesn't. A read of the manual is advised before this is attempted.
Click to expand...

C4EVA said:
Bad advice :eek:
Applying power to a mobo that has a clean short on a power trace can and does on many motherboards destroy ic's/components!
Some new mobo's have built in protection to prevent damage when muppets do this but not all do.
Click to expand...

Now that's something I didn't know, disregard my ramblings above :)
 
I am surprised that any manufacturers would design a PCB with a user-configurable jumper that was capable of destroying a board when powered.

Surely the jumper just disables the internal battery - or perhaps signals the CMOS to be flashed in some way. Why would it be a 'power trace short'?
 
Insist that they motherboard come without a bios!!! :p
Client is always right! I would try resetting the bios before RMA'ing it though.
 
It is a short circuit to clear the memory in case of corruption. A colleague had an unscheduled upgrade when he forgot to put it into the correct position. On a couple of board I've had, the manual pointed it out in bold type & warned it was not warranty covered if damaged this way.
 
Nick644622 said:
It is a short circuit to clear the memory in case of corruption. A colleague had an unscheduled upgrade when he forgot to put it into the correct position. On a couple of board I've had, the manual pointed it out in bold type & warned it was not warranty covered if damaged this way.
Click to expand...

A short circuit of what?
 
It has 3 pins with a 2 pin jumper. Say 1-2 is battery connected, no pins connected = battery off & position 2-3 is short the CMOS (don't power up in this position). Corruption can be a swine to get rid of, stays so much longer than good data will, hence the short circuit to clear it.
 
I'd like to see where this goes.

You won't be the first person thats had an ASUS motherboard boot once with a E8XXXX chip on it and never again if you don't flash the BIOS.

If it is the case with the BIOS that ships with present ASUS boards, I don't think I'd fancy it and Ive flashed many BIOS's.
 
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