Faild bios upgrade

toucam

toucam

toucam

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I was flashing my mobo P5W DH to the latest bios and it was incomplete, not sure because of the bios file or something wrong in the process of doing it. Rebooted and now the fan of my X1900 keeps spinning like crazy. I know there's a way for Asus mobo to recover from a failed bios flash but don't know how. Does anyone know how? My CPU is Q6600 G0.

Cheers.
 
You would have to replace the EPROM physically on the mobo I'm afaid!
The CPU automatically addresses the EPROM at the rest vector. (FFFFFFF0)
It's the first thing any PC does, it is then instructed by a jump command to another address to start POST. If the BIOS is screwed, it will not get that jump command back, it will read FF not EA and it will hang in reset!, no fan control so all will spin up! You now have an expensive bookend I'm afraid!
You might be able to source an EPROM from somewhere online, some are quickfit PLCC's some are soldered on! Goodluck!
 
toucam said:
I was flashing my mobo P5W DH to the latest bios and it was incomplete, not sure because of the bios file or something wrong in the process of doing it. Rebooted and now the fan of my X1900 keeps spinning like crazy. I know there's a way for Asus mobo to recover from a failed bios flash but don't know how. Does anyone know how? My CPU is Q6600 G0.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
There is one thing you could try, and that's the bios crash free feature that this mobo has.

1) Download the latest bios and rename the bios file to P5WDH.ROM.

2) Save the P5WDH.ROM bios file to a floppy, CD or USB flash drive.

3) Power on the system and insert the floppy, CD or USB flash drive that contains the bios file then power off the system.

4) Power on the system and press "Alt + F2", both at the same time before POST and leave it for about five minutes.

If all goes well your bios should be recovered, if the bios doesn't get recovered try again, if this doesn't work then your only option is to order a new bios chip.

Some people say that the bios crash free feature doesn't seem to work, all you can do is try.

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks for your replies, I will try it tonight and report back.

It doesn't even post at all so I think my chance of having CrashFree worked here is a bit slim :(

Look on the bright side I can hear Maximus Extreme is calling my name :D

I should have known better, never upgrade your bios in Windows!!!
 
Look on the bright side....IIRC this is one of the last boards ASUS fitted a removable BIOS chip to.....picture.
Then go somewhere like here.
You got your board back.
 
Blahh,,,,
I must have blown over 40 BIOS's within windows using the manufactures windows GUI without a single issue, obviously you must be sure that your system is 100% stable before doing it.

If the BIOS chip is socketed then you can hot-swap it using another mobo that use's the same chip type.

Failing that you could get a PIC programmer from ebay that is capable of blowing a 32 Pin PLCC chip (Asus BIOS chips). These can be bought for about £20!
 
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The thing is, Asus update is the software that's not stable, bios flash failure is not normaly a Windows stability issue, it's the Windows flash utility that is unstable, also, i have updated over 300 bioses using dos and not one failure, but i read on a regular basis that a bios update has failed when performed within Windows, go figure.
 
AsusUpdate is perfectly stable!
Also I have read many an occasion when a DOS update has gone wrong due too dodgy corrupt floppys and unstable memory problems.
 
C4EVA said:
AsusUpdate is perfectly stable!
Also I have read many an occasion when a DOS update has gone wrong due too dodgy corrupt floppys and unstable memory problems.
Click to expand...

Ive been here since 2002 according to my profile, and have seen few BIOS upgrades fail when using floppys.
I have seen many on this forum have failures with the ASUS updater though.
This updater was released around the time of the ASUS A7N8X board (nvidia AMD socket 462)
That board was very prone to BIOS failures just by changing a setting, but the ASUS updater seemed to work on that board.
The ALT + F2 was a different story, and only launched for 50% of those who tried it.

Recently ASUS have stopped fitting a removable BIOS chip, and its around this time we get many people with failed flashes using the updater.
I'm not suggesting that has anything to do with it, BUT its the same time as the socket 775 board becomes popular.

If this forum stored stuff for 3 years or more I could show you what I mean, but I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word for it as a regular forum user!

It is NOT a good idea to use the ASUS updater as it's prone to failure.

A USB stick and ALT + F2 is far better IMO.
 
Jonnygrunge said:
You would have to replace the EPROM physically on the mobo I'm afaid!
The CPU automatically addresses the EPROM at the rest vector. (FFFFFFF0)
It's the first thing any PC does, it is then instructed by a jump command to another address to start POST. If the BIOS is screwed, it will not get that jump command back, it will read FF not EA and it will hang in reset!, no fan control so all will spin up! You now have an expensive bookend I'm afraid!
You might be able to source an EPROM from somewhere online, some are quickfit PLCC's some are soldered on! Goodluck!
Click to expand...

Clearest description I've read thanks!

This has happened to meas well, I had to RMA the board.
 
Unfortunately the Alt F2 and CrashFree didn't work. I have ordered a Bios chip (Winbond) from the Internet will get it tomorrow and keep you guys posted. Looks very promising as the guy even told me the chip serials before I even opened my mouth. All for 12 quid :)
 
toucam said:
Unfortunately the Alt F2 and CrashFree didn't work. I have ordered a Bios chip (Winbond) from the Internet will get it tomorrow and keep you guys posted. Looks very promising as the guy even told me the chip serials before I even opened my mouth. All for 12 quid :)
Click to expand...

If thats the place I have used before, he is a very helpfull guy and the service is excellent.
There is one other method you could have tried called blind flash that involves using a floppy and an AUTOEXEC.BAT but it hardly ever works.
You can only use a floppy if the BIOS file will fit on it, and some BIOS files these days are too big....hence we dont see many with failed floppy flashes ;)
You can do it on CD, but it's fiddly.

Ive seen people try it after failed attempts with the ASUS updater, and it normally fails.
You need an in tact boot block for it to work, and thats what you won't have if the flash fails using the ASUS updater.

Good luck with it anyway :)
 
Well i've used both... Asus update the most!...latest to update... older version to downgrade never had a problem so far...but i do take precautions before flashing....many don't!....they just press the flash button.
 
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one thing i would try (which probably won't work!) try clearing the CMOS. Maybe the BIOS flash worked but won't boot with your current settings. My motherboard does that sometimes when flashing to a different BIOS version. Won't POST untill i clear the CMOS. Got to be worth 2min to try
 
Allways used the Asus updater, worked every time for me, must be just lucky.

Had the A7N8X Deluxe rev2 and i have now got the P5K, never had a problem (touch wood:D).
 
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