Recovering from Bad BIOS Flash

BillytheImpaler

BillytheImpaler

BillytheImpaler

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My Asus PC-DL Deluxe has been behaving baldy lately. Whenever I shut it off or tell it to reboot it refuses to POST unless it's been first unplugged from the wall. It's rather obnoxious. Even moreso, whenever it does POST it says that the CMOS checksum failed and resets everything to stock. I had to drop my overclock from 15x200 to 16x133 because it was unstable at 200 MHz FSB. I could typically drop it to 15x200 for perfect operation but since I couldn't make any BIOS changes the multi is stuck at 16.

Anyway, I was talking to a friend who suggested that I attempt to reflash the BIOS to attempt to clear up any issues. It seemed like an OK idea to try. I downloaded the same BIOS I had on it, 1009, and prepared a boot floppy. The flash went very well with me running all of the recommended flags for the best results. I checked the disk for bad sectors and fsck'ed it and all seemed perfect.

However, now it refuses to boot at all. There are no beeps and no audio messages, it just sits there with its fans churning away. I tried resetting the CMOS, changing the FSB to 100 MHz, changing the FSB to auto, moving RAM around, removing expansion cards, and removing SATA devices all with no effect. When I remove the auxiliary power connector on my graphics card it does flash the warning message and deliver beeps but that's about the only thing I can do to it.

Do you folks have any idea how I can recover from a bad flash? I'd call up Asus but their technical support is dreadful. I'm afraid it might be the end of the line for the old girl and I can't afford a decent new rig. :(
 
However, now it refuses to boot at all. There are no beeps and no audio messages, it just sits there with its fans churning away. I tried resetting the CMOS, changing the FSB to 100 MHz, changing the FSB to auto
Click to expand...

It refuses to boot, but you change FSB?
Are we talking refuses to boot into windows?

The two things Iv'e used to get one back is a blindflash, but that only works if you can get it to access floppy. (AWDFLASH)
Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing from http://www.bootdisk.com/ then see here.

@Echo off
cls
a:\awdflash.exe PCDL1009.BIN /py /sn /cd /cp /cc /R


The other is new BIOS chip.

Im not going to suggest hot swap as I doubt many people have these boards.
 
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Have you tried booting with just 1 stick of ram Billy? I had this with the Abit board and it turned out that at default the bios DDR2 voltage was not sufficient for what my ram needed. Removing all but 1 stick allowed me to enter bios change DDR2 voltage and then refit my other ram sticks. Have you also, powered down, unplugged power lead, pressed the power on button to drain capacitors, changed CMOS position and removed battery for 15 mins or so (some folk have left it over night and had success), replaced battery reswitched CMOS and powered up again. Worth a shot.
 
split said:
It refuses to boot, but you change FSB?
Are we talking refuses to boot into windows?
Click to expand...
No, the FSB is controlled via an array of jumper pins on the mobo. I physically move a jumper to set the FSB speed. The multi is controlled in the BIOS, hence why I cant change it. It won't POST whatsoever, that's it.

I'll try again with that flashing method when I get back home this evening. It's certainly worth a shot.

Bony, I have tried with one RAM module to no avail. The vDIMM is non-adjustable on this board so I don't think that that's what's happening. I left it off and disassembled last night so, again, I'll see how it is this evening.

Thanks for the replies so far, gents. :)
 
I'll try again with that flashing method when I get back home this evening. It's certainly worth a shot.
Click to expand...

Worth a go Billy.
One thing I should have said....if it manages to see floppy and do it's bit pull the floppy when it reboots else you'll end up in cycle.

/R = restart.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
My Asus PC-DL Deluxe has been behaving baldy lately. Whenever I shut it off or tell it to reboot it refuses to POST unless it's been first unplugged from the wall. It's rather obnoxious. Even moreso, whenever it does POST it says that the CMOS checksum failed and resets everything to stock. I had to drop my overclock from 15x200 to 16x133 because it was unstable at 200 MHz FSB. I could typically drop it to 15x200 for perfect operation but since I couldn't make any BIOS changes the multi is stuck at 16.

Anyway, I was talking to a friend who suggested that I attempt to reflash the BIOS to attempt to clear up any issues. It seemed like an OK idea to try. I downloaded the same BIOS I had on it, 1009, and prepared a boot floppy. The flash went very well with me running all of the recommended flags for the best results. I checked the disk for bad sectors and fsck'ed it and all seemed perfect.

However, now it refuses to boot at all. There are no beeps and no audio messages, it just sits there with its fans churning away. I tried resetting the CMOS, changing the FSB to 100 MHz, changing the FSB to auto, moving RAM around, removing expansion cards, and removing SATA devices all with no effect. When I remove the auxiliary power connector on my graphics card it does flash the warning message and deliver beeps but that's about the only thing I can do to it.

Do you folks have any idea how I can recover from a bad flash? I'd call up Asus but their technical support is dreadful. I'm afraid it might be the end of the line for the old girl and I can't afford a decent new rig. :(
Click to expand...

Weird, I had exactly the same problem yesterday with my Blitz Formula, I flashed the bios to the most recent version last night and all is back to normal.

I have had the PC in bits for about a week re-jigging my water cooling but all seems fine again now.

DeadMan
 
Perhaps with some luck I can get it to POST and reflash. If I can't get it to work after a few weeks I think I'll have to part it out and start saving up for a new rig. The upside is that by the time I'm done saving Penryns should be in full swing. :p

The downside is that I'll be relegated to a laptop until then.

EDIT: Or recruit my MythTV box to pull desktop duty. Either way it's undesirable. ;)
 
DeadMan said:
Weird, I had exactly the same problem yesterday with my Blitz Formula, I flashed the bios to the most recent version last night and all is back to normal.

I have had the PC in bits for about a week re-jigging my water cooling but all seems fine again now.

DeadMan
Click to expand...

Asus bois flashing is weak tbh i flashed my bois to 1305 and it ruined the bois chip, i flashed it via bois and not in windows. i had to get a new bois chip from asus which i had to pay which is lame when the mobo is way in warranty still.
even if 5 more bois updates come out i will NEVER flash my Asus mobo again!
 
Oh, I NEVER flash from Windows or from the built-in BIOS utility. I always get the stand-alone DOS version and update from a bootable MS DOS (or FreeDOS) environment.
 
Every source I've ever read about the board says that the built-in utility is broken and will render the mobo useless, kinda how mine is now.

I'm preparing a new boot disk to try split's suggestion. I'll report back later.

EDIT:Bah! No luck. I think I might contact Asus and see if they'll send me a new BIOS chip. :(
 
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BillytheImpaler said:
Every source I've ever read about the board says that the built-in utility is broken and will render the mobo useless, kinda how mine is now.

I'm preparing a new boot disk to try split's suggestion. I'll report back later.

EDIT:Bah! No luck. I think I might contact Asus and see if they'll send me a new BIOS chip. :(
Click to expand...

The ALT + F2 method used to be bad. It only used to work for around 50% of people when it first came out (around Nforce 2 time) but it has improved.
I would even go so far as to say it's trustworthy.

It sounds like your boot blocks damaged.
Flashing it blind as suggested above only has a chance of working if the boot blocks intact.
You should be able to get a new chip easily, and they are not hard to fit..good luck!
 
Wow, Asus finally sent me the chip I ordered a half month ago! I popped it in and it worked straight away. It seemed to be just fine but now it's behaving oddly again. this time it'll be running great for hours then, when left alone for a bit, it will lock up and give me three beeps and refuse to wake or respond in any way until I kill the power and reboot it. It doesn't happen very often but I'm afraid it's the end of the line for this rig. I'll have to part it out via auction and get a new rig. :( :)
 
I have eliminated my cold boot problems down to the memory, when I overclock and push the memory beyond DDR2 800 it fails to start after a long shutdown but if I keep the memory at 800 it works every time.

Check your memory settings?

DeadMan

p.s This will be my last ASUS motherboard.
 
I shall be giving ASUS the cold shoulder as well, despite being a lover of their boards for years.

They make good boards, but the new ones have the BIOS chip soldered on, and thats something I would not associate with a decent brand!

Maybe they got fed up giving people new BIOS chips ;)
 
This hasn't put me off buying Asus in the future; I still think they're the best mobo manufacturer. Heck, I've been running this thing at double its rated speed for years without the slightest hiccup until now. I can't expect heavily overclocked parts to last forever.

But then again, I'm no fanboy. When I go to get a new setup I read around and see what the market is like and see what people are doing. If I had to buy ATM I'd get an Abit IP35-Pro and a Q6600.
 
It does look like Abit are fighting back too.. I just hope that the quality issues don't arise again.

DeadMan
 
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