Abit nf7-s bios troubles !?!?

[Soulkeeper]

ok a few weeks back a bios chip in this board actually fryed on me
it melted the sticker off the top and actually bubbled up

so i ordered another bios chip and everything worked fine

then the new bios chip corrupted (because i used that stupid windows bios update program with too old a version)

so since the system was unbootable i ordered yet another bios chip
today i recieved the second new bios chip in the mail and tryed it out but the system would not boot


do you think they sent me a blank bios chip, or do you think my board has finally bit the dust ????

 

[Synthohol]

Hey there, FWIW you could try hot flashing the chip they sent you, first borrow another nf7-s and boot with a startup disk with the flash program.
then once its all booted to a C:\ prompt, start the flash program and save the current bios to floppy.
then CAREFULLY remove the bios chip from the board and insert yours, run the flash program again and dont save current bios but let it install the one you just saved to your chip.
then shut off the pc and let it boot to the bios with your bios chip to make sure it works, then shut down again.
put the borrowed boards chip back and power up once again, thank the lender then put the newly flashed bios chip in your board and hope for the best since you will know the bios chip will NOT to be blamed for any malfunctions
this procedure is safe as long as you dont do anything silly like spill a beer in the pc while you are doing this. the bios chip is not used once the bios is in memory at a c:\ prompt and can be safaly swapped.
good luck!!

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah that's the problem
i don't know anyone with one of these board
if i did i wouldn't have purchased another 16 dollar bios chip cause the other one had nothing wrong with it

i've put this motherboard through hell tho so i guess it is possible it is broken

 

[Synthohol]

is it possible to buy another one and return it later? or try to RMA the board to Abit, they have a pretty decent policy there.
where did you buy it initially?
Newegg.com is the best place to RMA if need be. even blown oc'd chips!!

 

[Soulkeeper]

i bought it at excaliberpc.com but returning it isn't an option because i've done every possible mod to it

 

[Soulkeeper]

i think i'm just gonna buy another one
this is dissapointing because the system stopped turning on only after using abit's window's bios update program

i mean it should only be the bios that is stopping me

anyways if i do get a new motherboard then my 3rd dimm slot will work and i'll have dc mem mode back

 

[Soulkeeper]

i might get the nf7-m with integrated graphics
i guess i don't need sata right now since i got it in my P4 system

 

[Synthohol]

do you get any lights on the MB when you power up? do the HDD's spin-up and does the video work at all?
just curious cause if there is a chance it may be brought back to life, i may be interested to buy it if you are in the selling mood.
P.S. never use windows to update a bios for any board, i just dont trust it, i like checksums just for safety sake