Bios chips on CUSL2's are soldered on, vs. socketed.

[compuwiz1]

Wow, I hadn't even noticed that until today. A bad flash could be fatal to the board!

When did they start doing that, instead of socketing them, as in the past?

 

[AndyHui]

Yes....they are soldered on, and not socketed.

I thought the 4MB Firmware hub has a backup of the original shipping BIOS on it? Supposedly you can revert back to that if you really ah heck things up....? That's what I heard anyway.

 

[Jakki0]

Andy my CUSL2 is dead due to a bad BIOS flash. I am unable to contact ASUS. How could I revert to that backup? Any word on that? I am now looking to get another board that has BOOT-block protection. Any suggestions?

 

[BradS]

Thanks for the info. I've been flashing all along without a care in the world. :Q

Jak - Try this. If this doesn't work, then I think your going to have to send the board back.

1. Unplug the ac power cord.
2. Remove your video card so that the board will boot with the onboard video controller.
3. Remove the cmos battery, and let the motherboard sit for five minutes.
4. Plug the ac back in, and turn on the power.
5. Turn off the computer, unplug ac, and reinstall battery.
6. Start computer with monitor plugged into onboard video.

Hope this helps.

 

[Valvoline6]

Yes Brad that should work. I had a bad BIOS flash in mine when forgetting to reset to BIOS defaults before flashing. I recovered doing what you describe. Jakki let us know if it works for you..

 

[mastertech01]

Jakki0
Try this if nothing else works..may be there is hope...
Install PCI video card if no video can be gotten from AGP or onboard video

make a bootable floppy in win98..dont use winMe..make it with win98.. then add the latest flasher and bios bin file to the disk..

reboot the computer with that disk inserted.. if there is any kind of boot block elements in the bios it will boot that disk

Then flash it...

Most recent Award bios have some sort of 4 segment bootable area that doesnt get overwritten