BURNED MOTHERBOARD -SOUND CARD PROBLEM

[wowcheesestick]

I posted a thread last week asking how to install windows xp on a vista preloaded machine, well thanks for the help and I did it.
Now, I have a even bigger problem than just installing xp.

Let me start with my computer Model.
I have a gateway, GM5638E, windows xp.

I updated the bios to the newest editon only to find my sound driver stopped working.(Sigmatel)
I tried ALL the drivers and yet, it wasnt able to turn on. So I thought okay, let me recover the bios to the previous version.
So i tried to rollback from windows but failed.
So i read on intel's website and it says i can unplug the pin and recover it.
My dumbass pulled out the pin and put it back onto the wrong location(front fan control instead of the bios control).

needless to say, the motherboard caught on fire and burned one of the transistors. I saw the fire and thought it was game over for me.

magically, after putting the pin back, the mother board still works!

Now my problem is that how can i fix the sound card driver, or rollback the bios.(I tried the battery thing as well)

my computer:
http://support.gateway.com/s/P...4837R/1014837Rnv.shtml

 

[Xsorovan]

Wow... It's not everyday I hear of someone's mobo catching on fire. I've seen water poured into a running mobo before but never fire from the board.

I guess I am a little confused by the question. If you updated the bios for the motherboard then it wouldn't matter what you did in windows at all. Typically the rule of thumb for bios updates is don't do it unless you KNOW it will address an issue you are having. (A little after the fact there, but good for future reference.)

What "pin" are you refering to when you say that Intel's website says you can unplug it and plug it back in? You can reset the memory settings by changing the jumper (pin) settings, but nothing you do on the motherboard is going to roll back your bios.

Let me start over here: The BIOS is a chip on your motherboard that houses information telling some of the hardware how to perform on the motherboard. This will handle things like checking that the CPU is there, that RAM is installed and then POSTing. (The start up sequence) The BIOS is stored in a chip that is ROM (read only memory). When you "update" the bios you are effectively burning a new set of instructions into this chip. It doesn't save a previous copy of what you just over wrote, it only has enough space for the information it is supposed to have. (Resetting this memory, with the pin, will set all the defaults that you might have set in the bios settings.)

I am impressed your motherboard still works, something to keep in mind however is that they typically don't put "spare" parts on hardware.

NOW, the sound card issue. Is it "just not working", is it giving you an error message, do the drivers not install at all, what happens?

 

[wowcheesestick]

http://www.intel.com/support/m...sktop/sb/CS-023360.htm

this is what i followed.
now the driver for the sound card installs, but doesnt work. a ! mark is there when you open device manager.

 

[wowcheesestick]

it also says "The AA number has not been programmed on the system" when i reboot the computer.

 

[Narse]

Even if your computer runs and boots now, you will see problems from the "fire" you had on your board. I would call Gateway and see if they can assist. A flashed BIOS should in no way affect the sound in windows.

 

[Xsorovan]

Well, I hate to disagree with Narse, but don't call Dell. You have a Gateway computer, I'd give them a call. I think at this point starting over is probably your best choice.

 

[Narse]

Originally posted by: Xsorovan
Well, I hate to disagree with Narse, but don't call Dell. You have a Gateway computer, I'd give them a call. I think at this point starting over is probably your best choice.

Talk about a mistype lol. I did of course mean call Gateway.

 

[Modelworks]

Wow I'm surprised a intel branded board caught fire in this manner.
Most engineers I know of would fuse a output like the fan.
So if it did short the fuse would blow.