checksum error after updating bios

[mentalmin]

Hi all. I just built my first copputer using the anandtech recommendations as a guide. I am very behind when it comes to computers and was hoping someone could help me understand why I get a "checksum error" after updating the bios for my ASUS P4P800 Deluxe motherboard. I updated from vs 1012 to 1014 and then from 1014 to 1016 and received the same message. I had the option to correct the error or revert to old settings. I'll ask Asus support but I thought someone might help anyway. Thanks in advance.

 

[Slikkster]

This is a very normal "error", if you will, and does not signify that anything is wrong at all. All you have to do is go into the bios and reset your settings to the way they were (or change them to whatever you want) and then save the changes.

In other words, your new bios update probably contained additional code that would enable some other feature, or maybe disable features. The size of the total code doesn't equal that which the old bios contained so the bios then says "hey, this is a different size! Something's not right!". When it detects this checksum or size difference, it feels it's settings have become corrupted somehow.

What normally happens then is that the bios will load what it considers to be default settings. This is usually never what one would consider optimal settings. Features may be turned off that should be on, etc. So, go through all the settings you see and set them for what they should be. Then exit the bios (with the Save Settings option) and you should be just fine.

Bottom line: Checksum errors are quite normal when updating bioses, and easily remedied.

Note: To be clear, when I say go into the bios and reset your settings to the way they should be, I'm NOT talking about reflashing the bios to an older version. I'm talking about going through the sections of the new bios entries and making sure that the parameters are correct.