Flashed bios - think i killed it.

[imported_AndyE12]

so i bought a new e8400 and i was having the temp issue so i went to flash it and it froze on me. stupid me for doing it in windows, so now when i turn my computer on it says ;

bios rom checksum error

detecting floppy drive media a
no floppy found system halt

or something to that degree. so being that its 2008 i didnt buy a floppy with the new system. so my question; is it possible to just go buy a floppy drive hook it up and flash it, can I just use a usb keychain device and boot from that even if i cant get into the bios and throw dos files and my bios file on it.? Or am I just screwed and need to order a new chip?

I bought all my new pieces from newegg and they finally got here today and put it together. Ran great then i just got stupid.... I hope there is a way around not having to buy a new chip as that takes a few days. I just got back from Iraq and wanted to play around for awhile.

I can run out and buy a floppy drive if thats going to work at best buy, I just dont want to waste the money if it may not work.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Buy a floppy drive for $15 bucks. Create a boot disk with the Bios and installer (usually available on mobo mfg website) on it. Boot using the floppy, flash the bios and your fine.

 

[o1die]

Try reseting the bios using the cmos jumper or removing the battery. If that doesn't work, you might find a floppy drive cheaper at a goodwill store or local computer shop. Some will even reflash your bios chip. If your board is Asus, they will reflash it for $5 if you mail the bios chip to them in protected material. But you may need a special tool to remove it. I found one at my local computer shop for $5. Fry's also carries them.

 

[brencat]

Hi Andy. After you flash and the system restarts, you will always get a CMOS checksum error the first time. Shut down and clear the CMOS. Then fire it back up, and immediately go into bios and choose "load optimized defaults." Save & reboot again. Then go back into bios again and make the rest of your changes for everyday use.

If it doesn't POST after you clear the CMOS, only then would I worry about a bad bios flash. Also, make sure to use 1 stick of RAM that is capable of booting at the 1.8v jedec spec when you start the PC after the CMOS clear.

Btw...thank you for your service to our country. :thumbsup:

 

[forkd]

Originally posted by: brencat
Hi Andy. After you flash and the system restarts, you will always get a CMOS checksum error the first time. Shut down and clear the CMOS. Then fire it back up, and immediately go into bios and choose "load optimized defaults." Save & reboot again. Then go back into bios again and make the rest of your changes for everyday use.

If it doesn't POST after you clear the CMOS, only then would I worry about a bad bios flash. Also, make sure to use 1 stick of RAM that is capable of booting at the 1.8v jedec spec when you start the PC after the CMOS clear.

Btw...thank you for your service to our country. :thumbsup:

Excellent advice. I have spent many hours in the past dealing with bios flashing issues. If the bios has gone to Jesus, cannot boot and cannot get to the floppy drive you can order a new one from the mfg. If you're in a hurry and don't want to wait for turn around you can hotflash.

I've had great success hotflashing. The trick is you need another bootable motherboard with the same type of removable bios chip. As an overview you boot the good motherboard and bios to a floppy with the flash program and correct ROM. Before flashing, while the machine is on, carefully remove the proper bios and insert the "broken" one. Flash (You may have to use the force flag). Remove the bios, insert it into the E8400 and take a swing.

I had a funky mobo a year or two ago with poor markings and ended up having to force flash it 3 - 4 times before I got a bios rom on the chip that the motherboard liked.

A friend of mine had an issue but didn't have another board with the same style chip so he went to frys, bought another board, hotflashed his original chip, returned the new motherboard. This may not be of high personal values but he did have his old mobo running fine and there was no harm to the purchased/returned mobo.

Just my 2 cents after a good bit of experience flashing roms with beer

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: brencat
Hi Andy. After you flash and the system restarts, you will always get a CMOS checksum error the first time. Shut down and clear the CMOS. Then fire it back up, and immediately go into bios and choose "load optimized defaults." Save & reboot again. Then go back into bios again and make the rest of your changes for everyday use.

If it doesn't POST after you clear the CMOS, only then would I worry about a bad bios flash. Also, make sure to use 1 stick of RAM that is capable of booting at the 1.8v jedec spec when you start the PC after the CMOS clear.

Btw...thank you for your service to our country. :thumbsup:

Except, BIOS checksum error is different than CMOS checksum error. It means that the BIOS chip's code itself is currupted, not the CMOS settings.

He needs to get a floppy drive to re-flash the BIOS (looks like the bootblock is ok if he is getting that message), or send the BIOS chip off to be re-flashed.

 

[SilentRunning]

Some motherboards are capable of loading the bios update from a flash drive (Fat or Fat32) when failed. If the bios is really bad it is worth a shot. You may need the extension to be ".bin" or ".rom" for the bios update.

 

[kalster]

sorry to bump an old thread but OP did you recover the bios, i had the same problem (flashmenu sucks) and the floppy trick restored my bios, never ever going to use a windows based flash utility