Help!

[So]

I was flashing the bios and the system hung :|. Anyway, now I cannot boot at ALL.

Symptoms:
I press power, fans spin up, numlock responds to keypress, no video, not floppy or CD rom movement. There is supposedly a built in flash fail recovery system, but I'm getting no life from that (perhaps I need a PCI vid card?)

What I've tried:

1. Clearing CMOS, I set the jumper, pulled the battery & disconnected from power
2. Taken system out of case, sitting on a paper towel right now w/ HSF, RAM, AGP, floppy and CD attached (plus PS2 KB.Mouse)
3. Hoped for bios recovery.

At this point, I'm considering looking for someone with a rom burner as a last resort. I only have on other ASUS board, and that has been sitting in a box for years, I'd have to tear down this rig to get a CPU for it.

If it comes to this does anyoone know where I could find a ROM burner in the LV area?

 

[Budman]

http://www.badflash.com

 

[So]

Thanks, here's hoping it doesn't come to that. :wine:

 

[TechnoKid]

AMI BIOS have built in recovery features (at least on MSI motherboards, i have a KT3 Ultra). I think your best bet is to go to your mobo manufaturers website and see if they have instruction on how to recover the BIOS.

 

[So]

http://www.asus.com/support/english/techref/bios/aflash.aspx

It looks like I should be getting SOME video.

 

[cronos]

some people have been successful with 'hot swap'ping the bios chip. but you would need an identical motherboard to do that.

i have also heard stories about hot-swapping with a non-identical motherboard (different board but similar chipset). try to google-up some information about this, you might find something.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: TechnoKid
AMI BIOS have built in recovery features (at least on MSI motherboards, i have a KT3 Ultra). I think your best bet is to go to your mobo manufaturers website and see if they have instruction on how to recover the BIOS.

Yes some boards have that.

So,does your floppy light come on when booting,it might be trying to read for a bios file...

 

[So]

No, It doesn't look like the floppy does anything, I'll go give it another shot, just to be sure.

 

[So]

Definite no motion from the floppy.

The only other ASUS board I have is an old KT133 based board, but It hasn't been used in years, so I'd be willing to take a chance if it came to that...

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: So
Definite no motion from the floppy.

The only other ASUS board I have is an old KT133 based board, but It hasn't been used in years, so I'd be willing to take a chance if it came to that...

it's probably way to old to do a hot flash.

You got 2 options,RMA the board & possibly wait a few weeks or order a new flashed bios chip from www.badflash.com

 

[n0cmonkey]

I think the asus board I recently bought had a way to get the old bios off the motherboard cd in case of a bad flash or something.

 

[So]

Looks like that's what it's down to. Insane3D suggested that ASUS might send me one, so I guess I'll call them in the morning.

 

[igowerf]

When I fubared my K7S5A, there was a way to recovering the BIOS and reflashing it. This probably won't help, but I was able to recover using these directions (I found this on Google):

"If you are a little lucky, the "bootblock" code in the BIOS still works. This will allow you to flash your BIOS even though you computer seems dead. Format a blank floppy (on another computer, of course), and put the .rom file on it, and nothing else. Now rename the .rom file to this name: "amiboot.rom". Put the disk in the dead machine and turn it on. Wait for a couple of minutes (now would be a good time for a little prayer) and listen for four beeps. If you hear them, the bios on the floppy has been flashed onto your BIOS chip. Turn the computer off and on again, and it should work again."

 

[So]

Does anyone have any idea if PC Club's tech's might be able to help me flash it? No luck with google finding any local places . Alright I'm off to bed, but if I can't find somone locally to flash it, I guess I'll have to talk to ASUS.

 

[Ryoga]

A number of Intel mobos have a BIOS recovery feature. Find the CMOS discharge jumper and remove it entirely, and then boot the system.

 

[n0cmonkey]

4-6 (p72?) mentions that you might be able to recover the BIOS from the cdrom. Put the motherboard's cd in the cdrom drive and boot the system.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
4-6 (p72?) mentions that you might be able to recover the BIOS from the cdrom. Put the motherboard's cd in the cdrom drive and boot the system.

Also tried, seems to have no luck.

 

[TekViper]

another vote for badflash.com. i have used them in the past when i also hosed a bios flash with a modified bin. they shipped it quick and it was like 20 bucks or so, not a bad deal. also if you worried about this happening in the future, look up a device called "bios savior". its a piggyback bios chip that lets you have 2 bios chips installed in the board. it has a switch to select which bios you want the board to boot from.