I swear this is not a joke...

[Brickster]

Pictures, music, photos, work, spreadsheets, financials, etc. All just sitting there one minute, trapped in a machine the next. I know I can hook up the external, get a new computer, and extract, but c'mon!! We're talking about a simple BIOS flash you a-holes!

And, don't you just love that Gigabyte feature called "Dual BIOS"? Wel what the fook good is it if you hose your first BIOS, and the 2nd one doesn't work either? Maybe a Triple BIOS would work? And maybe monkeys might fly out of my butt...

Background...
My system is predicated on this motherboard, which supports the AMD Socket 939 and and AGP video card (6800 GT). Yes, I know...scary for you people.

I bought an AMD Athlon X2 4200+ and some new RAM to give a minor upgrade to my system. I AM TRYING TO AVOID A FULL BLOWN UPGRADE.

I have said this before..."everything was just peachy until I had to flash my BIOS" :|

What did me in...
Used the Gigabyte @BIOS utility to upgrade form F7 to F13. Error occurred. Reboot. Windows Never loaded again.

Okay, this is a 2 part question.

1) Clearing CMOS and fooking with every damn CMOS setting does not do diddly. How else can I troubleshoot?

2) If Gigabyte denies my RMA because it's out of warranty. What the hell can I do to replace an AGP + 939 mobo? These aren't exactly available on newegg here.

<<
If anyone can give me some assistance, or even a little sympathy, I would greatly appreciate the gesture.

Thanks!

Brickster

 

[ViRGE]

So is your board booting to at least the point where you can access the CMOS? I'm looking at your manual here, and if so, then you should be able to copy over the backup BIOS back in to the main BIOS and fully boot again.

 

[Brickster]

ViRGE - Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I can boot at least to CMOS. And it does show the option for the "QFLASH", but when you hit that option, and enter, you get a black screen with a blinking cursor. Keyboard does not affect cursor.

Essentially, the included utility does not load from CMOS.

 

[ViRGE]

I see. Well that is indeed bad. Your next option is to try to flash the BIOS from DOS. Do you have a floppy drive(ideal), a USB flash drive, or a CD burner on another computer?

 

[Brickster]

Yes, I have a CD Burner on another computer, and a floppy drive. What next?

 

[ViRGE]

Since you have a floppy drive this will be the easiest option. Go to Bootdisk.com and grab the "Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing", which is an application that will erase a floppy disk and put on a bare-bones DOS installation. Then grab your latest BIOS from here, unpack the archive, and copy over the files on to the floppy disk. Finally have the computer try to boot from the floppy disk, and if all goes well it will flash your BIOS and you'll be back in running order.

 

[Brickster]

ViRGE - Thanks Brother! I really appreciate the advice.

I will try this tomorrow morning and let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, I am also logging questions to Gigabyte support. They are not very responsive though.

Thanks again.

 

[Brickster]

Also, can I do the same thing on a CD-R and boot from that?

 

[ViRGE]

Yes, but it's the hardest way. Bootdisk.com has something for it, but it requires finding a tool to manipulate an ISO and I've never tested it. I believe Nero 7 also comes with a way to build a boot CD, which would be easier by just dragging in the files you need to do the flashing.

 

[Brickster]

Ok, I went to bootdisk, created the disk for the A: drive. I saw the autoexec.bat and the command.exe loaded, took the disk home, and gave it a whirl.

I fired up the box, who's non-function is ruining my life, went into the CMOS, and adjusted the boot sequence to boot from floppy.

Restart. Floppy in. Green light on the floppy. Little "click", and even some of that familiar 3.5" read chugging along.

Then...

Windows did not start properly...

What do you want to do?

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command
LAst known good configuraiton (only god knows why this is even a freakin' option because it's never been even remotely related to the word "good")

Or, start Windows normally.

Any selection gets me nowhere. I NEVER get to the command prompt.

Anytime I load windows, or any drivers "Safe Mode with Command, etc.", it ALWAYS hangs on MUP.SYS.

That is... \Windows\System32\Drivers\Mup.Sys
Loads everything up to, and possibly including that file, but nothing more.

Did I load the bootdisk incorrectly? I just ran the EXE from bootdisk.com that you told me to, pointed it to A:, and let er rip. I even copied the util and such over.

Fookin sheet

 

[ViRGE]

Adjust the boot order so that it never boots from anything except the floppy disk, then delete autoexec.bat. If it doesn't drop you at the command line then it means it's not booting off of that disk (which could be anything from the disk making app being bad to the disk itself being bad).

 

[Brickster]

Well, that seemed to at least do something different.

Does a post, then the last thing it says...

verifying DMI Pool Data

Starting Caldera DR-DOS

Can't load BDOS Kernel file A:\IBMDOS.COM

System Halted.

Seems better, but er...just can't get that freakin' prompt.

 

[ViRGE]

You can try building a boot disk using a different version of DOS (MS-DOS 6.22 from here), but I'm not expecting that to work. It sounds like your BIOS really is toast. You need to file a support request with Gigabyte and see if there's a way to force the secondary BIOS to activate, otherwise either the BIOS chip or board will need to be replaced (I have no clue if the BIOS chip is user replaceable on that board)

 

[Brickster]

OK. ViRGE, I see you've done this a few times, as deleting Autoexec worked on my other backup disk.

While I was making boot disks, I did go with the notion that the latest BIOS might be a total piece of sheet. So, I made a boot disk with the previous version.

Caldera finally loaded. Flash utility loaded. I FLASHED THE BIOS to the F12!!!!

Now, when I post, it shows the F12. I selected "LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS" in the CMOS. Saved, and restarted.

Now, it loads, but still goes back to the old "Windows did not load properly" screen.

Endless loop with Windows never loading. I might have to try the original F7 again and see if that works.

Better than before...but Windows can't seem to trigger. Any more brilliance? You've been damn good so far.

 

[ViRGE]

Go through the BIOS and make sure the QFlash/DualBIOS menu is set up and working first. We want to make sure you have a fully functional BIOS. I'd turn on Wide Range Protection and Halt on Error just to be safe. Once that's done try F7 and see if that puts things back in order. If you really did fully flash F12 and it's working but Windows isn't however, I can't rule out the possibility that the bad BIOS somehow screwed up your Windows installation.

 

[Brickster]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
Go through the BIOS and make sure the QFlash/DualBIOS menu is set up and working first. We want to make sure you have a fully functional BIOS.

ViRGE, you are a genius. That worked. It loaded the archaic F3, but XP booted. Praise the lord!!!!

Wow. I am just flabberghasted that the latest BIOS would not work. Guess I have to take back all my nasties about the dual bios, since that seemed to have saved me.

Now, the question is...why did F12 and F13 not work with my AMD Athlon 64 3500+?

I'm wondering if it actually requires the dual core (X2 4200+ I just bought) in place before the BIOS would work. I thought that they would be backwards compatible...thoughts?

Wow, can't belive it. I am still in shock.

Thank you for the attention and advice!!!!

 

[ViRGE]

I don't know a ton about your board, but F12 and F13 should work, I don't know why they don't. You could always try flashing again to make sure it wasn't a freak accident with them not working.

 

[Brickster]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
I don't know a ton about your board, but F12 and F13 should work, I don't know why they don't. You could always try flashing again to make sure it wasn't a freak accident with them not working.

Did I say you are the MAN!?

I got the Asian version of the F13, and loaded through the BIOS/CMOS QFLASH utility, rather than the other option...@BIOS, which fooked me in the first place.

This worked. I am now writing to you on my formerly dead computer, with the updated F13 BIOS.

Halleleujah! Case Closed. My wife will now talk to me again!

Where can I send the flowers?

 

[AirForceElite]

He doesn't need flowers I am sure.
Just send a $5000 Gift Card from newegg, and everybody will be happy. Except your wife of course.
hehe glad you worked it out...anandtech really amazes me with the helpful community it has

 

[imported_Husky55]

@ViRGE,

Seeing how you saved Brickster renewed my faith in the kindness people are capable of.

:thumbsup:

 

[Brickster]

Originally posted by: Husky55
@ViRGE,

Seeing how you saved Brickster renewed my faith in the kindness people are capable of.

:thumbsup:

Me THREE!