P8P67 Deluxe Failed BIOS Update and cannot be recovered

[Socratesx]

Hi Guys,

Here is a strange problem that I encountered yesterday with my new ASUS P8P67 deluxe.

The board had a very old BIOS (05xx If I remember well) and wanted to update to the 1053 Beta BIOS. I downloaded the file from Asus web site and saved it to the hard drive. I then entered the BIOS and updated from asus EZ utility. The update was successful and had just to press ok to reboot.

After that the board gives me a message that BIOS recovery mode is detected and to put the bios file on the HDD or a USB flash or use the support cd instead. I did all of them and the bios cannot be recovered.

When I insert the medium with the .ROM file then the board is just like entering a loop with the error codes to be repeated again and again. It doesn't lose power and the screen is black. I left for over 30 minutes and nothing happened.

I tried the clear CMOS and Memok! switch. All the possible combination of EPU & TPU but nothing. In fact some combination stopped the process to the error code 0E which is "microcode not found".

DRAM Led is lit all the time though. I use Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB @1.5V. Tried also with different modules, corsair xms3 but with the same results.

In another forum they told me that I may have killed the bios because I used some small overclocking in the A.I. when I updated the BIOS.

Guys if you know something that can help please let me know.

 

[d33pblue]

How much is a "small overclock"? I know Asus explicitly states not to overclock while updating the BIOS.

Before you send the board in to be repaired, I would try removing the small battery, disconnecting all power, and letting the board completely drain for a while (30 min). I used this technique a couple years back to revive what I thought was a completely dead board. I'm not sure if it still works in this case, but it's worth a shot.

 

[bankster55]

Wow, everything that can go wrong with these boards is going wrong!

There are 5 ways to update bios
EZ Flash is dos based
the .rom has to be on USB stick formatted in FAT 32 or FAT 16 no NTFS
One partition only, no boot image, no folders
Always set failsafe defaults before any bios flash

Compounding this prob is you have two 4GB sticks, and since its a new install, new mobo we dont know if the RAM is fully functional under stress - like memtest + 4.0 or super pi. You cant just buy a new mobo, do a quick install with big RAM and go right to bios flash. I keep mentioning it that you have to have a cheap stick of 1GB DDR3 around that boots at default voltage placed in the blue A2 slot to get going.

The fact you left the bios file on HDD and it went thru amazes me.

So, in your case, I would do this:
Turn off PC.
Turn off PSU rocker
Unplug PSU
Push in PC "on" button and hold it down for count of ten
Push in CMOS reset button for count of ten
Pull out battery
Wait 15 min
Put back in battery
plug in PSU
Turn on PSU switch

Put a single stick of one or two GB known good 1.5V DDR3 in slot A2

Do not boot into Windows after cmos clear at any time, only bios operations allowed
Do not use 1253 bios - buggy
Use 1053
Change the name of any bios .rom to 8 letters or less
(I always do this as standard operating proceedure)

Prepare a USB stick on another PC right click format FAT 32
Place the P8P67D.ROM from the DVD on the USB all by itself - no folders, no partitions
Download bios updater utility BPUpdater 1.22 from asus site
extract and place on USB stick the BUPDATER.exe also by itself right under the .rom

After the CMOS clear
After installing single small DDR3
After making the USB stick

Now heres the thing----
Supposedly if you run the support DVD from boot, it looks around and starts the crash free bios redo. There are 2 .rom's on the support disc - the pre (pre release) and the P8P67D.ROM (first bios you had on mobo)
I have never used this, and dont plan to, but the first thing you need to try is booting to DVD and see what happens - do NOT boot into windows, have DVD as first boot item, no USB stick yet
I am very curious about this option.

If that doesnt work, put in your DVD and the USB with 2 files and boot to DVD again and see what happens

If that doesnt work, you can run the bupdater.exe from safe mode cmd prompt (no ASUS DVD), but I will have to advise what to type

So, make the USB and make a screenshot of what it looks like and post here

Edit:
Forgot to mention that the bios chip is removable dont have to send mobo back. Its right next to the dark blue SATA, 8 pin

 

[bigi]

Asus easy utility fails with early bioses. I did mine yesterday in DOS via their bflash.exe
This is the only way to update early bios version w/out fucking up the board.

Sorry

 

[Modelworks]

One other tip, before you install any bios always do a CRC or MD5 sum or whatever it has with it to confirm it downloaded and copied correctly.

You would be surprised how many bad flashes can be attributed to bad downloads or copies.
They really should just start installing a pic micro to do these flashes instead of the using the host cpu and memory. It would add maybe 30 cents to the cost of the board and stop all the bad flashes.

 

[Socratesx]

Guys thanks for your support. I returned the board back to the merchant for testing.

@bankster55: I tried with the support DVD but it couldn't load the bios as it was before. The problem is that I cannot boot to anything. So the problem wasn't that I couldn't flash the bios but I couldn't restore the original bios and so the board was dead. Nothing I could do. I tried all the things you said but unfortunately nothing worked. Anyway I hope that I get my money back and go and buy the giga UD5. At least giga have dual bios do whatever you do wrong you can boot from the backup and correct the error.

If the bflash.exe is the only method to update an early bios why shouldn't they mention that?? I though EZ flash utility was the best and more stable way to do it as it was a Bios utility. Anyway I am not going to buy ASUS mobo again unless they have dual bios chips on it.

 

[Dadofamunky]

How much is a "small overclock"? I know Asus explicitly states not to overclock while updating the BIOS.

True dat. I updated mine and I dodged a bullet - my OC wasn't working so the system was automatically running on stock when I updated.

If the OP's board is bricked it's time for an RMA. ASUS customer support is actually pretty good in my experience. Their main office in the US is in Fremont. It takes a little time but they're reliable.

 

[RightAlex]

Well, I had the same problem yesterday....
First of all sorry for my poor English.
I was trying to update my bios and after succesfully update in Windows everything looked good. Asus AI Suite II said that computer need to be restarted and then I pressed OK. After that my computer did not start again. I've tried all what I see in topics above but nothing helped me.
I understood that problem in BIOS flash, and I decide to flash it on another board. I made these steps:
1) To find similar motherboard. (For example it doesn't work on P7P55D because of different BIOS sizes) I've found P8H67.
2) Download and save on flash/hdd BIOS firmware and BIOS flash Utility for firmware update under DOS.
3) On computer with working BIOS (in my case it was P8H67) boot from the motherboard boot CD or another source with installed DOS.
4) Start DOS.
5) Open the firmware update-utility but do not start the flashing.
6) The most important thing: While system is working take out the the BIOS chip and put the BIOS chip from your broken MB P8P67.
7) Start flashing using the already dowloaded firmware.
8) If the motherboards are the similar than flashing will be succesfull.
9) Turn off the computer.
10) Turn of PSU.
11) Take off the BIOS chip and put in into P8P67.
12) Turn on the computer with P8P67.