Tried to overclock system again, and now can't even get into BIOS

[LABachlr]

I have a system that has a ABIT NF7-S REV 2.0 mobo with a AMD ATHLON XP MOBILE 2600+ processor.

I overclocked the system when I first built it two years ago. I needed to set the settings back to optimal default to perform some procedures. So, when I tried to overclock it again, it went to a black screen with a blinking gree light on the monitor.

Original overclock settings:

200MHz
11X

Tried to set them to the following settings today from the optimal factory default settings:

200MHz
10X

After I reset it, it came up with a warning not to power off while it was saving the settings to the BIOS. After about 30 seconds, I noticed the monitor was at a black screen and had a green blinking green light. So, I hit the reset the button and tried to enter the BIOS by hitting "delete." To no avail. Tried many times.

So, what do I do now? Is the mobo toast, or can I enter the BIOS somehow?

Could I try reflashing the BIOS?

UPDATE: Is it possible to make a bootable MS-DOS CD to flash to BIOS? It won't boot to the floppy.

Please advise.

 

[WildHorse]

UPDATE: Is it possible to make a bootable MS-DOS CD to flash to BIOS?

Definitely "YES !" Make sure you burn it to be a bootable CD-ROM.

First remove the computer's power cable & CMOS battery then move the CMOS jumper to clear your CMOS. Leave it there a while, then replace all.

Put the CD-ROM in your drive. Restart. Go into bios. In the boot order choose CD-ROM. Save and exit. After booting from the CD-ROM & bios flash, go into bios again & set all values to defaults.

Then clear CMOS as above again!!! Clearing CMOS after a flash helps clear any old settings in the BIOS that might conflict with the new BIOS codes.

 

[Kakumba]

try clearing the BIOS first, if that doesnt work, THEN flash a new BIOS as above. If its still a no go, then im starting to think something is dead.

 

[LABachlr]

I can't even get into the BIOS right now. It just continues to be a black screen when I start hitting the delete button.

When you say clear the BIOS, do you mean clear the CMOS?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Yeah, clear the CMOS. Be certain it is unplugged or the PSU switch is off. No go? Set the CMOS to clear position, Pop out the battery with the system unplugged, push the power button a couple times, pop the battery back in after a couple minutes, set the CMOS back to default, plug in&try to boot.

 

[Heidfirst]

You can try a hot flash (see http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jefn/bootblock.html) on another board that uses the same EEPROM or Abit will supply you with 1 for something like $9 shipped iirc.

 

[LABachlr]

Clearing the CMOS fixed it. Thanks!

The reason this happened in the first place is that I did not set all of the parameters when I tried overclocking it again, including not enabling the CPU Interface, which allows the mobo to use the user settings vs. the default settings. It's been a while since I have overclocked a system.

Now, the problem is still not being able to install updates from Windows Update, which is the reason why I tried to repair the OS in the first place. The file that it is failing to install now is "Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1". Any ideas?

 

[LABachlr]

Got MS Windows Installer to install. Not sure how. Was just persistent.