Bad BIOS flash, any hope?

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Raphael Argus

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My final post before I buy a new MOBO. (The BIOS is integrated on the board, cannot be replaced)

Did a BIOS flash on an ASUS MOBO, an Asus tech recomended I use the Windows Flash utility. Ran program, Flashed BIOS. Got an error, program then refused to run. Rebooted system, Disk Boot failure, loaded defaults in CMOS and saved. PC Booted, ran perfect. BIOS appeared updated. Did a couple test reboots, ran fine.

Woke up today, turned on PC, just beeped at me. Would NOT boot. After clearing CMOS I now get a 3 second beep, followed by a 2 second pause, rinse and repeat. NO VIDEO.

Removed all items, reseated Ram and CPU. Same Beeps. I was under the impression a failed Flash yielded nothing, yet the PC functioned afterwards. This is an Asus MOBO with an AWARD BIOS.

If I can't get any suggestions I'll purchase a new MOBO for this 1.8ghz P4 CPU.

Any last ideas?

If you have questions, ask away :)
 
Get a new BIOS chip and get ir replaced in a shop if it is soldered on (usually it isn't but I don't know about ASUS). You would save a few bucks if you can do it.
 
zerozero...he already said his BIOS is irremovable. I wrote quite a lengthy article on BIOS Flashing and recovery for these forums which can be found here:

http://www.techist.com/computer_articles/bios-flashing-recovery.php

I don't know how well of use it'll be to you though because it's mainly based off of hotflashing but has some hints to possibly help you along your way. If you are getting beeps then there is a hardware conflict and you should consult your manual or manufacturer website to find out what the beep codes are. I personally hate ASUS and think their boards suck and so does the tech support. That's been my only experiences with them
 
Unremovable means the chip is soldered on. It CAN be replaced if you can purchase another one which is the part I am not sure about. All that is needed is a knowledgeable technician and a good soldering station like we use at work (PACE). Part of my job consists of High Reliability Soldering so as I said, everything can be replaced if it can be purchased. You might even find an old scrapped board and remove the BIOS chip to reinstall it on the other one. The only question is..... can he find one.
 
He is not going to be able to remove the BIOS chip and replace it no matter how good of a solderer you think you are. They wouldn't sell BIOS chips that can't be removed using the normal PLCC Extraction tool. Usually the unremovable BIOS's are soldered through the board and I doubt too many change out a BIOS that way unless you can find a nice article to back it up which would be very handy in this situation
 
Thank you, Nubius. I will read your articles and see if I can pick up any tips at all. On another board, I read about a guy that couldn't get video at all, but ASSUMED he was at an A: since his floppy was in, he typed the flash codes without being able to see them and when he reset his PC it booted :) Talk about luck!

The beep code seems to be referring to video, I have 4 vide cards I've tried without success.

BIOS flashing is so frustrating, I'll NEVER do it again. If I could just get to a freakin prompt I could reflash and be fine.
 
Question for Nubius, I read your information page. The system seems to ONLY be booting from CD. This is a friends PC, I had it set to boot to Floppy first, so either he changed it, or somehow during the blunder it was changed to CD.

My question, I'm familiar with old dos and command line prompts, can I make a bootable CD and edit the autoexec.bat to start the flash utility program and then run the flash file? I'm running blind, I can't get video, but wondering if this would be worth a shot or impossible.

(Also, I cleared the CMOS battery, and now, I get no beeps) Things are looking bleak indeed :)
 
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