NF7-S 2.0 Won't Boot
Courtesy of the recent advancements in Thrax's ideology on CPU fan orientation, he went to overclocking a little more. Pressing towards 2.42GHz in increments of .025v, the computer eventually shut itself down with that damn ****ing alarm at 2.42GHz with 1.8v in it (103*F full load; buahahha).
The computer won't respond to the press of the power button.
There are two undocumented jumpers with quick-pull tabs, which indicates they're relevant (I haven't researched what they are yet; spent the last hour trying to figure this out without coming here) but I don't know HOW relevant.
I've cleared CMOS, yanked BIOS battery, killed the +5v standby (Unplugged it), hit the power button with insert, tried all combinations of jumper positions on the quick-pull jumper just above the left edge of the PCI slot. At the top of the board to the right of the PS2 ports, there's another quick pull tab. What the hell is it?
Doesn't the NF7-S include a jumper which forces a 100MHz FSB? Doesn't the NF7-S 2.0 save BIOS settings to another chip so this (What I think is the same as needing a 100Mhz FSB duron/athlon with the 8RDA+) doesn't happen?
Grrrrr. :banghead:
The computer won't respond to the press of the power button.
There are two undocumented jumpers with quick-pull tabs, which indicates they're relevant (I haven't researched what they are yet; spent the last hour trying to figure this out without coming here) but I don't know HOW relevant.
I've cleared CMOS, yanked BIOS battery, killed the +5v standby (Unplugged it), hit the power button with insert, tried all combinations of jumper positions on the quick-pull jumper just above the left edge of the PCI slot. At the top of the board to the right of the PS2 ports, there's another quick pull tab. What the hell is it?
Doesn't the NF7-S include a jumper which forces a 100MHz FSB? Doesn't the NF7-S 2.0 save BIOS settings to another chip so this (What I think is the same as needing a 100Mhz FSB duron/athlon with the 8RDA+) doesn't happen?
Grrrrr. :banghead:
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Comments
a little research showed that many people had the same problem,, the bios on the nf7 seems highly unstable ....
also the other jumpers are to do with keyboard power/usb mouse 5v function .. so wont help (these arent in the manual btw)
try a hotswap if you have another chip lying around ... or try badflash.com ..
sorry to give bad news... hopefully someone else will prove me wrong
If I smoked my BIOS, give me lipstick and call me Shirly.
I'll BRB.
heh, any mods wanna exercise their vbulletin skills .. ala "General Nuisance"
How do I hotflash/what is hotflashing?
As for hot flashing a BIOS, try this, about halfway down.
Lemme get this straight:
I use the working BIOS chip from a working NF7-S.
I extract it from the working NF7-S
I extract the BAD bios chip from MY non-working NF7-s.
I put the GOOD BIOS chip into the bios chip socket of a known-working NF7-S. VERY LOOSELY SEATED, just enough so it's contacting pins.
Start the computer.
Extract that BIOS chip at the DOS prompt (Courtesy of boot disk with NF7-S BIOS files and the flash util).
Insert my bad chip into the working board.
Flash the bios.
Shut down the computer after the flash.
Replace my bad chip with the good chip from the working board to see if the good NF7-S still works.
Then try my newly-flashed chip.
Sounds right. Now I must wait.
Where can I get one for the NF7-S? ExcaliberPC seems to carry one for every Abit board BUT the NF7-S.
Hi, Shirly!
No kidding on "people [who] had the same problem". I've got the original BIOS chip for my NF7-S sitting in a parts bin. No amount of Insert, CMOS battery removal, and CMOS jumper shorting would get that computer to boot after a certain overclocking foray.
If you do decide on a new BIOS chip, do not pass GO, do not collect $200, but go straight to Badflash.com. They DO have the correct BIOS chip and will flash it with whatever BIOS revision you desire. I should know, I have one of their chips in my system No. 2.
If you go the BIOS hot swap route, please practice BIOS chip removal first. These are small chips that fit tightly in their sockets. Once you find a suitable tool (non-metallic if system is powered), practice two or three removals before show time.
Sorry to hear about this Thrax. I know, it's pretty maddening.
Time to play with CPU interface...And that other setting everyone tells you to turn off. Urgh.
I turned the FSB down to a completely stable level just to test the CPU.
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I have bios removal tools, and of course I'm going to practice first. Thanks for the link Leo!
//EDIT: Might you remember the necessary parameters for ordering a pre-programmed NF7-S 2.0 chip?
You can get a chip-extractor from almost everywhere. They cost 8 bucks here, that mean 10 cents there.
Thrax, I'm sure what you mean by "parameters". If you remove the silvery label from the BIOS chip, all the information Badflash needs is imprinted on the top of the chip. They will flash whatever Abit-released BIOS you request. They will also reflash your original BIOS if you mail it to them. If you have questions about their service, or technical inquiries, they answer email promptly.
The bios saviour is really nice; with the flick of a switch you can switch from a failed bios to the backup bios chip. After booting back up with the backup bios you just switch back to the failed bios chip and flash your bios to it. I put one on a KK266-R and I was impressed; even came with the chip extractor.
I did contact Abit about the BIOS problem... Well, I could either RMA the entire board, and be down a computer for a month, or I could replace the BIOS chip at my expense. I took the latter choice.
As far as resets are concerned, none of the tricks - power on/off, jumper switch, insert, battery removal - worked.
So far the power off Mac uses has worked for me. I guess it may be time to get a new bios saviour for this one just incase.
I should email Abit, maybe they'll know. I just know it's the most god-awful, obnoxious, and useless feature (?) in the entire damn world. It's not documented anywhere on Abit's site, so that's all the more reason to piss me off.
As for the bios savior? Yeah, I could buy one. I might. It is a good idea. But I've never invested in one because in all 10 years of me with computers, I've never had a BIOS chip go bad on me. Oh well.
There IS one more thing I haven't tried. Anyone remember the no-boot issue with a1/a2 nforce2 chips, where you could remove the BIOS chip for a few hours, plug it back in, and it worked? I need to find a tool at home that'd allow me to remove a chip. Hmm.
Anyways. I'll hotflash on monday, get the show on the road. I'm going to be buying another nf7-s 2.0 because I need another one for a new computer, I'll play with that one, see if it gives me the sirens.
Duct tape. put duct tape over the chip, seal it tightly, and gently pull it up, working around the perimeter of the chip. It should come out. I've never actually DONE this before, but it seems like it should work...
Agreed, when i removed the chip from the KX7, i almost pulled the mobo off its studs. To bad you cant email physical stuff, i have 3 or 4 of those chip-removers. :/
Patience with this method is mandatory. If you are impatient, you will probably crack the chip or damage the socket.
If your screwdriver is too small, you might crack the chip. If too large, you might bend/break the socket.
No condescention here. I realize most of you have seen this before.
Hotflashed the chip this morning (About 30 minutes ago), now I've got it on an IV midol drip. She's doing quite well, I think she'll make a full recovery! Her transplant donor is also doing rather well. In fact, she's helping run the computer right now.
I can't wait to get home and try my computer out, but that's a good seven hours away. Alas.
Removing the BIOS chip becomes a fine art after a while. Hah. It gets really easy to remove it, both in terms of skill and the firmness of the chip in the socket, after a while.
There's the pwned BIOS. And my