Did I Just Critically Injure BIOS Chip? Help, Please.

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited November 2003 in Hardware
(See system 2 in signature, below.)

Situation: Computer will start to POST, but won't make it past first page. The CPU is indicated to be an AMD Athlon XP 1250MHz. Much of the page is blank. The bottom indicates the correct BIOS version for the board. The line that should read "Press Delete to Enter Setup "reads Press Delete TOe".

Background: I used Abit's Flashmenu to update the BIOS. I've used it three times on my IC7 rig (system 1) with nothing but success. I closed all applications, but did not turn off background stuff, namely, Folding@Home. During the Flashmenu process, there was no indications of any errors. After flashing completed, I restarted the BIOS and made some changes, such as AGP aperture, set to start with AGP instead of PCI (video) - fairly usual settings. Upon F10-save the computer would not reboot, stalling on the screen I described in 'Situation', above.

Steps Taken so far: I shut off the computer several times, pressing the Insert key upon reboot attempts. This only manged to allow minor differences in "Press Delete to..." line. At the stall on the first POST page, I would press the Delete key; nothing would respond. After this, I used the CMOS jumper cap to reset the BIOS. Same results. Next, I removed the CMOS battery for about fifteen minutes. Same results. (I have no beep codes, as I do not have a case speaker; all fans and drives do spin up.)


Arrgggh! Does this mean I will have to order a replacement BIOS chip? Is there anything else I can try? I can't reflash with a floppy, as I can't enter the BIOS to select the floppy drive as boot device. I cannot access BIOS settings at all.

Please help.


Leo

Comments

  • DoM-aLDoM-aL Indiana
    edited July 2003
    See my post on short-media.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited July 2003
    If you can clear the bios it should default to having a floppy as the first boot device won't it?

    Tex
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Yes indeed. I'm attempting to clear the BIOS, as it won't get past "Press Delete to Enter BIOS Setup". I did let it sit longer last time with the CMOS batter pulled. After that, it did post all the way to "Press Delete to Enter BIOS Setup" without mispelling or leaving off words. Still though, nothing would show up in the middle of the page. I'm giving it a two-hour spell now with the battery pulled; hopefully the BIOS will clear, or at least be accessible.
  • Cool-CanuckCool-Canuck
    edited July 2003
    You did remember to unplug the computer while trying to clear the BIOS? ....Just checking. :)
    Did you replace the jumper properly? ...Just checking again.

    Strange that it appeared normal first time around. Try another keyboard.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Yes, it's proper of you to ask those questions. No, I didn't unplug the computer, but did turn off the PSU and observed the motherboard power LEDs go out on the board. Good suggestion on switching keyboards. I'll give that a shot too.

    Thanks.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Ren and Stimpy's favorite song - "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy"

    I guess I just wasn't patient enough. The last round of my fight with the BIOS, I let it sit for two hours with the CMOS battery out. It was very welcome seeing "Checksum Error" on the full POST page when I reinserted the battery and fired up system 2.

    I put all settings at "Fail Safe", saved settings, and flashed back to the previous BIOS - 16. I didn't want to chance it again with 17. Truth be told, I think I am responsible for the apparent 'bad' flash, in that I did not have Folding@Home turned off when I flashed in Windows with FlashMenu.

    Oh well. Learning by mistakes is not the best way, but at least it's learning.

    Thanks for responding to my thread.

    Leo:cool:
  • Cool-CanuckCool-Canuck
    edited July 2003
    Good to see you got it going Leo. :)
  • ml_manml_man The Asylum... Seeking Refuge
    edited July 2003
    Bios should be set to 'fail safe' when flashing.

    That is great news. :)
  • Cyber13Cyber13 Virginia
    edited November 2003
    Post gets to checksum error and press delete to enter bios but nothing happens when I press delete. This is a rma board I just recieved. The funny thing about it is I was in bios the day before and in the process of trying to get it to "see" my 120GB WD hard drives pluged into the raid sockets it got to this. Disconnected the drives but still get same result. I wonder if it may be the no name brand of power supply that came with this case? Any suggestions?
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