A7N8X Deluxe bios dead

[riki]

The problem started when I tampered with the memory settings in the
bios. I've set it to agressive and went to 'save and exit'. After I
pushed the enter button, the pc has shut down and I couldn't boot it
up anymore.
Clear cmos doesn't work, each time I power up, cd-rom LED blinks and
the fans start to work, but that's all. VGA, CPU, HDD and memory are
all tested on other motherboard and are all working fine.
The green LED on the motherboard is shining.
I've heard something about re-programming the bios chip. Is that
recomended?
The revision number of the motherboard is 2.00.
Or, how can I get new bios chip from ASUS, cause it seems that I can't
find those papers from the shop...
Or, what should I do?

 

[Barry Walsh]

The problem started when I tampered with the memory settings in the
bios. I've set it to agressive and went to 'save and exit'. After I
pushed the enter button, the pc has shut down and I couldn't boot it
up anymore.
Clear cmos doesn't work, each time I power up, cd-rom LED blinks and
the fans start to work, but that's all. VGA, CPU, HDD and memory are
all tested on other motherboard and are all working fine.
The green LED on the motherboard is shining.
I've heard something about re-programming the bios chip. Is that
recomended?
The revision number of the motherboard is 2.00.
Or, how can I get new bios chip from ASUS, cause it seems that I can't
find those papers from the shop...
Or, what should I do?

You can try the hotswap method to re-flash the BIOS if you can get
access to another board with the same style socketed BIOS chip.

There's a full tutorial here, and it does work as I had to do it recently.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15104

 

[Dr Teeth]

You can try the hotswap method to re-flash the BIOS if you can get
access to another board with the same style socketed BIOS chip.

There's a full tutorial here, and it does work as I had to do it recently.

Personally, I'd get a new motherboard.

It would also save time as I feel that it the only reliable way to
even get close to confirming that the BIOS chip itself was kaput.


Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[Barry Walsh]

Personally, I'd get a new motherboard.

It would also save time as I feel that it the only reliable way to
even get close to confirming that the BIOS chip itself was kaput.


Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

The A7N8X has a known problem with corrupting it's BIOS, so it's
unlikely the chip is dead. Besides it only takes ten minuts or so and
then you'll know for sure if the chip is dead or merely corrupted, plus
there are no costs like replacing the board entails.

 

[Dr Teeth]

The A7N8X has a known problem with corrupting it's BIOS, so it's
unlikely the chip is dead. Besides it only takes ten minuts or so and
then you'll know for sure if the chip is dead or merely corrupted, plus
there are no costs like replacing the board entails.

He needs an identical m/b lying around of course.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[S.Heenan]

The problem started when I tampered with the memory settings in the
bios. I've set it to agressive and went to 'save and exit'. After I
pushed the enter button, the pc has shut down and I couldn't boot it
up anymore.
Clear cmos doesn't work, each time I power up, cd-rom LED blinks and
the fans start to work, but that's all. VGA, CPU, HDD and memory are
all tested on other motherboard and are all working fine.
The green LED on the motherboard is shining.
I've heard something about re-programming the bios chip. Is that
recomended?
The revision number of the motherboard is 2.00.
Or, how can I get new bios chip from ASUS, cause it seems that I can't
find those papers from the shop...
Or, what should I do?

Try this before any other fix.
http://www3.telus.net/agentsmith/articles/article1.html

 

[Barry Walsh]

He needs an identical m/b lying around of course.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

No, he doesn't at all, just any other board with the same style BIOS
socket. When I revived the BIOS of an A7N8X I used an MSI K7N-Delta as
the other board.

 

[Dr Teeth]

No, he doesn't at all, just any other board with the same style BIOS
socket. When I revived the BIOS of an A7N8X I used an MSI K7N-Delta as
the other board.

Could you please elaborate? I thought that the m/b had to be
identical. What happens when a m/b works with a foreign BIOS?

TIA.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[Barry Walsh]

Could you please elaborate? I thought that the m/b had to be
identical. What happens when a m/b works with a foreign BIOS?

TIA.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

BIOS chips are usually of a standard type known as PLCC and are
mechanically and electrically compatible. You boot the good board to a
point where you can run the BIOS flash util, in this case awdflash and a
Win98 disc booted to a DOS prompt. You then pull out the good BIOS chip
while the machine is still on at the DOS prompt, this is the hot part of
the term hotflash since power is still on. You stick in the bad one and
run the flash util with the appropriate BIOS image for the A7N8X as
appropriate. In the case of awdflash you'll need the /qi switch or else
it'll complain about a part number mismatch. Once flashed you can power
off and put the BIOS chips back into their respective places.

 

[Dr Teeth]

Thanks Barry for the info.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[Rod MacPherson]

Try this before any other fix.

http://www3.telus.net/agentsmith/articles/article1.html

Agreed... this work in 99% of all cases, if not and you're too
squeemish to do a hot flash (pulling chips out while powered up) you
can e-mail me, I'll flash it for you if you are willing to send me the
bad chip an wait for it to be mailed back.