Award Boot Block BIOS rom checksum error

[Flip]

Hello

Here's my BIOs query for you wonderful fixit people:
A week prior to the checksum message described below my PC started up
with an extra and unusual message, something along the
lines of: "Primary Bios fail, now booting using secondary BIOS.." Of
course I shoud have got help then, but I figured as
long as everything eventually booted, why bother?

After about 7 or so boots like this I got a dreaded checksum error
message and could not access anything besides the floppy
drive. A "fundi" told me to flash the BIOS, but I've struggled finding
the correct one. Usually the ones I did try either
froze up everything or did not work at all. I downloaded most of the
flash utilities from a jetway site.

And unfortunately the Motherboard Utility CD has a flasher for an
Amibios chip. Aarrgh!!

Please, please put me one the trail of a flasher that works, or any
advice to help my ailing PC!

Thanks

Flipflop.

(e-mail address removed)


-----------------------
CPU : AMD Athlon 2000 xp
MotherBoard: Gigabyte GA-7VAX REV1.2, K7 Triton 400, FSB333
-----------------------------
First startup screen:
GA-622-32C VGA BIOS rev2.2 Gigabyte VGA Bios
32MB ram AGP4X
---------------------------------
Second screen:
Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0 Copyright (c) 2000, Award Software
Inc

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting floppy drive A media

Drive media is: 1.44 MB

Remove disks or other media
Press any key to restart

 

[Paul]

Hello

Here's my BIOs query for you wonderful fixit people:
A week prior to the checksum message described below my PC started up
with an extra and unusual message, something along the
lines of: "Primary Bios fail, now booting using secondary BIOS.." Of
course I shoud have got help then, but I figured as
long as everything eventually booted, why bother?

After about 7 or so boots like this I got a dreaded checksum error
message and could not access anything besides the floppy
drive. A "fundi" told me to flash the BIOS, but I've struggled finding
the correct one. Usually the ones I did try either
froze up everything or did not work at all. I downloaded most of the
flash utilities from a jetway site.

And unfortunately the Motherboard Utility CD has a flasher for an
Amibios chip. Aarrgh!!

Please, please put me one the trail of a flasher that works, or any
advice to help my ailing PC!

Thanks

Flipflop.

(e-mail address removed)


-----------------------
CPU : AMD Athlon 2000 xp
MotherBoard: Gigabyte GA-7VAX REV1.2, K7 Triton 400, FSB333
-----------------------------
First startup screen:
GA-622-32C VGA BIOS rev2.2 Gigabyte VGA Bios
32MB ram AGP4X
---------------------------------
Second screen:
Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0 Copyright (c) 2000, Award Software
Inc

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting floppy drive A media

Drive media is: 1.44 MB

Remove disks or other media
Press any key to restart

Is this your motherboard ? The BIOS is associated with the motherboard,
and the GA-7VAX is on the Gigabyte site.

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/BIOS/BIOS_GA-7VAX.htm

The download from that page is self-extracting - double-click to
extract it. Inside is a flasher program "flash879", the BIOS
file "7vax.f13" of size 262144 bytes, and the command syntax is
shown in autoexec.bat as "flash879 7vax.f13".

You can get a dowhloadable manual from here. PDF page 64
describes the options for flashing the BIOS. This is a
pretty big download (8MB). Basically, you can make a DOS floppy
boot disk, boot from the floppy, and with the flash879.exe
and 7vax.f13 files copied onto the floppy, execute the
"flash879 7vax.f13" command from the prompt.

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/Manual/Manual_GA-7VAX.htm

If you still have the paper copy of the user manual, the
procedure should be documented in there as well.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Erick]

Looks like Paul tracked down the proper tool for you. If it fails however,
it's time to replace the board.

Hello

Here's my BIOs query for you wonderful fixit people:
A week prior to the checksum message described below my PC started up
with an extra and unusual message, something along the
lines of: "Primary Bios fail, now booting using secondary BIOS.." Of
course I shoud have got help then, but I figured as
long as everything eventually booted, why bother?

After about 7 or so boots like this I got a dreaded checksum error
message and could not access anything besides the floppy
drive. A "fundi" told me to flash the BIOS, but I've struggled finding
the correct one. Usually the ones I did try either
froze up everything or did not work at all. I downloaded most of the
flash utilities from a jetway site.

And unfortunately the Motherboard Utility CD has a flasher for an
Amibios chip. Aarrgh!!

Please, please put me one the trail of a flasher that works, or any
advice to help my ailing PC!

Thanks

Flipflop.

(e-mail address removed)


-----------------------
CPU : AMD Athlon 2000 xp
MotherBoard: Gigabyte GA-7VAX REV1.2, K7 Triton 400, FSB333
-----------------------------
First startup screen:
GA-622-32C VGA BIOS rev2.2 Gigabyte VGA Bios
32MB ram AGP4X
---------------------------------
Second screen:
Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0 Copyright (c) 2000, Award Software
Inc

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting floppy drive A media

Drive media is: 1.44 MB

Remove disks or other media
Press any key to restart

Is this your motherboard ? The BIOS is associated with the motherboard,
and the GA-7VAX is on the Gigabyte site.

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/BIOS/BIOS_GA-7VAX.htm

The download from that page is self-extracting - double-click to
extract it. Inside is a flasher program "flash879", the BIOS
file "7vax.f13" of size 262144 bytes, and the command syntax is
shown in autoexec.bat as "flash879 7vax.f13".

You can get a dowhloadable manual from here. PDF page 64
describes the options for flashing the BIOS. This is a
pretty big download (8MB). Basically, you can make a DOS floppy
boot disk, boot from the floppy, and with the flash879.exe
and 7vax.f13 files copied onto the floppy, execute the
"flash879 7vax.f13" command from the prompt.

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/Manual/Manual_GA-7VAX.htm

If you still have the paper copy of the user manual, the
procedure should be documented in there as well.

HTH,
Paul

 

[kony]

Hello

Here's my BIOs query for you wonderful fixit people:
A week prior to the checksum message described below my PC started up
with an extra and unusual message, something along the
lines of: "Primary Bios fail, now booting using secondary BIOS.." Of
course I shoud have got help then, but I figured as
long as everything eventually booted, why bother?

After about 7 or so boots like this I got a dreaded checksum error
message and could not access anything besides the floppy
drive. A "fundi" told me to flash the BIOS, but I've struggled finding
the correct one. Usually the ones I did try either
froze up everything or did not work at all. I downloaded most of the
flash utilities from a jetway site.

Did it occur to try Gigabyte's site? Seems like reasonable
target since it's a Gigabyte board.

Check your battery, take a voltage reading with a multimeter
if possible or just replace it - CR2032 type is available at
many drugstores for $2.

And unfortunately the Motherboard Utility CD has a flasher for an
Amibios chip. Aarrgh!!

I don't see the problem here.
Forget that you have a motherboard utility CD.
I mean, never use one on that or any other motherboard.
ALL the tools you need are available online in newer
versions, a motherboard cd is just a collection of older and
potentially more buggy software, always superceded by the
downloads at the respective manufacturer's website.

Please, please put me one the trail of a flasher that works, or any
advice to help my ailing PC!

Since it was an Award BIOS, you'd need only Google for
"award bios flasher" or awdflash of a fairly recent vintage.
I assume you will flash in dos, it's far safer and perhaps
even moreso with a board acting funny to rule out all other
variables (like more complicated flashing software or a
giant OS like windows).

I'd look at the battery first though, checking, replacing if
warranted, then clearing CMOS.

 

[Spajky]

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/BIOS/BIOS_GA-7VAX.htm

The download from that page is self-extracting - double-click to
extract it. Inside is a flasher program "flash879", the BIOS
file "7vax.f13" of size 262144 bytes, and the command syntax is
shown in autoexec.bat as "flash879 7vax.f13".

prepare & use:
http://users.volja.net/jerman55/FlashBiosFD.zip

 

[kony]

Thanks, but I still think it darn yucky and rude that they (Gigabyte)
supply an altogether different flash utiity (Amibios) to the existing
chip (Award) on their motherboard!

It certainly is not ideal but often a utility CD covers
several boards and some may need older flasher while newer
flashers only cover newer boards... as they seem to have a
combined ami/award flasher utility now.

I forgot to mention that my machine had Windoze XP Pro installed a few
months before. I suspect that this OS had something to do with my
machine hanging. Also the power light (green) flashes as soon as my
machine starts ( 3 secs on, 3 secs off) Maybe this might mean
something...

It's unlikely, any OS installed might have it's own problems
but a system will still turn on, POST, and proceed up until
the point that it tries to load that OS from whatever-media
is present.

It would seem more likely a general power or motherboard
failure.

 

[Paul]

Thanks Paul, I tried this but nothing happened, just an underscore
cursor flicking below the last DOS command. Something else I forgot to
mention in my original posting, which might have some relevance: I get a
message to "Insert a system disk and press enter._" Now my machine has
Windows XP pro as the OS, and the system disk I used was made from a
machine with W98 SE. So the next screen states:

Starting Windows 98
-----------------------
Preparing to start your computer. This may take a few minutes...

The W98 startup disk could not create a temp. drive for the diagnostic
tools. This may be because this computer has less than the minimum
required extended memory...

---
This could be something to do with FAT32 and FAT16 conflict - but I'm
guessing. But at least at the end of this slurb I get a Dos prompt!
This only allows reading of my A: drive. So I copied flash apps
mentioned to a seperate floppy... But no luck.

When my PC first went on the blink I tried quite a few award flash apps
from gigabyte's site, this one looks familiar... Maybe all those
attempts screwed the BIOS up further!

-Flip

You make a good point about the flash tool and the BIOS file.
I didn't even think of checking for a mismatch, as the flash
tool was bundled with the BIOS file.

The "Flash879.exe" program, when examined with a hex editor,
contains the text string "AMIFLASH OVERLAY AREA". If I look
at the "7VAX.F13" file, it contains the text string
"Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0". Generally speaking, you
cannot mix tools from the two companies - the reason is
that the flashing tool looks for a "BIOS hook", and the
flashing tool will fail if it does not find the hook.
If the existing BIOS is an Award BIOS, then the new
BIOS file should also be Award, and the flashing tool
should also be from Award.

OK, I found the answer.

http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Support/BIOS/HowToReflash/HowToReflash_1.htm

"DOS Flash utility

Features -
The flash utility is a combination of AMI and AWARD BIOS
flash utility. You can use it with both AMI and AWARD BIOS."

So that explains the FLash879 program. It is some kind of
hybrid flasher.

In the picture here, it looks like both flash chips are
soldered to the motherboard ? I guess that rules out fixing
this by buying a replacement flash chip from badflash.com .

http://www.digital-daily.com/documents/3295/gigabyte-7vaxp.jpg

The option you have already tried, is flashing from DOS.

http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Support/BIOS/HowToReflash/pdf/flashbios_dos.pdf

To make a floppy boot disk, there are boot disks on this site.
(I haven't tried these, so don't know how difficult it is to
make a working boot floppy with the files provided.)

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Another option would be the built-in Q-flash option. That is
a flashing program built into the BIOS itself.

http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Support/BIOS/HowToReflash/pdf/flashbios_qflash.pdf

My understanding of the dual flash on the Gigabyte boards, is
it isn't truly dual. You have one boot block, and two main
BIOS code images. If the boot block is corrupted, I think
that prevents the computer from POSTing. The boot block may
or may not be reprogrammable. (If Gigabyte has a FAQ, it
will do a better job of explaining this than I can.)

When the boot block executes, it gets to load one of the two
main bios code blocks. There is likely a main body code block
contained in each of the BIOS chips.

The BIOS contains options to boot with the main or the backup
BIOS code. The BIOS also has the ability to (1) attempt to
checksum the BIOS it is supposed to boot from and (2) if the
BIOS is corrupted, switch to the other BIOS image and boot
from it.

You really need to study the documentation carefully, to
make sure you are flashing the correct chip. Q-flash (the
built-in flash utility - operates from the BIOS) can be
used apparently, to flash the BIOS the computer is currently
booted from, or it can flash the non-boot image. The DOS
flasher is supposed to only flash upgrade the non-boot
image. That makes Q-flash more powerful and more dangerous
than the DOS flasher.

Something else you can experiment with, is making a backup
copy of each BIOS (main and backup). Perhaps that will give
you some idea, as to which one is corrupted. Q-flash has the
ability to make backup copies of both the main and the
backup chips, for study with a hex editor. As long as the
backup files are stored on a floppy, you can attempt to use
them if problems crop up in your programming experiments.
Take the backup copies first, before doing anything else.

This is a bit like flying a 747, when you are used to flying
a Piper Cub. And with the flash chips being soldered to the
board, there isn't a very convenient recovery plan, if both
BIOS flash chips are corrupted. Still, I think Qflash is
your best bet, if Qflash is still working.

Post back if you make any progress.

Paul

 

[HA de Villiers]

Did it occur to try Gigabyte's site? Seems like reasonable
target since it's a Gigabyte board.

Check your battery, take a voltage reading with a multimeter
if possible or just replace it - CR2032 type is available at
many drugstores for $2.

I did this a while back. Voltage was fine (about 3.2 V if I recall
correctly)

I don't see the problem here.
Forget that you have a motherboard utility CD.
I mean, never use one on that or any other motherboard.
ALL the tools you need are available online in newer
versions, a motherboard cd is just a collection of older and
potentially more buggy software, always superceded by the
downloads at the respective manufacturer's website.

Thanks, but I still think it darn yucky and rude that they (Gigabyte)
supply an altogether different flash utiity (Amibios) to the existing
chip (Award) on their motherboard!

Since it was an Award BIOS, you'd need only Google for
"award bios flasher" or awdflash of a fairly recent vintage.
I assume you will flash in dos, it's far safer and perhaps
even moreso with a board acting funny to rule out all other
variables (like more complicated flashing software or a
giant OS like windows).

I also tried this when it all first happened and had more enthusiasm, but
had no luck.

I forgot to mention that my machine had Windoze XP Pro installed a few
months before. I suspect that this OS had something to do with my
machine hanging. Also the power light (green) flashes as soon as my
machine starts ( 3 secs on, 3 secs off) Maybe this might mean
something...

Thanks again Kony for all the suggestions. Eventhough there is no
progress I'm so impressed by the prompt responses I've got so far.

-Flip.

 

[HA de Villiers]

Looks like Paul tracked down the proper tool for you. If it fails however,
it's time to replace the board.

Thanks Erick, bu that's not exactly what I want to do. Finances are low,
when I had a job a 5 months ago I splashed out R400 (about $70) on a
Thermal take fan for the CPU. So I admit I'm rather reluctant to
purchase a new or risk a 2nd hand board.

 

[HA de Villiers]

Is this your motherboard ? The BIOS is associated with the motherboard,
and the GA-7VAX is on the Gigabyte site.

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/BIOS/BIOS_GA-7VAX.htm

The download from that page is self-extracting - double-click to
extract it. Inside is a flasher program "flash879", the BIOS
file "7vax.f13" of size 262144 bytes, and the command syntax is
shown in autoexec.bat as "flash879 7vax.f13".

You can get a dowhloadable manual from here. PDF page 64
describes the options for flashing the BIOS. This is a
pretty big download (8MB). Basically, you can make a DOS floppy
boot disk, boot from the floppy, and with the flash879.exe
and 7vax.f13 files copied onto the floppy, execute the
"flash879 7vax.f13" command from the prompt.

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/Manual/Manual_GA-7VAX.htm

If you still have the paper copy of the user manual, the
procedure should be documented in there as well.

HTH,
Paul

Thanks Paul, I tried this but nothing happened, just an underscore
cursor flicking below the last DOS command. Something else I forgot to
mention in my original posting, which might have some relevance: I get a
message to "Insert a system disk and press enter._" Now my machine has
Windows XP pro as the OS, and the system disk I used was made from a
machine with W98 SE. So the next screen states:

Starting Windows 98
-----------------------
Preparing to start your computer. This may take a few minutes...

The W98 startup disk could not create a temp. drive for the diagnostic
tools. This may be because this computer has less than the minimum
required extended memory...

---
This could be something to do with FAT32 and FAT16 conflict - but I'm
guessing. But at least at the end of this slurb I get a Dos prompt!
This only allows reading of my A: drive. So I copied flash apps
mentioned to a seperate floppy... But no luck.

When my PC first went on the blink I tried quite a few award flash apps
from gigabyte's site, this one looks familiar... Maybe all those
attempts screwed the BIOS up further!

-Flip

 

[wkozey]

Second screen
Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0 Copyright (c) 2000, Award Softwar
In

BIOS ROM checksum erro

Detecting floppy drive A medi

Drive media is: 1.44 M
This tells us that the boot block checsum has failed and that the bio
is prompting you for a startup diskwith the bootrom image
all that is required is that a floppy be inserted with the bios fil
on it

For Award BIO

1. Make a bootable floopy dis
2. Copy the Award flash utility & BIOS file to the said flopp
dis
3. Create an autoexec.bat with "Award_Flash_Utilit
BiosFilename" in the content (e.g. awdfl823K w6378vms.130
Sample on how to create an autoexec
a. On Windows, open the notepa
b. On the notepad, write "awdfl823K w6378vms.130
(without the " "
c. Save the file as autoexec.ba
4. Boot up system with the said floppy (it will take less than
minutes before screen comes out
5. Re-flash the BIOS & reboot

In one of your previous posts you had mentioned that you had change
the cpu cooler to a thermaltake cooler, Did you use thermal coumpoun
between the processor and the heatsink and was the cooler mounte
correctly,
I have encounterd the infamous Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0 several time
before in my computer shop, and only on one occasion was it due to
corupt bios, the other Instances were due to improper CPU coole
installation which caused the CPU to overheat and burnout
In your explanation of occurance of events it would indicate that th
problem got progessively worse, from checksum errors to failure an
the Award BootBlock BIOS screen.This is due to series of events tha
occur during post. Hence the processor copies the basic input outpu
system to instruction cache and executes it from there, if the tim
and date and settings did not change, and you were not flashing th
bios when the errors started to occur it is unlikley that the bios i
corupted or the battery is dead, it is most likley that the bios dat
was getting corrupted when it was being cached for the processor t
execute (this could be due to a overheating CPU)
Being that you were encountering checksum errors after the new coole
instalation and it got progresivly worse from there I would tend t
lean in the dirrection of a failed processor
Can you still get into the bios by means of the Del key or does th
system Immediately boot the the Award bootblock bios screen
Your board is a dual bios board and the system does not boot from th
main bios it is used for the qflash utility to copy the original bio
to the bios chip that the board boots from, if you can't get into th
bios setup screen this is because the cpu reads the bios int
instruction cached and executes it from there and displays the outpu
on your monitor
If the instruction cache is corrupt or damaged you will not be able t
see the bios screen hence the Award bootblock bios screen, you may tr
flashing but on the next reboot you will most undoubtedly get th
Award bootblock bios screen. If this happens try replacing th
processor, if you have a spare socket a processor pop it in and tr
it if it works you know what the problem is if you dont try borrowin
one to test
Hope this information is useful to you
Please let us know the results and how you made out