BIOS panic

[PineNut]

I bought a Asrock K7VM2 motherboard from eBay. It was cheap and would
serve my purpose on a temporary basis. Then I would toss it.

From the first boot, it gave me problems. Nothing would appear on the
screen and therefore I could not set up the BIOS. I called the guy who
had sold it to me on eBay. He asked me to turn the power off and
remove the memory chips and re-install it. That trick did the job.

I had done the same quite a few times until I tossed it. I should have
tossed it into a garbage can but I didn't.

After a year or longer, I decided to pull it out to build a computer
from all old parts and components I am not using any longer just for
the fun of it.

The first thing I did was to attempt to upgrade the BIOS after
downloading the latest version from the Asrock site. It failed
miserably and the board would not boot no matter what I did. I was
lucky enough to get some tech help from Asrock, who suggested that I
clear the CMOS. I did and was able to boot it again. I attempted to
upgrade the bios once more at the suggestion of the tech who suggested
that I downloaded another clean copy of it because the upgrade file
could have been corrupted.

Unfortunately, the second attempt failed as the first. Now I can't
even clear the CMOS and on booting the computer keeps spinning the
floppy drive. Nothing appears on the screen and I can't get to bios
setup screen.

My question is this? Should I spend $15.00 to get a new bios chip?
Would it solve the problem?

 

[John Doe]

I bought a Asrock K7VM2 motherboard from eBay. It was cheap and
would serve my purpose on a temporary basis.

Assuming it would work. Unless they are very cheap, I would avoid
buying a used or open box mainboard. The same for just about any
item that has lots of little exposed electronic components, like
add-in cards.

I buy things from eBay, but my look at eBay suggests hardware is not
a good deal, especially not for the risk, unless it comes in a
factory sealed package.

After a year or longer, I decided to pull it out to build a
computer from all old parts and components I am not using any
longer just for the fun of it.
The first thing I did was to attempt to upgrade the BIOS after
downloading the latest version from the Asrock site. It failed
miserably and the board would not boot no matter what I did.

Unless the BIOS update is required (like to run certain hardware),
if it ain't broke don't fix it. Check the README for the new BIOS
version before updating.

I was lucky enough to get some tech help from Asrock, who suggested
that I clear the CMOS. I did and was able to boot it again. I
attempted to upgrade the bios once more at the suggestion of the
tech who suggested that I downloaded another clean copy of it
because the upgrade file could have been corrupted.

Did they suggest comparing the files? Otherwise, you would be asking
for the same problem.

Unfortunately, the second attempt failed as the first. Now I can't
even clear the CMOS and on booting the computer keeps spinning the
floppy drive. Nothing appears on the screen and I can't get to bios
setup screen.

Time to get a new tech friend, in my opinion..

My question is this? Should I spend $15.00 to get a new bios chip?
Would it solve the problem?

I don't think so. If you aren't familiar with clearing the CMOS, I
doubt you are familiar with replacing integrated circuit chips.
There's no guarantee anyway.

Good luck.

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From: PineNut <[email protected]>
From: PineNut <pine.solution @gmail.com>
Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Subject: BIOS panic
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[Cecks]

Turn the floppy cable the right way. mate////

 

[PineNut]

Assuming it would work. Unless they are very cheap, I would avoid
buying a used or open box mainboard. The same for just about any
item that has lots of little exposed electronic components, like
add-in cards.

I buy things from eBay, but my look at eBay suggests hardware is not
a good deal, especially not for the risk, unless it comes in a
factory sealed package.


Unless the BIOS update is required (like to run certain hardware),
if it ain't broke don't fix it. Check the README for the new BIOS
version before updating.

There was booting problems and I wanted to fix it.

Did they suggest comparing the files? Otherwise, you would be asking
for the same problem.

Comparing the files? No. They suggested that the first file could have
been corrupted while being downloaded.

Time to get a new tech friend, in my opinion..


I don't think so. If you aren't familiar with clearing the CMOS, I
doubt you are familiar with replacing integrated circuit chips.
There's no guarantee anyway.

Who said I did not know how to clear the CMOS? I did at the first time
but did not work for the second time. I am familiar with replacing
circuit chips. I have built many computers. So don't judge someone by
your standard and knowledge.

Obviously you don't know much about the BIOS and you won't be of much
help anyway.

 

[PineNut]

Turn the floppy cable the right way. mate////

It was put in the right way for the firt time. Thanks for the
suggestion anyway.

 

[JAD]

when you cleared the cmos did you short the jumper or pull the
battery...and was it unplugged?

 

[Al Smith]

My question is this? Should I spend $15.00 to get a new bios chip?

Would it solve the problem?

Are you joking? After the problems you've had, toss that mofo into
the trash and buy a motherboard that works.

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

I bought a Asrock K7VM2 motherboard from eBay.

After a year or longer, I decided to pull it out
to build a computer from all old parts

The first thing I did was to attempt to upgrade the BIOS after
downloading the latest version from the Asrock site. It failed
miserably and the board would not boot no matter what I did. I was
lucky enough to get some tech help from Asrock, who suggested that I
clear the CMOS. I did and was able to boot it again. I attempted to
upgrade the bios once more at the suggestion of the tech who
suggested that I downloaded another clean copy

Unfortunately, the second attempt failed as the first. Now I can't
even clear the CMOS and on booting the computer keeps spinning the
floppy drive. Nothing appears on the screen and I can't get to bios
setup screen.

I have an old mobo that would occasionally lose its BIOS, but because
it had ISA slots, I was able to read the screen by using an ISA
graphics card, and it showed something about a "boot block" BIOS that
could boot from floppy and read the main part of the keyboard but most
of the other keys. The floppy drive would run continously and the
screen instructed to hit the ENTER key to boot from it (main ENTER key,
I think). So maybe you need to create a bootable floppy containing the
BIOS image file, the flash program, and an AUTOEXEC.BAT file that
automatically calls up the flash program (probably with something like
AWDFLASH <biosfile> /PY)

 

[Spajky]

... can't
even clear the CMOS and on booting the computer keeps spinning the
floppy drive. Nothing appears on the screen and I can't get to bios
setup screen.

IMHO you are quite lucky /FD scratching @ boot !/
http://users.volja.net/jerman55/FlashBiosFD.zip

 

[PineNut]

IMHO you are quite lucky /FD scratching @ boot !/
http://users.volja.net/jerman55/FlashBiosFD.zip

I will give a try. Thanks for your valuable info about BIOS in
general. This is the kind of info I was looking for. If your tech does
not work, I will try to replace the BIOS chip for $15.00.

As I said before, I don't need this computer but I am having lots of
fun and headache at the same time to get this thing going and learn
different things at the same time.

 

[PineNut]

IMHO you are quite lucky /FD scratching @ boot !/
http://users.volja.net/jerman55/FlashBiosFD.zip

Your suggestion was a good one, but it was not accurate.

All I had to do was to get a formatted floppy and copy the bios file
and change its name to AMIBOOt.ROM. The rest is taken care of by the
bios boot. The following document explains it very well.

http://www.amptron.com/documents/Recover.pdf

p