corrupted BIOS?

[TL]

I am not sure if any here has any experience with this or not. I am not
sure if the problem I am experiencing is a Windows problem or a possible
BIOS problem.

I flashed the BIOS tonight to the latest BIOS version available because I
was going to upgrade the processor and the motherboard needed the newer BIOS
to recognize the new CPUs.

After what I thought was a successful flash of the BIOS, the PC rebooted.
Upon POST, I saw the new BIOS version. However, I immediately shutdown the
PC and per standard recommended flashing guidelines, I unplugged the power
cord and moved the jumper CMOS pin over to clear CMOS. Then, I put the CMOS
pin back to the original position, plugged the power cord back in, and
turned on the PC. The PC booted to the point where the Windows XP splash
screen comes up with the scrolling blue dots. At that point, there is a
BSOD for about a second (too fast for me to get any kind of data off of it)
and the PC rebooted.

Does anyone know for sure if this sounds like the BIOS is corrupted or if
this could be an XP problem?

Thanks for any help, insight, or suggestions you can provide.

 

[Ronaldo]

It sounds to me like it's a hardware problem (RAM, Power Supply, CPU).

The moment the System starts to load, the BIOS has done it's part... at
least in allowing the HD to run.. does the Hard Drive change speed when the
BSOD appears?..

Do you have a digital camera?.. you could take a snapshot of the BSOD.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I am not sure if any here has any experience with this or not. I am not
sure if the problem I am experiencing is a Windows problem or a possible
BIOS problem.

I flashed the BIOS tonight to the latest BIOS version available because I
was going to upgrade the processor and the motherboard needed the newer
BIOS to recognize the new CPUs.

After what I thought was a successful flash of the BIOS, the PC rebooted.
Upon POST, I saw the new BIOS version. However, I immediately shutdown
the PC and per standard recommended flashing guidelines, I unplugged the
power cord and moved the jumper CMOS pin over to clear CMOS. Then, I put
the CMOS pin back to the original position, plugged the power cord back
in, and turned on the PC. The PC booted to the point where the Windows XP
splash screen comes up with the scrolling blue dots. At that point, there
is a BSOD for about a second (too fast for me to get any kind of data off
of it) and the PC rebooted.

Does anyone know for sure if this sounds like the BIOS is corrupted or if
this could be an XP problem?

Thanks for any help, insight, or suggestions you can provide.

Since you did not change anything other than flashing the BIOS, it is highly
likely that this change is responsible for the BSODs. The question now is if
you have a BIOS that got corrupted or if you have an incompatibility between
Windows and the flashed BIOS. If this was my machine then I would run the
following tests:
a) Boot into Safe Mode. If this works the BIOS is probably OK.
b) Boot the machine with a Bart PE boot CD. If this works then the BIOS is
OK.
c) Install a new version of Windows on a spare disk. If this works then the
BIOS is OK.

About b): While a Bart PE boot CD is an extremely useful tool, it takes a
few hours to burn one.
About c): I would borrow an old 10 or 20 GByte hard disk from a friend or a
computer dealer. They are unsellable these days but there must lots of them
lying around.

 

[Gerry]

TL

Disable automatic restart on system failure. This should help by
allowing time to write down the STOP code properly. Keep pressing the F8
key during Start-Up and select option - Disable automatic restart on
system failure. Do not re-enable automatic restart on system failure.
Check for variants of the Stop Error message.

Do the errors occur if you boot to safe mode?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Paul]

I am not sure if any here has any experience with this or not. I am not
sure if the problem I am experiencing is a Windows problem or a possible
BIOS problem.

I flashed the BIOS tonight to the latest BIOS version available because I
was going to upgrade the processor and the motherboard needed the newer BIOS
to recognize the new CPUs.

After what I thought was a successful flash of the BIOS, the PC rebooted.
Upon POST, I saw the new BIOS version. However, I immediately shutdown the
PC and per standard recommended flashing guidelines, I unplugged the power
cord and moved the jumper CMOS pin over to clear CMOS. Then, I put the CMOS
pin back to the original position, plugged the power cord back in, and
turned on the PC. The PC booted to the point where the Windows XP splash
screen comes up with the scrolling blue dots. At that point, there is a
BSOD for about a second (too fast for me to get any kind of data off of it)
and the PC rebooted.

Does anyone know for sure if this sounds like the BIOS is corrupted or if
this could be an XP problem?

Thanks for any help, insight, or suggestions you can provide.

Before changing a BIOS, sometimes you can find a forum or posting,
where someone has noted how stable the new BIOS is. Not every BIOS
issued by manufacturers are well tested, and they do release bloopers.
On one of my motherboards, they released two bad BIOS in a row, and
I can only imagine what trouble the BIOS writer got in for that.
(As that exposes a lack of test in the manufacturing process, and
is an embarrassment to the company.)

When changing the fundamental properties of a motherboard, such as
adding or changing RAM, or flashing the BIOS, or adding a new processor,
you should boot something other than your Windows hard drive for testing.
Even a new computer obtained from HP/Dell/Gateway should be tested by
the customer. Tools include memtest86+ from memtest.org, which can make
a bootable floppy or bootable CD. I also use a Linux LiveCD like Knoppix,
then run Prime95 from mersenne.org, as an additional test. Knoppix doesn't
use the hard drive, for the OS to run, so won't affect the contents of
your Windows drive. Once I'm satisfied that there is basic stability,
then I go back to the Windows drive. Currently for me at least, Linux
is only good enough for test purposes, or as a repair tool, and for that
I like it quite a lot. But try and do anything serious with it,
and it is a time sink.

Each BIOS release, may have tweaks to default memory settings, and
that may cause problems with memory. Normally, it takes a retail
motherboard maker, about five BIOS releases, before the product
supports a wide range of memory products. After the fifth release,
depending on which dopey guy they got to work on the BIOS, things
can actually regress to worse results. This is one of the reasons
I don't install every BIOS that comes out.

Paul

 

[Guest]

I am not sure if any here has any experience with this or not. I am not
sure if the problem I am experiencing is a Windows problem or a possible
BIOS problem.

I flashed the BIOS tonight to the latest BIOS version available because I
was going to upgrade the processor and the motherboard needed the newer BIOS
to recognize the new CPUs.

After what I thought was a successful flash of the BIOS, the PC rebooted.
Upon POST, I saw the new BIOS version. However, I immediately shutdown the
PC and per standard recommended flashing guidelines, I unplugged the power
cord and moved the jumper CMOS pin over to clear CMOS. Then, I put the CMOS
pin back to the original position, plugged the power cord back in, and
turned on the PC. The PC booted to the point where the Windows XP splash
screen comes up with the scrolling blue dots. At that point, there is a
BSOD for about a second (too fast for me to get any kind of data off of it)
and the PC rebooted.

Does anyone know for sure if this sounds like the BIOS is corrupted or if
this could be an XP problem?

Thanks for any help, insight, or suggestions you can provide.

I doubt the bios is corrupted. If it fails checksum it won't even start
to boot. That doesn't eliminate the possibility that it's the WRONG
bios for your board.

After clearing the cmos, did you go back into setup and do the option
that sets bios defaults? Then check to see that the settings are what
you expect/need?

Don't limit your looking to the obvious.
I have a laptop with a bad memory bit 45MB down from the top of memory.
With the shared video ram set to 64MB it runs fine. If I reduce the
video ram setting to expose the operating system to the bad bit,
I get all manner of weird symptoms. Took me a long time to figure
out that I had to rerun the memory test after I reduced the video ram
setting in the bios.

If the bootable devices get enumerated in a manner different from what
windows expects, there may be issues. I have this issue every time
I restore an image of my C: partition. Windows starts booting based
on what the bios tells it. Then it looks up what it thinks is the
configuration in a table on the hard drive. If they point to different
places, windows pulls the rug out from under itself and crashes.
Booting the recovery console and running fixboot or fixmbr can fix that
problem. It must have been a common problem, 'cause the Vista
recovery console checks for it and offers to fix it automagically.

Depending on the make and age of your PC, later versions of windows
can read the bios to protect YOU
from software piracy. Sorry for any inconvenience...

Try booting something else. DOS floppy? Linux Live CD. Windows Install
CD...anything that doesn't run from the hard disk.
If linux runs from the CD, your bios is probably just fine.
But that doesn't mean it makes windows happy.
Someone here with more experience can give you the details of
recovery console fixes.

It's likely the last thing you changed, but the ripple effect can place
the fix way downstream.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

I am not sure if any here has any experience with this or not. I am not
sure if the problem I am experiencing is a Windows problem or a possible
BIOS problem.

I flashed the BIOS tonight to the latest BIOS version available because I
was going to upgrade the processor and the motherboard needed the newer
BIOS to recognize the new CPUs.

After what I thought was a successful flash of the BIOS, the PC rebooted.
Upon POST, I saw the new BIOS version. However, I immediately shutdown
the PC and per standard recommended flashing guidelines, I unplugged the
power cord and moved the jumper CMOS pin over to clear CMOS. Then, I put
the CMOS pin back to the original position, plugged the power cord back
in, and turned on the PC. The PC booted to the point where the Windows XP
splash screen comes up with the scrolling blue dots. At that point, there
is a BSOD for about a second (too fast for me to get any kind of data off
of it) and the PC rebooted.

Does anyone know for sure if this sounds like the BIOS is corrupted or if
this could be an XP problem?

Thanks for any help, insight, or suggestions you can provide.

For reasons which I do not fully understand, some computers running XP will
require a repair install if the BIOS is flashed..

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

 

[smlunatick]

I am not sure if any here has any experience with this or not.  I am not
sure if the problem I am experiencing is a Windows problem or a possible
BIOS problem.

I flashed the BIOS tonight to the latest BIOS version available because I
was going to upgrade the processor and the motherboard needed the newer BIOS
to recognize the new CPUs.

After what I thought was a successful flash of the BIOS, the PC rebooted.
Upon POST, I saw the new BIOS version.  However, I immediately shutdownthe
PC and per standard recommended flashing guidelines, I unplugged the power
cord and moved the jumper CMOS pin over to clear CMOS.  Then, I put theCMOS
pin back to the original position, plugged the power cord back in, and
turned on the PC.  The PC booted to the point where the Windows XP splash
screen comes up with the scrolling blue dots.  At that point, there is a
BSOD for about a second (too fast for me to get any kind of data off of it)
and the PC rebooted.

Does anyone know for sure if this sounds like the BIOS is corrupted or if
this could be an XP problem?

Thanks for any help, insight, or suggestions you can provide.

It is extremely limited but it is possible that hte BIOS update has
changed the motherboard devices enough to screw up the Product
Activation database. A repair re-install might fix this.

 

[Galen Somerville]

I am not sure if any here has any experience with this or not. I am not
sure if the problem I am experiencing is a Windows problem or a possible
BIOS problem.

I flashed the BIOS tonight to the latest BIOS version available because I
was going to upgrade the processor and the motherboard needed the newer BIOS
to recognize the new CPUs.

After what I thought was a successful flash of the BIOS, the PC rebooted.
Upon POST, I saw the new BIOS version. However, I immediately shutdown the
PC and per standard recommended flashing guidelines, I unplugged the power
cord and moved the jumper CMOS pin over to clear CMOS. Then, I put the CMOS
pin back to the original position, plugged the power cord back in, and
turned on the PC. The PC booted to the point where the Windows XP splash
screen comes up with the scrolling blue dots. At that point, there is a
BSOD for about a second (too fast for me to get any kind of data off of it)
and the PC rebooted.

Does anyone know for sure if this sounds like the BIOS is corrupted or if
this could be an XP problem?

Thanks for any help, insight, or suggestions you can provide.

It is extremely limited but it is possible that hte BIOS update has
changed the motherboard devices enough to screw up the Product
Activation database. A repair re-install might fix this.

I don't see where he went into the Bios, after clearing it, and selected "Use defaults" or
"use High Performance", or whatever.

Galen

 

[Lil' Dave]

I am not sure if any here has any experience with this or not. I am not
sure if the problem I am experiencing is a Windows problem or a possible
BIOS problem.

I flashed the BIOS tonight to the latest BIOS version available because I
was going to upgrade the processor and the motherboard needed the newer
BIOS to recognize the new CPUs.

After what I thought was a successful flash of the BIOS, the PC rebooted.
Upon POST, I saw the new BIOS version. However, I immediately shutdown
the PC and per standard recommended flashing guidelines, I unplugged the
power cord and moved the jumper CMOS pin over to clear CMOS. Then, I put
the CMOS pin back to the original position, plugged the power cord back
in, and turned on the PC. The PC booted to the point where the Windows XP
splash screen comes up with the scrolling blue dots. At that point, there
is a BSOD for about a second (too fast for me to get any kind of data off
of it) and the PC rebooted.

Does anyone know for sure if this sounds like the BIOS is corrupted or if
this could be an XP problem?

Thanks for any help, insight, or suggestions you can provide.

If an OEM PC with an previous original OEM bios, the bios flash may have an
alternate bios signature. This will stop the OEM XP in its tracks.

A word about bios updates, some bios updates will advertise what they added
or modified in regards to some things like cpu recognition and so forth.
What they sometimes fail to mention is some things they removed or modified
in that update. Other than obvious hardware recognition, some default
settings in the prior bios may be optional or non-existent in the subsequent
bios update. And, vice-versa.

 

[TL]

I want to thank all of you that replied to my post. Thank you! I read
through and tried the suggestions that you had offered. Unfortunately, they
didn't work. I ended up being able to do a Repair Install and that fixed
the BSOD immediately upon Windows logo screen startup.

 

[Randem]

Please attempt to boot from a CD. If you can and everything works ok your
problem might be your OS.

--
Randem Systems
Your Installation Specialist
The Top Inno Setup Script Generator
http://www.randem.com/innoscript.html
http://www.randem.com/installerproblems.html
http://www.randem.com/vistainstalls.html
http://www.financialtrainingservices.org