P5P800 BIOS Flash Problem

[condraj]

I recently bought a P5P800 motherboard and a Pentium 4 640 cpu. The mobo
came with BIOS 1005, which was listed on the Asus Web site (at the time) as
being compatible with the P4 640 cpu. The computer has been behaving
erratically (very slow shutdowns, etc.), and I can't update the BIOS to the
newest versions (either 1010 or 1011). When I try, either from a bootable
floppy or from the AsusUpdate program, I get the message that no valid BIOS
image exists.

A couple of weeks ago, I E-mailed Asus Tech Support and they recommended
RMA'ing the motherboard, which I did. The new board arrived, and it has the
very same problem. I checked the Asus web page today and now it says that
this cpu is compatible only with BIOS 1007 or later. Could the earlier BIOS
version be preventing me from flashing it with this cpu?

Has anybody else had trouble flashing the BIOS with this motherboard/cpu
combination? Is there a solution other than replacing either the cpu or the
motherboard (again)? thanks in advance.

Jon

 

[Nocturnal]

If you have another CPU you may want to try flashing it with that CPU in the
motherboard.

 

[condraj]

If you have another CPU you may want to try flashing it with that CPU in
the motherboard.

Yes, it would be nice if I had another compatible cpu. My others are socket
478, so they won't work. And I thought the phrase "you can't get there from
here" was supposed to be a joke!
Jon

 

[Paul]

I recently bought a P5P800 motherboard and a Pentium 4 640 cpu. The mobo
came with BIOS 1005, which was listed on the Asus Web site (at the time) as
being compatible with the P4 640 cpu. The computer has been behaving
erratically (very slow shutdowns, etc.), and I can't update the BIOS to the
newest versions (either 1010 or 1011). When I try, either from a bootable
floppy or from the AsusUpdate program, I get the message that no valid BIOS
image exists.

A couple of weeks ago, I E-mailed Asus Tech Support and they recommended
RMA'ing the motherboard, which I did. The new board arrived, and it has the
very same problem. I checked the Asus web page today and now it says that
this cpu is compatible only with BIOS 1007 or later. Could the earlier BIOS
version be preventing me from flashing it with this cpu?

Has anybody else had trouble flashing the BIOS with this motherboard/cpu
combination? Is there a solution other than replacing either the cpu or the
motherboard (again)? thanks in advance.

Jon

Have you tried "EZ Flash" ? See section 4.1.2 in the manual.
It says to download a BIOS, then change the filename to P5P800.ROM
It might be worth a try.

Also, I notice AFUDOS 2.07 is offered for download. What
version of AFUDOS are you using ? Is it the one from the
download page ? What is strange is, the current version on
the German site for AFUDOS is this one:

ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/asuscom/BIOS/BIOS_FLASH_UTILS/DOS/AFUDOS/AFUDOS219.zip

AFUDOS usage: "afudos /i<filename> /pc" (e.g "afudos /i1014.rom /pc")

The options are documented here, but with the Asus shell around the
code, who knows which options still work ? I get the impression the
core of AFUDOS comes from AMI, and Asus adds code for checking
versions and checksums etc.

Ref:
http://www.ami.com/support/doc/AMIBIOS8_Flash_Recovery_Whitepaper_v10.pdf

HTH,
Paul

 

[condraj]

Have you tried "EZ Flash" ? See section 4.1.2 in the manual.
It says to download a BIOS, then change the filename to P5P800.ROM
It might be worth a try.

Great idea...EZ Flash actually worked! (I wonder why the other methods
didn't?) Thanks a lot...you saved me a lot of trouble!
Jon