CORRUPTED BIOS AND HOW TO FLASH IT ?

[RebelXT]

After posting in this forum, problems with my computer...(unfortunnately nobody except one person answered my posting) I found what the problem is.

CORRUPTED BIOS.

I need to know how to Flash the corrupted Bios in order to install the new one.

ALso...I do not have a Floppy disk drive in my computer. Can I download the new BIOS version into a CD ?...

ALso...I am confused about the instructions in ASUS Website about installing new BIOS via DOS prompt.

Can yopu please help me on this issue?...thanks

ASUS A7V880 Socket A
Sempron 2800 +
1 Gig Corsair memory
ATI RADEON 9600
WD 80 Gigs Hard Drive

 

[steckman]

I suppose it could vary depending on the actual motherboard, but I had a computer shutdown once while I was in the middle of flashing the BIOS. This, of course, led to a corrupt BIOS. My options (at least at the time) were to physically remove the chip and either A) replace it with one off the Internet (which I saw for a high price) or B) remove the chip and take/send it to someone who has the appropriate equipment for flashing the chip. I actually opted for C) get a new motherboard.
This was an older board (an ECS K7S5A), and I don't know if newer boards have some kind of ability to help you repair a corrupted BIOS, but based on my understanding of hardware, I doubt it.

 

[Thar]

What happens when you turn the computer on?

If the bios is working enough to enable you to boot from a CD download the new bios from asus along with there AFUDOS.exe flash utility and make a bootable CD and copy both to it.

If the bios is completly none functional you should be getting this msg when you turn the computer on,
Boot Block Compatible Version Ver .010
Bad BIOS checksum. Starting BIOS Recovery
Checking for floppy . .
Floppy not found
Checking for CD rom . . .
CD not found
Checking for floppy . .
Floppy not found
Checking for CD rom . . .
CD not found

Repeat adinfinitum.
If this is the case you need download the most recent BIOS from Asus and either copy it to a bootable CD if you have this capability or buy a floppy drive for $5 and make a bootable floppy on a working computer and copy this BIOS file to it. Then rename the bios file to A8N32SLI.ROM.

You may not even need make the floppy bootable but I would just in case.

Stick the floppy in the drive turn the computer on and you will see

Boot Block Compatible Version Ver .010
Bad BIOS checksum. Starting BIOS Recovery
Checking for floppy . . .
Floppy found.
Reading file "A8N32SLI.ROM" . Completed.
Start Erasing...
Start programing . . ./
Please turn off your system and power on again to get system back.

and happy days will be here.

 

[RebelXT]

THAR...you really seem to know a lot of this...and I thank you for the help.

This is what is happennning:

I was able to boot up the computer and in the boot up process I can see the monitor indicating that the HARD DRIVE is BAD and need to be replaced and

First Optical drive (DVD ROM) not found
Second Optical drive RW drive not found even if they are connected and in good shape. I can open the drives but they wont work.

I CAN ALSO BOOT THE COMPUTER ALL THE WAY and use windows XP but once Windows XP is up and running I have serious dificulty openning folders. I was berely able to use SYSTEM RESTORE to the day I build this computer one year ago to no avail.

I have a CD from ASUS which is a BIOS recovery CD but can not use it because optical drives not working.
Will se if I can ger my hands on a CD ROM to see if it will work.

Any advice will be welcome. Thanks

I have a new HARD DRIVE (not installed yet just in case)

 

[Thar]

What makes you think your bios is bad?

Have you hit Del while booting to into the bios and see if its recognizing your drives?

Does windows recognize them after you boot to windows?

Need more infomation

 

[RebelXT]

Hi Thar...this is what happens when I boot the system:

Booting is normal and I can get into the BIOS Configuration by Pressing DEL. Once inside the BIOS I can see that the motherboard recognizes the Hard Drive but does not recognize the two optical drives I have(DVD Rom and RW-Drive).
Sequence is like this every time: Computer boots up and by pressing DEL allows access to BIOS. After exiting BIOS computer continues booting process and generates notificacion indicating that Hard Drive is bad and need to replace. To press F1 to continue. After that computer boots up normally until OS opens.
Once OS is running I have problems using it because its terribly slow and some time pages freeze. Very erratic performance. However allows me to do many operations such as using System Restore which does no good in thuis case.
I also have the option to use computer in Safe Mode and then the computer runs flawlesly.
My thoughts: If windows is running means Hard drive is working right? (in spite of warning that hard drive is bad?). And if optical drives are not being recognized means a BIOS problem ?).
I am getting a Floppy disk drive tomorrow monday to try to solve the problem of the BIOS.
Can you tell me how to proceed using a Floppy disk ?...thanks Thar.

 

[RebelXT]

Forgot something important:

I installed a brand new Hard Drive yesterday (totally empty) and obviously BIOS did not recognize it...but...computer generated notificacion like this :


Bad BIOS checksum. Starting BIOS Recovery
Checking for floppy . .
Floppy not found
Checking for CD rom . . .
CD not found
Checking for floppy . .
Floppy not found
Checking for CD rom . . .
CD not found

Somethinf to that nature....but my problem was that if I could not get any of the optical drives running...I was not able to insert the recovery CD that came with the motherboard to solve the problem....that is why I decided to remove the new HD and install the old one and then install a Floppy drive to boot from there ...is that a good plan?

 

[KWH]

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1605&page=4
Easiest thing to do is put in a floppy. Old technology still has uses.

BTW: You can purchase a new BIOS chip from Asus, I think it's around $25.

 

[Thar]

have you added a new DVD or cd rom recently? Have you checked to make sure they are hooked up correctly? Master slave jumpers set correctly?

If I was you I would unhook the hard drives and the DVD and just have the CD hooked up and try and boot and see what happens. If it boots fine Hook up the new hard drive with BIOS set to boot to CD and have your windows install disk in the CD.

Did you have both the DVD and CD ROM drives in and working without a hitch with old hard drive before buying new hard drive?

You did not answer if the DVD and CD work once windows boots. Check and make sure they are connected properly.

edit and yes get a floppy.
Look to see if you nudged any wires while installing and uninstalling the new hard drive. Re seat your ram.

Basically I'd set the computer up on my desk as if I just got all the parts and start fresh. Pulling all out but the processor and putting them back in making sure to install correctly and carfully and only install as much as I needed to boot up. Like the CD rom and 2 sticks of memorry and the new hard drive.

 

[KWH]

"You did not answer if the DVD and CD work once windows boots. Check and make sure they are connected properly. "
If you added a new drive and now have 2 on the same cable, you need to set the jumpers to slave/master or CS. If you don't, one or both won't show up.

 

[RebelXT]

No...I have not added any new optical drive lately.

I have checked and rechecked all connections. Unhooked and rehooked.

All configurations are correct because computer was running fine for seven monhts before this problem started.

I have one DVD drive and one RW-DVD/CD drive. I do not have a CD ROM per say. None of those drives are working at all under any circunstances. (when I installed new hard drive yesterday they even refuse to open. With old Hard Drive they open but do work because they are not recognized in BIOS).

I did not added a new hard drive. I just took off old one and replace it with new one. BIOS did not recognize new HDD so I had to remove it and install old one. With new HDD computer tells me I have a corrupted BIOS. With old HDD computer tells me I have a bad HDD.

Yes...I did take everything apart and put it back together to no avail.

I do hope ths answers your questions.

Thanks for the link...I will study it.

 

[KWH]

If you think it's the BIOS , contact Asus and request a new one. Try taking everything out of your case except the video card. Boot it, see what happens. If it goes ok, add your HD, and on and on till all your hardware is back in.

 

[Thar]

okies.

Once you get your new floppy log on using your old hard drive make a bootable floppy then connect to asus sight and download their most recent bios for your MB along with the AFUDOS.exe.

In your mother board manual it should tell you what to rename the bios file. I have the A8N32-sli delux and I had to rename my bios file from A8N321103.rom to A8N32SLI.rom. The bios recovery program is strictly DOS so only 8 charector name.

Then fellow what I said before. Unhook everything but the floppy and the DVD that is CD DVD. Make sure they are both hooked up right and try and boot. If you get that . . .
Boot Block Compatible Version Ver .010
Bad BIOS checksum. Starting BIOS Recovery
Checking for floppy . . .
Stick the floppy in and fellow the directions. Which is basically to sit tight while it reflashes your bios.

If this fixes it great.

If it boots up fine with just the one cd rom and no hard drive you need explore the possibility your New hard drive is indeed faulty. If you have a friend that will let you drop it in his comp as a second drive and partition it and format it and run scandisk on it do so. If not try doing the same on your comp. You say it works albeit slowly with old hard drive.

edit
if it boots up fine with the floppy and CD rom - wait take some of that back. AFter you have made this bootable floppy for the first boot up just have it in there. No CD roms no hard drives no DVD's. See if it boots to bios. If it does set it to boot to floppy first then reboot and flash your bios with the new bios. Then that will be out of the way.

To flash you just put that bootable floppy in the floppy drive boot up at the A: prompt type
afudos /(biosfilename) as saved on disk - if you renamed it use the name you named it too.

 

[ZmMunchies]

all hardware is good hardware old or new, if there is a problem there is always a solution. I fixed my bios without any mutilation or spending money toward my motherboard. My computer did the same thing. When I turned it on nothing but a blank screen after restarting it from Windows XP freezing. My Bios chip was dead, which meant my motherboard was dead. I'm using a Compaq Presario 7594 with a BMW motherboard and an old Intel Celeron processer with only 255 MB of obselete RAM. What I did to get my bios up and running was nothing but trial and error and hope it works for you, at first it was hell and yet so simple. Considering the recovery portion of the CMOS was dead I presume that it was a dead motherboard. These are all what I did to bring my computer's motherboard back to full operating life. Please keep an open mind about all I have posted because I don't know if I flashed the ROM or not but if you were as tired of this crap you probably won't care as long as you turned on your computer and were able to be greeted by your computer's manufactuer's logo.

1. Went to the computer manufacturer's website and downloaded a newer version of the BIOS meant for this computer.

2. Burnt it to CD-R or floppy it doesn't matter because when you turn on the computer the POST runs and is looking for something in all drives, I used both. I didn't need to rename any medum.

3. Considering my computer was 14 years old there is no doubt I had to replace the CMOS RAM's 3Volt battery.

4. Set the jumper directly on the motherboard to recovery; I don't know if this helped but considering my CMOS is 100% blank but trying anything is worth it. If it doesn't work set the jumper back to normal operations.

5. Put the CD-R or floppy in there appropriat drives and restart the computer. When I did it the POST showed according to the LED on the drive that it found what it was looking for. I hit the enter key on the keyboard and space a bunch of times even though the moniter remaned blank and the light on it still was orange, left the computer on for at lest two hours and aftere I accidently restarted it out of no where I saw the big COMPAQ logo staring right at me that I haven't seen in a year after it went completely dead. Moments ago the screen was black and empty and no signal was being sent to the moniter and now its running telling me how much memory is in it. Even though it had shown no opperating systems detecting, CMOS was invalid but still the BIOS is running again.
Thanks to all that I repaired my BOOT loader and now I'm able to post this reply with the computer the I presumed dead, on here hoping that it will help somebody else in a predicament as serious as this. Thanks for reading.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

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