EVGA 680i mobo problems before bios flash, now it's dead

[i_hate_flying]

Hi, I've been experiencing random system halting since I built this computer four months ago. When it happens, everything just freezes, no rebooting, no activity, nothing. When I look at the LEDs on my memory, the lights show no activity. I think I've narrowed the culprit down to either the motherboard or the memory. In order to rule out motherboard issues, I decided to flash to the latest BIOS. I was running the P24 BIOS on my EVGA 680i without any issues other than the one I've described. The BIOS I tried to flash to is the latest, P27. I used EVGA's system update utility to accomplish the flash. Everything went fine and when the system rebooted, I received a message that I need to do a hard reset by turning the computer's power off and then back on. When I did this, the system would no longer post and I got stuck with "--" on the LED error code display.

I read up on this quite a bit at the EVGA website. Apparently it's common for EVGA boards to go wrong during BIOS updates, regardless of the method used. Many other people are experiencing the same. Unfortunately, I have no floppy drive and didn't know how to use a CD to perform flashes until I read about it when it was too late. Next time I'll use a CD. Regardless, I've tried just about everything that was recommended to try to get the system back, but it is still very dead. Rather than RMA the board, which I guess I'm entitled to, I've ordered a new BIOS chip. Has anyone else gone this route?

Here are some links to people experiencing the same system failure I am:

http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32048
http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31982
Two topics from the same poster, but with different and various responses. Same exact problem I've described.

 

[i_hate_flying]

I went with www.bioflash.com in Germany. Geographically, they're the closest to me and they seem very professional.

I contacted EVGA and they want me to RMA the board (of course) as they do not issue new bios chips. I've ordered two chips, one with the original P24 bios and the other with the newest P27. When I receive them, I'm going to try and hotflash my original bios chip. Has anyone ever attempted such a feat?