Help: config BIOS through serial port!

[jv_guano]

Hi!

i've bought a motherboard to biuld up a 24Hours/24 pc.
the MB seems okay, the problem is with the keyboard PS/2 ports; already tried two (working) keyboards, but keeps saying "keyboard not found"

so, I've two things in mind to resolve this:
1) buy a USB keyboard (with wire), but I think it won't work..I already tried with a USB wireless keyboard, and still it didn't see it, so I couldn't press "del" or "f1" to setup/go thorugh on bad checksum error
2) this is the (only) idea: is there a way to flash/configure the BIOS via serial port or something else? if I can acess the BIOS via serial, then I can select "do not halt on keyboard error" and then everything is perfect! I'd control the pc via VNC!

the MB is an ASUS CUSL2-C!

guys, I really wish you could give me some hints!
please!!!
thank you!

 

[itsbmw]

Wireless USB almost never worked for me. its wakeup time just wouldnt work in time to hit it. Maybe ask a friend to borrow their usb wired keyboard if they have one. If your a gamer pick up a g15 or g11 you wont regret it. I havent found anything on configuring the bios through serial port. Sorry.

 

[jv_guano]

thank you for your help!

I tried the USB keyboard but had no luck; I also tested the fuse, but everything seems allright, so the break should be away from the connector...

I searched too a long time for BIOS setup via serial port, but couldn't find anything; the only solution seems to change the BIOS chip directly!

thank for your hep!

 

[mrussell]

This is an old thread,but hopefully this will be useful to someone. This only applies to desktops. Laptops are a whole other matter. Some EFI seem to have the capability of opening an EFI shell via serial, at least in the source code. But I dont know how its done or if its only supported in debugging builds and disabled in production builds. (I guess in theory you could load an option ROM that would do it,but that's beyond the scope of this discussion unless someone actually wrote such a thing). The things I would try are first,clearing the bios. Typical desktops can be cleared just by removing the battery. There is also usually a jumper.

If that does not work, see if there is a jumper for recovery mode. If you can get it to go into recovery mode,re-flash the bios. That sort of problem does not seem like a hardware issue. The USB ports are usually part of the main chipset while the PS2 ports are on the LPC bus in the "super IO" chip. LPC is a successor to the ISA bus. Essentially, hardware is fast enough to do everything the ISA bus did over a serial link.

Since you can neither use PS2 or USB keyboards, and the hardware is completely independant in most PCs,the issue is likely software not hardware. In this case,since the computer has not booted yet,software is "firmware". That is,a bios problem,either a bad flash or more likely,CMOS setup. (It is of course possible there is physical damage to the board. Since the connectors are located near one another, they could BOTH be damage. A careful visual inspection of the board with a magnifier and a bright light can often detect these problems. Cracks, twisted or broken connectors or connectors sitting at odd angles are all signs of trouble. Also look for any residue on the board from spills.