ReInstalling the Bios

Teaguenunya

Honorable
Sep 8, 2013
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Hello community, Huge fan of Toms Hardware I look here for all my comuter reated issues. That said I have one now I could really use some help with. I have a computer that when it's turned on there is no response from the monitor. I have tried with on board graphic card as well as with a PCI video card and neither will boot up not even to allow access to the bios. Before I got this comuter the previous owner was trying to run the recovery and the computer crashed and now wont boot.
I belive the bios is spent and im looking to reinsall it. I'm not sure how to do this.

Mother board is a m2n68-la with a AMD processor
any help with this wold be reatly appreciated.
 
Solution
It's always difficult to troubleshoot from afar. I'm at a loss if all is as you say. How well do you trust the person you got the board from? Could he be miss-leading you as to what really happened? Could he have inadvertently flashed the the wrong BIOS update?

Another possibility is that he was using a cheap power supply that spiked and damaged some MB components. On the other hand, it could just be 'normal' component failure on a older MB. Wish I had more to offer, but I'm afraid the board is dead... unless you can try yet another good quality PSU to finally rule out the power supply.
Before you go messing with the BIOS, you should try some other things first. Once you corrupt the BIOS, your PC may become an expensive door stop.
Try replacing the CMOS battery first and see if you can boot to BIOS setup. Next try booting to safe mode (tap F8 at boot). See if you can do that.
 
 


Well the MO takes DDR3 ram so I think its kinda newer maybe not the newest. The processor is AMD Athlon II from what I'm told the processor was working but since I got the computer it hasn't booted so I can't be sure. I don't have a second processor to check with. All the pins look straight and it goes in and out with out any trouble. Not sure what to do.
OH and it's a compaq CQ5000
 
Compaq, HP... they use the same parts.
Have you tried breadboarding the system? With just the MB on insulated surface, CPU/cooler, 1 stk of RAM, PSU, keyboard, and monitor connected to the on-board... momentarily short the two pins the start button would plug into and try to boot to BIOS by tapping the DEL key during boot. Be sure nothing else is connected. No drives, mouse, etc. I presume the board only has VGA, so be sure your monitor is switched to VGA.
 


I think I will try this only one question.. when you say short the two pins the start button uses, do you mean with a jumper on the PWR switch pins and just long enough to boot?
 
Yes. When your MB is out of the case, there will be none of the case's FP wiring attached to it. So just jumper/short the two pins that the pwr button would have connected to for a brief moment to start the PC. That's all the pwr button does, in fact. It just makes contact between those two pins momentarily while being pressed. You can use a small bladed screwdriver, or maybe you can move the case close enough for the FP pwr button wires to reach so you can plug them in if you don't feel comfortable doing the 'short' thing.
 


Nope I'm fine with doing the short just wanted to confirm what I was shorting. I will try this and follow up with you. Thanks for the help.
 


OK so tried the boot and nothing. The monitor still black screen and I don't even think the keyboard was powered on cause the light on it never lit up. it's a USB keyboard as there is no serial ports on this board. Also don't know if this matters but when I plug the power supply into the motherboard and turn it on the processor fan starts going right away I don't even need to short ot the power switch. I also tried with both sticks of RAM and same deal for both no display and no response from the keyboard. 🙁
 
Tough luck. One of the items is dead. Without another processor or PSU to test with, it will be hard to narrow down. Is there any way you can try the processor in another motherboard? Or try another PSU?

But from your description of the "automatic" start when you turn on the PSU, it sounds like the problem is the board itself. The MB itself would be the only thing that would do that. I doubt the problem is the BIOS itself. It sounds more like the chip set. Besides, you can't update the BIOS without the board being able to boot.

If you want to try replacing the BIOS chip itself, that would be a possibility, but I really don't see the BIOS being the problem. And unless the BIOS chip is socketed, it will require delicate un-soldering and re-soldering.
 


Well the PSU is different from the one that was in the case. so I used a spare PSU to test the motherboard. As for another board to test the CPU I do not have one I don't really deal with AMD all that much I'm more a Intel guy. I'm leaning more towards the chip set. I am not fimiliar with this as I have never delt with it before. If its socketed is it hard to replace? As for soldering I'm not that skilled to solder a MB. I think if that is the case it will be a replacement MB.
Also any idea on what could cause the Bio chip to go bad or have to be replaced? like virus or power surge?
 
If it truly is the BIOS that is the problem, the only way I know to corrupt a BIOS is to flash it with the wrong version during an update. I've know folks who have done that. They usually end up with an expensive door stop.
I doubt that OEM board has a socketed BIOS chip. I would almost bet that it was machine soldered in place. And finding a replacement would be almost impossible.

After removing the battery last time, did you short the CLR CMOS pins to reset the BIOS?
 


Yup cleared the Cmos couple of times and remove the battery. So it seem it's more then likely a chipset issue. and your correct the chip is soldered to the board. Do you know what might have caused something like this to happen? The only thing I found out that happen to the system before I got it was the person who had it changed the screen rez and then he was unable to boot up in anything other then safe mode so he attempted a restore from the boot up screen and wile it was doing the restore the computer crashed and after that it would not boot to anything except the black screen. I found another board to test the CPU but have no heatsink paste at the moment so now I'm waiting for some to arrive in the mail. but I would love to figure out what caused this to happen.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
It's always difficult to troubleshoot from afar. I'm at a loss if all is as you say. How well do you trust the person you got the board from? Could he be miss-leading you as to what really happened? Could he have inadvertently flashed the the wrong BIOS update?

Another possibility is that he was using a cheap power supply that spiked and damaged some MB components. On the other hand, it could just be 'normal' component failure on a older MB. Wish I had more to offer, but I'm afraid the board is dead... unless you can try yet another good quality PSU to finally rule out the power supply.
 
Solution


I have multipal PSU's and none work for it. the person I got the computer from is a 12 year old kid he's my buddy kid and he is forever breaking computers. most recently his fathers laptop and I had to actually replace the hard drive as it is not readable even threw a external reader. But I doute he tried to flash the bios I don't think he would know how to do that.
I appreciate all your help with this clutchc. I think the board is shot. I just wanted to be able to tell the kid's father why it is shot. I thought it might have been caused by the crash during the recovery but I think I will just tell him the PSU shorted and fried the chip.
Anyways again thank you very much for your time hope to run into you on the forum again.
Cheers.
 


Hey clutchc just though I would throw you a quick update. So I setup the second board with the CPU from the one I believe to be toast and what do you know same issue will not boot to any screen. So now I think maybe it's been the CPU all along. I'm thinking about ordering a new CPU off ebay and testing it on both boards. anyways just figured I'd see what you thought.
Cheers
 


AMD Athlon II
ADX2400CK23GQ
NAEIC AE 1006FPMW
9C88155B01354
 


Yup that's the motherboard and I'm not sure about the CPU as I just copied the info straigh off the CPU. I tried it in a different board it's a abit NF-M2S (v:1.0) uses DDR2