i recently built a new pc from newegg (this is also my first custom build i picked out all the parts myself) so ill first point out the specs • Asus m2n32 deluxe sli wifi edition • amd x2 am2 4000+ • CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) • 2x 320GB seagate perp. drives • SILVERSTONE SST-ST56ZF ATX12V/ EPS12V 560Watts Power Supply • creative x-fi • 2x xfx 7900GT factory OC'd (one of which had a transistor litterally just fall off the d**n board and into the bottom of my case, pulled that out and plan on getting it RMA'd for another but thats not the problem ) • 3d gigabyte aurora case i had everything up and running, was messing around with overclocking as ive never done it before and i heard someone got a similar setup to an astounding 2.8Ghz...i could only get it to 2.169ghz..(and learned how to clear cmos >< kinda disapointed there... anyway my wonderfull windows xp pro got a virus (yea yea yea) load so i decided just to not deal with it and wipe the harddrives clean since it was only on for a few days and i wasnt losing much. i tryed loading one of my kubuntu live cd's so i can use qtparted and partition my drive again (need that windows vista ) but it would just freeze at the same point, ubuntu had a similar problem (this is when i suspect the transistor had fallen off) i got frusterated and ended up getting windows installed and i decided to update the mobo thinking that might be the problem (getting tired of these yet?) so i start using asus's bios updater (from file and yes it was the right bios) and when it got to 91% it just crapped out and flew up errors so i tryed to restart the program and reflash but it continued with weird "[]" error messages. so i decide to turn it off and turn it back on... i guess a bad choice on my part. when i turned it back on i wasnt even greeted with a 'beep' it just cut off right before you would hear it (if memory serves me right this would mean boot is successful).. reluctantly i pulled out my cards and cleared cmos and i found the transistor on the bottom of th case at this point and found where it went on the video cards by comparing them (might be an easy solder as it looked like it wasnt even forced but just not put on good to start with, but ill rma it i think...) put it back together and boot, fans start, led's light up, prepare for beep, and it all goes out. i rememberd reading on the asus site about this in the specs that if your bios gets currupted you can fix it, so i go there and find this "ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 The ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 allows users to restore corrupted BIOS data from a USB flash disk containing the BIOS file. This utility saves users the cost and hassle of buying a replacement BIOS chip." i thumb through the manual and all i can find about the crashfree bios 3 is that you put the bios on a usb drive, a bootable floppy (which is to small for the bios) or put in the installation asus cd. ive done all 3, except for the 'bootable' floppy and just put the bios on it. it seems like the system just doesnt stay on long enough for it to fix itself, but i would consider this a 'corrupted bios'..... ive read around and i hear people saying to hold "alt+F2" which also has no effect... if someone has more information about the crashfree bios 3 and know how to work it i would be extremely happy... if i could fix this i could atleast run the computer while the video card is being rma'd my only solution ive found is "cost and hassle of buying a replacement BIOS chip" or sending my current one in for 5-20 bucks and getting it reflashed...which seems like something i should be able to do as they advertise it under there specs..... sorry for the long post, i wanted to provide as much information as possible so it looks like im not a total pc noob and just need some insight and help. thanks alot.
Sounds like a dodgy connector somewhere, check all your connectors are fully in. ALso check the CPU t overheating or anything
Well as said, you've managed to corrupt the bios, I had the horrible ordeal of this with one (of my many) boards (not throw flashing but putting the CMOS jumper in the wrong position (not jumping any pins)) which caused alot more havok, though even with a new bios chip it hasn't seemed fixable. Your best bet is not to fiddle with it too much IMO, RMA it back to ASUS, let them handle it. As buying a new chip from somewhere else could void your warrantee = bad. Just my 1p / 2cent
well asus has removable bios chips you can send in for like 5 bucks and they will reflash it for 'free' i removed everything and it seems to keep the power. slowly put things back and the ram was left but it continued to keep the juice, no post. i put the ram in and it continues the same symptom, took it out, but oddly it continued. so i think its the bios.... gunna call asus later today. checked power connections and it seemed good.
Actually the odds are about 98% that your BIOS will fit on a bootable floppy. What makes you think it wont? Can you tell the BIOS manufacturer? If it is Pheonix/Award - I can't give you much advice, but if it is AMI - with some major pain, I might be able to help.
He never said it wouldnt fit on a floppy, he said the computer wouldnt stay on long enough to read from a floppy I'd personaly go with the bios reflahing service and rma that graphics card
I don't know, he seems rather clear to me he said: To me that is saying the BIOS will not fit on a bootable floppy, which would only be true if you load a bunch of things on the floppy not needed to actually boot (like xcopy).
M2n32 dead bios fix Believe it or not if you just un plug the power and take your motherboard battery out for 10 seconds the bios will reboot. Once you are in I would advise going ahead and flshing the bios with the EZ flash 2 utlity in the bios to make sure you have a clean bios. I had to do this recently with the same motherboard. The battery is on the right hand side above the SATA ports. I promise that this works.
That's just resetting the BIOS. I havn't read the full thread, but if he's actually destroyed the data on the BIOS chip itself, and not just screwed up CMOS settings(which could very easily be solved by just toggling the CMOS jumper which is in the manual). Removing the battery isn't a very good way of resetting the BIOS in my opinion. Things are more likely to get broken then if the CMOS reset jumper is used. Not to negate your input, but unfortunately if a BIOS is completely corrupted after a serious issue and not just having problems with messed up CMOS data then the old reset trick won't do a thing. Welcome to bit-tech though Worldfoot - stick around, it's a great place edit: Oh and here's the deal with the BIOS. It is in fact too big for a standard bootable disk. A standard bootable floppy just cannot fit the BIOS and the proggy for running the BIOS. What you have to do with the bigger Asus BIOS' is strip out the unneccesary stuff from the BIOS(I can't remember what that is, but it should be easily found out) and then shove the new BIOS onto it.
I carry 3.5" floppy's to the ends of the earth for one reason: to use them to boot and flash BIOSes. I do it prolly 10 times on the average day. The average BIOS is still 512k (usually even at this there will be space left over). The average BIOS flash utility is only 30k-100k. Now even if you have a really inefficient BIOS (say Pheonix/Award or EFI), which may require a 1024k part, or even if the MoBo manufacturer used a 1024k part just to be cautious, there is nearly never a valid reason to go even larger than this. The next size up available for this architecture is 2048k and is simply not needed for anything less than a full blown - top of the line server using EFI with a BMC and some embedded utilities. Unlike traditional BIOS, EFI is written in C and is therefore "bloated" compared to traditional BIOS. Even considering that fact a standard EFI BIOS for an average MoBo can STILL fit on a 512k part. (e.g. DOS flash utility is 30-60k while the EFI version is 100k) Furthermore, EFI implementations of BIOS are rare rare rare. There simply is no need for them in today's current desktop market. Even Vista has dropped EFI support for its first release and will only add EFI support as a service pack at some time in the distant future. So there is simply no reason for a BIOS to be much over 512k and definitely no reason for a BIOS to be over 1024k (unless the BIOS itself also has the OS embedded into it which obviously is not the case in a desktop). The bootable component of DOS is only 20k. This we have a worst reasonable case scenario is: 1024k+ ROM Image 100k+ Flash Utility 20k DOS boot Sys ------- 1144k - Total Obviously floppy size is 1,440k which means in a very very bad case you still have 296k left over. This is plenty of room to hold other important DOS utilities like Debug32 (89k) and Format (49k). Now if the flash utility is designed to run under windows (or x windows) and if it supports multiple chipsets and flash parts then sure, it could easily be larger than the 396k of (free) space it has for wiggle room. However this is a poor design and simply unneeded. MoBo manufacturers typically only provide this as an alternative to a DOS flashable option (the dos boot disk in question). The BIOS in question always has the chipset and ROM part code required to flash the part in question (this is need to support ESCD which is required for WHQL since Win 95). This means it is poor design for the flash utility to do anything more than: 1-read the new BIOS image and 2-pass it on to the control code of the existing BIOS to flash the device in question. There is no need for the flash utility to have multiple drivers for different MoBo's nor say a database of code for each possible case (about the only reason the utility would grow beyond 100k). For cases that the BIOS is corrupted during flashing, none of the extra-over head of a flashing utility and OS are needed. Rather, a properly designed contemporary BIOS (any name brand BIOS on any name brand MoBo) can utilize the resident BIOS BootBlock to flash directly from the floppy without requiring a full "boot". In short, yes it will all fit on a floppy. If you can’t fit it on a floppy you are doing something wrong. If you go to the Asus website, you can verify the figures I have provided. .
