United3dArtists Archive

Of some reason, I got the brilliant idea to flash my motherboard bios this Sunday evening. There was no reason for this - my system worked good (but blue-screened at startup sometimes).

As you understand, something went wrong. The flashing failed. I was doing it from Windows, apparently this is stupid but I have never had any problem with that before. Anyhow - my motherboard was equipped with something that is supposed to restore the bios if a flash fails. Apparently there is a big difference between theory (I should recover) and practice (it doesn't recover).

My computer went dead as a brick. Not even getting a POST....
What to do? Well, I was forced to order a new motherboard. This set me back about 150€.

My biggest worry was however that I wouldn't be able to reactivate my Win XP 64 because it is an OEM license. This could have forced me to update to Windows 7 with the problem that it have with Truespace...
However, to my relief my XP actually activated itself over Internet.

I can tell you that I have updated my last bios over Windows, thats for sure.
Never mess with things that works - it is bad karma...

Hay.. Spyfrog...

Most newer Mother boards have a socketted CMOS/BIOS chip...

You can pull the chip and sent it in to be flashed... or you can replace it..
Should be less than $60.00 either way..
Doing one of the two should return your Mother board to
good as new status..

ranger0101 wrote:Hay.. Spyfrog...

Most newer Mother boards have a socketted CMOS/BIOS chip...

You can pull the chip and sent it in to be flashed... or you can replace it..
Should be less than $60.00 either way..
Doing one of the two should return your Mother board to
good as new status..

Actually, I think that no modern motherboard have a replacable bios. That was common earlier but I don't think that is common nowdays. All my latest motherboards have had the bios EEPROM soldered and not replaceable.

What kind of Mother board was it?
Brand and model number?

ranger0101 wrote:What kind of Mother board was it?
Brand and model number?

It was an Asus P5B motherboard.

I have updated the bios from dos (floppy) or from CMOS setup. This has fixed problems with boards using Intel processors. I went to ASUS web site and copied this

Clear the CMOS with the battery removed, the PSU power cord unplugged, and the CLRTC jumper moved for an extended period of time.

I would wait 24 hours and then try it. Restore the CLRTC jumper to its normal position.

Shell1850 wrote:I have updated the bios from dos (floppy) or from CMOS setup. This has fixed problems with boards using Intel processors. I went to ASUS web site and copied this

Clear the CMOS with the battery removed, the PSU power cord unplugged, and the CLRTC jumper moved for an extended period of time.

I would wait 24 hours and then try it. Restore the CLRTC jumper to its normal position.

I have tried most versions of ways to restore. The only thing left is to use a secondary computer, a homemade cable and flash using a dos program. I built the cable but chickened out since there is a real hazard of destroying the CPU. So I bought a new motherboard instead....
Thankfully my windows booted and could be reactivated so I am good now.