Help!

S

Sven_Lee

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 1, 2004
Messages
212
Hey guys. I have a huge problem with my gaming rig right now. I can't get my PC to start. It started yesterday for no reason apparently. When I restarted my computer, instead of showing the BIOS boot-up screen like normal, it says word for word:

Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0
Copyright (c) 2000, Award Software, Inc.

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting IDE ATAPI device . . .
Found CDROM, try to Boot from it . . . Pass

Auto Load AWDFLASH.EXE . . . . .
!! ERROR -- AWDFLASH.EXE Not Found with CDROM !!



Does anyone know what the heck is going on here?! Also, for the longest time now I've had another problem with my PC. For some reason it wouldn't boot without a Windows CD in the CDROM drive. Didn't matter if I was running Vista or XP, it wouldn't boot without either a Vista or XP CD in the drive. After the BIOS Post screen, just before it would show the windows loading screen, it would say "Invalid System Disk. Please insert system disk and press enter" - that is, if there were no windows CD in the drive. Otherwise it would say "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD..." just before the windows loading screen.

Someone please help? I'm not the smartest computer guy around, but I'm not a total newb, either, and I've never seen this before. Now I'm screwed I can't play any of my games or do anything now. Help would be greatly appreciated!!!!


-Sven
 
It has been my experience that a "BIOS ROM checksum error" message means the BIOS battery has died. The BIOS has lost it's settings and or the settings have changed from the last boot. I would reset the BIOS to defaults and then check your settings for boot order and clock etc. If you lose your settings on the next power down or reboot I would replace the CMOS battery on the motherboard. Personally I would probably replace it anyway, as cheap insurance against another BIOS error.
 
The fact that it's started up the BootBlock rather than the BIOS suggests that the BIOS image itself might be corrupted - it's trying to find AWDFLASH.EXE, the BIOS flash program, on the CD. If the CMOS battery replacement doesn't help, it may help to download the correct BIOS image and flash program, and put them on a CD or floppy.

As regards to the other problem, it sounds like the MBR or bootloader are missing. You'd need to use the CD/DVD to repair it. If the machine has XP as its only OS, the XP CD should be used to start the recovery console and the fixboot/fixmbr commands used. If it has Vista at all, the Vista DVD should be used: http://www.winvistatips.com/fix-mbr-a116.php .
 
BIOS checksum errors also happen with an unstable overclock or overheating. Check the CPU heatsink & fan, and if you have one, the chipset northbridge cooler. Also put the CPU back to stock speed.

If it's still corrupted, then you may need to do a recovery flash like described above.
 
Mithent said:
The fact that it's started up the BootBlock rather than the BIOS suggests that the BIOS image itself might be corrupted - it's trying to find AWDFLASH.EXE, the BIOS flash program, on the CD. If the CMOS battery replacement doesn't help, it may help to download the correct BIOS image and flash program, and put them on a CD or floppy.

As regards to the other problem, it sounds like the MBR or bootloader are missing. You'd need to use the CD/DVD to repair it. If the machine has XP as its only OS, the XP CD should be used to start the recovery console and the fixboot/fixmbr commands used. If it has Vista at all, the Vista DVD should be used: http://www.winvistatips.com/fix-mbr-a116.php .
Click to expand...

Agreed. If a CMOS reset and new battery don't fix it, then you will need to recover it with a copy of AWDFLASH and a BIOS image. I have done this many times. Not fun if it never finishes. I had a board I had to buy a new BIOS chip for with problems like this.
 
Ok I haven't flashed a BIOS in a long time. Can anyone go over what I need to do? BTW I'm using an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe.
 
The mb manufacturer's website will have instructions on how to do that. Some now allow you to flash the bios from within Windows but the recommended way is to flash from a dos boot disk which can be bootable floppy disk, thumbdrive or cdrom. Asus mbs don't even need a boot disk as they provide a boot option using a function key to load the needed flash prog. The mb manual will tell what that key macro is.
 
Since it's loading the BootBlock and looking for AWDFLASH.EXE, it may just start the flash program automatically if you have the program and image on something it can read.
 
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