Oh my...

C

crazjayz

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 31, 2005
Messages
2,093
So here's the situation:

I'm updating the bios for my motherboard (Asus A8n-SLI Deluxe) through windows and the updating program goes "not responding" I Ctrl+alt+del and close the program and try to restart it again. At this point I get a weird error (it had funny symbols and whatnot) and then a message box saying that the updater could not start. I click okay and it automatically closes.

Next I download a update to ANOTHER PROGRAM (not the Bios updater) and it asks me to restart my computer. I comply and upon rebooting I'm presented with this message

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 ... Fail

Detecting floppy drive A media...
Drive A error. System halt
Click to expand...

I've removed the CMOS battery, turned off the power for 5 minutes, and moved the CMOS clear jumper from position 1-2 to 2-3 and I still can't get passed this screen. Moreover, I'm not even seeing my Bios load before this screen. When I bootup the comp the only thing I see is this. Pressing Del during bootup with a blank screen doesn't result in me seeing the Bios.

Did I just brick my comp?

... Oh holy hell...
 
what you can do is find another pc with the same type of bios chip thinggy, i had a a8n sli premium and some tyan dual socket F motherboard and i figured out that the bios chips are hot swappible in these, so is yours, find another computer with the same type of bios chip (by this i mean as long as it will fit it will work) and boot up into a dos bios flasher and then remove the bios chip for turned on pc and put in your bios chip, then flash the bios chip and there you go!

if this is confusing at all pm or post here, will check back often ;)
 
crazjayz said:
So here's the situation:

I'm updating the bios for my motherboard (Asus A8n-SLI Deluxe) through windows and the updating program goes "not responding" I Ctrl+alt+del and close the program and try to restart it again. At this point I get a weird error (it had funny symbols and whatnot) and then a message box saying that the updater could not start. I click okay and it automatically closes.

Next I download a update to ANOTHER PROGRAM (not the Bios updater) and it asks me to restart my computer. I comply and upon rebooting I'm presented with this message



I've removed the CMOS battery, turned off the power for 5 minutes, and moved the CMOS clear jumper from position 1-2 to 2-3 and I still can't get passed this screen. Moreover, I'm not even seeing my Bios load before this screen. When I bootup the comp the only thing I see is this. Pressing Del during bootup with a blank screen doesn't result in me seeing the Bios.

Did I just brick my comp?

... Oh holy hell...
Click to expand...

No, that is the boot-bios block seeing that the BIOS image is corrupted and trying to find a replacement on your CD-ROM or Floppy drive. You need to create a bootable disk or CD with your motherboard's BIOS update tool and rom image set to run automatically.

lilfiend said:
what you can do is find another pc with the same type of bios chip thinggy, i had a a8n sli premium and some tyan dual socket F motherboard and i figured out that the bios chips are hot swappible in these, so is yours, find another computer with the same type of bios chip (by this i mean as long as it will fit it will work) and boot up into a dos bios flasher and then remove the bios chip for turned on pc and put in your bios chip, then flash the bios chip and there you go!

if this is confusing at all pm or post here, will check back often ;)
Click to expand...

He doesn't have to do that. His bios's boot block is already trying to find the boot disk for him, he just needs to make it and put it in.
 
oMek said:
and thats why you dont update bios from windows.
Click to expand...

See, I tried. I went to their website and downloaded the "DOS" updater, except it wasn't Windows Vista compatible, so it would never complete the update. Tried the windows updater and look what I got.

ryan_975 said:
No, that is the boot-bios block seeing that the BIOS image is corrupted and trying to find a replacement on your CD-ROM or Floppy drive. You need to create a bootable disk or CD with your motherboard's BIOS update tool and rom image set to run automatically.
Click to expand...

If this is really the case, can you step-by step tell me how to do that? I don't have access to a computer with a CD drive right now (stupid ultra-portable laptop), but I can probably do whatever I need to this weekend. I have my old ROM save to a floppy if that helps.

Thanks for the quick responses guys, I knew I could count on you!
 
crazjayz said:
See, I tried. I went to their website and downloaded the "DOS" updater, except it wasn't Windows Vista compatible, so it would never complete the update. Tried the windows updater and look what I got.



If this is really the case, can you step-by step tell me how to do that? I don't have access to a computer with a CD drive right now (stupid ultra-portable laptop), but I can probably do whatever I need to this weekend. I have my old ROM save to a floppy if that helps.

Thanks for the quick responses guys, I knew I could count on you!
Click to expand...

Try this guide.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/03/24/undo-award-bios-flash-and-recovery/
 
shadow_419 said:
+1

That guide should get you through it. Just make sure to use the switches and you'll have to use a regular floppy drive not a usb one.
Click to expand...

UGH! can't use a usb floppy? Damn. Okay, will update this weekend when I can get my hands on a floppy drive.

Thanks again guys!
 
crazjayz said:
UGH! can't use a usb floppy? Damn. Okay, will update this weekend when I can get my hands on a floppy drive.

Thanks again guys!
Click to expand...

In your particular case, you can create a bootable CD. There's tons of guides on how to do that around, just find one that you can follow.
 
Hope you learned your lesson. Flashing in windows is too risky. For future flashing make yourself a bootable usb thumb drive and save the flash utility and bios files new and current (as a backup incase of any errors). You boot to the thumb drive and type in this at prompt : awdflash XXXXXXXX.BIN /py/sn/f/cc . If you get any errors you can still try to flash again to any bios file you have on the drive since you haven't rebooted yet.
 
shadow_419 said:
Hope you learned your lesson. Flashing in windows is too risky. For future flashing make yourself a bootable usb thumb drive and save the flash utility and bios files new and current (as a backup incase of any errors). You boot to the thumb drive and type in this at prompt : awdflash XXXXXXXX.BIN /py/sn/f/cc . If you get any errors you can still try to flash again to any bios file you have on the drive since you haven't rebooted yet.
Click to expand...

Done dozens of BIOS updates in Windows, not once have ever had a problem.
 
shadow_419 said:
Hope you learned your lesson. Flashing in windows is too risky. For future flashing make yourself a bootable usb thumb drive and save the flash utility and bios files new and current (as a backup incase of any errors). You boot to the thumb drive and type in this at prompt : awdflash XXXXXXXX.BIN /py/sn/f/cc . If you get any errors you can still try to flash again to any bios file you have on the drive since you haven't rebooted yet.
Click to expand...

Lesson learned? Possibly. This wasn't the first time I tried flashing in windows, but it was the first time I tried flashing in Vista. I guess 6 year old tech doesn't play nice with today's OS. The first Bios update I did on this mobo was using the floppy, but the 2 that I did later were through WinXP. This is also the first time that I've seen this BootBlock thing. When I first tried to flash my bios using a floppy I thought I bricked my PC as well, but a simple reset of the CMOS did the trick. This time, I really didn't know what happened. Ah well, I'm sure Bios corruption during flashing can still happen even when booting through a floppy or flash drive. Knowing me, it's just my luck... or lack thereof.
 
Yup and everything is fine until you have a problem. I can flash in dos and, if there are any problems like a corrupted bios or bad write, I can do it all over again or go back to bios I started with. You don't have to worry about any other programs like an anti-virus update or anything causing your system to hang and possibly causing a problem. They only thing a dos flash can't save you from is power failure and hopefully you have a ups.
 
Well if your boot block isn't hosed during a flash it will try to update the bios. Luckily it wasn't and you don't have to try to hot flash or get a new bios chip.
 
I actually had a heated debate with friends recently over the dangers of flashing from OS and this definitely helps my case. I'm now even more grateful for my dual bios support but that kind of feature shouldn't be necessary. I think all bios flashing software should come with a big bold warning if it doesn't already. A less informed person might have thought their entire system was made useless and wasted money replacing it. Best of luck to you resolving your problem and getting a nice clean update!
 
I'm probably in the minority, but I go by if it ain't broke don't fix it. I don't flash my bios unless I absolutely have to. However, this thread is very informative and unfortunately it came at a price for someone.
 
You might be able to get away with just burning the bios rom file to a CD-ROM (naming it to whatever file name the crash BIOS is looking for) and just putting it into the CD-ROM drive to see if it auto recovers.

+90000000000 on not ever, ever flashing from windows, ever.
 
Oh, and most BIOSes these days can flash from within themselves from CD-ROM and USB drives.
 
Stanley Pain said:
You might be able to get away with just burning the bios rom file to a CD-ROM (naming it to whatever file name the crash BIOS is looking for) and just putting it into the CD-ROM drive to see if it auto recovers.

+90000000000 on not ever, ever flashing from windows, ever.
Click to expand...

No, award bios won't auto update the bios from the boot-block. You have to have a bootable disk or CD that autoruns the programmer.

Stanley Pain said:
Oh, and most BIOSes these days can flash from within themselves from CD-ROM and USB drives.
Click to expand...

The problem is that his BIOS is toast. Any ability to self-flash is in the main BIOS image that was corrupted. The boot-block only brings the system up enough to extract and expand the BIOS image from the flash chip , check it for corruption, and hand over control to it. In the past it didn't even have video capabilities.
 
I killed the bios on my DFI Ultra D and sent the whole board back to DFI and they fixed it. I ended up buying a bios savior after that.
 
ryan_975 said:
No, award bios won't auto update the bios from the boot-block. You have to have a bootable disk or CD that autoruns the programmer.

The problem is that his BIOS is toast. Any ability to self-flash is in the main BIOS image that was corrupted. The boot-block only brings the system up enough to extract and expand the BIOS image from the flash chip , check it for corruption, and hand over control to it. In the past it didn't even have video capabilities.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know the BIOS is fried right now. It was more of a comment for future BIOS flashing endeavours :)

Good to know about having to autorun the programmer from the bootblock.
 
These type screw-ups are much easier to rectify when the BIOS chip is removeable.

Many boards have dropped that feature. :(
 
I've probably done 10-15 Windows BIOS upgrades without a single hitch.
 
Yeah i know this is a terribly dumb question but i need to ask anyway. It has been at least 5 years since i have flashed bios and my memory isn't what it used to be. So the question is, do you have to reinstall the OS after upgrading or flashing the bios? Sorry for the dumb question but i haven't done this in many many moons and it is something i need to do now. I still have the original F1 bios that came on this board.
 
Johnysmoke said:
Yeah i know this is a terribly dumb question but i need to ask anyway. It has been at least 5 years since i have flashed bios and my memory isn't what it used to be. So the question is, do you have to reinstall the OS after upgrading or flashing the bios? Sorry for the dumb question but i haven't done this in many many moons and it is something i need to do now. I still have the original F1 bios that came on this board.
Click to expand...

Usually not. But your upgrading the core of your system, and if something major was changed (like ACPI data, maybe) in the new BIOS, it could lead to instability or outright not able to boot the OS. That's highly unlikely, though.
 
Repeat after me.. I will never flash my bios in windows..Capish? You can try and order a bios chip from Asus, it may cost more than what you might think the motherboard is worth.
 
So here's the update. I was able to burn a CD with 2 files on it:

AWDFLASH.exe
1805.bin

The first file is the Award Bios flash file and the second is the Bios that I'm trying to install. When I put it into my computer and boot up this is what the BootBlock is saying now.

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


Automatic Load AWDFLASH.EXE ..... _
Click to expand...

And the little underscore just keeps on flashing. I've left it like this for 5 minutes now and nothing seems to be going on. The CDROM activity light isn't blinking, but my RAM activity LEDs (I have the Corsair RAM with the lights that shine green -> yellow -> red depending on activity) are full red. Did I do something wrong? Not burn the right files perhaps? I'll have to wait until the weekend before I can get access to an internal floppy drive, but this should have worked, right?
 
The bios is corrupted, it may never boot with the bios chip that is in there now ever again. You can keep trying though. Pull all the cards you can off the board and disconnect the drives except the cdrom. Try and boot again. You have nothing to lose.
 
did you try to type any thing? You need to include the autoexec.bat file.

Open note pad type this

awdflash 1805.bin /py/sn/f/cc/r

save the file as
when it prompts you to input a name type

autoexec.bat in the name field
save

add this file to your bootable cd
 
Mega666 said:
The bios is corrupted, it may never boot with the bios chip that is in there now ever again. You can keep trying though. Pull all the cards you can off the board and disconnect the drives except the cdrom. Try and boot again. You have nothing to lose.
Click to expand...

His BIOS is corrupted, but his boot-block isn't.

I have yet to be able to get the CD method to work, although I never put much effort into it. It's alway been much easier to make a bootable floppy, copy the file I need, then add an autoexec.bat line for the programmer. Why waste a whole CD for less than 1.44MB? The only exception might be if you have an 8Mb BIOS image, which would need a hard to find 2.88MB floppy.
 
ryan_975 said:
His BIOS is corrupted, but his boot-block isn't.

I have yet to be able to get the CD method to work, although I never put much effort into it. It's alway been much easier to make a bootable floppy, copy the file I need, then add an autoexec.bat line for the programmer. Why waste a whole CD for less than 1.44MB? The only exception might be if you have an 8Mb BIOS image, which would need a hard to find 2.88MB floppy.
Click to expand...

Meh, I have a bunch of CDRs and if gets me back to work, then I don't mind throwing some away. As I've mentioned, I don't have access to an internal floppy right now, and an USB one won't work.

Hey Shadow, is there anything else I need to add besides the AWDFLASH.exe, 1805.bin, and the autoexec.bat file? Those three should make my comp run again (hopefully!)?
 
crazjayz said:
Meh, I have a bunch of CDRs and if gets me back to work, then I don't mind throwing some away. As I've mentioned, I don't have access to an internal floppy right now, and an USB one won't work.

Hey Shadow, is there anything else I need to add besides the AWDFLASH.exe, 1805.bin, and the autoexec.bat file? Those three should make my comp run again (hopefully!)?
Click to expand...

How are you making the CD? Are you creating a bootable floppy image with all the files you need and then using something like UltraISO to create a bootable CD-R? Or did you just copy the files straight to the CD (meaning they can be read in Explorer).
 
ryan_975 said:
How are you making the CD? Are you creating a bootable floppy image with all the files you need and then using something like UltraISO to create a bootable CD-R? Or did you just copy the files straight to the CD (meaning they can be read in Explorer).
Click to expand...

I actually use UltraISO to burn the CDs. I just dragged the (then) 2 files over and selected both of them and click the "make bootable CD" button. As I said previously, the CDROM check passed but then it was stuck flashing on the "Automatic load AWDFLASH". I'm about to try with the autoexec.bat file included. But you do bring up a good point. Does anyone who uses UltraISO know if I'm doing this correctly? I don't really want to waste another CD.
 
crazjayz said:
I actually use UltraISO to burn the CDs. I just dragged the (then) 2 files over and selected both of them and click the "make bootable CD" button. As I said previously, the CDROM check passed but then it was stuck flashing on the "Automatic load AWDFLASH". I'm about to try with the autoexec.bat file included. But you do bring up a good point. Does anyone who uses UltraISO know if I'm doing this correctly? I don't really want to waste another CD.
Click to expand...

I just found this, and it might help you out.

http://www.asus.com/999/html/events/mb/crashfreebios2.htm

I think you have to have your original CD that Asus provided with your motherboard.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top