[Allyda]

I have a Gigabyte motherboard that doesn't have the dual BIOS feature (p4 titan 533) and during a necessary BIOS upgrade flash using Gigabyte's "a flash" utility an accident occurred or something like maybe a corrupt download of the new BIOS file itself? In any case now my machine will power on but that is all. No video, nothing and the hard drive activity LED stays lit constantly.
My question is, is there any way to recover from this?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Wrench97]

Try doing a CMOS reset by unplugging the pc and moving the jumper on the reset_cmos pins from 2&3 to 1&2 and back again replug and see if it boots

 

[Allyda]

I've tried resetting CMOS 4-5 times to no avail. This is a critical machine in my network so I hope there is another option. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Wrench97]

Not usually without the equipment to reburn the bios chip I don't think it has a socketed chip but have a look here> http://www.biosman.com/

 

[linderman]

looks like a socketed bios chip to me http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/ViewImage.aspx?ProductID=1300

...... which means you can get a new bios chip from ebay or biosman link that Wrench posted

not a biggie & they will put the latest bios file you were chasing on the new chip

 

[linderman]

see if you can boot from a floppy disk are you familiar with this ?

 

[linderman]

can you give us a close up digital pic of the chip next to the cmos battery

 

[Allyda]

I'm a technician myself before I became disabled and now do this in my spare time. I built all 4 of my machines in my network of which, the machine in topic is the oldest (going on 4 years old). However I have never faced this issue before for I avoid updating BIOS as much as possible. In this case the original BIOS had become corrupted and I was left with no choice. This machine has sentimental value to me otherwise I'd just get a new board given it's age.
I cannot provide a photo of the area of the board at this time (it's too dark in my computer room at night). I do think I know what your getting at and will check to see if the BIOS chip is replaceable and post once I've had a look.
Great suggestion, thanks.:1angel:

 

[Allyda]

OK, the BIOS chip is non removable. It's permanently attached to the board and not in a socket.
The machine doesn't have a floppy drive. As far as booting to a CD/DVD?, the drives seem to power up normally however with no video I haven't tried. I have however downloaded the correct BIOS firmware from Gigabyte and burning it to a CD & trying that was going to be my last ditch effort to save the motherboard unless I can find another option for I'd be doing it blind with no video and am assuming it will be a futile effort for without the video I'll have no on screen instruction to go by.
Thanks for your replies.

 

[linderman]

there are instructions in your motherboard manual (manual can be downloaded off the giga website) for crashfree bios recovery ,,,,,,, I suggest you exaust that avenue

other than that ...... its off to gigabyte for an RMA

NEVER use the windows bios flashing utilities ! this is a common problem when using the windows based flashing tools! I have no idea why they even put this method in their manual ........................ as far as I am concerned if an end user doesnt have either a floppy dirve or USB pen drive then they are not ready to flash the bios safely

the bootable DOS utility for bios flashing is very competent and safe ...... 99% effective I would dare say ....... if you can launch the DOS based utility then you have done the hard part of bios flashing ........ unfortunately ..... the horse has already escaped the barn ........

 

[Allyda]

I already have the manual. It was the first thing I downloaded when this problem occurred. I have USB thumb/flash drives also (are these what you mean by "pen drive?"). I also have a USB floppy drive. Before this accident happened the machine was set to boot first from CD/DVD drive. Though I don't know if this is still the case given the accident both DVD drives seem to power up normally as before. Which of these do you recommend I try re-flashing from first?

This was my first time trying Gigabytes "a flash" utility and I guarantee it will be my last.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[linderman]

I am confident your board has a dual bios ...... you will need to review the bios recovery section

 

[Allyda]

Motherboard in topic P/N: GA-8SR533. Unfortunately for me no, it does not have the Dual Bios Feature.

I've had and do have 1 Gigabyte motherboard left P/N: GA-8IEXP that does have the dual bios feature and am familiar with it. However my experience with the latter and the others like it with their touchy memory configurations make them unreliable. In fact, the latter was the original board bought for this machine however during bench tests I've never been able to get a video from it no matter what memory/video card combination I tried. It is for this reason I bought the second board (GA-8SR533) that is in the machine now having the problem. Though in theory I could dust this board off out of storage and try it again I couldn't get a video with it before?, well, you get the idea.

I'm open to all suggestions for I'm losing money every day this computer is down. Please, keep them coming for being in a fixed income as I am, I can't really afford a new board nor can I buy one until after the 1st. Thanks

 

[linderman]

I havent seen many P4 era bios chips that were soldered in ........ can you give a digital pic of the bios chip

other than that ....... all I can offer you is a P4 asus board that you could pay for after the 1st of the year ........ beyond that ...... if the bios chip is for sure soldered in ...... the only way to fix that is with eprom programming equipment thru a serial port

 

[Allyda]

What processor socket & DDR is your ASUS board?

 

[linderman]

asus P4P800-E Deluxe socket 478

has a Prescott 3.2ghz cpu and heat sink

has 4 x 512 mb memory

ATI X1300 video card


check your Pm's

 

[Allyda]

I replied to your private message. I should have read this first-my bad. I'll look all of this up and give you a private answer later on tonight then we can discuss the details.

I can't thank you enough.

 

[Allyda]

Looks like it's perfect for my needs. Please check your pm's where we can discuss the details.

Thanks a billion!!

 

[linderman]

happy to help .....