Disaster flashing bios

DanGerMus

Basically i wanted to upgrade my bios (from F4 to F6g) for my Gigabyte p965 ds3p (rev3.3) so i can plug in my new e8400. first i tried qflash in the bios which went through no problem but when i restarted i was still on the old bios F4. So then i tried the @bios flash utility from windows and it also went through like it was supposed to, prompted me to restart and then nadda. PC won't boot or even post. It keeps restarting and tries to post then restarts itself again.

All i can figure is that the new bios is a dud and what i think i've stupidly managed to do is flashed the new bios to both the main and backup bios.

Anyone know a way i can flash the bios externally?

Spear

DanGerMus wrote: »

Anyone know a way i can flash the bios externally?

You can take out the BIOS, put it into another motherboard with the same BIOS socket while it's running and reflash it there. As dodgy as it sounds, it does work and I've done it myself before successfully.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15104

blackgold>>

Did you actually power off your computer after flashing it the first time?
Thank god for protected mode :eek:

DanGerMus

i have a similar working gigabyte board but i don't think eiter have a removeable bios chip. not that i can see anyway.

Blackgold like i said i used the @bios utility which is windows based. When it finished flashing the bios it prompted me to restart the pc. As far as i can see i did what i was supposed to.

When i used the qflash in the bios i just restarted after it finish flashing, again like it tells you to do.
I can't have done both these methods incorrectly to produce the same result, can i?

Now that i think of it after i first flashed the new bios using the in bios method the comp restarted but before it posted it turned off for a sec and then on again. this seems to me like it was jumping away from the new bios back to the old backup.

So i then tried the in windows method.

PogMoThoin

Try a long cmos clear with battery removed. You know how to clear cmos by moving the jumper? It'll be in the manual anyways.

I've looked at a pic of your mobo, bios chip isn't removable, contact supplier to get them to sort RMA.

TerrorFirmer

Ah, that sucks. I always use the @bios in windows, but always cringe in anticipation of disaster upon restart. So far so good.

TonyM.

http://s219846715.e-shop.info/

BiosflashUK WILL SELL YOU A NEW CHIP OR FLASH YOUR OLD ONE.

PogMoThoin

TonyM. wrote: »

http://s219846715.e-shop.info/

BiosflashUK WILL SELL YOU A NEW CHIP OR FLASH YOUR OLD ONE.

No good 2 him, bios isn't a removable eprom chip, its soldered in2 mobo. Rma da only option

I've only lately started using windows to do bios flashes, have always used floppy up till now cos of the horror stories I've heard. But I thought windows flashes were safe nowadays, just shows. I'm using memory card for flashes anymore

DanGerMus

I really think that the problem here is a bad bios setting rather than a bad flash. i reckon it's on there like it should be and doesn't work. Reading up on it now i've found that apparently you're supposed to go into the backup bios after flashing and then select the optomised defaults. Then restart with the new chip. This is something that gigabyte fail to tell you when downloading the bios. It should really come with a readme. There are directions for the @bios utility but they don't mention this. I've flashed bios before and never had to go in and reset anything to get it to work and i did try to read up on it before. i sent a tech request to gigabyte yesterday around 12 noon which was 8pm there local time and i've not got a reply yet. nearly 36 hours you'd think they'd have gotten back to me by now. I'm gonna try overclockers.co.uk now (where i got it) hopefully they'll be a bit speedier.

DanGerMus

If i RMA it do you think i should just play dumb and say i dunno just stopped working. or explain everything cos i'm not sure if bios upgradeing is covered.

PogMoThoin

Have you tried a long cmos clear?
You should always load optimised defaults in the bios after a bios flash, thats nothing new

astrofool

CMOS clear first before worrying about RMA, you might need to move a jumper to do it.

DanGerMus

the manual says to either remove the battery for a few minutes or to short these two pins together for 5 second. i've tried both. i have the battery out now and i'm gonna leave it for an hour or so and if that doesn't work i'll try over night.

blackgold>>

It takes 5 seconds not overnight .

DanGerMus

Yes... i know... i just said that in my last post. But as suggested by Pog i'm gonna try a long clear just in case, it's not like it's doing anything else is it.

PogMoThoin

I meant long as in 10 mins

DanGerMus

fair nuff then thats been tried. just i read on that biosrepair site that sometimes over night should be tried. Anyway i'm RMAing it now to overclockers. Incedently i can get a used one from dabs for bout 40 quid. Depending on how much postage costs me i might just buy that not sure on the rev though. Also i might consider some p35 boards lotsa used ones goin cheap on dabs too.

DanGerMus

hey guys i'm rmaing this to overclockers on monday only problem is they insist on the LGA775 socket protector being in place i don't think i still have it tbh. Also i have watercooled the Nb i still have the original heatsink just not the little plastic holders and springs. Anyone have either of these lying around that i could get?

extra-ordinary_

I've got the socket protector plate but with postage an'all you'd probably be better going into some shop that builds/repairs systems.

DanGerMus

hey guys i finally got the bits i needed and sent this off last week. Well i got an email on the 25th saying they recieved it and it would take 5-7days to test. Tehn the folloing day at 9:15am they emailed me to say they were returning my item but failed to tell me what the results of their testing was.
Well i got it back today with a nice little note reading: There was no fault found. Please check you other hardware or software.

I'm on evenings so i'll check in the morning, again, my setup but i get the feeling they did bollox all as they barely had it 24hrs. Anyone else ever had problems RMAing to overclockers.co.uk?

Considering the price of the board now i might just write the whole thing off as it would cost me more in returning the thing plus headaches than to just replace it but the fact that they're saying it's fine is bugging me cos i know it's borked. I'll get back in the morning tolet you know. Off to bed now.
But on that note anyone got good ideas for a xfire board that will clock e8400 really well, plus 4ghz on water. Budget is healthy.

Jackovarian

any chance it was a pheonix bios chip???

if so i could have helped you.

blackgold>>

If you can't get it to work i'll buy it off you pm me if all else fails.
Cheers dan.

astrofool

I'd guess they plugged it in on a bench with RAM/CPU/GFX attached and it booted without problem. They may have gone as far as installing windows on it to check all was well, would take less than an hour to test.

Would you have felt better if they took the full 7 days?

DanGerMus

Jackovarian wrote: »

any chance it was a pheonix bios chip???

if so i could have helped you.

It's and award bios, but thanks for the offer.

astrofool wrote: »

I'd guess they plugged it in on a bench with RAM/CPU/GFX attached and it booted without problem. They may have gone as far as installing windows on it to check all was well, would take less than an hour to test.

Would you have felt better if they took the full 7 days?

I don't know what they did with it but they didn't test it like that. The bios is without any doubt corrupted and does not post at all. I've tested it with different psu gfx and ram all of which i know work because they are from the pc i'm typing on right now.
I would have gladly waited 7 days and got some feedback in the meantime about how they tested it so i could ask them to try another way than for them to just send it back without telling me anything.

astrofool

DanGerMus wrote: »

It's and award bios, but thanks for the offer.




I don't know what they did with it but they didn't test it like that. The bios is without any doubt corrupted and does not post at all. I've tested it with different psu gfx and ram all of which i know work because they are from the pc i'm typing on right now.
I would have gladly waited 7 days and got some feedback in the meantime about how they tested it so i could ask them to try another way than for them to just send it back without telling me anything.

These companies are quite bad at telling you what they did, however, from experience, they'll have done what I described above, meaning they got it booting with their CPU/Gfx/RAM, so there must be a incompatibility somewhere. The 7 day figure would come from the turn around time, not testing time, if they had a lot to test, they might have only got to your board on the 7th day.

However, if you are sure it's broken, I'd also follow up on what they test it with and how, and if that fails, you might be able to go to Gigabyte themselves direct for help (and yes, it's head off wall frustrating to deal with online companies when things go wrong).

DanGerMus

It's a bad flash pure and simple all the gear worked fine before together for over a year, then i flashed it now it doesn't post. I'm gonna email them again to see if i get anywhere. I'll keep you posted.

The reason i posted my difficulty is i've heard of people having trouble rmaing stuff to ocuk before. i'm sure there was one person who had to send them a mobo 3 times before they replaced it. Just wanted to know other experiences with them.

astrofool

Make sure you tell them what you're testing it with so they can't fob you off. Ive had a couple of RMA's with them, both went well, but someone else I know hasn't had a good experience.

Never had a problem with Komplett for RMA.