Bios update failed, pc doesnt boot anymore

[HawkAgent]

So one day I was doing my things on the pc, then suddenly i got the blue screen of death. I press the restart button, then instead of going straight to windows, the bios decides to update himself (I see a progress bar alternately saying 'updating bios' and 'erasing old bios'), I thought ok cool update means better right? However then it says bios update failed, since then it fails to boot. I press power button, after 1 sec it automatically powers off. Also nothing shows up on the monitor.

I'm desperate. What should I do?

My motherboard is Gigabyte S-Series 965P-DS4

Edited May 18, 2011 by HawkAgent

[Kelsenellenelvian]

This whole thing is not normal behavior.

Personally I think you may be screwed.

However as a last ditch effort remove your towers power cord, mobos cmos battery and press the power button to fully drain the memory.

Then put everything back together and see if you get some kind of normal boot behavior.

Edit: After some googleing I have found others with this issue (OR you have asked elswhere) you are most definatly FUBARed....

Edited May 18, 2011 by Kelsenellenelvian

[HawkAgent]

In my motherboards manual it says I can 'clear cmos' by putting a jumper onto two specific pins, I assume clearing cmos means resetting bios? Will this work?

Edit: done this, still the same...

Edited May 18, 2011 by HawkAgent

[submix8c]

Also (to reinforce Kel's findings"

Dual Bios (sometimes not?)

Must be in BIOS (DEL key) to hit F8 to get into QFlash (the "bios flash")

Can't get into BIOS

-catch 22-

Second Update BIOS method requires... WINDOWS! ("@BIOS")

-catch 22-

The above is directly from the manual. Just sux! Once you get to where you can't even POST or not have a "blind flash" (from DOS - some Gateway/Intel MoBos can do this called "Recovery Mode"), you're kind of stuck with replacement.

[Tripredacus]

Some BIOSes (like Award) will accept a special CD at boot for an update. Its an annoying process and Its tricky getting it to fire. Is it an Award or AMI BIOS?

[HawkAgent]

Where do I check if it's award or ami bios?

I think Award, all the screenshots of the bios configuration screen in the manual says CMOS Setup Utility Copyright © - 1984-2006 Award Software

Edited May 18, 2011 by HawkAgent

[submix8c]

@Tripredacus - FWIW, here is the manual.

Sadly, the Jumper is a 2-pin "Open=Normal/Closed=Clear".

Whether a "Recovery BIOS Floppy" ("blind") method is possible isn't indicated (like older Intel's 3-pin jumpers).

Edited May 18, 2011 by submix8c

[HawkAgent]

Yes I did try resetting the cmos by putting a jumper on the two pins, I used a jumper from another motherboard that was lying around. Also tried re-installing the battery, nothing seems to work

I figured out when I hold the reset button while booting the pc does keep running, although that's it, it seems only some fans are running, I get no output signal to the monitor. When I unhold the reset button the pc goes back to the loop of running for 1 sec then powers off and again and again.

[submix8c]

OK, FWIW, you might try removing ("unhooking") all but the smallest RAM stick and all hardware peripherals (HDD/CD/etc) except the Keyboard. This would eliminate potential hardware problems (except the PSU). Otherwise...

[allen2]

That could also be the PSU, If you have a spare one, you should try with it.

[HawkAgent]

I've tried booting without HDD and DVD drive, still the same.

Unfortunately I don't have any spare power supply unit I can use, what can I do?

[allen2]

When you removed cmos battery and set the clear cmos jumper, did you removed the power cord ?

You might want to try things like shorting the power switch from the atx power cable: get a wire to connect the green and the black ( number 13 and 14) and it might work.

[allen2]

I have the same board (not running it currently) but you do have two bios so unless something has gone very wrong one of them should still work.

You should try removing all parts (cpu/ram /vga card/psu/case) then plug the mainboard to a speaker (see your manual) and only add the cpu and connect the psu only (so out of the case and nothing connected to the mainboard except the psu) and if it power on it should do beeps. Then add one component at time and try each time.

[HawkAgent]

I unhooked the power cord from the motherboard, removed the battery and placed a jumper on the two pins overnight, haven't worked.

I tried removing my vga card, ram, hdd, cd, it still does the same, runs for 1 sec then powers off, run for 1 sec then powers off and again and again.

I have not been able to remove the cpu because it kinda have been securely mounted, and removing it would be a real trouble.

What do you guys think is the problem?

[Tripredacus]

I have the same board (not running it currently) but you do have two bios so unless something has gone very wrong one of them should still work.

Yes there is a jumper for which BIOS version you want to use. The two sets are below the (first) PCI-E x16 slot. I don't see a real picture of the board yet. I am going to bet there is a jumper on the second block. The first block is the backup BIOS. Wonder if you can move the jumper to that one and see if it boots? You can see this on Page 7 of the manual. I didn't find where those were actually discussed! Maybe those are the chips and not jumper blocks?

The manual says it is an Award BIOS! However I can't seem to find the "correct" instructions but you can try this I guess. Get the appropriate BIOS version from Gigabyte's website. There looks to be 3 different board revs, I will use the 3.0 in this example. But make sure you get the appropriate one for your rev. The rev should be printed on the board somewhere. Change the autoexec.bat file that comes with the update using this format:

awdflash XXXXXXXX.BIN /py/sn/f/cc/r

So the one I downloaded would look like this:

flashpi 965pds4.f12 /py/sn/f/cc/r

Curious how they say you can use this method to recover the BIOS, but if the system doesn't POST, I can't see why booting off a floppy disk would work! This could be why:

2. The Award / Pheonix Award bios has a small part that is NOT flashed when a bios upgrade takes place. This bit of code is what starts the boot floppy.

Sorry, not linking to where quote came from.

But if that special part is damaged, you can't do a floppy boot and looks like chip swaps are the only way to fix that case... or get new motherboard.

HOWEVER, your symptoms of the system turning on and off like that is a common thing in 965 boards, at least Intel. The reason for it was that the board doesn't see the CPU and shuts off, but of course it turns back on to try again. You can try to reseat the CPU if you can as well. Considering the events that led to this problem of yours, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a hardware failure on the system. Either there was a heat or voltage issue, a bad cap, etc.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Tripredacus