Bios update failed, pc doesnt boot anymore

[submix8c]

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.

It's called the Boot Block (common knowledge for fools that flash, like me). It's your Salvation on Intel MoBos (as I had stated before) when "blind flashing". That's the reason for putting ALL parameters in so you don't have to "respond" ("silent flash").

Try what Trip said - find the "undocumented jumper" (if it exists) and/or the "blind flash" WITH THE CORRECT BIOS (or you are even MORE toast!).

BTW, you'd be amazed at what you can find on a MoBo just by visually inspecting it...

edit @Trip - yep - that board is OverClockable! Bad to do that stuff!

Edited May 19, 2011 by submix8c

[HawkAgent]

Today I unmounted the PSU and let it checked by a pro, he did the short green to black to see if it's working, and indeed the psu is fine.

I have located the two bios blocks on my motherboard, but I don't see any jumpers nearby. The only jumpers I see are the clr_cmos jumpers. I took a picture of my mobo so you guys can see it, maybe I'm overlooking something

The red circle should be the clr_cmos, and the green circle indicates where the backup and main bios modules are.

Also I have found under page 59 in the manual

BIOS Recovery: Backup to Main
The means that the Backup BIOS works normally and could automatically recover the Main BIOS.
(This auto recovery utility is set by system automatically and can’t be changed by user.)

So this explains why there are no jumpers to choose which bios to boot from?

My motherboard is rev 2.0, I have found the drivers on the gigabyte website, for now I can't do anything with it though because I don't know where I can get access to a system that supports floppy's, all computers I can use doesn't have a floppy drive. Actually my computer doesn't have a floppy drive either, but I do have an old floppy drive lying around somewhere so I might eventually get it to work. It would be alot easier if I can use USB to boot, but is this at all possible?

[allen2]

Could you post all your specs ( cpu / ram / video card ) ?

[jaclaz]

Remove EVERYTHING (yes, including video card and RAM) and try booting.

Do you get any "POST beep code"?

Maybe (just maybe ) it behaves like the BX-2000 mentioned here:

http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/awardbeep.htm#

Award BIOS 4.51PG/Gigabyte GA-BX2000: Five short beeps sound when the main BIOS is corrupted and the spare BIOS has to be loaded as only choice for successful boot. Submitted by Andy

jaclaz

[HawkAgent]

Motherboard: GigaByte GA-965P-DS4 rev 2.0

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (Allendale), E6400, Socket 775

RAM: TwinMos Memory Kit, 2048 MB, DDR2, PC6400, 800 MHz

VGA: EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS Superclocked, 320 MB, GDDR3, PCI

DVD: Samsung SH-S183L, Serial ATA150, Black

I have tried booting with only cpu and psu, still no beeping whatsoever.

[jaclaz]

I have tried booting with only cpu and psu, still no beeping whatsoever.

I am afraid that your only way out is then to change the motherboard.

Most probably there are ways to fix it, but they would require either parts/tools, like (examples):

http://www.arlabs.com/incircht.htm#CHIP CLIP

http://www.biosman.com/biosrecovery.html

or "knowledge" that will cost you much more than the actual price of a working (possibly used to save a few bucks) similar MB.

Maybe you can go back to the "professional" and have him/her use a hardware or POST diagnostics card.

These are "strange beasts", compare prices between:

http://cgi.ebay.com/UltraX-Ultra-X-PHD-P-H-D-PCI2-Hardware-Diagnostic-Card-/120725337646?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item1c1bca762e

http://www.jazdtech.com/techdirect/company/Ultra-X-Inc/PHD-PCI-2.htm?categoryPath=IT-Services%2FIT-Benchmarking-Services&supplierId=60020715&productId=60040855

and:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-ISA-PCI-Analyzer-Diagnostic-PC-Test-Card-Probe-POST-/150327778846?pt=Motherboards&hash=item23003bde1e

The fact it doesn't beep should mean that there is no actual POST, but I seem to remember to have seen non-beeping motherboards that however did initiate POST.

jaclaz

[Tripredacus]

I've always been annoyed by non-beeping motherboards. There was always the "easy" test to see if something was wrong with an Intel board (it doesn't work on MSI or AOpen tho) which is to take all the RAM out and turn it on. If you got no beeps, the board was bad. But like I said, other manufacturers' boards didn't always beep at all (or even have speakers) so this test only worked for Intel that I am aware of. You can ask someone, does your computer beep when you turn it on? But people don't usually remember if they do or not.

[allen2]

This motherboard doesn't have a built-in speaker, you need to connect one on the front panel connector (read the page 25 of the manual). And it does beep, i just tried mine.

[HawkAgent]

Oh i think i misunderstood. Yes, normally it does beep at POST, but now it doesn't beep, supposedly because it doesn't get to the POST screen.

I'm still in progress getting a floppy with the correct bios files, but will it also work if I put the recover bios files on an usb stick and boot on usb? Is this at all possible?

[allen2]

If it doesn't beep at all, you should try removing everything and the cpu and remove all psu cables then remove the mainboard from the case then remove the psu from the case. Then you need to a find a desk or anything that won't conduct electricity to work on. Remove power cable from psu or turn it off if it has a built in switch. Check the mainboard with your eyes and nose to find there is something burnt. If not, then connect the psu to the mainboard with the atx 2.0 psu connector. Then connect the 4 pin power connector. Now plug the power cable on the psu or turn its switch on. Then try to power on the mainboard using a screwdriver to short the 2 pins of the power switch (see picture). It most likely won't do anything. Then power off the psu and remove its connectors to the mainboard. Wait 10 min. Then seat the cpu in the motherboard with its cooler but don't connect the fan to the mainboard. Then connect the psu to the mainboard as done previously. Power on the psu and try to power on the mainboard as explained previously (be sure to not let it powered on for more than 3 min as without fan, you could harm the cpu even if it's supposed to automaticaly shutdown when overheating). If it beeps, you can try seating the memory using the same steps and repeat the same steps for each new component you're connecting. If it doesn't beep, then power off the psu, then find a 3/5cm of electric wire and short the green and black as explained previously (be sure to block the wire at the back of the atx connector as shown in the second picture and check it with a tester). Then power on the psu and the mainboard might start. If the mainboard beeps, then you might be able to get it back working but not for long time (you'll need to replace it).

[puntoMX]

I'm still in progress getting a floppy with the correct bios files, but will it also work if I put the recover bios files on an usb stick and boot on usb? Is this at all possible?

I don't recall, but most dual BIOS motherboards from Gigabyte do search on the HDD as well, try to copy the BIN file to the root on the HDD. Now, 2 BIOS chips fubared looks more like you have to look at low level I/O, thus forget fixing it yourself and get a new S775 mobo. Did you use RAID?

[HawkAgent]

So I took out my mobo from the case and searched but couldn't find anything that is burnt. I removed everything from the mobo, seated my cpu and plugged in the case speaker, connected the power chord with the mobo and connected a fan to the psu to check when it's powered on. Connected the powerswitch to the mobo, tried to run the computer, but still the constant reboot is going on, I hear no beep. From this I can only conclude either my cpu or my mobo is broken. I think i'm just gonna take this chance to upgrade my system (Have been working on this pc for 4 years)

I want to thank all of you guys helping me, giving me all the feedback and such