bios update

[headhunter82]

Hey guys, I am kinda new to this forum, but i have a problem with my new computer that I just built, specifically the bios, and i was wondering if anyone who had a similar problem might be able to give me some tips. Here's the deal:

I assembled my computer pretty much from scratch,

AMD athlon 2400 xp
asus a7n8x-x
radeon 8500 (from my old machine)

basically, I got everything up and running with winXP. no problems. then (stroke of genius) decided to fiddle with the bios settings. did that, save and exit, and, as the computer booted back up right after I did that, the screen stopped in boot up saying the following:

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting floppy drive A media...
INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

so, of course, I don't have a boot disk. I go to the asus website, throw awdflash.exe and a bios update on there, so that I can flash the BIOS ROM. I put the disk in, and awardbios flash utility runs.

HERE IS THE PROBLEM

so the program doesn't seem to be able to functio properly. There is a space to define the "Flash Type", where it just has a "-" when there should be something like "Pm49FL004T LPC/FWH" (at least that is what is on the screen in the manual, it may not be that, but it should be something...) and then, at the bottom it says:
"Message: Source File Not Found!"

Has anyone ever seen this. If you think I have ruined the motherboard, in addition to just saything that, can you please explain why i could ruin it with merely a software problem? I understand a little bit of technical talk, but I'm really curious as to any suggestions to get my freakin computer to boot up, thanks in advance.



music is my aeroplane

-rhcp

 

[pIII_Man]

make sure you put the file extention when you type the file name...most bios's are *.bin

example if the bioses name is BIOS.BIN make sure you write that...not just BIOS...

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz...

 

[headhunter82]

just to clarify a little further. Once it gets to that screen where it apparently cannot identify the type of flash type and gives me that error message, it basically freezes. It won't let me type anything, so I can't type in the name of the new bios update I am trying to install. no key on the keyboard works.

This is a stretch, since I don't know anything about this, but it seems as though it is trying to read the old bios off the motherboard before it asks me to enter the new bios. I don't know why it is doing this, but since the existing bios is corrupted (checksum error), it can't read it and therefore displays "Message: Source File Not Found!" and therefore doesn't let me enter a new bios. I could be totally wrong.


help.

music is my aeroplane

-rhcp

 

[pat]

Did you clear the BIOS with the jumpers and then restarted the computer?

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[4Ryan6]

So you fiddled with the CMOS settings, got to aggressive with them, the M/B wouldn't accept them, so it automatically cleared the CMOS when it rebooted, resulting in a (checksum error), which all you had to do to solve, was to go back into the CMOS and apply the setup Defaults, and then reinput the missing CMOS data from there(like Date, Time, Etc.) At that point you really didn't have a problem, but for some reason you decided to flash the M/Bs BIOS, it didn't properly Flash, and now you have a problem. Yes! Now you have a problem, without the skills you need to do a flash, it would be better to let someone do it, that knows what they're doing, you'll probably end up sending the M/B back to the manufacturer to straighten out what you've done. Flashing a BIOS is serious business, and if you do it wrong, you could end up with a nice conversation piece of what not to do, if you don't have a clue as to what you're doing, don't do it.


Just for the heck of it, find the Clear CMOS jumper on the M/B, follow the instructions in your M/Bs manual to clear the CMOS, restart the computer and hold down the delete key and see if you can get into the CMOS, if you can reset the date and time, and apply the BIOS or SETUP defaults and see if the machine will come up on its own, if it won't well send it back to have it reprogramed.

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