DON'T upgrade MSI P35 Plat. to BIOS 1.2

[wolfman140]

MSI just posted their latest v1.2 BIOS on the site this weekend. So, like always I like to have the latest edition of everything. I updated to v1.2, went fine...BIOS came up afterwards, I changed to more custom settings and voila...nothing happened after next boot. Black screen, no post, no beeps, no errors...Just a black screen. Tried powering down, taking out the charge (depressing power button) and then clearing CMOS....Still a black screen.
So this for those of you who have already done this and are now looking for answers on another computer...

The only thing that worked was AMI Recovery...If you've got a floppy (or a USB drive that acts like a floppy) you have to put the BIOS version you want on it and rename it AMIBOOT.ROM
Once you turn on the power, hold Ctrl and Home to make it force read the floppy. Some text will come up indicating its loading that BIOS version.
Reboot

Afterwards, my CMOS Checksum was always 'bad' and nothing I did in BIOS would save...So afterwards you have to choose to boot from floppy and reload the BIOS the correct/usual way. Then it should behave like normal.

I think this just came out like...today...So I wonder if I'm the start of a wave of this garbage. So...three cheers for MSI for putting out trash like this!

 

[timmciglobal]

Is there anyway you could email me the bios file that works. I upgraded to 1.2 and same thing you describe happened to me. The post lights show "buffering bios to ram for quickboot" lights.

timmciglobal@hotmail.com or a link to where I can download them.

Thanks,

Tim

 

[nstod]

I upgraded to 1.2 from 1.0 (new mobo) with no problems. It did increase performance, however.

 

[rsetter1]

Contact MSI they will send you a new BIOS chip. Same thing happend here at work. They know they have a problem.

 

[Shinedog]

I had the same experience with a P35 Neo2 last night. I just got the board and a whole bunch of new components. Hooked everything up and surprisingly had all the connections right on the first try Anyway, installed Windows XP SP2, all the Windows updates and a bunch of programs I was going to use. Total time at this point, about 4.5 hrs working on it.

Installed MSI's LiveUpdate and ran it and it found a BIOS update so I downloaded it, ran the Windows version of the BIOS update, no errors as it erased and reprogrammed it, reboot, no POST. No video, no beeps, nothing. Dead. Like the guy above me, the lights on the board indicate something like "decompressing BIOS to RAM" most of the time although I do occasionally get a red/red/green/red which according to their manual means "bad or improperly installed RAM" which I find hard to believe since all worked well until the BIOS update.

I contacted MSI through their site at http://support.msi.com.tw/techSptlogin.php and I'm waiting a response now. Like the OP, I found the instructions for the emergency boot BIOS repair but I can't find a BIOS. When you go to the P35 Neo2 BIOS page, all it gives you is the LiveUpdate options. I found one on Google for the Neo2-FR that I was going to try (what the hell, it can't get any worse) but the CTRL-HOME doesn't seem to be working for me.

I'm willing to try any brand once and its once and done for me with MSI. Once burned, twice pissed off. I won't be buying or recommending any of their products in the future.

 

[deuter]

There is a new bios 1.3 for P35 Platinum in the web site. Anyone tried it?

 

[pasta1234]

Last night i thought i would give this msi live update things a try. I connected to the internet and sited my bios as having an update it proceeded to flash the bios and restarted on it own. After the restart the system failed to boot or even post for that matter.
I believe the update bios was number 1.3

I have tried various things,
1. Clearing cmos using switch
2. Tried Recovery method listed on MSIs website (using ctrl-home), no floppy access.

The system fans spin, but nothing shows on the screen its completely black.



Please let me know if anyone has any suggestions.

Pete

 

[Suliman]

Same thing here...

Went to upgrade to the Rev 1.3 for the P35 Platinum.

I even did this one from a boot disk. Said complete and to restart. Board has the "Decompressing Bios image to Ram..." indicator leds showing.

Tacked down a regular floppy, attached to the board via good ol floppy cable, Crtl+Home, boot, floppy dirve initializes, then nothing and still no video, no beeps, nothing (Yeah, digging through my ol pc piles for a pc speaker was great, thanks MSI for no little pizio speaker or anything on the board.)

 

[pasta1234]

It seems there are many users with this problem..
Take a look at the msi community forums...

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?board=8.0

I am not sure what i am going to do, probably gonna return the board.

Pete

 

[Suliman]

Well, done with messing with poor bios releases, let MSI fix their error, RMA'd for a replacement.

I'm not switching boards yet, I still think this has some great features for a P35 chipset board, and I've had very good results with MSI products in the past. I hope MSI gets the proverbial head out of their rears with these BIOS updates.

 

[deuter]

I had the same problem after updating bios to 1.3.

Here is how I fixed it...
1. Prepare two floppy disks: one for DOS boot; the other is the bios flash tool and 1.1 bios.
2. Clear CMOS
3. Turn on the computer. Keep pressing Reset button about every 5 seconds. After around 10 times, I can see it tried to boot from the floppy drive.
4. Insert the DOS boot disk and let it boot to the DOS.
5. Insert the second disk and flash the bios to 1.1 (Although the manual said don't flash it from a floppy disk, I did it without problems.)
6. Restart the computer and it seems to boot normally.

 

[Suliman]

Did you actually get video to show? I never could, even when it seemed to initialize the floppy disk.

 

[deuter]

Yes, I could see the MSI logo and all the text messages. Don't enter the BIOS setup screen or save the settings before flashing to 1.1. It seemed that once you updated the bios settings, it won't boot again.

 

[Shinedog]

I actually ended up fixing my own problem as MSI support was non-existent. When they finally did reply they just sent instructions for the emergency boot procedure which I already had told them in my original request didn't work for me (I was getting a problem where the disk would initially read for a second and then the light would stay lit on the floppy drive and it would never flash the BIOS).

Anyway, long story short, I tried so many combinations of things I'm not 100% sure what fixed it but I do remember the last thing I tried. I ended up stripping the connected components down to just the video card (8800 GTS, now the source of my headaches but that's a whole 'nother, issue), a single stick of memory (closest to the CPU) and the power supply. I even unplugged all the case connections, like HDD LED, Power LED, Reset SW, etc. Once I did that, it booted the 1.3 BIOS just fine. It then reported my second stick of RAM as bad via the LEDs when I tried to re-add it regardless of the slot so I figured maybe it was bad RAM all long so I left it out. The funny thing is that I added the second stick of RAM back in a couple days later and it no longer had a problem with it. Been working fine ever since. Stupid MSI.

 

[steelkilt]

Interestingly I had the same blank screen after upgrading the BIOS from ver 1.0 to 1.2 after assembling a new PC for myself. This is the first time I've used an MSI board as the basis for a new system and I thought I'd killed it after the flash. The diagnostics LEDs on the board indicated the same massage as reported in the other posts.

Anyhow while reaching for my laptop to look for a local service agent or replacement BIOS chip I restarted the PC to attempt a recovery and it booted up fine with BIOS ver 1.2.

I consider this to be a lucky escape and it's put me off moving to ver 1.3 for the time being, if it aint broke don't fix it I suppose but the upgrade does apparently improve both memory support and overclocking performance.

This being said I'm well pleased with the boards performance and stability, just not the upgrade utility.

 

[perham3d]

i got the p35 neo-fr2 and thought about updating the bios but then thought 'if it aint broke.....'

glad i thought that now cus otherwise it wud be broken and i wud be unhappy

 

[Cooperstown39]

steelkit, I had the exact same experience. In reading through some of the posts on the MSI user forum, it sounds like some folks were able to successfully upgrade to 1.2 but had problems when they tried to save any changes in the bios. I have been hesitant to make any changes to bios for fear of turning the board in to a paperweight. Have you been able to make changes to the bios, any OC'ing and save changes without problems? Would greatly appreciate hearing if someone was able to make this work.

 

[steelkilt]

I increased the memory voltage ok after the update with the intention of trying to tweak the memory timings, but I've since read the MSI forums (probably the same posts as yourself) and have decided to wait for a more 'stable' BIOS release. Interestingly ver. 1.2 is no longer available for download from the MSI website. I definately won't use the update monitor.

 

[Cooperstown39]

steelkit, thanks for the reply. I see they have a v 1.3 but this does not seem to be any better than v 1.2. Think I will wait for v 1.4 but given the poor history, I am not going to be one of the early adopters. Good luck with your system.

 

[anders_w]

So was 1.4 better?

I dug through a bunch of messages on the MSI forum.
It seems most problems are related to CL4 memory modules.

 

[Cooperstown39]

Just flashed to 1.4. The flash process (using LiveUpdate) went fine. I did have to shut-down, disconnect power, and push the cmos reset button on the board but, this is normal for an MSI board.

Only one minor issue (but took a little time to figure out). Received an error message after posting, as Windows was trying to load, that no hard disk was found. Windows would try to boot but couldn't get it started, even in the safe mode. Re-booting and entering the bios setup showed the bios accurately detected the hard drive. After several re-boots, noticed the boot-up screen was indicating the memory clock at 1067 (even though it is 800MHz). Apparently, the auto setting did not accuratly detect the SPD and set memory at 1067. It was only after setting the memory manually did it boot. I did not experience the problems others reported with 1.3 regarding the need to use a cheap memory module with high latencies. Used "Mushkin eXtreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) with EPP", at 4-4-4-12 2T with no problems.

I have tried some minor overclocking and so far, so good. I have not tried to save using the "User Profiles" (still not that brave yet) but the OC changes using a normal save & exit appear to work.

 

[Twex]

P35 Plat, upgraded the other day from original bios to 1.4 using the LiveUpdate tool. After reboot, had the same 2 led green 2 led red problem - decompress bios to ram. Powered off, cleared cmos, booted, same problem... Logged into here on the laptop and did some reading. Turned off/unplugged the power and Popped out the cell cmos backup battery, then let it stand for 15 minutes or so. Powered on (without cmos battery), and it POSTed. Powered down, popped the cell battery back in and it POSTed again... Note that when I checked the bios settings, the memory was set to 1066mhz, which is ok in my case since I run 8600 speed memory, but I don't know if this is the default - maybe it was smart enough to detect my memory speed.
Its been working well ever since... though did have one complete freeze when I tried to set it to 'quiet' mode via the control pad (running on vista32).

 

[will_59]

Hi Guys,

I wonder if anyone can help me, i have just tried to setup my P35 diamond, and it shows the first screen asking to either press delete or tab, to either enter bios or see post screen.

Anyway i press delete and it brings up another pageshowing my Cpu and ramm details, and will not enter bios.

I have tried everything even as far as upgrading power supply using new ddr3 ram, all components i have a compliant.

one thing i noticed is someone mentions 2 LEds red and 2 green what does this mean.

i am getting more and more frustrated as i seem to have done everything possible and tested every possible sceanrio

Please Help