WRong BIOS update

[D-03]

hello,
I updated by mainboard BIOS with the wrong update, now its totally dead. when I switch on my PC, the CPU fan spins but nothing else happens. What to do? I have a Biostar U8668R41-D main board. please help

 

[GhislainG]

The most recent BIOS is almost 5 years old. What prompted you to upgrade the BIOS after so many years? If the BIOS chip is in a socket, you can order a replacement either from Biostar or from a place like http://www.biosman.com/.

 

[D-03]

The most recent BIOS is almost 5 years old. What prompted you to upgrade the BIOS after so many years? If the BIOS chip is in a socket, you can order a replacement either from Biostar or from a place like http://www.biosman.com/.

Thanx GhislainG I was curios to know what difference a BIOS update would make. guess I learnt the hard way. Is it worthit to replace the chip or should I just get a new mainboard? I see its about $27.00 just for the chip....

 

[o1die]

Look for a new board. Computer geeks or ebay are your best options.

 

[gamerk316]

As a rule, especially if you board does not have a backup BIOS in case of a bad update, never update the BIOS without a reason.

 

[D-03]

Thanks guys, found some awesome mainboards and cpu's from Computer geeks.

 

[FALC0N]

hello,
I updated by mainboard BIOS with the wrong update, now its totally dead. when I switch on my PC, the CPU fan spins but nothing else happens. What to do? I have a Biostar U8668R41-D main board. please help

Have you tried to reflash or recover the bios?

 

[D-03]

I hv tried to reflash it but, my mainbord doesnt seem to be picking up my stiffy drive... so was unable to do anything. what i did was, created an autoexec.bat file put it on a stiffy together with the latest bios flash U8668R41.DDR and the award bios flash utillity. im totally cueless when it comes to these technical programming stuff. any tips?

 

[GhislainG]

What's a stiffy drive? A floppy drive? If so, it needs to be bootable and then you add the Autoexec.bat file, etc. Refer to http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/03/24/undo-award-bios-flash-and-recovery/ for more info. If you don't have a DOS bootable floppy, visit http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm and download one (DOS 6.22 iwould be fine).

 

[D-03]

What's a stiffy drive? A floppy drive? If so, it needs to be bootable and then you add the Autoexec.bat file, etc. Refer to http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/03/24/undo-award-bios-flash-and-recovery/ for more info. If you don't have a DOS bootable floppy, visit http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm and download one (DOS 6.22 iwould be fine).

thnx G, im learning

 

[FALC0N]

When you say stiffy drive, your refering to a floppy right? I heard that in some places, floppies are referred to as stiffys.

And yes it must be a bootable dos disk.

 

[D-03]

In South Africa we call the 1.44" a stiffy and the old big flimsy one a floppy.

This is what I have done:
1. created a boot disk using different PC.
2. added the BIOS update nl. (U8668R41.DDR) and changed the extension to .BIN instead of DDR
3. I added the flash nl. (awardflash_826g_dos.exe). the size of the flash is zero bytes. not sure if it actually works. the only one i could get for BIOSTAR
4. created an AUTOEXEC.BAT file with the following intructions in it:

awdflash U8668R41.BIN /py/cc/f/r

Is this correct? I doubt it coz. nothing happens when i boot up my pc...
thanks

 

[GhislainG]

Did you make sure that the floppy is bootable by booting another system from it (make sure that you first rename the autoexec.bat file to not flash the other system)?

The size of the flash can't be 0 bytes as it would be an empty and useless file. If need be, you could download the latest version from ftp://ftp.biostar-usa.com/drivers/utility/ (AWDFL882.EXE).

To work, the file has to be renamed from AWDFL882.EXE to AWDFLASH.EXE or you have to change your command line in Autoexec.bat.

Finally, is the floppy accessed when you power up the PC?

 

[D-03]

Thanx GhislainG, Il go try it out tonight. The floppy is not accessed - the green light doesn't go on and I don't hear the inside mechanicals, so no, i can confidently say its not accessed. What could be wrong? The same floppy drive works fine on a crappier PC. The DVD-rom and USB-port(when i plug in a USB stick) port seems to be accessed though?

 

[Ubrales]

Try this simple solution and see if it works. Remove the battery (usually a #2032 Lithium cell) from the mainboard. Leave alone for about 5 minutes. Insert the battery back into the mainboard. This will reset the BIOS to the original BIOS it came with.

 

[FALC0N]

It could be that the boot block was damaged. If so, this is all for naught.

 

[D-03]

It could be that the boot block was damaged. If so, this is all for naught.

Does that mean the board is rendered useless? Or can I still replace the BIOS chip?

 

[FALC0N]

Does that mean the board is rendered useless? Or can I still replace the BIOS chip?

If thats the case, you could replace or reprogram the chip.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Recovering-Dead-Motherboards-Killed-by-the-CIH-Virus/39

Here is an article which describes ways of recovering a bricked bios. Ignore the title. The virus listed would kill the bios. Thats why its titled "recovering motherboards killed by bla bla virus".

 

[D-03]

I got rid of my P4 board. Sold my 2 1GB DDR400 modules for $35.00 each and bought a 2nd hand ECS mainbaord socket 775 with FSB 1066MHZ, 1x 1GB DDR2 800MHZ and a 1.6 intel dual core all for $65.00!!!!!!

Im glad i corrupted my BIOS thnx 4 ur help guys!!!!!