bad flash (involves hdd)

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

by **ruthlez.rampage** » Thu May 13, 2010 5:11 pm

I hope this is the place to put this. I recently flashed my bios with what I thought was the right one. Guess I was wrong. Computer was working fine with no problems, then after the flash my computer now locks up at the first screen which is the oem screen where you access the bios or boot sequence. I unplugged everything and plug everything back in one at a time to find my problem (hdd). When power is supplied to the hdd computer locks up, when no power is supplied I can access the bios or run a disc. Now this is any hdd for I have tried three different ones and i get the same result. When I enter the bios I can plug my hdd in and it is detected (I know your not supposed to do this from my research) but when bios is exited same problem. My question is how could flashing the bios make this problem arise and how can I solve it. And yes I have removed everything, including battery and switching the jumper to clear cmos. I am not sure if this is relevant but after clearing the cmos start up screen says "checksum error defaults loaded". specs below.

Gateway GT5242E
motherboard manufacnturer:fic
motherboard models:ktbc51g
socket:939
bios:Phoenix-Award workstation 6.00pg
bios version: nab26gw
bios ID string: C51MCP51-6A61HF0AC-00
bios date= 5/15/06
HDD= seagate 160 gb (original one)

I have gone through both the gateway and fic websites looking for a manual or even the original bios and have come up empty handed.

by **Denniss** » Fri May 14, 2010 1:55 pm

Your board was probably a specific revision built for Gateway with some hardware modifications compared to the retail version. EDIT: Bios version suggests it's a Gateway version
Where did you get your Bios from ?

Where exaxtly does the Bios lock?
Is it enough to have the HDD connected to your board to lock up or does it onyl lock up after trying to boot ?
SATA or PATA/IDE drive ?
Is ther an option in Bios to switch the SATA operating mode from native/AHCI to compatible ?
What happens if you onyl connect the HDD, removing the IDE/SATA cables for optical drives?

by **ruthlez.rampage** » Sat May 15, 2010 12:35 am

Where did you get the bios from? I believe it was from bios-mods.com

Where exactly does the Bios lock? If I understand your question correctly, the computer locks up on the OEM splash screen where it has the option to enter the bios, but doesn't allow me to do anything. I can enter the bios with no problem, changes settings,etc.., if the HDD power is disconnected.

Is it enough to have the HDD connected to your board to lock up or does it onyl lock up after trying to boot ? The computer will load past OEM screen with HDD connected to mother board, only with the power supply (P4 or P5) not plugged in. If I plug my hard drive in while in the bios, it detects. It locks up and every reboot.

SATA or PATA/IDE drive ? IDE driver. Are IDE and PATA the same thing?

Is ther an option in Bios to switch the SATA operating mode from native/AHCI to compatible ? I will have to hook the computer back up to find out this answer for you. Would you be able to point me in the direction it is in the bios?

What happens if you onyl connect the HDD, removing the IDE/SATA cables for optical drives? It still locks up. Even if i hook it up as the secondary IDE it looks up.

by **Denniss** » Sat May 15, 2010 3:00 pm

So it's an IDE drive. Please try the following:
Jumper your HDD as Cable Select. If possible, test another IDE cable. Make sure the black end is connected to your HDD and the colored end (usually blue) is connected to your motherboard. Do not connect anything more to this cable.

No need to touch SATA if there's no drive attached.
If there's an option in Bios to disable the OEM splash screen then please disable it.
Do you still have your original Bios?

by **edwin** » Sat May 15, 2010 7:36 pm

Would not be surpised if that is the BTX version of this board:
http://www.e4allupgraders.info/dir1/mot ... c51g.shtml

In that case forget finding anything about it other than through gateway/emachines. BTX is dead, the standard never flew...

by **ruthlez.rampage** » Sun May 16, 2010 11:00 pm

Denniss wrote:So it's an IDE drive. Please try the following:
Jumper your HDD as Cable Select. If possible, test another IDE cable. Make sure the black end is connected to your HDD and the colored end (usually blue) is connected to your motherboard. Do not connect anything more to this cable.

No need to touch SATA if there's no drive attached.
If there's an option in Bios to disable the OEM splash screen then please disable it.
Do you still have your original Bios?

I tried the ide cable from the disc drive, seeming how that one works. Hooked blacked end to HDD and blue to board (no go still). There is a option to disable the oem splash screen, so i disabled it. Did you need any information from this screen? I used bitdefender recovery cd and wasn't able to find my back up I made. I never had original, and can't find it anywhere. But I was able to extract the oembios,sig,and dat files. only problem is the oembios is like 12.5 mb and I don't know how to extract the files or do i heavily compress it. I tried isobuster but it just gave me two weird files and that was as far as I could go with the trial version. Just wanted to thank you Denniss for all your suggestions. If you have anymore, or could explain to me how this happened (I know it was because of the flash) with the HDD I would greatly appreciate it. I did mention all HDD do the same thing right?

edwin wrote:Would not be surpised if that is the BTX version of this board:
http://www.e4allupgraders.info/dir1/mot ... c51g.shtml

In that case forget finding anything about it other than through gateway/emachines. BTX is dead, the standard never flew...

Thank you for the link edwin, thought i saw a light at the end of the tunnel. I remember reading in one of the forums the gateway bought emachines so they had to use this board in some of them. I wonder if i cruise the emachines site maybe i will get lucky. I don't know if this matters but i believe my board is refurbished because there are random stickers on the board, that cover up the silk print of whatever the original board was. Plus it has all foxconn parts in it, including the socket the says 'foxconn socket 939 LF'. I looked up the LF and found Ledtek/foxconn had made some mother boards together. Is BTX a smaller vision because I remember my model having the micro sign in front (you know the one that looks like a backwards four.)

by **ruthlez.rampage** » Sun May 16, 2010 11:10 pm

Here is a link to the motherboard that is in my machine "supposedly." It says it is made by FIC but no where on the board does it say first international computers/corporation. There was no sticker on the bios chip either only the pmc number.

motherboard link: http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/F ... 53nv.shtml

by **edwin** » Tue May 18, 2010 11:03 pm

Nope, no First International Computer anywhere, this is an OEM board, not a retail board. It is BTX, notice how everything is mirrored compared to the board I linked to. Foxconn make motherboards but also seperate components like CPU sockets, they sell them to other board manufacturers. The stickers are there to hide the true identity of the maker and keep them free from people buying an emachine/Gateway and wanting bios upgrades like on a retail board. Part of the deal for cheaper delivery to the OEMs like Dell/Gateway/Packard Bell/HP whatever is they do the support, not FIC or Asus or Foxconn or whoever fabricated the board.

You got the bios from bios-mods.com which kind of makes them responsible for this mess and it also means they should get you out of it as well, so, let them come up with a method to flash your old bios back so you get a machine with some problems but at least will go past the initial bios-screen.