Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Corrupted Bios and need a flash utility

Recommended by Wim's BIOS...

Hi

I recently tried to flash my Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe with the v1008 bios and unfortunately (very unfortunate) the award flash utility succeeding in doing what it does best (…or so I’ve heard) and that is failing miserably. While programming the flash utility jumped, and skipped sections (not just the boot block area either), and I knew before the computer restarted what I would see next.

Of course to no great degree of surprise I see Award boot block 1.0 CMOS Checksum error. So, on a faint grim hope I popped open my comp removed the mainboard battery and cleared the cmos via the jumper.

After fifteen minutes I closed it up and turned it on, and of course the same as above. So I created a bootable rescue floppy with award 8.23z, v1008 bios, and an auto-executing .bat. It would scan the floppy for a few seconds and then display the fallowing:

Flash Type- PMC Pm49FL004T LPC/FWH (probably wrong for my board)

File to Program- C18E1008.BIN

“The program file’s Bios-Lock String does not match your system”

Then I couldn’t do anything cursor was at the bottom. So I was searching through the forums here and I tried using dos-freak’s fake award.exe Boot block BIOS boot sector loader so that I could run a dos boot disk. Tried the above steps again except award was renamed to flash.exe and same cruddy deal.

I then tried using uniflash in place of award and created a new .bat to run uniflash. When I tried this, all I got was a continuous beep from uniflash and an unknown flash rom message. I am now at complete and total loss. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Drak

Okay I solved my own problem yay for me. Here is the exact steps I used to fix my system.

Set up Boot Floppy

1. Create a standard Boot disk via windows (on a working computer)
2. Add Dos-Freak's excellent Boot block BIOS boot sector loader utility to bypass the award boot block so you can run a Dos prompt. The utility can be found here http://dose.0wnz.at/awdblock.zip . (Note this should be named AWDFLASH.EXE when copied to boot disk)
3. Add Award Flash utility (I used 8.24B) to Boot Disk named as FLASH.EXE.
4. Add bios file (example C18E10U8.BIN)
5. Open Notepad and add the fallowing:

@ECHO OFF

FLASH ********.BIN /py /sn /cd /cc /cp /R /nbl

Replace the *’s with the bios file name. save the file as AUTOEXEC.BAT and save it to the Boot Disk. (I used the bios I attempted to flash previously when my bios was corrupted C18E10U8.BIN)

6. Finished making disk

With the boot disk completed insert it into your busted computer and turn it on.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT BIOS FILE FOR YOUR MAINBOARD THE RIGHT FILE, FOR THE RIGHT MODEL, FOR THE RIGHT REVISION. OTHERWISE YOU MIGHT BE IN DEEPER POOP!

Once inserted into the computer this will automatically (…if done correctly) flash the bios, boot block and all. All safeguards will be disabled and the chip overwritten. Neither I nor anyone else can and/or will be held responsible for actions you take. In other words PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

If it doesn’t load recheck the AUTOEXEC.BAT file for any errors.

As a final note I figured out how to fix my board when this happened but credit goes to Dos-Freak on the www.wimsbios.com forums for writing his awesome utility to make my instructions possible.

Drak

Hi,

I need help desperately!!!

My motherboard (Asus A7N8X Deluxe) bios is screwed, it seems to be corrupted. I tried to update the bios from Windows XP using Asus Update Utility to the latest v1008 and rebooted. Then from here on... it keeps booting up to the Award BootBlock v1.0 ... I have tried to flash with Asus's awdflash.exe and the correct bin files (tried all of them), it keeps telling me that its not the right image file crap. I've been down more than a week now.. Asus was not able to help ... I was research all over the internet and came across a few postings from different forums .. and the closest situation to my problem were the people who mentioned this guy Dos-Freaks' method or utility - it worked for a few people, but its not working for me so far.

Here is what I did...

- I made a bootdisk from Windows XP
- I downloaded your awdblock file which contains awdflash.txt, awdflash.exe , awdflash.asm, and then copied into the bootdisk I created.
- I created autoexec.bat containing below and copied to bootdisk.

---------------------------------------------------------
@ECHO OFF

FLASH AN8D1008.BIN /py /sn /cd /cc /cp /R /nbl
---------------------------------------------------------

- I renamed the original awdflash.exe to flash.exe and copied to bootdisk.
* then I inserted bootdisk and start up the computer, it started up and says the following:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Automatic Load AWDFLASH.EXE ...... * Initializing disk
Load bootsector
Executing bootsector:

Invalid system disk
Replace! the disk, and then press any key
-------------------------------------------------------------------

and it keeps repeating this the above... Invalid system...etc

I would be so grateful if anyone can help me out.. Thanks!!!

Kind regards,

Peter.

Ok first off, you are getting the award boot block prompt for a disk containing the original awdflash.exe and a bios image to flash. You insert it and get invalid system disk.

1. Get a different floppy disk.
2. Use another computer to format it as a boot disk.
3. Add the bios file you previously attempted to flash to the disk.

4. Add dos freak’s utility to the disk with link above named as AWDFLASH.EXE

5. On your mainboard cd their should be a copy of the ORIGINAL AWDFLASH.EXE add this to the disk as FLASH.EXE.

6. Make the appropriate AUTOEXEC.BAT like above.
7. Use the computer to check the floppy disk’s integrity with the windows chkdsk tool.

8. Now insert it into the corrupted computer.
9. Cross Fingers or Pray.

Alternative directions

Basically fallow the directions above but instead of adding dos freak’s utility just add the one from your mainboard cd as AWDFLASH.EXE and set the AUTOEXEC.BAT up similar to this:

@ECHO OFF

AWDFLASH AN8D1008.BIN /py /sn /cd /cc /cp /R /nbl

Hope this helps.

Drak

Peter,

I just seen your second post use the AWDFLASH.EXE off your mainboard driver cd with the above autoexec.bat methods. This should fix the problem. Setup the Autoexec.bat as Something like this:

@ECHO OFF

AWDFLASH AN8D1008.BIN /py /sn /cd /cc /cp /R /nbl

Also use the image file you attempted to flash previously.

Drak

Drak,

On your second reply to me... you said to use the awdflash.exe from my original cd? but on #4 in the first post you said to use the Dos-freaks and name it awdflash.exe? I'm confused.. which to follow?

Thanks,

Peter.

I tried what you said with renaming Dos-Freaks' utility to awdflash.exe ... renamed the original awdflash.exe to flash.exe ... updated the autoexec.bat ...etc.

---------------------------------------------------------
@ECHO OFF

AWDFLASH AN8D1008.BIN /py /sn /cd /cc /cp /R /nbl
---------------------------------------------------------

but i'm still getting the same result...

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Automatic Load AWDFLASH.EXE ...... * Initializing disk
Load bootsector
Executing bootsector:

Invalid system disk
Replace! the disk, and then press any key
-------------------------------------------------------------------

hmm ok did you try the other method and just use the AWDFLASH.EXE off the mainboard cd with this AUTOEXEC.BAT:

@ECHO OFF

AWDFLASH AN8D1008.BIN /py /sn /cd /cc /cp /R /nbl

and are you using the image that you attempted to flash before the bios was corrupted?

Also are you sure you have the right bios for your pcb revision?

yes ... I did tried flashing with the same previous bios version (1008) and all the rest of the versions. Also when I just use my original awdflash.exe with the autoexec.bat file... it does start up the awardbios flash utility 8.32z ... it loads up or is checking the an8d1008.bin and then tells :

-----------------------------------------------------
BIOS Image File Check Sum Error
!! You Can't Update this Image File !!

Check to see if FDD & HDD error occurred
Please Download Again Your Srouce File

Message: Press Any Key to Exit !!
BIOS Image File is for nForce Chipset Only!
-----------------------------------------------------

I have searched around and came across this other person having exact same problem like mine... but i havent anymore posting from him/her. And there are others with similair problems.

I was thinking of trying that UniFlash ...but I dont know how to do it.. what do you think I should do?

Thanks.

yes.... I have the Asus A7N8X Deluxe and the revision is 1.04 ( I looked at the motherboard) ..my bios chipset came with 1001g and I upgraded from time to time up to the last working bios 1007 all from Asus Update Utility ...then I had to go and upate to 1008 it seem like it finish the update and then told me to reboot.. and then you know the rest... Bootblock screeen....

btw - regarding this...

7. Use the computer to check the floppy disk’s integrity with the windows chkdsk tool.

Im not sure how to do this... I went to Start/Run/Chkdsk a:
then a dos prompt screen popped up and said This file is FAT ... or something to that effect ... and then the window closed. Is that all I have to do to check to see if the floppy is OK?

Well you could try uniflash although at the time when my bios was corrupted I don't think nforce2 chipsets were fully supported. But this happened to me back in may and i heard there was supposed to be a newer version on the way.

By chance when you went to flash the new bios were you given an option to back up the old one?

yes your just checking the floppy to be sure it's ok

are you using winxp?

I'm not sure if I was given a chance to backup.. but I don't have any backup of the working bios