Dead ASUS A7N8X - Very confusing - Please assist

Hot-swapping and Boot-Block flash & Boot block flash and floppy support
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Skello
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Hello,

Hope someone can give me a few suggestions with a strange problem i have.

A friend got me his computer for me to look at, because it was behaving strangely. The problem was it was not always booting. It was making strange short beeps, then rebooting, after a while it was booting, but most of the times it hanged during POST or after POST.

So i said ok, let's do this step by step in order to determine where the problem is. Changed the PSU, no effect, changed the video card, no effect, changed RAM.. worked. Put old RAM back, problems again. Ok, identified one problem.

Now the computer was booting ok, but in the process i noticed something strange. The board had written ASUS A7N8X rev. 1.04 on it, between the PCI slots and is identical in all aspects to the picture in the manual located here: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/soc ... _a7n8x.pdf

However, the BIOS was date-nVidia-nForce-A7N8X2.0C-0, which is consistent with A7N8X v2.x OEM. Furthermore, PCWizard was reporting it as being an A7N8X Deluxe, that has a SATA controller and firewire, which this one doesn't.

The BIOS version was reported by PCWizard as being 1010. There is no 1010 for rev. 1.04, last one is 1009 and is a beta version. The 1010 version, according to the ASUS website is "for PCB revision 2.0 and later only."

My friends mentioned that the mboard had some problems before during an electrical shock and he took it somewhere, to a service i presume. So i tell myself. "They forced flashed the wrong BIOS version. This might be another source for weird behavior."

That being said i decide to force flash it to 1009 myself, from DOS obviously. So, i get the .BIN and the latest awdflash (8.24B) from ASUS and begin the disaster. First i get "The program file's BIOS-Lock
String does not match with your system!." I say, "obviously, since it's trying to compare it to the wrong one that's flashed." So i use the /nbl to get past it. Then i get "The program file's part number does not match with your system." I conclude it's because the same reason.

Since it gave me the option to continue flashing anyway, i choose Yes. My problem is that i also used the /wb switch, which stands from Write BootBlock, because i thought it might also be affected (stupid me). Flash went ok, got prompt to reboot. Rebooted and... nothing.

The computer powers up, but nothing happens, nothing on screen, no keyboard lights, no nothing. Just the CPU cooler spins. I tried doing the BootBlock recovery, with the floppy and autoexec.bat, but it doesn't seem to read the FDD, cause i screwed up the BootBlock i assume. Tried clearing CMOS with jumper and everything.

Do you think my estimation about the BootBlock being corrupt is inaccurate? Should i give it more time to read the FDD (waited 2-5 mins)? Should i see anything on screen? What do you suggest using, the old 1010 BIN, which i did back up before flashing, or the 1009 beta, which i think is the correct one, or the 1007, which is the latest stable for 1.04 rev.? What should the command in autoexec.bat look like (switches and everything), because i found different variations on the net.

Am i left with hot-swapping, bios chip external flashing or replacement as only options? Regarding hot-swapping, could it be possible to do it on a ASUS P4B266 SE board (manual with high-res pic here: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/soc ... se-101.pdf )? And if yes, should i do it with the awdflash utility or uniflash? If uniflash, what switches? And again which BIOS do you suggest? one i found and i think is not appropriate, the beta 1009 or the stable 1007?

I know it's a lot to read and many questions, but i appreciate any input on how to proceed with this. Also thanks for reading this long post.

Best regards,
Lucian C.
edwin
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How healthy is the board itself? No bad capacitors that can cause all kinds of weird faults? http://www.badcaps.net

It is a kind of strange but you may have an OEM version of the board with faulty markings. Nothing is surprising me with OEM Asus boards, they sometimes have a numbering system of their own it seems.
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
Skello
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Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2009 12:58 am

edwin wrote:How healthy is the board itself? No bad capacitors that can cause all kinds of weird faults? http://www.badcaps.net

It is a kind of strange but you may have an OEM version of the board with faulty markings. Nothing is surprising me with OEM Asus boards, they sometimes have a numbering system of their own it seems.
The board looks ok. It was working fine with RAM changed. It was only my decision to go the extra step and flash the "correct" BIOS that proved not so wise.

If indeed the ASUS board is wrongfully marked, then what can i say. They're idiots. Sorry for the language. How is the user supposed to known what BIOS to use then, especially since they provide different versions for <2.0 revisions and >2.0 revisions.

That being said, I'm still interested into finding out what options do i have in this situation. Would attaching a picture of the real board help?
edwin
The Hardware Archivist
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Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:11 pm
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This is indeed confusing. Anyway, I would go for the 2.0 version of the bios, release 1010 or whatever is available. You can use the other board for hotflashing, use uniflash, I think it has a special -Asus commandline switch, check for that in the documentation.

in the pictures, number 7 for the dead board and number 12 for your 'flash'-board are the locations of the bios chip, both appear to be socketed.
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
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