HELP! Flashed Bios NOW DEAD! WITH FIX!

Hot-swapping and Boot-Block flash & Boot block flash and floppy support
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confused1971
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I SOLVED THIS PROBLEM, LOOK AT POST #4 TO SEE HOW I DID IT.


I downloaded the Abit Flashmenu to flash my bios. I'm using an Abit sr7-8x motherboard with ami bios. When trying to flash to the latest bios i recieved an error message stating it could not complete. i tried this a few times and got the same error message.

After rebooting my machine to see if that would fix the issue. My computer no longer boots at all. Is the bios completely lost? I keep getting 8 short beeps. a pause and then 8 short beeps, this continues until i manually shut it down. Black screen opti mouse not lit up no lights on keyboard. How do I fix this?

I knew I shouldnt have run the abit flash bios.

Can someone please help me?

I've tried the options given on this page http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/faq/qa/2002/2002073001.htm for trying to boot, but it didnt help. I found a site that said

--""8 Short Beeps Your video card isn't working. Make sure it is seated well in the bus. If it still beeps, either the whole card is bad or the memory on it is. Best bet is to install another video card.""--

BUT, i've never had a problem with my video card. Didnt have any problems until trying to update my bios. Someone please help me....

Abit sr7-8x motherboard
P4 2.4b cpu
Ati Radeon 9800 pro 128mb video
onboard sound AC97 I believe
maxtor 40g hard drive
1g memory
AMI BIOS

Yes I have, I unplugged the atx cables from the motherboard ...removed the battery and moved the cmos pins to discharge for more than 10 minutes.



Edited........

Since then:
I have replaced the hard drive. Didnt change anything.
I have replaced the video card since the 8 beeps was supposively a warning that something was wrong with the video card or video card memory. Didnt change anything.
I tried hooking a different monitor up, didnt change anything.
I removed the battery from the motherboard and tried to start it up, still 8 beeps.
I romoved the RAM from the motherboard and started it and it gave me 3 long beeps.

I did something to screw the bios up and now the computer will not load the bios at all. Just black screen and 8 short beeps..a pause then 8 short beeps...continuously until i shut it down manually.

I'm posting on my first post my pc specs since i forgot to do that.

I don't think its my video card (since i've tried two different ones), if the 8 beeps are an explination to what the problem is (read/write error to video card memory). I would be more likely to believe that there is a bios setting that is wrong, if there is still a bios at all on my motherboard. The problem is it wont get past the black screen and 8 short beeps for me to adjust any of the settings in the bios.

I believe that "FLASHMENU" deleted my old bios before trying to update to the new one. Is there any possibility that I have no bios at all on my motherboard? And if thats the case what do I do now?
Last edited by confused1971 on Sat Dec 30, 2006 6:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
edwin
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Location: Netherlands
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If you have another board nearby use the hotflash method or if no other board nearby order a new programmed bios chip from http://www.badflash.com
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
confused1971
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Joined: Fri Dec 29, 2006 11:03 pm

I recently installed a floppy drive in my pc so i could try to boot from floppy.

After installing the floppy drive I no longer received any beeps at all but a constant search for a disc in the drive. I also disconnected all my cd drives and hard drive. Everything but, ram, video card and keyboard ...well also sound card and eithernet since they are built into the board.

After I created a bootable floppy to try to get to the bios and inserted it, it gave me 1 short beep ....searched for the disc and then kept giving me a never ending 2 short beeps which is suppose to be....

-""Your computer has memory problems. First check video. If video is working, you'll see an error message. If not, you have a parity error in your first 64K of memory""-


NOW - with the floppy disc out I keep getting a continuous 1 beep disc search 1 beep disc search over and over. I guess one beep means .......

-"Refresh Failure The memory refresh Circuitry is faulty "-

I removed the ram, i have two 512mb ddr sticks ...so i tried each one of the in the board one at a time, in each simm slot and I keep getting the same beep codes
confused1971
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Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Dec 29, 2006 11:03 pm

OK, after freaking out for the last 26 hours wondering what the hell happened and how I was going to solve this issue and how much money i was going to have to invest more than the $3 motherboard battery I bought which didnt help anything at all to get my pc back up and running.

And after endless hours with little sleep searching the internet, hoping someone out there had the same problem as I did with the solution, I ran across a page like many other pages that I figured I might as well try this before I buy another motherboard or try to hotflash the bios.

Like I said I didnt have any problems until I tried to use "FLASHMENU 139".

It seems this utility corrupted my bios, or pretty much erased it as I suspected. I did find an easy solution to this problem.

How can you recover a corrupt BIOS ?
http://www.wimsbios.com/faq.jsp#q9
Solution 1: Boot-block BIOS

1. I downloaded the latest bios version from abit for my motherboard.
2. I changed SR7_CM.ROM name to AMIBOOT.ROM and put it on the boot disc.
3. Stuck it in the floppy drive, started the computer and within a minute. I had my bios and operating system back.

I hope this can help anyone else out there with the same or similar problem.
All from a corrupted bios from using FLASHMENU 139 ....thanks abit.
edwin
The Hardware Archivist
Posts: 6286
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:11 pm
Location: Netherlands
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Thanks for the warning and the solution, now you have a happy new year young gun :D
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
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