MSI K7N2 Won't Boot

Hot-swapping and Boot-Block flash & Boot block flash and floppy support
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gatliffe
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I have a new MSI K7N2-xp 2000 cpu DDR400 I set it up had it working
with XP Pro then I change the bus speed to 166 then it just hang on
rebooting I got it back to reset the bios but now it boot to post but
not to XP it only give me a blinking cursor but that all I done all I
can think of to get XP back but no good how can I get back in XP
I was reading about hot flashing would this help? or what can I do?
Kristoffer
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this is most likely not a problem with the BIOS but with Windows XP. That is, as long as the board is POSTing, then the problem almost certainly lies elsewhere.

You might try booting from the Windows XP CD and reinstalling Windows XP. There is a way to do it, called a repair install, that will only wipe out any OS upgrades you have installed, and will leave your programs intact. When you boot from the XP CD, let it get all the way to the first menu, then select "Install Windows XP". It will ask you to press F8 to agree to the EULA, then it will search for Windows XP on your machine. It will find your installation of XP and ask if you want to repair it. Press R to repair it. It will then proceed as if it were a normal install process for Windows XP.

Hope this helps.
gatliffe
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I try restall Xp but sill the same it won't boot the bio are seeing all the drive ok
fanoush
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similar board, similar situation here. I just flashed new bios and cleared CMOS, see topic 'can I use different brand of PLCC chip for BIOS in my board'?

What board you have, K7N2 Delta-L, MS-6570? Can you look at the leds on the diagnostics thing in the back of the case? See one red led in upper right corner and other leds green? If yes I have the same problem.

What exactly you did? Changed bios settings? Cleared CMOS? What else?

It looks like it is MSI's bios fault and we should probably return the board. What bios version you have now?

Mine is 5.2, if you have older (5.1, 5.0) then hotflash to older version would probably not help for me

F
vidoq2
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experiencing similar problem, after flashing bios to version 5.2 (seemed to work correctly) it is no more possible to boot. The fd starts up when switching on, the bios is readable, hdd are correctly recognized but the led of the floppy keeps on burning, but the floppy disk is not read. Of course the fd cable is mounted correct. The screen stays black with a cursor blinking in the left above edge.

ddr ram is correctly counted and displayed in (award)bios
as the floppy doesn't read at all, it is not possibnle to reflash or doing anything else. Some thing for HDD, cd-rom or boot up on lan, always cursor blinking.

Thanks for suggestions
vidoq2
:cry:
fanoush
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Hello vidoq2,

can you try different memory? Preferably not DDR400 but lower speed and different brand. The 5.2 bios changed something about DDR400 timings. This it the thing I'd like to try before returning the board. Just test different memory and if it is OK then reflash older bios. The problem for me is to get the memory. No DDR board around :(

F
vidoq2
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Hi fanoush,

i changed ddr ram but there was no effect. The floppy is going to be initialized, but the led keeps burning and data is not read. D-bracket has red led in corner right up (=code for initializing fd-controller).
ram is correctly recognized.

Could it be compatibility problem of flashed bios (i flashed version 5.2) with the board?

greetnx

vidoq2
fanoush
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Hi vidoq2,

i managed to try different DDR too with no success. Either it is a 5.2 bios issue - the strange thing is that it works fine for many people, or it is an issue with the update procedure - flashing, clearing the CMOS, rebooting. The board or bios can have bugs which can be unrecoverable. In case of bad luck some chipset settings can be wrongly saved by BIOS to some persistent chipset registers, which makes the board unusable.

I plan to return the board. It might be worth of trying to replace/reflash the BIOS chip with version 5.1, but I don't have similar board around so I cannot reflash. Can you try it? Either hotflash in second board or just test the chip with older bios from good board in the bad one. There is slight chance it will work. However there is also possibility that even the 5.1 bios would not help and the board is permanently damaged.

F
vidoq2
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after having tried quite everything i returned my mb to the dealer. He changed it without a problem. Today i got the new one, again with bios 5.1. But i w'ont try to flash the newer version.


greetnx

vidoq2
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