ATC-2000 Motherboard Dead

[Lordjester]

Hi all. I am new here so bear with me.

I apparently flashed my BIOS with the wrong BIOS. Although I downloaded it from this site, and was almost positive I was right. You live and you learn I guess. When I boot the pc now, it does the memory test then beeps, and restarts from the beginning. So all I get is a Creative screen at first, then the memory check, then the beep, then back to the Creative screen to start it over.

I think I may have really screwed this up, but I don't know. The motherboard is an ATC-2000 from aTrend another company that disappeared. Chipset is Intel 82430HX PCI Set. I did not remove the CMOS jumper, as I've never done this before, and I don't have access to the floppy while it is booting.

Any help would be great.
Lordjester

[ruelnov]

Your BIOS should be fine because POST was run.

Seems to be a conflict with CMOS settings. Try entering BIOS setup when you see the memory test and set settings to standard defaults.

Or you can try clearing CMOS by moving the CMOS jumper to CLEAR positon while power is off.

[Lordjester]

I tried again to enter the BIOS setup when I see the memory test, but it does not work. I hit delete over and over, but nothing. It's in a constant loop that lasts about 10-15 seconds.

I also tried to clear the CMOS. It said to clear was close jumper J5. I assume to close means placing a jumper on J5 since there wasn't a jumper on this. I put this jumper on when the power was off, then removed it before turning the power back on. Is this correct?

Thanks for your time, it's much appreciated.

[Ritchie]

Sounds OK to me, including that memory test, unless there are other problems.

Some BIOSs run the memory test several times over, which can take some time. You can often set this in AWARD BIOSs. DEL may not enter Setup until after the memory test has fully concluded, but ESC can skip the remaining portion of the memory test.

[Lordjester]

I can't get it to work, LOL!

If I hit esc, it does skip the remaining portion of the test, but then just loops back to the initial screen before the memory test. And as the memory is rolling or counting up, if I hit Del it stops the memory test also and re-loops back to the beginning.

Unless I am a complete idiot, this seems far from OK. I don't know tho, when I cleared the CMOS it didn't make any difference to the booting. Still loops, and won't let me do anything. Thanks for your efforts.

Lordjester

[ruelnov]

Then try reflashing your BIOS with the correct file by doing the shorting trick. This bypasses the POST code which seems corrupted.

This shorting trick activates Bootblock, and this is posted under IN-DEPTH HIGH-TECH BIOS SECTION.

[Ritchie]

Yep now that you mention the memory test restarts if you try to skip it, this does sound unusual to me. Like rulenov suggests, maybe you have a buggy BIOS or BIOS corruption.

[Ritchie]

Did you get any further in your attempts to resolve the problem?