Re: P5B BIOS Pleeeese help!!!
- From: Paul <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:15:27 -0500
Dave Murray wrote:
Here's your smile for the day. I tried to flash the BIOS of my P5B mobo with winflash and of course I screwed it up royally. (I can see you smiling) Now the mobo won't post. The manual says it has a crash free Bios. How do i get it to take the new bios if I can't get it to post to begin the process. Thanks for your help with this, I guess I need to learn things the hard way!!
I don't smile when I read these. Why ? Because I'm an engineer, and I
know it doesn't have to work that way.
I worked on a product with flash code on it. One of the requirements
for the product is, you can turn off the power, or unplug the hardware
(hot plug), *while* the flasher is running, and the product will survive. So
I know that "bricked" products are avoidable. That is an actual test
case the verification team runs, as part of product testing. We don't
ship the product, if it cannot pass that test. (Because the support
staff would be buried in a pile of "bricked" product otherwise.)
To get back to the subject:
1) Read the manual. The paper copy sucks (too small), so download the PDF
and zoom in until you can see the text. Examine all the options offered
in chapter 4.
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx
http://support.asus.com.tw/download/download.aspx
2) Try pressing <alt-F2>, to see if Crashfree will start.
Only do that, if you have a BIOS image ready to go, on the
appropriate media. See section 4.1.2 in the manual. According
to the user manual, the BIOS is "8 mbit", which is 1MB, so
the replacement BIOS file should barely fit on a floppy.
There are some newer boards, where the BIOS is 2MB and won't fit
a floppy (so a USB solution is needed). Double check that the
file is the correct size, and is exactly the right number of
bytes. (Some unzipping tools, give a 128KB file, which is not
correct. So verify the size.)
Your board has an "innovation". In the past, the BIOS chips were
PLCC (square chip) and fitted into a brown socket. You could go
to badflash.com and order a replacement BIOS chip for $25, and plug
that into the motherboard. That would give instant relief.
The "innovation" on your board, is they replaced the normal PLCC
flash chip, with an SPI chip. It is an 8 pin DIP. It is *soldered*
to the motherboard. It is not socketed.
Typically, on an SPI board, there is a pin header near the chip. That is
intended for factory flashing. I checked, and to buy an SPI flashing
tool, would cost about $150.00. It isn't worth $150.00, but that is what
the company making them charges. (Some day, they'll be cheaper, and
maybe a motherboard maker should bundle the flasher, so there'd be
more of them in circulation.)
So, if the options in the manual don't work, the board is *bricked*.
It can be flashed by anyone with a "USB to SPI header" flash tool.
An RMA to Asus could fix it. A computer store is unlikely to possess
the necessary tool. An RMA with your motherboard vendor might also
work, if you're within the 30 day or whatever, return period.
So the whole thing is a step backwards, that is for sure.
And I'm not smiling. It's pathetic, really. Good thing I didn't
go on a rant.
Paul
.
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- From: Dave Murray
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