Rma time?

[bpgt64]

So I was updating my bios from the asus windows bios utility. My computer crashes at about 70%. And now after following the manual and pulling the battery I still cannot get a post. I have removed my GPU and I am using the onboard. With 1 stick of ram I know is good. Have i killed it? Would asus even bother helping me? I am within warranty but this might be consider user stupidity...

Resolved

I had two systems;

System A

Antec Earth Watts 430W psu - Good
Gigabyte GA-990FX - UD3 -Good
FX 8120 -Good
4x4GB G.Skill DDR3-1066 -Good
250 GB Main HDD -Good
1.5 TB Secondary HDD -Good


System B
Corsair TX750W PSU - Good
Asus M5A88-V EVO motherboard - BAD
AMD Phenom ii X4 955 CPU - BAD
4x4 GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 - Good
G.Skill Pheonix 128 GB SSD - Good

I have isolated the bad parts, by taking each piece of system B, and individually replacing it's corresponding part in System A(which I know to be functioning).

It simply came down to, System A would not post with just the Phenom II X4 chip. And the Asus M5A88-V Evo(An AM3+ board), would not post when setup with the rest of System A. This was very difficult to isolate, because I initially replaced the System B Board with a Gigabyte GA 970A- UD3, and because two parts had gone bad.

 

[theonedub]

Seems like every decent motherboard manufacturer has some feature to help recover from bad BIOS updates (whether that be from crashing or extracurricular activities). Have you looked into that at all?

 

[JrRacinFan]

Yeah, I thought Asus has some sort of bios restore utility ....

Might only work on ROG boards **shrugs**

 

[Norton]

I believe ASUS boards use removable BIOS chips so they may be able to just send you a new one.

Also, much safer to update BIOS thru DOS using a bootable USB flash drive.... flashing thru Windows is a dangerous game as you have just found out. Not mentioning to rub salt in a fresh wound or anything... just a caution for future BIOS updates

 

[zyky]

That's odd, under normal bios flashing operations, the normal bios code and boot block sections are flashed independently to avoid complete catastrophe like that. Many systems will be able to flash a bios file off a floppy, but it looks like asus has more advanced ones generally.

Assuming the PQ5 Pro listed in system specs,

Features:

CrashFree BIOS 3

Simply restore corrupted BIOS data from USB flash disk
The ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 allows users to restore corrupted BIOS data from a USB flash disk containing the BIOS file. This utility saves users the cost and hassle of buying a replacement BIOS chip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LirQ-oM9XBI

Are you not seeing the emergency boot block spamming messages about not finding a bios file to flash from?

 

[bpgt64]

Sorry, this isn't a system listed on the side, It's an M5A88 EVO Asus. It's the system I run at work. Like I said, the bios reset instructions from the manual, state that you swap a jumper after powering off, and in worst case scenarios, you unplug the battery as well for 10 seconds. Then battery in, jumper back in place, and power up. After doing all that, the DDRLED keeps lighting up like it has bad memory. And won't post.

 

[Norton]

That board supports the Crash Free BIOS utility- check the BIOS section of the manual for the procedure

The mobo DVD or a specially prepped Flash drive is necessary. Also, pull the Clear BIOS jumper off of the board just in case it is on the wrong pins- it is not necessary to be on there.

 

[brandonwh64]

The EVO has the "ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 "

 

[bpgt64]

To do all the Crash Free bios stuff, I'd need post.. I can't even see that.

 

[Norton]

To do all the Crash Free bios stuff, I'd need post.. I can't even see that.

According to what I read the board checks for the presence of a crash free file on the DVD drive or USB drive upon bootup and the utility starts prior to post to restore/rewrite the BIOS. I don't think you need to see it- just start the PC with the DVD in the drive or the flash drive plugged in and go from there....

 

[bpgt64]

According to what I read the board checks for the presence of a crash free file on the DVD drive or USB drive upon bootup and the utility starts prior to post to restore/rewrite the BIOS. I don't think you need to see it- just start the PC with the DVD in the drive or the flash drive plugged in and go from there....

I have tried the original CD, and a thumb drive. I have let the system sit there for 30 minutes each time. Nothing, no post on restart. Nada. The board is acting like the ram is bad, and the DR-LED is lit, every time I boot. I have tried, known working ram in this system, and get the same result.

 

[newtekie1]

Have you tried using the mem-OK button?

If that doesn't work, I'd say its RMA time.

 

[bpgt64]

Yea, just tried it. Held it for 3-4 seconds, and still nothing. But that Dram light comes on ...immediatly everytime.

 

[brandonwh64]

From reviewing your motherboard, I noticed it has a 8 pin removable bios. This is just a shot in the dark but if you have a similar asus motherboard with the 8 pin bios you can HOT FLASH the bios by loading into the bios flashing too or your bootable usb then while the PC is on, reach in an remove the bios and put the bad bios in then flash. Once complete shut down and replace each bios to its original board and see if it will post.

As crazy as this is, I have done it more than once with success but its a chance you have to take.

 

[TC-man]

Hi,

I made the same mistake by using that Asus update utility for bios upgrade in Windows 7 x64 a few years ago when I tried to update the bios of my P5B Vanilla, because it seems that this Asus bios update utility in x64 Windows OSes is the kiss of death for motherboards. I don't believe Asus is still distributing this tool for bios flashing in Windows, especially in the x64 Windows OSes.

Luckily, I managed to revive the Asus P5B motherboard once by using that Crash Free 3 bios recovery. First it didn't work, perhaps because I made use of a 4 GB usb pendrive (too big?) which had a correct bios for the P5B in the pendrive, and also because I didn't make use of a PS/2 keyboard. Then later I switched to an old 256 mb usb stick (with the correct bios of course) and unplug all usb devices from the usb connections from the PC (including ubs keyboard and mouse), and use a PS/2 keyboard instead (had luckily one somewhere). And to my surprise the CrashFree Bios 3 bios recovery kicked in this time and was searching for cd-rom, pendrives and so on with the correct bios for the motherboard, it indeed found the 256 mb pendrive with the bios and started to re-flash process automatically, then restart voila, the PC booted up. I guess Asus didn't tell people to use smaller usb pendrives and PS/2 keyboard to make use of that CrashFree bios 3 recovery.

So it worked for me, but if it does not work for you, then it's definitely time for rma. Seriously, I will never flash bioses in Windows environment, booting up in DOS environment to flash videocards/motherboards etc. may be a little more tiresome at first, but it's way more stable and can save yourself a lot of trouble.

 

[bpgt64]

Ok, do UPDATE TIME. Went out and picked up a Gigabyte 970 chipset based board, swapped in, working ram(1 stick in DIMM4), working PSU, NEW motherboard, and Working GPU(works in an AM3+ based system). Still, no post.

Either, another bad board OR, a bad main chip? I would think even with a bad chip, you'd still get post if the board was good....thoughts?

 

[Norton]

Ok, do UPDATE TIME. Went out and picked up a Gigabyte 970 chipset based board, swapped in, working ram(1 stick in DIMM4), working PSU, NEW motherboard, and Working GPU(works in an AM3+ based system). Still, no post.

Either, another bad board OR, a bad main chip? I would think even with a bad chip, you'd still get post if the board was good....thoughts?

Sounds like the chip is the only thing not changed- what chip are you using and are you sure that PSU is good?

*note- I had an issue with a PII 720BE not behaving well with DDR3 memory but runs fine with DDR2 in an older board :shadedshu

 

[JrRacinFan]

Exact model if the Gigabyte please.

@Norton
I remember that, ended up being a dodgy DDR3 controller.

 

[zootac]

Ok, do UPDATE TIME. Went out and picked up a Gigabyte 970 chipset based board, swapped in, working ram(1 stick in DIMM4), working PSU, NEW motherboard, and Working GPU(works in an AM3+ based system). Still, no post.

Either, another bad board OR, a bad main chip? I would think even with a bad chip, you'd still get post if the board was good....thoughts?

how good is the c.p.u. heat sink siting on the c.p.u. if its not sat good mite be over heating,
Just my 2 sens on it.

 

[bpgt64]

http://www.frys.com/product/6820916?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

IS the new board;

Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 AMD 970 AM3+ Motherboard

I gutted an AM3+ system I had on the side for work, and interchanged parts till I isolated the trouble makers. Turns out, bad main CPU, bad original board. The Phenom X4 won't post at all in my completely functional AM3+ based setup. Thinking of picking up a 1045T at micro center and RMA'ing both pieces and just selling em when I get the RMA's back.

That is, those pieces being the Asus M5A88-V EVO, and Phenom X4 II 955 that were apart of the original setup. The rest of those parts work great.

 

[scaminatrix]

So I was updating my bios from the asus windows bios utility. My computer crashes at about 70%.

The problem starts here so I'd lean towards PSU or RAM (since it looks like your old mobo is fine and CPU's rarely die). Oh, and disconnect HDD's/ODD's when testing; I've had a bad hard drive that stopped a mobo from even posting once.

You could still do a hot-flash on the other board since there's a good chance it's not the source of the problem.