BIOS disaster!

[The Jeep]

Hi gents-
Now it's time for my Windows XP PC to start giving me gip, it seems...
OK, it's an Intel P4 3.2GHZ chip on an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe mobo.
Went to switch it on yesterday and got the following message as it tried to load the BIOS:

"Bad BIOS Checksum. Starting BIOS recovery. Checking for floppy...checking for CD-ROM"

Not having a recovery disk (ouch!), I inserted my Win XP disk and then rebooted, but it came up with "File P4C800ED.ROM" not found, so I then inserterd my Asus mobo disk and got the following:

"Reading file P4C800ED.ROM...completed. Start flashing (pause for a few seconds). Please turn off your system and power on again to get system back".

This was looking hopeful, until I restarted and got the same initial message, "Bad BIOS checksum....etc".

So, it looks like I'm screwed, unless one of you nice chaps can suggest something!

 

[Igorian]

The CMOS contents could just be corrupt. Have you tried resetting it by moving the Clear CMOS jumper or removing the motherboard battery?

 

[baldy01]

Unfortunately this is not an issue with the settings by the look of it. P4C800ED.ROM sounds like a BIOS image file so the mobo appears to be looking for a BIOS image, i.e. the program that comes with the motherboard that boots it far enough to load the operating system..

On the upside the Windows XP installation hasn't necessarily been affected so put away your XP disk for now.

You need to have a look on the Asus website for BIOS software for your specific motherboard, make sure its the right one. If you can get the image on to a floppy or CD the "BIOS Recovery"mobo should find the image and load it.

Obviously you'll need to use another working PC to download the BIOS image.

Good luck...

 

[Igorian]

Unfortunately this is not an issue with the settings by the look of it. P4C800ED.ROM sounds like a BIOS image file so the mobo appears to be looking for a BIOS image, i.e. the program that comes with the motherboard that boots it far enough to load the operating system..

On the upside the Windows XP installation hasn't necessarily been affected so put away your XP disk for now.

You need to have a look on the Asus website for BIOS software for your specific motherboard, make sure its the right one. If you can get the image on to a floppy or CD the "BIOS Recovery"mobo should find the image and load it.

Obviously you'll need to use another working PC to download the BIOS image.

Good luck...

He's managed to load the default BIOS image from the MB CD. I've seen this message before and it can be generated by corrupt CMOS settings causing the CRC to fail. The only other time I have seen the message is when the incorrect BIOS has been loaded and the failsafe kicks in.

 

[baldy01]

The fact that istays bad Bios checksum then looks for a file called .ROM sounds pretty ominous to me. The only time I've seem .ROM files related to motherboards is when upgrading them with a new BIOS image.

If all it is is corrupt bios settings you should be able to go into BIOS and default them. If you can't get that far then use the clear CMOS jumper or yank the battery for 30 seconds.

If that doesn't allow you back into the BIOS and you keep getting the checksum error despite reflashing then your flash is probably dead.

 

[Igorian]

Nah, any second now he's gonna do a "Wait a minute..." like in this post.

I wonder if he tried to flash a later version and used the wrong util? £65 + VAT please...

 

[The Jeep]

Nah, any second now he's gonna do a "Wait a minute..." like in this post.

Wait a minute...I am detecting a fault in the HAL 9000 unit...will have to go EVA...

I wonder if he tried to flash a later version and used the wrong util? £65 + VAT please...

Thanks for the replies so far. Cheques are in the post . As my fancy HAL, sorry XP unit is rack-mounted and a major hassle to remove, I guess I prefer the option of downloading a fresh BIOS and burning it to CD-ROM, if it works.
When I had the Asus factory CD in, it did indeed look like it was flashing the ROM, but, like I said, when rebooted it didn't seem happy with it. So it looked like it found the file it was looking for, but it just didn't do the trick.
Further comments welcome, but will first try downloading BIOS, then, if that fails, dismembering my mothership...

 

[The Jeep]

Update...have downloaded latest BIOS revision, burned to CD-ROM (renamed file appropriately) and the same thing as before happened i.e. it found the file, started flashing, asked me to reboot, in a nice husky voice, but still no joy: it just goes round in a circle, starting with "Bad BIOS checksum"

 

[eggplant]

I have seen this prob before on this board and was actually caused by aggresive memory settings or faulty ram, try going into bios if you still can (I suspect you will be able to) and check memory timing etc, if ok, try booting from a cd with some memory diags on, m$ memtest isnt too bad - and run a ram check.
I know this might sound daft but I have seen it a few times.

 

[homespark]

Er, maybe chuck the whole thing out of the window

 

[The Jeep]

No, sadly I can't get as far as the BIOS screen (however the window is quite near ).
I have followed the Asus 'BIOS Recovery' routine in the user manual (by reflashing from CD-ROM, as I mentioned above), but this doesn't work either.
Regarding the advice about removing the battery, I cannot easily access the battery (very tight space in my PC rack-unit) but I did perform a CLRTC (clear real-time clock) by moving the required jumper. Not sure exactly if this performs the same function as removing the battery, but I'm guessing it does (?). Anyway, this didn't work either, so I'm feeling more stuck than ever!
I am currently trying to get in touch with Asus help, but am having difficulty accessing the required site. Any further suggestions, gents?

 

[Igorian]

No, sadly I can't get as far as the BIOS screen (however the window is quite near ).
I have followed the Asus 'BIOS Recovery' routine in the user manual (by reflashing from CD-ROM, as I mentioned above), but this doesn't work either.
Regarding the advice about removing the battery, I cannot easily access the battery (very tight space in my PC rack-unit) but I did perform a CLRTC (clear real-time clock) by moving the required jumper. Not sure exactly if this performs the same function as removing the battery, but I'm guessing it does (?). Anyway, this didn't work either, so I'm feeling more stuck than ever!
I am currently trying to get in touch with Asus help, but am having difficulty accessing the required site. Any further suggestions, gents?

I could have sworn this was under Homesparks name earlier on.

 

[The Jeep]

Na, you must've been seeing things. Too many late afternoons
So, any suggestions, gents? Am I totally sh@gged or can my £5M super computer be saved?

 

[eggplant]

Did you try swapping out ram or booting from a mem test cd?

 

[gcol]

Wipe it and start again.
It's always handy to have a cheap hard drive as a spare to test a windows re-install at moments like this.