First of all, the flash isn't monolithic and made with just one piece
of code in it. It stores a number of pieces of information, but I'll
concentrate on the code portion.
There are two chunks of code. One chunk is called the Boot Block, the
other chunk is the Main BIOS Code. The Boot Block is the home of the
Crashfree routine, plus enough code to boot from a floppy, but perhaps
without the ability to drive an AGP video card.
There are several flashing methods for flashing a BIOS chip, and all
of them probably have some option to flash the Boot Block or the
Main BIOS code. However, if you say "Yes" to updating the Boot Block,
then if the Boot Block gets corrupted, then Crashfree won't work any
more. So, Crashfree is only available if you are flashing the Main
BIOS code (yes, this is stupid - Gigabyte fixes this with their Dual
BIOS chip solution).
In some of their updates, Asus gives special instructions for flashing
the BIOS, and what the special instructions or special tool (wrapper
script) are doing, is causing the Boot Block to get flashed. Any time
Asus does this, they are removing your "Crashfree" safety net, for
that one flash update.
I presume in your case, that you attempted to update both, and the
update failed.
The safest way to flash, is by booting a DOS floppy, and using the
version of DOS flasher provided on the Asus download site. When
booted in DOS, there isn't going to be a lot of pesky multitasking
going on, to upset the flash process, as there could be with a
Windows flasher.
A second consideration, is overclocking. If you are overclocking,
you would be well advised to return to stock settings. The reason
for this is, an overclocked board may be overclocking the LPC clock
to the flash chip, and violating the timing on the flash chip could
cause the flash process to fail.
Before using any flash method, always visit the Asus download page
for your motherboard. Frequently, there are various warnings, about
certain versions of the BIOS, not being flashable with certain of
the methods. You should always read the BIOS history link, or the
"More" links next to the various BIOS releases, for these warnings.
While I don't see any warnings for your board, you should
check there for yourself.
Finally, you don't have to RMA the board to get it running again.
There are a number of providers of BIOS flash chips. You pull out
the old one and install a new chip. The BIOS is usually socketed
and removable (the exception being the odd OEM board that has
the chip soldered to the motherboard, to save the small cost of
the socket). You can visit
www.badflash.com for example, and see
what they charge. You can even contact Asus Tech Support (toll call)
and ask them for a phone number of an Asus person in your country
or area, who sells replacement chips. I think Asus sends the chip
by mail, so the transit time could be quite long. One of the
other services might use a courier to ship, reducing the wait and
increasing the price.
There are some other methods for flashing, such as "hot flashing",
but this requires finding a board that uses a similar flash interface,
removing that boards BIOS chip while the computer is running, then
inserting the dead flash chip and reflashing it. There is some danger
to this procedure (like if the LPC flash chip gets rotated in the
socket and shorts to the wrong pins), and I don't recommend this for
the average user. (Hell, I wouldn't do that myself!)
Buying a replacement BIOS chip is more likely to yield a working
motherboard and a reasonably cheap lesson about what flash tools
are good and what ones are bad. If you feel particularly accident
prone, buying a BIOS Savior (ioss.com.tw) is one way to guarantee
this doesn't happen again. To use the BIOS Savior, you need at least
one good BIOS image, and unless you live near a vendor like Eksit,
who are willing to program the BIOS Savior before sending it to
you, you will need the services of badflash.com and the purchase
of the BIOS Savior as well.
Before removing the current flash chip. make a diagram of the
orientation of the chip. The chip will have a "dot" on it, and
that may be lined up with a triangle marking on the socket. Make
sure the dot on the replacement chip is aligned the same way.
If the replacement flash chip doesn't come with a chip puller,
a nimble person can pull the flash chip, using a pointed tool,
like an awl. Be careful to lift the chip equally on all sides as
it is extracted. Similarly, press equally on all sides when inserting
the new chip. If the chip is inserted/extracted crooked, pins can
get bent. You can also get a very nice tool from Radio Shack,
for pulling PLCC chips, that should work as well. It costs $10.
HTH,
Paul
