b_deshi said:
Hi Paul thanks for the quick response.
The pc does boot and the BIOS recovery software looks for the recovery
software by checking the Floppy and DVD drives.
Is there any way I can make a simple boot cd to load with the new BIOS
software on the CD.
Thanks
deshi
You can find free burning software.
See "Freeware" "Windows" here for a list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_optical_disc_authoring_software
WinXP also has the ability to transfer a file to the CD.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/bridgman_august13.mspx
"THE INBUILT SYSTEM IN WINDOWS XP"
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm
Copy one file to the CD, "P4P800-E.ROM". If you downloaded a BIOS
from Asus for example, rename the file such that it is P4P800-E.ROM.
Verify the size is correct (524288 bytes). Note that some unzipping
tools are too aggressive - if you see a 128KB file, don't use it.
Check why the file is not 524288 bytes.
For example, say I download this BIOS.
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/P4P800-E DX/P4P8E009.zip
Unzip that file. The resulting file is P4P8E009.rom. The size is 524288
bytes. Rename the file to P4P800-E.ROM . Then write the file to a
blank CD.
*******
One other word of caution. When you see
"Bad BIOS checksum. Starting BIOS recovery..."
that does not necessarily mean the BIOS is corrupted!
(If you were flashing the BIOS earlier, and the flash operation
failed to complete, then yes, the symptoms would be consistent
with a need to use CrashFree2 BIOS recovery procedure. Go ahead
and insert your CD with the BIOS file on it.)
But in some cases, these symptoms are caused by overclocking.
Say you have made no changes recently to the BIOS stored in
the EEPROM. Then, you decide to overclock your computer. If
you manage to raise the PCI clock frequency high enough,
it may prevent the EEPROM from being read in an error free
manner. (The 33MHz PCI clock, may be used as the clock source
for the BIOS chip.) If this happens, the right answer is *not*
to insert the CD right away. But *only* do the following, if
you were overclocking just before this happened.
1) Clear the CMOS, using CLRTC jumper. See section 2.6 of the
downloadable user manual. Always remember to unplug the
computer, as the first step. Then you can follow the rest
of the steps in the manual. The purpose of clearing the
CMOS, is to get the clocks back to the nominal frequency (33MHz).
2) Now, power up and see if the complaint about Bad BIOS checksum
is gone or not.
3) If it still asks for the CD, then insert the new CD with the
BIOS file on it.
The thing is, you should not attempt to flash the BIOS while
the computer is overclocked and unstable. If you insert the
CD with the file, and the computer is unstable, the entire
BIOS could be corrupted, and then you lose the ability
to attempt another recovery with CrashFree2 feature.
So consider carefully, how you arrived at your current
situation. If the computer is not overclocked in an
aggressive manner, and the reason the checksum is corrupt,
is because of your attempt to update the BIOS, then
inserting a new CD with "P4P800-E.ROM" makes sense.
HTH,
Paul
