gdp said:
Go to
www.wimsbios.com and ask for help in one of the forums. They may
be your best hope.
Can you tell us what is printed on the screen before it hangs ? What
is the last thing it is doing before the hang ?
One diagnostic tool you can use, is a POST code card that displays a
two digit code that changes as the BIOS starts up. Asus BIOS have code
in them to update a LED display on either an ISA or PCI card based
display card. One of these cards is shown here:
"PCI & ISA PC Diagnostic POST CARD"
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2738517052
If you don't shop around, some companies want sub-$100 prices for these
cards. There are people on Ebay who sell for $20 or less. Maybe a local
shop would let you borrow one. The displayed code may hint at what
stage in the POST is failing.
A safe option at this point, might be to flash back to an Asus BIOS
that works. Seeing as the BIOS doesn't finish posting, I don't know
if that is now an option or not.
A dangerous option is to try the "Clear PNP ESCD Parameter Block"
option in the "Flash Memory Writer Utility", as described in your
manual. (Note - One person in Google claims his board wouldn't post
after this, so that is why it is dangerous). My reason for suggesting
this, is based on your description of the hang happening during
some kind of enumeration - maybe the info in the ESCD area of the
flash chip doesn't line up with the rest of the BIOS ? Normally, when
a hardware change is detected, the BIOS re-enumerates the hardware
and writes the information into the ESCD area of the flash chip.
Clearing the CMOS might also make a difference. This returns the BIOS
settings back to defaults, but apparently doesn't necessarily cause
the ESCD to get updated. CMOS settings are typically stored in a small
chunk of RAM in the Southbridge. Be careful if clearing the CMOS, to
follow the procedure as described in the manual - in particular,
the power should be switched off and the power cord pulled, when
doing the clearing of the CMOS. This prevents damage to the CMOS
powering circuit.
Maybe when you post over in the Wimsbios forums, you could ask if
one of these options would improve things or not. Depending on what
the board is worth to you, another thing to invest in is a BIOS
Savior - a device that has a duplicate BIOS chip, in case you screw
up the current one. The BIOS Savior needs a sane system, for you to
prepare the duplicate chip, so I don't think it will work if you
cannot get the current BIOS working. BIOS Savior helps if you are
prepared for trouble in advance.
If you cannot recover from the current flash, you may be able to
buy a replacement BIOS chip at
www.badflash.com . These days, the
toughest part of replacing a BIOS chip, is finding a pin-compatible
chip. Many flash chips are out of production, having been replaced
with higher capacity devices (that the flash program won't recognize).
I believe badflash will program the device with whatever file you
want.
HTH,
Paul
