Flash BIOS offline

  • Thread starter Thread starter JBM
  • Start date Start date
J

JBM

Jaz said:
Does asus provide and offline alternative to downloading the bios ??
my piece of **** wont even survive long enough to get to the site before
reseting itself.

how am i writing this message you ponder .. somone elses computer with no
burner and seeing as how mine wont survive i cant even email to myself

aargh .. i dont like my expensive paperweight right now

JAZ
Click to expand...

What makes you think a bios flash will fix your problem?
Have you installed any new hardware or software.
Also have you tryed clearing the CMOS.
You could download the bios and flash program to
a floppy using the PC your posting from.

Jim M
 
Jaz said:
Does asus provide and offline alternative to downloading the bios ??
my piece of **** wont even survive long enough to get to the site before
reseting itself.

how am i writing this message you ponder .. somone elses computer with no
burner and seeing as how mine wont survive i cant even email to myself

aargh .. i dont like my expensive paperweight right now

JAZ
Click to expand...

BIOS flash files will fit on a floppy disk, for obvious reasons.
 
Does asus provide and offline alternative to downloading the bios ??
my piece of **** wont even survive long enough to get to the site before
reseting itself.
Click to expand...

That sounds like you need to reinstall your operating system rather than reflash
the BIOS.
 
Before you contemplate flashing the bios, I urge you to fix whatever is
causing you system instability otherwise you are likely to have it crash
during a bios flash and be stuck with a dead system.

So, start at the beginning.
Was the system ever stable? If so, leave the bios alone for the time being.
Did you change anything at about the time it became unstable?
Have you added new hardware? Memory?
Have you upgraded any drivers?

Are you running XP? If so what do the BSOD's say? If you are not getting to
see the BSOD's then go into the control panel, system, advanced, startup,
and untick the automatic restart. Research the BSOD STOP code and take note
of any driver names displayed near the top of the screen.

If the system has never been stable, then:
I would strip the system down to minimum hardware and use tools such as
memtest86 to ensure there are no memory issues. Then build the system up
again one item at a time until the problem reappears.
Have you correctly reset the CMOS? Have you tried loading bios defaults?

- Tim
 
Jaz said:
Does asus provide and offline alternative to downloading the bios ??
my piece of **** wont even survive long enough to get to the site before
reseting itself.
Click to expand...

Tell your friend to fix the date on his pc ;) It's a day ahead....
 
Is this correct?

Windows 98 is stable?
Some memory errors using the MS memory tester?
Windows XP goes like crap?

I would work to eliminate the memory errors first. If you have two sticks,
remove one and try the memory tester again or try the other to get a stable
system. If you can get stability from you memory and the conclusion is that
one of the sticks specifically is causing the problem (IE a single stick
test produces errors on only one of them) then thats Problem #1 sorted.

You could have several problems - the sasser virus is possible too as is
much else.

Try memtest86 from memtest86.com if you prefer. You cannot have a stable OS
if the memory is flakey - although you can get away with flakey memory for
some time sometimes.

There are issues with prescott CPU's and Windows XP service pack 2. So if
you have a prescott then a bios upgrade to a bios with a fixed CPU microcode
*may* help - if you don't have SP2 installed you will want the bios upgrade
regardless before you put in SP2.

If Windows 98 is not 100% stable as it should be, then the memory issues are
likely to be the cause there.

Report back.........

- Tim
 
Tim said:
Is this correct?

Windows 98 is stable?
Some memory errors using the MS memory tester?
Windows XP goes like crap?
Click to expand...

I don't think their using XP at all.

Jim M
 
Does asus provide and offline alternative to downloading the bios ??
my piece of **** wont even survive long enough to get to the site before
reseting itself.

how am i writing this message you ponder .. somone elses computer with no
burner and seeing as how mine wont survive i cant even email to myself

aargh .. i dont like my expensive paperweight right now

JAZ
 
You are correct JMB .. There is no XP here .. just 98SE

Thankyou for your suggestions Tim

sasser is not an issue .. it only effects XP and 2000 .. however norton 2004
was fully updated and scanned just to make sure
I thought memtest86 was for linux systems from the reading on the site
is the microsoft one not as thorough ??

i dont know anymore .. it has not crashed or reset once this afternoon
(about 3 hrs)
i even burnt a CD .. albeit VERY slowly .. it didnt seen to have enough guts
to run both the read and the write buffers
is this still sounding like crappy memory or maybe a woosy CPU ??
i have however started to get errors running scandisk .. invalid files and
damaged folders ... is this the problem of all my heartache ??
the CD i burned was backing up what little is on there .. i think i might
just reinstall windows .. maybe it was a bad install or somthing .. is that
possible ???

again thankyou for any ideas to save my sanity heheh
 
You may get errors on your disc drive under Win98 if you crash it.
Similarly, you could get errors if the drive is stuffed. So run scandisk
(chkdsk) twice and second time if more errors crop up then the disc is
suspect. From what you have said it sounds more like memory.

memtest86 is for standard amd / intel hardware - it is its own OS so it
doesn't matter if linux or windows or even OS2 is installed.

If in the course of things you have reloaded bios defaults, or cleared cmos,
or reseated RAM you may have helped clear the cause. memtest86 (or the MS
tester) are both good for proving 2 things - that the CPU / motherboard runs
well enough to test memory, and if your memory is ok.

Check your CPU temps in the bios, also voltages. The voltages should all be
within 5% - if they are not then this may be a factor. To test PSU loading,
then remove any extras that you can to decrease load on the PSU.

- Tim
 
give it a minute after posting that message and lo and behold crash !
memtest 86 wont run .. it says loading flashes somthing on a blue screen and
resets adn we go through the loop again untill i eject the disk

the MS one just ran 2 pass of extended tests with th extended range so im
guessing thats nolonger a suspect gremlin .. must have just had dust in the
dimm or somthing ....

that said the first boot after the test it hung about 10 seconds after
coming up

cpu temp floats about 39 - 45
mb goes from about 20 - 26 .. mostly stable on 25

cpu fan from 2500 - 2600
chassis fan 2500 or 2518
power fan 2789 or 2812
VCORE - 1.376 or 1.392 **** dont know what this should be
3.3 - 3.312 or 3.328
5 - 5.107 or 5.080
12v - 11.612 or 11.673 **** possibly pushing the limits ???

all the figures bounce around while watching the hardware monitor in the
BIOS screen so the pc is as idle as it can be

do we think reinstalling will do any good ??

on a side note .. if i had gone crazy and flashed the bios can it be undone
??
 
Jaz said:
wednesday september 1 is the date today here in aus .. 2.27pm to be
precise
...
Click to expand...

Which shows up as 05:28 here as the time you posted that (UK)

Timezones fix the problem of posts appearing in the future - either his
clock is wrong (the OP), or he's configured himself in the wrong timezone.
 
im sure that a joke and im probably not suposed to get it but wanna try
explaining anyhow ??
 
ok holding off ....

im at wits end with this one unfortunatley .. flashing is probably the last
thing i can come up with
another poster did mention that he had the same problem (hanging and
resets - but ONLY in a windows environment) but different os .. a flash
fixed it.

Im running P4P800 E Deluxe , P4 2.8e , kingmax 512mb DDR 400 pc 3200 400w
power , radeon 9200 , TVAV capture card , seagate 80g , liteon dvdrw and
liteon dvdrom ... WIN 98 SE .. i hate xp and cant afford it (AU 450!
bull***)

Its a brand new setup secondary to the 3 drives(the HD is reformatted)but no
has never been stable ... i updated as much as possible hoping this was the
cause .. it didnt seem to be

the symptoms are mostly random but it will always do somthing dodgy if im
ripping and burning a dvd ... it acts like its shitty ram ( really slowly
when loaded up etc)

i have run the memory test avail on the microsoft website and i did get
memory errors but only when the cache was off for the test
take ram back- they say theres nothing wrong but give me a new stick to shut
me up im sure ... come home same thing happens .. but it doesnt test as
faulty when it take it back to where i purchased it.

its not the power supply as it has been tested with an alternate supply

I have not tried running it down on bare bones simply because i didnt think
the capture card or a cd-drive was able to reset the system .. they are the
only extras in there ..

the other thing that hints a bois flash might help is that after a more
glorious crash(one after it was loaded up not just playing solitaire) it
decided that the bios was corrupt or somthing to the degree and would
proceed no further untill the motherboard disk was inserted to reinstall the
bios or whatever it wanted to do.

that about all that is of relevance i can think of ...(thank god you all
say)

thanks for any suggestions

Jaz
 
Jaz said:
give it a minute after posting that message and lo and behold crash !
memtest 86 wont run .. it says loading flashes somthing on a blue
screen and resets adn we go through the loop again untill i eject the
disk
on a side note .. if i had gone crazy and flashed the bios can it be
undone ??
Click to expand...

If your system is unable to run Memtest without crashing, do not even think
of flashing the BIOS.
 
Have you plugged in the 4 pin CPU power conn to the board?
Does your ATX P/S even have one?
Needs it though.!!
 
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