"BIOS Flash" Prompt on boot (8RGMI) .... ooops!

[never]

Hi all. I purchased this motherboard off ebay and was promised that the board was a working board when it was sent ( yeh I know ). I am using an Athlon XP 2500+ 333fsb and 2 x 256mb of pc3200 elixir mem. On first boot all seemed fine, POST was successful and went to bios loaded defaults. Second boot ok too. At this point I have no drives (not even fd) connected. I made some changes to BIOS settings such as boot order and changing fsb to 166 for a laugh. Save and exit.
At this point I get what looks like a Bios flashing screen saying "Do not power down or reset. Please wait!" So I waited for roughly 30 mins and nothing happens. so... I press reset. Whispering under my breath "but this will kill the system".... well guys I think I've killed the system.
I've tried reseting the cmos and different psu and memory (1 x 512mb of pc2700 crucial). No change.
So what was the bios flash menu. Remember no drives connected.
Please help!!!

Incedentally, what happens is that when you power on the fan's start up but not video activity or audible responses, e.g. beeps.

[Aedan]

Sounds like something went wrong when it flashed the FSB parameters back onto the BIOS chip.

If you have an older (200MHz FSB) chip, then that might be enough to get you up and running again, as it will use a different set of FSB parameters.

Otherwise you might need a new BIOS chip, or to hotflash your existing BIOS to recover the corrupted parameters in the BIOS chip itself.

[never]

Originally Posted by Áedán

...
Otherwise you might need a new BIOS chip, or to hotflash your existing BIOS to recover the corrupted parameters in the BIOS chip itself.

I have a old Athlon 1.4ghz. But it won't do anything with that in.
What would you suggest is the safest option?

If I wanted to Hotflash it where's the best place to read up about it first. I'm fairly experienced user so I think I can handle doing a hotflash if I have some documentation. Although it sounds fairly straight forward I don't want to ruin another board.

Just reading about it, hotflashing. I've got a Nforce2 ABit NF7 mobo. Could I get away with doing a hotflash by putting the faulty chip in that motherboard?

thanks for your help.

[Shrekster1980]

alright never

I think you made a mistake buying of ebay.

Do not put the Bios chip in the Abit NF7 Motherboard because it stuffed and you might damage you Abit Nf7 mobo. I think u better buy a new one from address below.

Ordering a replacement BIOS

A replacement eeprom BIOS chip (pre-programmed) can be purchased by sending a cheque for £9.95 made payable to "Actron Electronics Limited" to :-

EPoX UK
c/o Actron Electronics Limited
Unit 1
Enigma Building
Bilton Road
Milton Keynes
MK1 1HW

This service is available for all mainboards under 2 years old.

Please remember to include your mainboard model number and postal address when applying. THIS IS FOR UK RESIDENTS ONLY. BIOS eeproms are usually sent out with 72hours of cheque receipt. Please note that this does not include eeprom removal tool, although these are available from all good electronics outlets throughout the UK. BIOS eeproms will not always be flashed with the latest BIOS, they will be flashed with a BIOS of our choice that is deemed to offer maximum overall successful recovery. It is not possible to order these components by telephone.

When replacing the epox bios, take the old one out, and when u put new one in, put some dental floss underneath so if you need to take it out for any reason, you don't damage it.


shrekster

[never]

Originally Posted by Shrekster1980

I think you made a mistake buying of ebay.

Some people might say it's risky buying off ebay, some others would say overclocking a cpu is risky. Each to their own I suppose. Personally I don't mind, if i can get it working then I've paid the same money and got some experience too. Infact it would still be cheaper than retail. Bonus.

I thought as much, as far as the hotflash was concerned. (Although there are people who claim that they have managed to hotflash a rom from a different board. Depending on flash file sizes and rom types.)
Thanks again.

[never]

Shrekster,
Just to reinstate your faith in ebay. The guy I bought the board off has offered to pay for the replacement chip.
...
Which is nice.

[Shrekster1980]

thats unusual.

looks like there are a few good people out there after all.

shrekster