New motherboard problems help !

[zanthus]

Hi guys,

First post on here, recently built a machine to use for uni work, its the GA-EP31_DS3L Motherboard.

Updated all and worked perfectly until I looked at face wizard to change the bios picture, I took a sample picture of Gigabytes downloads for this program and changed the text, the file format and everything was the same, put the file into the wizard said everything had run perfectly so rebooted saw my picture and then nothing just a little flashing "-"

I have reset the cmos and dont have a clue what to try now as I cant boot from the install cd and cant access the bios to do a recovery.

Please help as I really need this machine working

cheers

Craig

[billko]

Originally Posted by zanthus

Hi guys,

First post on here, recently built a machine to use for uni work, its the GA-EP31_DS3L Motherboard.

Updated all and worked perfectly until I looked at face wizard to change the bios picture, I took a sample picture of Gigabytes downloads for this program and changed the text, the file format and everything was the same, put the file into the wizard said everything had run perfectly so rebooted saw my picture and then nothing just a little flashing "-"

I have reset the cmos and dont have a clue what to try now as I cant boot from the install cd and cant access the bios to do a recovery.

Please help as I really need this machine working

cheers

Craig

Oh, no. This is definitely a case of "don't fix what's not broke." As an experienced technician of over twenty years, I can tell you that you shouldn't upgrade the BIOS unless you see something in the upgrade that fixes a problem that you are experiencing. Take it from someone who learned the hard way.

I'm afraid you've "bricked" your MoBo. That is, the BIOS has been incorrectly flashed and is no longer bootable. There is one thing you haven't tried yet, and that is to go to the Gigabyte website, download the latest BIOS with the autoexec.bat file included. Make a bootable floppy and copy the contents of the zip file to the floppy, overwriting the autoexec.bat file when given the choice. Insert the disk and pray that the boot block is not destroyed on your motherboard's BIOS image. Give it a chance to work. If you hear the floppy chugging along but there is nothing displayed on your monitor, that is fine. Ignore that. The BIOS may be so damaged it's not capable of putting out a video signal but it might still be able to be flashed. (It might be only "mostly" dead.) ;) Wait until the floppy light goes out, then reboot. Hopefully it will be back.

A few things can thwart your efforts. If your floppy wasn't listed as a bootable device then you may be S.O.L. However, it might be able to boot from a USB card reader if "usb legacy support" was enabled (it is by default). Also, if your BIOS is truly dead, nothing will be able to resurrect it. Well I suppose you can unsolder the BIOS chip and hook it up to an EPROM burner...

Good luck, and remember not to flash the BIOS unless you absolutely have to. And even then do it from a bootable floppy if possible, or QFlash if the BIOS supports it.

Good luck! I'm crossing my fingers!

Bill

[Lsdmeasap]

Please see this thread for BIOS flashing, it has how to clear your CMOS, and some recovery steps (Blind flash as mentioned above) you can take to try to save your board. >>>
BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

You should never flash from windows, if you wanted to use Face Wizard you should have saved the BIOS to your Drive then flashed with Qflash.

If you have no luck with clearing your CMOS and do not ALREADY Have a Floppy installed and set as first boot device let me know and I will PM you the last resort method which has saved MANY Boards. But please do try to fully and properly clear your CMOS

And also, try doing that with only one stick of ram installed. You can try to start your PC now with one stick, sometimes this will cause the incorrect settings to reset the BIOS to be recovered from backup

*PRE-Post EDIT*

Can you get into your BIOS now? If so, you are fine and just need to set your SATA/Disk settings again! I re-Read your post and your comment here made me think you have just not loaded optimized and save/apply/rebooted and then set your disk settings again so windows cannot load >>>

rebooted saw my picture and then nothing just a little flashing "-"

So can you access the BIOS at all, or not?

[zanthus]

Originally Posted by Lsdmeasap

Please see this thread for BIOS flashing, it has how to clear your CMOS, and some recovery steps (Blind flash as mentioned above) you can take to try to save your board. >>>
BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

You should never flash from windows, if you wanted to use Face Wizard you should have saved the BIOS to your Drive then flashed with Qflash.

If you have no luck with clearing your CMOS and do not ALREADY Have a Floppy installed and set as first boot device let me know and I will PM you the last resort method which has saved MANY Boards. But please do try to fully and properly clear your CMOS

And also, try doing that with only one stick of ram installed. You can try to start your PC now with one stick, sometimes this will cause the incorrect settings to reset the BIOS to be recovered from backup

*PRE-Post EDIT*

Can you get into your BIOS now? If so, you are fine and just need to set your SATA/Disk settings again! I re-Read your post and your comment here made me think you have just not loaded optimized and save/apply/rebooted and then set your disk settings again so windows cannot load >>>


So can you access the BIOS at all, or not?

Hey thanks for all your replies , cant access the bios at all have tried all the keys etc, have taken out the battery for 2hrs and unplugged have also tried the reset cmos jumper pins etc

I think its dead

[Lsdmeasap]

Are you using a External USB Device by chance? if so unplug it!

Have you tried with one stick of ram?

What is it exactly you are seeing?

PM sent

[darkantrax07]

hi!
i have a same problem.
face wizard corrupted my bios
please see. thanx.