Unable to Clear "Backup BIOS Checksum Error"

[georgeb]

Greetings,

My GA-K8NS-Ultra 939 suddenly froze up. When I rebooted I got 5 beeps and the POST screen showed "WARNING: Backup BIOS Checksum Error!". Then the Dual BIOS Utility automatically tries to flash, however the progress bar only gets about half way before the screen goes black and then the system just sits there.

Thanks to the excellent advice on this forum I have:
- removed all but one memory stick.
- cleared CMOS (jumpered for 20 minutes).
- Replaced the power supply (700W Thermaltake) (I have disconnected all drives but the floppy.)

Unfortunately, nothing has had any effect. Aside from the lights flashing on the keyboard it is completely unresponsive (DEL, ESC & F9 have no effect).

I haven't made hardware changes, tweaked or upgraded the BIOS. The BIOS currently loaded is the latest available. I have a DOS boot floppy with the BIOS on it but not sure how to use it at this point given that the keyboard is unresponsive. I don't believe I had set my floppy to be the first boot device.

Is it dead? Thanks for your help!

[PhenomII Dude]

Get a new board me thinks

[NimrodAUS]

It doesnt sound to good mate. I have only ever seen this once and there was nothing I could do. If its possible to get into the BIOS which it doesnt sound like it is then setting the clock and date may have some effect. IDK. Might be time to upgrade. Sorry buddy. Welcome to TweakTown.

[wazza300]

leave cmos battery out overnight as it can take upto 4 hours to completely clear it

[Lsdmeasap]

Yes, please do leave the battery out overnight and see if it helps. Sometimes it takes a while to clear, also unplug the PSU and press and hold the case power button for one minute to be sure the power is drained from the PSU after you unplug it

If you continue to have issues, you can try to short the board since you have dual BIOS. You will need to search for the thread here with the info, if you cannot find it please ask someone to locate the thread for you and I am sure they will point you in the right direction

[georgeb]

Thanks Lsdmeasap, for the suggestions. I tried removing the battery, unplugging & draining the power supply without success.

I read the thread How to fix "dead" dual BIOS motherboard if flashing failed posted by tgun, with great interest until I realized my BIOS is in a 32-pin PLCC package soldered to the board instead of the 8-pin mentioned there. I also found a reference to my chip here in your BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide" posted by klompa, however his issue was trying to force the MB to recognize it had a corrupted BIOS. My MB already recognized the Backup BIOS was corrupted but was failing when it automatically tried to recover using the Dual BIOS Recovery Utility.

Inspired by the posts I had read, I thought I would try to fool the MB into thinking there was no backup BIOS. I did this by shorting pin 24 (the Initialize line) of the Backup BIOS to ground (used a wire with 2 aligator clips, clipped one end to the case and the other to the shaft of a narrow blade screwdriver).

For those thinking of trying this, understand that this is not for the faint of heart. The next pin over, pin 25, is the power pin. If your screwdriver hits it by mistake, sparks will fly and YOU WILL DESTROY YOUR BOARD. and depending on the quality of your power supply, quite possibly that as well. I figured, my MB is already a brick, so what do I have to lose?

When I powered up I only got a single beep and no warning message!! I removed my screwdriver and hit DEL and was able to enter the BIOS. I then went into Q-Flash/Dual BIOS utility and tried to copy the BIOS from the floppy to the backup. It appeared to take, although I noticed at the top of the Q-Flash screen it listed the BIOS chips - "Main BIOS Type: PM49FL004" and "Backup BIOS Type: Unknown". Apparently, the MB was still fooled into thinking it didn't have a backup. Before I rebooted, while still in Q-Flash, I disabled Auto Recovery.

When I rebooted I again got the dreaded 5 beeps (this is what made me think that copying to the Backup BIOS did not take) as well as the "Backup BIOS Checksum Error". The difference this time was that the Award BootBlock came up (I suspect because I disabled Auto Recovery in Q-Flash), automatically found the BIOS on my floppy and loaded it into the Backup BIOS.

The system rebooted without a warning! Yipee!! I immediately went into the BIOS & loaded & saved optimized defaults. When I rebooted again I got nothing but the fans and power light. Before I panicked I remembered seeing similar symptoms related to RAM issues. Sure enough, once I reinstalled all my memory sticks all was back to normal.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this forum! I could not have solved this without your help and inspiration!!