Athlon Xp +1900 defective?

[Apom]

I bought it OEM from some internet site..anyway heres my problem.

I was putting together a mid-range system last night and ran into a host of problems..here are my specs....


Athlon XP +1900 coolmaster heatsink and fan
ESC K7S5A mobo
512 DDR RAM
80 Gig Maxtor Drive
Hercules Geforce 2
dvdrom

I wanted to start off pretty much bare just incase any problems showed up...and boy did they ever..

after installing everything and booting up the system I noticed the motherboard wasnt reading all the ddr ram, around only 384 of it..and the xp chip was running at 800mhz sometimes and on other reboots went to 1200mhz.
I also had problems with the bios reading the harddrive. after like every other reboot or so I had to go into bios to scan for the HD.

after installing Win XP, and setting up my cable connection I downloaded the newest bios for the board... aminf329.exe and 011121.rom or something like that, which i copied onto a boot disk.

I restarted to boot from the floppy and flashed the bios...all of a sudden my monitor went blank and upon a reboot all i get is a beep like every 10 seconds or so... I tried reseting bios, and reseating my video card.

I know its not my video card cuase Im using it on this comp now.
I know its not to much heat cause i was at like 40c when I checked in bios before updating bios.

Im wondering if my board or chip is defective.

[funnyperson1]

i think youre bios flash went wrong, and if that is the case, then im sorry the only thing you can do is send the mobo back to the manufacturer...

[Apom]

thanks funny..

Anyone else agree that the mobo went bad?

Im tryin to figure out if my CPU wasnt damage..would hate to have to try to return it.

I can buy a new mobo tomorrow, but replacing the chip would be expensive.

[Placid]

Yes if you start flashing the bios and something happens before it finishes and you try to restart your pc then your bios will be messed up.

You can get a replacement bios or a new board.

[trulyred]

Ask the doctor he knows a web site where you can download the bios you need... Some thing like bios.com or computer bios.com or something like that .........tr

[Apom]

I cant get new bios cause I cant boot up..the screen is blank..

and anyway..I cracked the CPU socket when I tried to take the heatsink off...just hoping i didnt damage the CPU..


also had to take the damn thermal pad gel off my core which I hope I did correctly.

[Kryten]

I think you will find when they are talking about a new BIOS they are refering to a new BIOS chip, once a flash goes wrong I know of no way of recovering it without serious effort only replacing it.
As for the CPU if you have damaged the ZIF socket chances are the CPU wouldn't be that forgiving.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news :(

[bongo]

YIKESS!!

You really should be more careful!!

OK
First off sounds like you didnt put in one of your memory sticks in all the way. Happens often on new boards, the slots for the memory are new and tight and the stick does get in all the way, Carefully!! Push equally on thew memory stick and you will be ok.
2. Again , make sure your harddrive power connectors are in all the way, and push downward on them to make sure theres enough contact!
3. Well ...... Screwed up a bios flash........ hmmmm
Only thing i can suggest is to find a friend with the same bios.. and swith temporally to egt urs running... once you ' ve done that reinsert your old bios and it should all work.. fine...

ps------ dont try overclocking anything till you learn to be more careful ............w00t!

Best of luck on this!!

[Big Mike]

Are you sure there isnt an emergency flash procedure for this board? most boards ive ever owned had an emergency flashing procedure that allowed a bootable floppy with an autoexec.bat that instructed it to run the flasher to reflash the bios and go, its like a low level bios that never changes that allows emergency repairs like this.

[Sonny]

If you have a dead MoBo due to a bad flash there is a way to get it back:D

It's called HOT FLASHING:eek: UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS A RATHER DIFFICULT PROCEDURE & NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY.

1. Find another MoBo with the same kind of BIOS Chip, physical resemblance & does not even have to be the same brand of board but exactly the same chip.

2. Make sure you have a reliable copy of the new BIOS revision & the Flash software or whatever program that the BIOS manufacturer uses extracted to a clean floppy.

3. Cold Boot the "Live" MoBo into DOS to make sure nothing is living in the memory. Also make sure all MoBo drivers are uninstalled to be on the safe side. Who needs DMA to corrupt your BIOS?:rolleyes:

4. Here is the fun part:D Pop out the BIOS chip of the "Live" MoBo & insert the "Dead BIOS chip then FLASH it. You will NOT power down when you take out or insert the BIOS chip.

5. After the program completes the Flash you will reboot & will have ALL THE ERRORS that you can think of. Why? Because it's not the right BIOS for THAT MoBo. Shut Down & remove the chip then reinstall it to your original MoBo & everything should be fine.

This is not for the faint of heart.

DISCLAIMER

I am in no way responsible for any damage to your own or anybody elses property. Try this at your own risk.

[Kryten]

I have heard of this before but have never been game to try it, I have always just resorted to replacing the chip.
Better a dead BIOS than a dead board...

[Jeniva]

sounds kinda scary..lol

[Apom]

was workin on my comp for like 9 hours before deciding to take out the CPU..in the process I chipped one of the knotches the heatsink hooks onto..

just as it was cracking off, I realized i should have ordered a new bios chip.

the sound of my yell pretty much shoke the entire block..

as for the cables and memory not being hooked in right, It was all plugged in correctly.

Im actually thinking that its my AGP slot that was messed up. I know I had to reseat it earlier before the flash went bad, because the monitor turned off on me.

anyway..thats over and done with...today im going to get my shuttle, my glaciator II is coming in tomorrow i think, and also get a antec 400watt ps.

[Maximus Nickus]

You are unlucky!!!

Basically I think you had a defective board and they totally mucked it up!!!

Alls not lost though, if the board was ok then you can recover the BIOS, go to www.overclockingstore.co.uk and they sell a BIOS recoverer for £25.

Also you could take it to the shop and say that its never worked.....I mean it didn't work first time and you panicked and screwed the BIOS up so....

Anyways to do a BIOS flash copy that AWDFLASH and the NEW BIOS ONTO A FLOPPY then boot form the Windows startup disk, DONT BOOT FROM IT BUT SLECT THE command prompy (shift + f5) then after thats up remove the floppy and put in the BIOS disk, this is the only way of making sure it works.

Alos I had a bios flash problem (the bios I downloaded was faulty there to many f***** bios' out there) but when I turned it on the Floppy Light came on!!!! So I was able to re-flash it! The boards dead now (100C disaster...) but there is hope, just stop rushing!!!!!! Learn from others mistakes and don't make them yourself!

[bongo]

HOTFLASHING... is pretty easy.
Just make sure ur grounded to something before u remove the bios chip!!!!!

Its all smooth sailing from there

[Maximus Nickus]

Easy!!!

I don't consider removing the BIOS chip when the PC's on to be easy!!! SOunds very risky, and what happens if u screw ya mates board up????

And u need a special tool to take the chip out! Easier to get a pro to fit a new BIOS chip!