F-I90HD board died - dead bios? Please advice ...

[matx2007]

I was temped to post this in the thread about no video on F-I90HD (can't post link because less than 5 posts...) - but since I can't be 100% sure that the problems are related, I chose to start a new thread (1st post and didn't want to start out highjacking.... ;-)


My board died: everything spins up but no video. I also had shut down errors from Abit EQ (I don't think those two things are related, though). For me it sounds like the problems might very well be caused by a flawed/dead bios. I attempting to find solutions I read several forums about this board and it sounds like quite a few boards have died (at least form those posting in forums). I suspect that these problems can all be connected to a bad bios chip, therefore this post...

My board worked flawlessly for two days using onboard video (waiting to see if the AMD 2600 series were worth the wait). I had just finished installing everything with the newest drivers etc. and Windows XP. I had run Orthos and a few games and no stability problems. The only issues were a non-working fan-control and I noticed that voltages for both the CPU and RAM were too low compared to what they were set to in the bios. I decided to just flash to the newest bios (to resolve the fan+voltage+S3 problems). Since the latest official bios is known to report wrong temps, I went for the newest beta bios (M612A_13.B03).
And then the problems started!!

I flashed from Windows using the Abit utility (stupid me - well it is there, so why not try to use it ...). The program reported that everything went flawlessly. I rebooted and the bios reported check sum error. I remembered that one might have to clear the cmos (never had had to do so before on other boards, but oh well. Did that. Rebooted and now no video. I tried everything. Booting with one RAM stick in all four positions, cutting power, clearing cmos (many times), have taken the battery out several times (for more than an hour at one time), pushed the start button repeatedly to make sure that no power left in motherboard, etc. I noticed that it attemted to access the DVD drive when just starting up. I took out all drive cables and plugged in an old floppy I luckily had laying around. Created a fresh bootdisk (checked in another computer that it worked) and copied the bios bin file along the Abit flash tool to the floppy. Created an autoexec.bat file with only one line (starting the flash program with the correct parameters). I tried with both the new beta bios and the two official bios. Tried at least twice with each version. Cleared cmos in-between. Also tried again to unplug the power cord and the battery. No luck. No video. Not even the slightest blip. Many hours wasted.

I'm thinking of returning it to the dealer and wait till the G33 boards become available. It's really annoying. I was looking forward to built around the Abit board and then this. I even waited for two weeks with all the other parts laying around because the board was sold out in my country.

I've built all my own and several systems for friends and family and I never had a dead board before including when flashing the bios (I usually do so before (re)installing windows if a newer version is available). Never had Abit either before, though. Hmm.

My specs:

- F-I90HD (shipped with first release bios)
- E4300 running at stock when installing windows and flashing the bios, otherwise at 2400 MHz. Cooled with Scythe Katana II.
- 2 gb dual channel Kingston Value RAM 667 (checked, no probs). Running at 1.9 (+0.1) to make sure no problems since I noticed that the board undervolts.
- 2*Seagate sata HDDs
- Antec 3400 Micro-atx run with included 380W PSU (good quality as far as I can see, very quiet and built by seasonic) and 1 pcs 12 cm fan and 2 pcs 92 cm fans.

I didn't notice any heat issues, only the north bridge got quite - but not alarmingly - warm. All parts are brand new except for the HHDs.

Suggestions shall be most welcome...

[frosty15]

Definitely sounds like a corrupted BIOS chip to me, as it'll still be under warranty it would seem an rma is your best choice of action.

First things first though - check the obvious.
Have you tried a different graphics card or even the o/b (it may be set to o/b by default)?
Whenever I've flashed a BIOS, the first thing I do is load optimal settings before re-applying changes. Not sure if, by immediately clearing the cmos RE checksum error, you inadvertantly corrupted the chip, or if it was incorrectly reported as being successful.
But regardless, it isn't worth messing about too much before rma'ing it.

[Thebatfink]

Sounds same as my problem. AbitSean kindly offered his email address to arrange an RMA, maybe he wouldnt mind too much if you took him up on this also.

[obvious]

I got round this when the screen was dead and the keyboard wasn't working either by editing the bootdisk .bat files so they didn't need any keypresses or confirmation ie a silent install. Worked nicely to get my windows flashed 13.B03 back to 12.

[matx2007]

Thanks a lot for the replies

You might have a point about the clearing cmos bit, frosty15. I rebooted once just after flashing and there was video. It said something about a check sum error. I turned off the computer, unplugged the power cord and cleared the cmos. After powering up again, no video. Sounds strange, though. The manual says to clear the cmos immediately after flashing. I was more thinking that I somehow messed up because I let it boot once before flashing (yes, didn't open the manual before after getting an error - haven't open a manual in years).

@obvious: I already tried that. No success, unfortuantely. I thought there was hope because I could see that it was reading off the floppy. After a few seconds it would strangely stop reading, though. Light still on, but no reading. I let it stay for quite some time. Just to make sure that I did it right, can you kindly write what it should say in the autoexec.bat. I think I did it right, but it has been a while since dos commands...
I disconnected all drives except the floppy. I tested that it would boot into dos on another computer (couldn't test if the autoexec.bat worked, since I obviously didn't want to flash my old asus board...) copied the bios bin file and awdflash.exe. I created an autoexec.bat file with only one line in it:
AWDFLASH.EXE M612A_12.BIN /CC /CD /CP /F /R /PY /SN


@Thebatfink: Thanks, but I don't think I'll need it. The shop will make a refund.

[obvious]

I used the original .bat files (abitfae and runme) and just edited out all 'pause' statements and put in the name of the bios file I wanted to flash. The /F switch in awdflash looks dodgy to me by the way and you might want to try /LD to auto nuke and restart. I think that's what I did

[matx2007]

Thanks, I'll do that. How did you get it to run runme.bat when there is no video? I'll try renaming runme.bat to autoexec.bat (hopefully should work).

[obvious]

ah yes, I did have to rename runme to autoexec. I did also change the switches to make it as aggressive as possible pretty much as you've mentioned above with the exceptions ( /LD and /f) noted

[matx2007]

Didn't work out. Thanks a lot for the help, though!
I'll return it tomorrow and pick up the new Gigabyte G33 board instead.

[captaindsc]

Hello I'm having the same problems as above and was just wondering if you managed to get it working by making an auto exe bat?
I have a feeling there may be many others that tried to flash beta 13 in windows because there was no read me with the bios I downloaded and only found about doing it in dos after my problems.
Could I do the auto bios flash using a usb stick?
If you did get it to work could you please reply with an idiots guide of how you did it or at least the auto exe bat. command line you used.
Thanks

[mlarsen]

I have the same problem after I updated my bios to version 13. I have tried to make a bootdisc on a CD but when my PC boots up, nothing really happends. I have tried the disc as much as I could on my other PC and it should work.

Anyone who else have solved the bios problem??

[AzureKevin]

The exact same thing happened to me. It started when I decided to reboot one day. I shut down, and then I hit my power button to turn it back on... and I got no screen. So I popped open my case, removed and moved ram around until I finally got video again. I ended up only being able to use one stick of ram (I bought 2x 1gig sticks), and it would only work in slots 3 or 4. No matter what I tried (bumping up the ram voltage to 2.2 volts, switching sticks in and out), it just wouldn't let me use slots 1 or 2, and I couldn't use both sticks at once, no matter what slots they were in.

So at this point, I decided to update my bios to 13. I used FlashMenu and everything seemed to go fine. I restarted and got a weird error screen that I'd never seen before (it said something like, "keyboard failure"), so I restarted. After that, I've had no luck in getting anything to show up on the screen. I'm currently at college with no access to any troubleshooting materials, ie other ram sticks, a PCI-e video card, etc, so I went ahead and ordered the Gigabyte G33 motherboard.

I was just wondering if anyone knows if my board is dead, or if it is still redeemable in the least? I've had it for over 2 months now, and I'm pretty sure I can't return it since I bought it from SFF Store. Can anyone tell me anything? I'd appreciate it.

[BUFF]

if you bought are in the US (guessing from SFF store) you should be able to get a BIOS chip from abit USA for $14 shipped.
Your mobo also has a 3 year warranty.

[AzureKevin]

Thanks a lot!