Asus A8N-SLi Premium - corrupted bios?

[JimNastics]

I recently sold my Asus A8N-SLi Premium motherboard to ionicle on here. It was working fine when I stripped the machine a few weeks back, but he's tried building his PC and is having big problems with what looks like a corrupted bios:

A8N-SLi Premium corrupted bios??

Obviously I'm trying to help him sort this out It's not a different language (I don't think), as he said changing the language option (third down from the top) doesn't do anything.

Anyone experienced this before? Should a bios flash do the trick? Could it be something other than the bios?

[manwithnoname]

It looks like it's in French - but not quite. Does selecting a different language change the text on the screen, even if it still gibberish. If it does not change at all then something wrong with the MB/BIOS, flashing it might fix it.

If the BIOS is using one of the low res text video modes its video card provides the data for the characters set. Can you see the message from the video card when it boots? If it's gibberish like the bios text it might be the video card that duff. Can another video card used?

[GoNz0]

eek, try and flash it

[ionicle]

selecting a different language does not change the bios screen's content, only the initial post screens content

attempting to flash it does not work, no-matter what the source

because dos, also becomes gibberish, and my keyboard doesnt type the keys its suposed to

so how can i reflash it, when typing doesnt even make up a coherent sentence or word...

i have tried taking the battery out for 4 hours then trying again...nothing

tried taking the graphics card out, and in a different slot, no difference

tried a different stick of ram, and a different processor, no difference,

tried booting without hard drives, or optical drives, no difference

tried booting to a different hard drive, with a different OS on it, no difference

i think its F****D tbh...

i will keep trying any ideas people come up with though...

[manwithnoname]

Can you try a different video card?

[ionicle]

thanks for the sugestion, i just tried that

the problem persists

also it doesnt matter which pci-e slot the card is in

and a pci card doesnt work either

[vinnyT]

Can you try a diff bios chip from another mobo (pref one you don't really need anymore)?

I think, providing it is the right type (ie size/shape) there shouldn't be any probs with doing this.

I had a mobo I couldn't boot because it wouldn't recognize my cpu, just ordered a compatable chip from the web and slotted it in.

[ionicle]

i dont have a motherboard with a compatable bios chip unfortunatly

[manwithnoname]

Do you have a 3.5 floppy drive?

If so can you make a bootable disk with a flashing software and rom image on, and create a file called a.bat containing the command to use the flashing software?

Boot from the disk and type 'a' it should flash the BIOS

[peterb]

Just musing out loud, but I wonder if there is a problem with the memory he is using? It's almost as if a bit isn't being set in the characterset used.

What graphics card and memory were you using - and what is he using?

[ionicle]

i dont have a 3.5" floppy drive, or disk, but i tried booting from usb, and it didnt work...

as it came up with the same gibberish as in the bios



i have used the same memory as he did, i bought it off him, but i did try a stick of my own that works perfectly in another system, so that isnt the problem

and as for graphics, i am using an X300

[JimNastics]

If the BIOS is using one of the low res text video modes its video card provides the data for the characters set. Can you see the message from the video card when it boots? If it's gibberish like the bios text it might be the video card that duff. Can another video card used?

I had forgotten about that and was really hoping that was the case, obviously not :/ ionicle, was the other card you used just another stand pci-e card that defo works?

This is just completely strange, I don't know how or why it's happened

[ionicle]

i have used a brand new X300

and a used and guarenteed working X300, in both PCI-E slots, each one tried in each slot

didnt work

tried a pci graphics card (matrox somthing or other)

in all 3 pci ports...

same gibberish came up

[Ciber]

Have you tried recovering the bios from the motherboard support cd that came with the mobo? I have the same mobo and I'm reading from the manual page 4-5 about this. Sounds like it is what you should do if your bios is corrupt. I seem to recall reading that there is a backup bios on the board although I can't find anything on it from quickly flicking thru the manual just now. I have the asus product page in my bookmarks if that might help looking there: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

[ionicle]

yes, it loaded a form of dos, which was also gibberish...

i tried from the disk, but all the text that came up was gibberish, and you have to select somthing, i tried selecting either option, all i got was more gibberish

[Boon72]

have u tried a different make of card in the PCI-E slot with your memory?

have u connected everything up or is this just for POST? (ie m/b, cpu, ram & gfx)

id personally try with reseating the cpu and try 1 stick of ram, the gfx card and see what i got n go from there