DS3 bios problem

[Biscuit]

im currently building a computer for a friend. Full specs are

e6320
Gigabyte 965P DS3/S3
Maxtor sata 1 160gb hdd
Geil 2GB pc6400 ulta low latency
6200tc 128mb
NEC dvd-rw

I tried to flash and reinstall the bios to version 12 using the in bios option and now whenever i boot up i get "scanning bios image in hard drive..." and no way to get past this into bios.
i dont get what i have done wrong, i put the floppy in and run the program.
I have tried clearning cmos and removing thr battery but nothing :/

I may have put an incorrect mobo revision bios on or omething like that... pretty sure i didnt but only thing i can think that i possibly did wrong! Any idea how i can fix this?

[merdat]

If you can't get into bios where you 'flashed from' can you get into windows ? Gigabyte software on the ds4 has the opion to use windows to update the bios so you could maybe use this 'utility' if you have it , to flash back .

[Biscuit]

it doesnt get to the bios stage of booting nevermind windows... im so scared iv buggered this mean il have to fork out £60 i dont have

[merdat]

Well , I would try re-doing what you have tried -maybe leave battery out for a longer period . If you have 'corrupted the 'bios' then that could be a big problem . On the ds4 there is a back-up bios chip but the chips are hard connected i.e can't be replaced as the 'square pop out type can. Don't know about the ds3 - you would have to have a look at the manual. Suggest you ask around elsewhere before you cough out 60 notes there might be a simpler solution ( me i've never flashed a bios yet - never needed to -- ust to flash plenty of eproms about 25 years ago which is basically the same thing. Sorry can't be of more help.

[Biscuit]

i have tried running the same process again however there is no way to do it because the screen mentioned above is the only one u can physically get onto :/ I have left the battery out overnight so will have one last shot at it when i get home. If i still dont have any luck then i will just cross my fingers & RMA the board. Thanks for the help anyway

[merdat]

no problem - hope that you get sorted .

[Biscuit]

Still had nothing so iv RMA'd the thing... fingers crossed

[aidanjt]

Aren't Gigabyte boards suppose to have a backup BIOS ROM in case things go arse wayed if a BIOS update fails?.. If so, I imagine pulling out the EEPROM would let the backup BIOS kick in.

[IAmATeaf]

Looks like it's failing to boot off the onboard BIOS and is trying to locate a BIOS image of the hard drive to load, have a look in the mobo manual to see what it says about loading a BIOS of the HD or even CDROM.

[Biscuit]

too late i have already sent it back i dont think the DS3 had a backup bios, i didnt see anything about it in the manual. Whats an EEPROM?

If the BIOS doesnt load how would it be able to access the hard drive?

[aidanjt]

An EEPROM is an Electronically Erasable/Programmable ROM, it's the chip the primary BIOS is stored in. It's usually seated inside a small brown square plastic 'seat' .

[Biscuit]

oh right, the bios chip was soldered to the motherboard so i cudnt have popped it out

[IAmATeaf]

The DS3 emulates dual BIOS by being able to retrieve a copy off the hard disk from what I can remember, it should have all been in the manual but if you hadn't gone through the steps to get it onto the HD in the first place then you wouldn't have been able to fix it anyway.

[Biscuit]

Iv dowloaded and read through the online manual and it says nothing about retrieving a copy of the bios from the HDD. The only way to do anything with the bios is to actually get to it first :/ bitof a design flaw methinks

[Biscuit]

good news all! Microdirect checked the motherboard and agreed it was faulty. Confidence in myself is restored!

New one should be on the way soon thanks all for help anyway