What have I DONE to my new Soltek SFF?

[Zak33]

OH guys....who told me I was a PC builder huh?


Idiot more like

Soltek Mini barbones PC (as in Tarinders review ) and an XP 1700 + which is good to go at 2600+ speed.......this mobo is nForce 2.

It wouldnt hold the multiplier settings, after powering down,,(see other thread) so I switched a jumper over to leave it at default.....

it worked...booted as a standard multiplier :hurrah:

then as I have got PC3200 from Crucial, I thought I'd up the FSB.....and off we went again.....lowered the CAS to 2....

Bear in mind it has built in graphics.....

bad boot and all pixels missing from the BIOS boot screen....

powered down real fast......waited for it to cool.....

reset CMOS (jumper AND rebooted with Insert held down, as per mobo manual)

came up with the first line of BIOS and then died....stuck there....

waited...powered down (6 seconds on the Power button)

and now it wont boot at all

Reset CMOS hundred times......took power lead out AND mobo power lead....left for over ten minutess,,,dead

took CMOS battery out......same...waited...dead.

Changed CMOS battery for the one in THIS PC....

dead.....

WHAT@S WRONG? :really sad mode:

tried a PCI and an AGP card in.......but dead...

In ALL cases.....the fans power up.....the mobo makes approrotate noises (hence me trying the vid card incase melted built in one)....

mo go.....rebuilt THIS PC to get online...monitor fine...

WHAT HAVE I DONE....?


HAVE I KILLED MY SOLTEK MINI SYSTEM?

sod this.....gonna go eat and drink.....

sadder days like this make me wonder about PC's...you ALL know what I mean

Cheers for reading...HELP!

[joshwa]

that's weird ! especially since all you did was set it to CAS 2 - and then it freaks out :/ you'd think it would reset back to 2.5 or something !!

[Agent]

Sounds like the infamous Nforce 2 BIOS corruption issue I'm afraid
If it is, you'll need a reflash of your BIOS.

thats a possibility - not certain though !

[Zak33]

how do reflash this BIOS..?

on my ASUS I go online..it doe sit

oh I need a beer.,.....do this tomorrow fellas....thanks for all being there all the time..you lot make me feel better

soon as I'm online I know I'm safe to ask and get help....without a PC I am dead in the water

Its WHY I wanted a 2nd PC :gulp:

cheers guys ...beer calls

[malfunction]

Ooooh dear Zak...

Having some experience of this there's a few things to try. First off you can *try* leaving the power off and removing the battery to 'force' the bios settings to clear. Probably won't work but it's worth a go.

Another option I know of is to hot flash the bios. You need a compatible motherboard - basically the 'donor' motherboard has to be able to recognise the bios chip from the dead board - doesn't mean that you need another nForce2 mobo or that another nForce2 mobo will work with it but that's probably the safest bet. Basically you need to boot up the donor board into pure DOS, carefully remove it's bios chip, insert the faulty chip, re-flash it with a known good image of the bios, power off, swap back and test it out. You need to be 100% sure that you've got the chips the right way around (it will perm. damage the chip otherwise) and you need to be lucky enough to have the compatible kit around to re-flash the bad chip.

Other than that you can send off the chip to someone else that's either willing to help you or help you for some cash - send off the chip to them and they can do it for you. For what it's worth I killed a donor mobo before getting this right - it's a bit of a nervous process the first time.

Tips for getting out the BIOS chip - I used a very small flat head screwdriver and very gently levered the chip out of the socket (there are gaps at opposite corners where you can get the tip of the screwdriver under the chip without touching the pins - alternate between each so that you don't risk bending the pins - putting it back in is easier - you can just push it back in with your finger). As I said before be 110% sure that you have the chips the right way round. If you have a spare mobo - something old you don't mind sacrificing - practice taking the BIOS chip out and putting it back in (with the power off) before you try it on the intended victim.

[Agent]

If it needs flashing - i can do it for you zak, if thats the last resort (its inconvenience for you !)

[Zak33]

I will try booting it today and then be in contact Agent...you might just save my life

[Nox]

does that mobo support auto booting from a floppy to flash a bios? didn't some used to have a feature in them where if they got corrupt you could hold down various keys and they would boot from floppy automatically, even if knackered.

Nox

[Zak33]

Nox...my Asus one does....but this is giving me NOTHING...no screen.

Its why I tried a PCI vid card and an AGP card too.

What scares me is that I set BIOS to not use Floppy cos I didnt install one, so even if it WAS trying...the bios aint got it set.

Although.....having reset CMOS it sohuld have been default.

Have tried 2 other cpus now to be sure....its the mobo BIOS

Agent...are you SURE you dont ming doing it for me? And what doI do...take out the BIOS chip and post it to ya?

Will it risk YOU mobo...cos forget that. Dont wanna cause anyone else hassle.

I have another PC so its OK.

Thanks to you all...and to Josh for cheering me up with a new sig

I rebuilt my other PC with its new True power PSU...oh how QUIET is THAT?

Beautifull.....anyway..back on coarse.....

BIOS CHIP FLASH-age

[RoganJosh]

The crucial 3200 ddr is only rated at cas 3 - although it can handle 2.5 if you're lucky - but definitely not cas 2 at 200+ fsb.

[Zak33]

I know that ......but was chancing my arm..never caused me so much hassle tho normally reset CMOS go again

[RoganJosh]

I know the feeling - i borked my first nf2 board doing something similar - is there a jumper on the board which froces the fsb to 100mhz?