Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: jr2 on April 03, 2007, 01:34:11 am
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I've got a DFI PT880-ALF, which I usually run my games on... I decided to upgrade the BIOS, using the BIOS file 88LFD104.zip found here (http://www.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/bios_download_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=3000&CATEGORY_TYPE=MB&STATUS_FLAG=A&SITE=US), and the BIOS flashing utility WinFlash 1.76 found here (http://www.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/driver_download_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=3000&CATEGORY_TYPE=MB&INDEX_TYPE=null&STATUS_FLAG=A&SITE=US). All went well and good, I told WinFlash to update all sections of the BIOS, it flashed them, it verified them as ok, and then I rebooted.
And I got a big, fat, nothing on the screen. (The screen actually goes to standby, so I guess no computer input detected.) :mad: First off, I tried shutting the thing off, letting it sit a few moments, and then back on. Nada. Then I tried resetting the CMOS settings. Again, no results. I have just contacted DFI about the problem, and now one of my computers (the one I was seeding hip63's SCP DVD on) is down, probably permanently, as the BIOS does not look hot-flashable (is not a removable BIOS).
Does anyone have an idea what could cause a bad BIOS flash where the flash utility verifies that the file has flashed OK, but it still goes bad?
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I wonder if you selected wrong motherboard, because the file name in your post does not match the ones displayed on this page:
http://eu.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/bios_download_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=2525&CATEGORY_TYPE=MB&STATUS_FLAG=A&SITE=UK
And you say your mobo model is PT880-ALF, not PT880-AL. Did you buy your mobo from a store or did it come with the computer? If it came with a pre-built computer, it might be a customized OEM-model that does not work with DFI's BIOSes. In which case you need to use the computer manufacturer's BIOSes for the mobo.
You should also check your motherboard manual if the motherboard BIOS can still be flashed with some sort of emergency recovery. My old socket 754 Asus boards supports emergency flashes and works even if nothing comes to monitor, so your DFI board may as well.
BIOS flash utility does not necessarily check if your motherboard is compatible with the BIOS you're trying to flash. It only checks if the BIOS checksum matches after flash is done, to prevent corrupted BIOS flashes.
Edit: You used WinFlash? I never trust flashing BIOS to any Windows application. I always create a bootdisk or bootCD for BIOS flashers. With Windows, you never know what goes wrong with myriad of different apps running in the background while BIOS is being flashed.
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i usually never flash my bios unless theres something seriously wrong with the original version. msi boards i know come with a utility to find and install the correct bios for your mobo. i only flashed my bios after reading some reviews about my board that indicated that the original version was a little bit buggy. even then a bios flash is a tad bit extreme. if it wasnt for the utility i probibly woulda never risked flashing.
its not impossible to recover from a bios flash failure as many would claim. i had one case where i was able to get a board with a bad bios to work by replacing it with one from another board of the same model. bioses have been swappable for ages, i remember seeing some 286 boards that had rather large but removeable bios chips (they actually required a flash from a uv light to erase, hence the term flash).
most bios chips are indeed swapable so that they can always load the firmware onto the chip before its installed. do some research on the bios chip itself. it may be possible to get a programming cable for it. its a cable you can connect from the chip to a serial port and should come with a loader program. then the bios can in theory be loaded from another computer. im not sure how much they cost. but its how the original version is placed on the chip at the factory.
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I wonder why many seem to think BIOS updates are a bit on the extreme side. BIOS updates may fix many problems so it is worth doing if BIOS changelog reveals something that may affect you. Granted, BIOS updates aren't something as often done as driver updates, but it really isn't something "extreme" either, especially these days when many mobos have safe-guards against failed flashes.
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actually its a good idea with proper safegaurds in place. i just mean to say its foolish to jump to the conclusion that a bios flash is the only answer. i still consider it a last resort move.
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The sad part is, I was trying to get dual channel to work, and only later realized I had to have the memory in DIMM1 and DIMM3 to do that; I had them in DIMM1 and 2. I found this out after removing the cover to reset the CMOS; and after reviewing the website.
I bought the mobo from the internet; prolly TigerDirect or Newegg.
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Hmm never had that kind of trouble but then I use ASUS they are the best
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Hmm, my other mobo is an MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum (MS-6570E) (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K7N2_Delta2_Platinum&class=mb), it has never had any problems; also, I have had many other older computers and never had this problem except once with a bad floppy disk trying to update the BIOS (which, thankfully, the BIOS was removable and thus hot-flashable).
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I find it strange that the board doesn't have some kind of hardwired autorecovery system in place. I thought they all had such features. I know every mainboard I've used in the past five years either had dual BIOS chips, or a recovery environment in ROM.
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Yep. Usually, if you have a floppy disk, and can move a reset jumper, you can put everything back. No fun though, you need the manual, another machine to get on the internet and do research, etc. It can surely make you sweat.
Still, I always flash from Windows nowadays, I'm a lazy guy, lucky so far.
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...That's what I thought; I do have the other computer (MSI) for researching, I don't see any recovery feature besides CMOS clear, which makes me a bit surprised. Especially considering they've got the dumb BIOS as one of those small chips that cannot be removed... I've successfully hotflashed old mobos 2 or 3 times before (Google Uniflash, make sure you get the updated one, there is an old site that's no longer maintained from like 2001 or something... the newest Uniflash IIRC is only a few months old).
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Man, that sucks jr2. :( :(
Assuming the bios is correct and the flash utility is correct... And I know that you know your stuff, so it is.
Can you go into your BIOS settings when you boot? If so that's a good sign. When you flash, everything gets reset, often to wrong unworkable defaults. The CPU type and voltage settings may need to be set manually. Sometimes the CPU voltage is defaulted too low. If you can get into the BIOS, check those settings carefully. All you need is a keyboard, video card and boot drive (hopefully PATA on a standard IDE port), not even a mouse. And if your HDD is not PATA check that too. SATA drives are still not plug and play like they should be. You may want to remove any network cards or other peripherals while troubleshooting.
That sucks, and good luck! Don't give up yet! The fact that the flash went OK gives hope that the hardware is still OK, but the new defaults are wrong. DFI is a pretty good brand from what I've read. The LAN Party line is supposed to be up there with the best.
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Heh, my monitor won't even turn on. :(
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I wonder if you selected wrong motherboard, because the file name in your post does not match the ones displayed on this page:
http://eu.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/bios_download_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=2525&CATEGORY_TYPE=MB&STATUS_FLAG=A&SITE=UK
Uh, typo, I think... 'cause I know I went to the 880-AL / ALF page. Thx though.
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1. Did you look for a jumper reset?
2. Yank the battery and clear the CMOS. Then try booting again. Might just be a bad configuration.
EDIT: And always flash the BIOS from a boot disk.
Also... you said your monitor won't power up? That means no video signal. Which means you should be getting some sort of POST error code (beeping in some variation). It is possible, although unlikely, that your BIOS flash coincided with another hardware issue.
Yank all peripheral devices, the video card, the sound card, unplug the hard disks... strip it down to CPU and motherboard (don't put the RAM in either). Power it on, see if you get error beeps.
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K, I will try that... BTW, I did use the CMOS reset jumper, no results.
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Having no video at all is a big indicator.
Do you have a known good "golden" test video card you can stick in there?
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Ya, I do.. I'll have to try that, too.
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:mad: I just remembered, I have a POST error code ISA / PCI card (with LED code display & speaker)... I looked, I know I put it in one of my Maxtor hard disk boxes, but I can't find it just now... later, I guess. Meh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC_Nu3qXUNA
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Just thought of something, if you have your motherboard manual or a chart of all the jumpers on the motherboard, look for CMOS Reset or something there always is (atleast every computer I have built)
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Already done that; first thing. I also tried the hold power + reset buttons, then let power go and keep holding reset for 15 seconds, as this is also supposed to clear DFI CMOS'es. No go.
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Already done that; first thing. I also tried the hold power + reset buttons, then let power go and keep holding reset for 15 seconds, as this is also supposed to clear DFI CMOS'es. No go.
Hmm ok here are a few other things you could do aswell
- Thretening it with a burning stick (note: please do this outside since its a fire hazard)
- Yelling at it
- Insulting its mother (this one especilly works well for socket A motherboards since they are a bit touchy when it comes to their family)
- Pouring Coca Cola in it
- Yelling at it some more
- Hitting it (Note: some items in the case are sharp)
Just a few things you can try ....... however after you have treied this you normally get a working computer ....... since you must get a new one
/Dice
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i find people who flash anything are either brave or stupid. im neither :)
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...Or obsessed with having the most features in their BIOS...
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...... Or getting new hardware to work with their motherboard ..... my Geforce 7950GX2 still dosent work properly with my Asus P5B Deluxe mother board.
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Hmm, if anyone runs across a DFI PT880 ALF mobo used or new for cheap, let me know... that way I won't have to re-install M$ winDOwS all over again. :ick: Too bad there was no integrated recovery feature, or it would have been back on-line within an hour or two... :(
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Hmm, if anyone runs across a DFI PT880 ALF mobo used or new for cheap, let me know... that way I won't have to re-install M$ winDOwS all over again. :ick: Too bad there was no integrated recovery feature, or it would have been back on-line within an hour or two... :(
Well sometimes you can change the motherboard and still have the same Windows XP installation, if it manages to start you must first uninstall all old drivers the first thing oyu do then install the new one
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...That's true, but I've never been able to successfully do that. (Besides once; and then, it was so screwed up that I ended up just re-formatting and installing again.) You have to boot into Safe Mode usually (unless your hardware is almost identical). Even then, if you have a different chipset (I think), it won't work unless you screw around with your system32 & registry... which is next to impossible from the Recovery Console. UBCD4Win might be able to do that; I haven't tried before.
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This MAY work, then again it may not... I know on my old MSI Socket754 motherboard I had, had a neat little trick. I believe that if you turned off the system, held down a certain key combination, turned on the system, if there were any low-level BIOS left in the system, it would scan the floppy drive and/or CD drive for a BIOS image, and automatically apply it. You'd hear the PC Speaker beep after it was done. This might not apply to your board, but if you perhaps poke around the manufacturer's forums, you might find something like that.
I thought the key combination was F4+Delete, but it's been three years since I had to do that last and I couldn't tell you if it'd work or not. Besides, mine was an MSI, might be different for a DFI board.
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What was your chipset? If it's the same, maybe... Chipset? Is that the part that would determine this? Oh, and what was the BIOS, AWARD?
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Just a stupid question you might already have answered it already but have you tried flashing it with a floppy disk?????
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Just a stupid question you might already have answered it already but have you tried flashing it with a floppy disk?????
He'll only be able to do that if the BIOS is still slightly functional and is set to boot to floppy.
From what it sounds like, the BIOS is dead, meaning it won't even detect the floppy's presence.
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...right. You turn the comp on. Nothing turns on except the hard disks spinning up, and the lights I have installed in the case. No monitor, no beeps, no hard disk head moving besides the initial warm up. Essentially, it acts like the motherboard isn't even there, except the fans plugged into the mobo do work.
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Ok tried with unplugged harddrives and/Or cd/dvd drives?
Taken out and reinstalled the ram?
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Hmm, no; it was working perfectly; the only thing I did was flash the BIOS & restart... instant death.
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Yes but sometimes when your motherboard dosent respond it can "reset" itself if it notice that the harddrives / memory models have changed, this depends on how far the BIOS get in the startup sequense before it freezes, I would recomend you first try unplugging all HDD and DVD/CD drivers and starting it, if nothing happens try removing some of the memory (or if you have say 4 memory slots and only use 2 try the other 2) this can cause the BIOS to start and enable you to enter setup and perhaps be able to reset the CMOS from there.
Note this might also not work but if you have tried everything else then maybe.......
/Dice
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Ok, I'll try that... But I don't have much hope :(
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Ok, I'll try that... But I don't have much hope :(
Did you try yanking all the devices but the mobo and CPU to see if you get POST error codes? That'll tell you at least if the BIOS is partially intact.