🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:51:28 -0600, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:


>> Intel D845GVSR motherboard 

Basically I have downloaded every thing that is available for this
mobo from Intel site and have carefully gone through the instructions
before attempting flsh.

>Was USB support working before?
>
>If USB support was not there before with the old v3 BIOS, perhaps the
>chipset drivers weren't installed into Windows XP to afford that
>support.  Did you follow with an install of the Intel chipset drivers?

USB worked before and all the drivers including USB 2.0 from Intel
were loaded.

>When you did the first BIOS flash update, did the writer program not
>first offer to save a backup of the existing BIOS code to a .bio file?
>I don't recall ever doing a BIOS update where either the program did not
>ask me to backup the existing code or the instructions told me how to do
>it using that same writer program.  Do you have the old v3 .bio file to
>flash into your BIOS so you are back to square one?  

When I flashed first the P20 (latest at Intel site for this mobo) I
used the Win utility and it just updated the bios. Nothing about
saving the old bios. Everything was ok except there was no USB. Device
Manager did not show the USB and in BIOS setting all USB settings were
grayed!
  
>What does "not boot" mean?  That you don't even get to the POST screen?
>Or that the hardware boot actually completes and it is the load of
>Windows XP that halts, errors, or something else yet to be described?

This is after I tried to flash P5 version of bios (mouse error
corrected per Intel in this version) this was also done under Windows
using the utility provided by Intel. A question "Do you really wanted
to flash an older version of bios" did come up and I clicked yes.

After this the computer does not boot. Just a blank screen - no video
output at all (monitor LED is just blinking showing no video input)
and no beep at all.


>What does "failed" mean?  That your host won't boot using a bootable
>floppy or CD?  Or that the .bio file gets rejected as incompatible with
>your hardware?  The writer program can't find the storage media on which
>the .bio file exists?

It just does not boot. When I put the jumpers in the maintenance mode
bios setting comes up with the additional maintenance page (enables
passwords to be cleared) and the general page indicated the bios
version as 5. That means bios was flashed with some errors, I believe.

>After flashing the BIOS, did you short the "CMOS clear" 2-pin header on
>the motherboard?  The settings saved in the CMOS may not match those now
>in the EEPROM for the BIOS.  They may not even align to the same byte
>positions in the BIOS table to those that are saved in CMOS for the old
>table.  If you have customized the BIOS (in the CMOS copy), write down
>all the settings that were modified from their defaults.  After doing
>the flash update to the BIOS, clear the old CMOS copy by shorting the
>2-pin jumper for clearing the CMOS.  Then do a *cold* reboot.
>
>If the "failed" problem is that the writer halted or errored during
>writing the new/replacement code into the EEPROM for the BIOS then it
>sounds like the prior flash was incomplete or corrupted.  This can even
>result in not being able to boot using floppy, CD, USB drive, or other
>storage media to do another flash attempt.  The only recourse at that
>point is to buy replacement EEPROMs for your motherboard (which requires
>extremely good soldering skills and the requisite soldering tools since
>I saw no socketed chips in the mobo pic at http://tinyurl.com/2b335nu).
>You might also try calling Intel support to find out how much it would
>cost to have them replace the EEPROM chips for BIOS (and put in the
>latest *applicable* version for that mobo).  From their web site, it
>looks like support has been discontinued for this legacy product so
>you'll probably have to pay them to do the repair.

When cmos jumpers are left open it is supposed to automatically read
the *.bio files from either floppy or CD and do a silent flash (no
display of any notice). I have tried both the floppy and CD way. I
have tried putting only the *.bio file and then tried with all the
following files in the floppy and CD and still no way. In these cases
the floppy light stays on and I have kept for nearly 30 minutes; I
have also tried various later bios including P20. 

P08-0023.BI1
P08-0023.BI2
P08-0023.BI3
P08-0023.BI4
P08-0023.BI5
P08-0023.BI6
P08-0023.BIO
P08-0023.SIG

I have some stuff like programmer for 8051 under DOS and the later
faster motherboards with me (eg. ASUS P5KPL-AM/PS) do not recognize
the equipment. But for this I would have chucked the 845 board.

I hope that I will get some lead on this problem
Thanks to the other also who have pitched in to help me.

-- 
ClueLess