🚀 go-pugleaf

ClueLess wrote:

> Intel D845GVSR motherboard 
> 
> Ok, this board was having problems with the mouse and I wanted to
> upgrade the bios, from the original version 3 to the latest version 20
> at Intel site.  The upgrading went ok and everything worked well but no USB under Win
> XP SP3!  (I need it to copy stuff from one machine to another).

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?

> I thought of going back and tried the bios version 5 (which said the
> mouse problem has been corrected). The Intel bios burning program
> asked me to confirm I really wanted to flash an older version and when
> I hit ok the bios was flashed.

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?  
 
> Now the computer does not boot. When I set the jumper to the
> maintenance setting the bios settings screen comes up and it shows the
> bios version as 5. But any change in the settings are not saved.

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?

> According to Intel, in the recovery mode the system is supposed to
> read the *.bio file in a floppy or CD will be written to the bios. I
> have tried *.bio files from nay versions both in CD and floppy but
> have failed.

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?

> If any of you know a method to flash the bios please let me know. The
> mobo is not dead as the bios settings do display in the maintenance
> mode.

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.