bios boot problem

[Comandante]

hi all, i have an interesting one here...

turned my pc on today like every other day and observed a really weird series of events, unlike anything seen before;

first the computer started continuously restarting after which it stopped and a message came up saying something like "scanning hard drive for BIOS image" and below that another message "BIOS auto recovery" and a series of dots that were supposed to be some kind of progress bar I think...then it restarted again and so a few time like that until at once the entire screen was full of those dots and it appeared to be going on forever with last line of dots on the screen moving like a progress bar from left to right, it kept doing this for a few minutes until i switched it off... left it off for 15ish seconds and then back on and the only msg i saw was the blue on screen msg from monitor saying "no signal".

green cpu led is on, cpu is hence on, so is graphics card and i can hear the harddrive on as well... but nothing is happening...

 

so far the only thing i tried was to take out the battery from bios, while it was out i quickly checked voltage, it wasn't empty at all so im sure its not battery, put it back in (in hope that this would've reset the bios?) , restarted pc and again nothing.

 

any ideas?? i have a feeling something burned up in the bios

[Dak]

harsh, man. sounds like a corrupted bios. and yes, you'll have reset your bios by taking the battery out.

 

try taking the side off of your PC and getting the motherboard model number (it'll probably be on a sticker on the board itself), and look on your screen as your bios boots (if it's still trying to boot) for a bios version number (or, try to find out what bios your mobo comes with). then, google for info. your mobo's manufacturer's website will probably have info on how to flash/repair your bios.

 

some mobos come with a small switch and a backup bios, so you can flick the switch, power on, and your bios will be reinstalled. otherwize, you might be able to get away with downloading a copy of the bios to floppy, putting it in your pc, and booting as it sounds like the bios is looking for a copy to reinstall from. but dont try anything before researching it thoroughly.

 

otherwize, you'll have to flash your bios, which i've never done but it doesn't sound like fun. in all honesty, my moneys on you having to do this

[Comandante]

hi Dak, thanks for response.

I'd rather have to do something than put up another $100 for mboard, though it seems I'll have to anyway. I installed this one 2 yrs ago.

 

Motherboard is Gigabyte 7VM400AM-RZ, some cheap model http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=1849&ModelName=7VM400AM-RZ

 

I'll try to find the bios upgrade/fix or whatever and see how it goes... and I don't have lot of time to research as I have 3 things due in this week each worth 10% and now I have to fix my pc first! so whatever I came up with in the next day or two I'll try, then throw the thing in the bin.

 

and one more thing; http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=1849 would you know how exactly am i supposed to install this bios? because website says; "Please remember to "Load Optimize Defaults" (in the BIOS Setup) after updating new BIOS" and I can't even get into anything at all... no signal is coming to monitor.

 

edit:ah i see it says "after updating to new BIOS" so i'll try that first ..

[Comandante]

Ah, another intersting find here; http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/HowToReflashBIOS.aspx just saw it so i'll read through that

[Dak]

if your bios is so farked that it's not sending a signal to your monitor, then you'll unlikely be able to q-flash it (tho i'm not sure, if your disk-drives are still spinning, then maybe its still looking for a bios backup? maybe putting a floppy with the q-flash thingy on it will let it fix itself, but i'd wait for advise from someone else who knows more then me on that)

 

tbh i'd guess that your options are:

 

take it to a shop

 

buy a bios flashing thingy, borrow someone elses PC, and repair your bios

 

find someone with the same make mobo as you, and engage in the risky art of hotswapping (not reccomended)

 

buy a new bios/cmos.

 

eitherway, it's unlikely that your mobos dead, so no need to bin it.

 

(btw, you have my sympathies on the timing. my pc allways chose to break when essays were due in )

[Dak]

oh, and for future refferense: turning the power off during a 'bios auto-recovery' is a bad idea.

 

bios updates/recoveries are one of those times where you just have to wait for it to finish, even if it takes all night.

[Comandante]

ah should've known earlier, i never had the problem so i thought it was just in some kind of infinite loop..my bad. i have bios version now on flash disk, i'll try booting with it since i don't have any floppy disks around here!

 

i have a laptop from which im replying now but the keyboard on it is so bad, everysecond spacebar doesntwork... so i use it only in emergencies likethis

 

if this doesnt work then i'll wait to see what that bios flashing thingy is..

 

what?? how can i buy a new bios? lol

 

as i said, everything else is working as it should, i just dont get that bios beep and no signal output at all... well lets see what happens now.. will report shortly

[Comandante]

as i thought, flash drive did no good, i'll try to ... TRY to find a floppy disk somewhere...and then tryto find floppy drive for latop.. doubt floppy will help but worth a try.

[Comandante]

great, floppy disk didn't work either.

 

so what now, you suggested ways of fixing/replacing bios without having to throw away the mboard... i'll wait some time to see if anyone else can elaborate on that. thanks for suggestions.

[Comandante]

to sum it up; i quit. no time to solve this myself and the three people i know from comp science seem not to have the answer so replacement will take place.