johnelstad
asked on
Blank screen after flashing BIOS (Asus A7V133, BIOS 1005->1009)
Hi all,
After flashing the Award BIOS (1005->1009) using AFlash.exe I rebooted successfully and entered the BIOS Setup. I pressed F5 to "Load Setup Defaults" as I was instructed, but then instead of saving and exiting as I should have, I made a few other changes and then saved and exited. I guess I foolishly thought that by pressing F5 the changes would be made instantly. Bad mistake.
Anyway, now when I boot up I get nothing but disk activity and a blank screen. I've tried changing the jumper settings on the motherboard from "JumperFree" to "Jumper Mode" as well as temporarily removing the CMOS battery, but neither have helped.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
John
Hardware:
Asus A7V133 Motherboard (not sure which revision)
After flashing the Award BIOS (1005->1009) using AFlash.exe I rebooted successfully and entered the BIOS Setup. I pressed F5 to "Load Setup Defaults" as I was instructed, but then instead of saving and exiting as I should have, I made a few other changes and then saved and exited. I guess I foolishly thought that by pressing F5 the changes would be made instantly. Bad mistake.
Anyway, now when I boot up I get nothing but disk activity and a blank screen. I've tried changing the jumper settings on the motherboard from "JumperFree" to "Jumper Mode" as well as temporarily removing the CMOS battery, but neither have helped.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
John
Hardware:
Asus A7V133 Motherboard (not sure which revision)
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Thanks to both of you for the quick replies. Here are my individual answers:
IceRaven, I'm not sure I understand what a clear CMOS jumper is. Could you clarify please? You may be right about removing the battery; I only removed it for a minute or so.
jhance, after making changes to the BIOS settings I haven't been able to successfully restart. In other words, I successfully installed the new bios, restarted, made changes to the bios settings (instead of loading defaults, and haven't been able to get to the BIOS settings since). I've heard mixed reviews on shorting the CMOS Clear Jumper. I'll give it a try if you really think it will do the trick. I'll have to dig up my soldering iron--or can I use something else instead?
IceRaven, I'm not sure I understand what a clear CMOS jumper is. Could you clarify please? You may be right about removing the battery; I only removed it for a minute or so.
jhance, after making changes to the BIOS settings I haven't been able to successfully restart. In other words, I successfully installed the new bios, restarted, made changes to the bios settings (instead of loading defaults, and haven't been able to get to the BIOS settings since). I've heard mixed reviews on shorting the CMOS Clear Jumper. I'll give it a try if you really think it will do the trick. I'll have to dig up my soldering iron--or can I use something else instead?
Look through your motherboards manual about clearing the CMOS settings. It will explain about the CMOS Clear jumper, it's safe, use it. 1minute is diffinately NOT long enough. Try an hour.
IceRaven.
IceRaven.
ASKER
Okay, I'll pull out the battery for the night and research the CMOS Clear Jumper in the morning. I'll let you know how it goes sometime tomorrow.
Thanks again.
John
Thanks again.
John
>>I've heard mixed reviews on shorting the CMOS Clear Jumper
You should be more careful of who you listen to. It's the ONLY way to do it. CMOS RAM can sometimes maintain its data for DAYS without a battery installed. You simply cannot know how long is long enough and if you don't wait long enough and put the battery back in, you start over at the beginning again!
You should be more careful of who you listen to. It's the ONLY way to do it. CMOS RAM can sometimes maintain its data for DAYS without a battery installed. You simply cannot know how long is long enough and if you don't wait long enough and put the battery back in, you start over at the beginning again!
Are you absolutely sure that you have the correct BIOS flash program?
>>> "Asus A7V133 Motherboard (not sure which revision) <<<
I am worried about this, because that it the most common way of doing an initial search for BISO upgrades applicable to your BIOS.
>>> "Asus A7V133 Motherboard (not sure which revision) <<<
I am worried about this, because that it the most common way of doing an initial search for BISO upgrades applicable to your BIOS.
No, not BISO - BIOS :-)
If the CMOS Clear jumper doesn't help you, I suggest you try to contact these guys, maybe they can help you => http://www.badflash.com
Greetings,
LucF
Greetings,
LucF
ASKER
Okay, I replaced the battery, but I still have the same problem. So, I guess I'm going to short the CMOS Clear Jumper with a little solder.
Could someone please tell me exactly what steps I should take after soldering the jumper? I have no clue.
Thanks to everyone for their help thus far; it's greatly appreciated.
John
Could someone please tell me exactly what steps I should take after soldering the jumper? I have no clue.
Thanks to everyone for their help thus far; it's greatly appreciated.
John
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Here's the manual, in case you can't find it: http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7V133&Type=Manual
The CMOS Clear Jumper is just two pins on your motherboard, right next to the battery (labelled CLRTC, on page 59) - short them with a metal conductor like a screwdriver blade for a few seconds.
The CMOS Clear Jumper is just two pins on your motherboard, right next to the battery (labelled CLRTC, on page 59) - short them with a metal conductor like a screwdriver blade for a few seconds.
ASKER
So, I removed the motherboard, soldered the CMOS Clear Jumper to short it, and reconnected everything, but now I can't get the machine to start. I have a green light on my motherboard indicating that it's receiving power, and the wires from the power button to the board are properly connected, but nothing happens when I press the power button. Is there anything other than the power switch wires that could be causing this?
I realize this is becoming a bit of a pain so I've increased the points to 400.
Thanks again to all.
John
I realize this is becoming a bit of a pain so I've increased the points to 400.
Thanks again to all.
John
You've soldered the pins?? we said not to do that, now you have to get the tin out of the pins, the CMOS is reset by now, afterwards you should be able to boot normally if you didn't fry something.
ASKER
LucF,
Sorry, I had already soldered before I received your message. However, I haven't been able to start the machine at all (other than the green light on the motherboard), so I doubt that the CMOS has been reset. However, if I'm wrong please let me know and I'll remove the solder before starting the machine.
Sorry, I had already soldered before I received your message. However, I haven't been able to start the machine at all (other than the green light on the motherboard), so I doubt that the CMOS has been reset. However, if I'm wrong please let me know and I'll remove the solder before starting the machine.
>However, if I'm wrong please let me know and I'll remove the solder before starting the machine.
soldering those pins togheter is the same as shorting them, just remove it now and retry.
soldering those pins togheter is the same as shorting them, just remove it now and retry.
ASKER
I can't remember, is white smoke good or bad? Just kidding!
The machine started up with BIOS 1009 successfully installed. I loaded and saved the defaults (probably redundant, but I'm not taking any chances at this point), restarted and went successfully into Windows XP.
Big thanks to LucF who held my virtual hand through the critical and successful final stages. Thanks also to everyone who chimed in.
John
The machine started up with BIOS 1009 successfully installed. I loaded and saved the defaults (probably redundant, but I'm not taking any chances at this point), restarted and went successfully into Windows XP.
Big thanks to LucF who held my virtual hand through the critical and successful final stages. Thanks also to everyone who chimed in.
John
Glad to help,
Happy computing ;-)
LucF
Happy computing ;-)
LucF
My god, that was a stroke of luck combined with some good advice. Who told you to use solder rather than using the jumper from an old hard drive or whatever?
If that was a technician, he runs some real risks doing things like that. You must have a real steady hand and a real cool soldering iron :-)
You could get a job in the Far East working 16 hours a day for peanuts with those skills!!
Actually, I once successfully used a trick I picked up to allow a K6, K6-2 or K6-III to work in an old Socket7 Pentium 166 motherboard, and it involved using thin wire and a soldering iron on the Zif Socket to allow it to use the BF2 pin socket which is only used by CPU's like those AMD ones. The difference was that the board was an old one and was dispensible.
If that was a technician, he runs some real risks doing things like that. You must have a real steady hand and a real cool soldering iron :-)
You could get a job in the Far East working 16 hours a day for peanuts with those skills!!
Actually, I once successfully used a trick I picked up to allow a K6, K6-2 or K6-III to work in an old Socket7 Pentium 166 motherboard, and it involved using thin wire and a soldering iron on the Zif Socket to allow it to use the BF2 pin socket which is only used by CPU's like those AMD ones. The difference was that the board was an old one and was dispensible.
>>My god, that was a stroke of luck combined with some good advice.
lol! ;-)
lol! ;-)
ASKER
BillDL, I picked that up on some ASUS usergroup. Fortunately I have a small soldering iron and a really good solder sucker. Thanks again for your help.
Well done, is all I have to say.
IceRaven.