Please helpp!! Bios (flash) problem!!!

Ive had a Compaq Presario PC (SR5505F) with Home Vista Premium in my closet for about 2 months now and have decided to finally fix it. It has an ASUS M2N68-LA motherboard, 160 GB sata hard drive, 2gb ram and AMD Athlon X2 4200 Dual Core Processor.

I'm very much aware that the problem I am facing has to do with the BIOS (which i cannot access).

At startup, i receive the following message:

Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0
Copyright (c) 2000, Award Software, Inc.

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting IDE ATAPI device...
Found CDROM, try to Boot from it ... Fail

Detecting floppy drive A media...
INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

The CD drive automatically is the 1st device booted at startup so I believe that a bootable CD with the right rom files and bios updates is what I need to get my BIOS back in check. When a CD is recognized, the message changes to:

Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0
Copyright (c) 2000, Award Software, Inc.

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting IDE ATAPI device...
Found CDROM, try to Boot from it ... Pass

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

With nothing to boot off the CD, it just gives me the disk boot failure message.

I have even ordered the system disks from Compaq and the following message after inserting the 1st disk is:

Error: No enough memory!

I even went out to Best Buy and bought a brand new 2 GB DDR2 stick of RAM and it turned out not to be the issue. I think I need to "flash" the BIOS as I've read on other threads.

This thread: (http://forums.majorgeeks.com/archive/index.php/t-200149.html) is almost the exact same problem I am experiencing but was unable to solve my problem following the steps mentioned on the thread. I have a feeling that I am not using the right files of some sort when I burn the bootable CD's. I need a step by step to get through this problem. I've used the imgburn program to create my bootable CD's and have used sach2's (genius from the thread im referring to) iso uploads to try to resolve my problem and have had little luck.

PLEASE HELP!!!

**I tried burning sach2's Bootivy.iso file and the only Message ive recieved is:

"Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0
Copyright (c) 2000, Award Software, Inc.

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting IDE ATAPI device...
Found CDROM, try to Boot from it ... Pass

1.) FD 1.44 System Type-(00)

_"


The underscore just stays flashing after.. and nothing happens. This is the most progress I've made.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!

 

Greetings, Joeyarcay.

Sounds like you're well versed with computers, so I'm not trying to be facetious here, but have you replaced the CMOS battery and/or performed any jumper settings to clear CMOS?

 

caliban is on the right track. Sounds like your cmos battery is dead and your cmos is corrupted and needs to be cleared.

 

Flattery will get you everywhere! :-D

I'll double check later today that the bootivy CD contains the proper BIOS for your motherboard.

It sounds like you still are not booting off the CD. Are you sure you used the imgburn option to "Write Image File to Disc". You must write the disc as an image file to make it bootable.

 

+1 for changing the CMOS battery. Just a few bucks CR2032 Oh, read the changelog and see if it addresses any issues. BIOS is one thing that if it ain't broke...

A four year old machine eh? Those batteries are only good for about three years and if the machine is not powered then the power just trickles away.

 

@Caliban: The Machine is only 1 maybe 1 1/2 years old, but I'll try today and replace the CMOS battery, and I have already tried clearing the CMOS. no luck.

@sach2: YOU ARE AMAZING! Thanks a lot. And i have been burning the bootable CD's the way you just mentioned so Im on the right track. My motherboards link is here: (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01237548&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en#N33)

@augiedoggie: I'm gonna try replacing the CMOS battery today. Its about a 1 year old machine maybe 1 1/2 years.

Ill be back soon with an update.

 

Try to boot again from the ivycd a few times and see if you always stop at the same place. It looks like this poster with almost the same board got the same message but it chose option 1. as default and started to boot from it. http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showpost.php?p=1555122&postcount=17

 

Just went out and bought another CMOS Battery (CR2032) and replaced it. I then cleared the CMOS using the new battery and booted up again following your instructions.

Using the BootIvy ISO, burned correctly, I booted up (about 10 times) and got the same message:

Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0
Copyright (c) 2000, Award Software, Inc.

BIOS ROM checksum error

Detecting IDE ATAPI device...
Found CDROM, try to Boot from it ... Pass

1. FD 1.44 System Type-(00)

_

The underscore stays there and flashes. Nothing happens. What do I do next?? sach2, I've read what you can do and it's impressive, if you can solve my problem I'd be in debt to you forever.

Thanks again.

 

I'm not sure why it is not continuing to boot.

One possibility is it doesn't like the CD or the burner it was burned on. Do you have another CD burner to try?

I think you burned both CDs do they both stop at the same point? (If you only burned one don't waste a CD now you may need a couple blanks for later)

You took the PC out of the closet so you don't have any extra devices (printers, USB etc.) attached. If you do disconnect them.

I'll look for a different boot disc to put the bios files on and put it together. Maybe it is something about the system files it doesn't like. It seems to recognize the floppy image but just won't boot from it or hangs when trying.

 

I am going now to buy a pack of Verbatim or Sony Rewritable discs to try. And my girlfriends laptop runs vista and is pretty new (about 1 year)..(laptop I was burning on before is pretty old-could very possibly be the reason).

I did burn both the BootIvy and the BootCD iso and they DID both stop at the same point.

Nothing is attached except for a keyboard (PS/2) and the monitor.

I'll update soon with the next attempts. Thanks again.

 

Joey, trust me, that PC is from about 2006. It probably came with XP, but could have Vista installed, and has nVidia 6150 integrated graphics, right? Trust me, it did.

SR2010NX, as well as other models similar to yours in the SR series used those microATX Asus boards as well. Their names were Narra (yours), Naos, as well as others. Compaq is the WORST when it comes to the SR series, and obtaining the original BIOS. The SR series usually don't have a BIOS available for download from the HP site link up.

Hate to break it to you Sach (and as always I could be wrong), but unless you snagged a copy of a Narra BIOS from the machine with that Asus board itself, you may not have it.

Also, one odd thing. It should be a "Phoenix" BIOS. Someone may have already tampered with the BIOS...


P.S. This is from an old thread, back in '07. You could try this:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1074897

Use the link in post #6 to download the jetway BIOS file.

 

Sorry, I meant awdflsh.exe file.

You will need to read the WHOLE of post #6, maybe #7 too, and find the "fix" from windows here:


http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&os=2100&product=3377258

 

Hi Mekanic, I've seen this problem before, joey is in the bootblock BIOS recovery mode. We just have to get the PC to boot to the CD so we can flash the BIOS. This is the first time I have seen one stall when booting from CD. Usually the problem is getting the SATA CDROM to work well in DOS.

I made a new ISO using a different set of system files. Let's see if this one goes any further http://www.mediafire.com/?ps6a89bwbwtlbi9

Burn using "Write Image File to Disc" and try and boot from it to see if you still get the blinking cursor after:

"Detecting IDE ATAPI device...
Found CDROM, try to Boot from it ... Pass
1. FD 1.44 System Type-(00)"

 

@mekanic,
I may be mistaken but the BIOS in your link is for a HP Pavilion Media Center TV m8013w Desktop PC with a BIOS dated 2007-11-09 v5.13

The OP has a SR5505F. That BIOS listed here for the same motherboard is V5.14 dated 2008-12-04.

 

Thanks for the info Mekanic, the thread I posted originally in the my question involved a guy who had the EXACT same problem as I did (with a couple different things here and there) and sach2 was able to help him out until his machine was back up and running. I do believe this can be fixed. And the board you mentioned isn't the board I have. My machine came from the factory with an ASUS m2n68-LA (IVY8) board, 160 GB hard drive, and windows vista home premium pre installed from the factory.

@sach2: I've got the new laptop with new Sony CD-RW discs and I'm gonna try burning the original BootIvy and BootCD. If something happens differently, (due to a burner or cd problem in the past) ill post what happens for further assistance. If same side effects as before, I'll go ahead and use the new ISO you provided me with. THANK YOU!!

Will update soon!!

 

You can skip the bootcd it does not have the correct BIOS for your board. There are a couple versions of the M2N68-LA board (Narra and Ivy). The bootcd is for the Narra version.

 

bad news. Tried the nuovoivy and the bootivy iso's. Still got the same message and the hanging flashing underscore. Just want to run this by you to make sure this seems correct. (using new laptop-vista-to burn and sony CD-RW as my media)

1. open imgburn
2. click write image file to disk
3. at source where it says "please select a file...", I browse and select the iso image
4. then i insert blank disk
5. then i click the icon with the image->disk picture and the burn starts
6. disk pops out and thats it

*Are there any settings i have to adjust?

*Under the tools tab, then iso, then change volume label, and then i browse and select an image file, i can change the character set from standard to DOS or to ASCII..does that have anything to do with it? Which should it be set to?

*Does changing the volume name affect the way it boots?

*Anything else that I have to work with other than the iso you provided me with? 5.14? 513.rom? award flashing program? etc.?

 

No 1-6 sounds correct. Starting from that disc should get you to an A:> dos prompt. It seems to work with most people with that board. The problem is that your BIOS recovery program seems to recognize that there is a floppy image on the CD but it hangs when booting it. I've done a search on the "1. FD 1.44 System Type-(00)"
error but most of the hits are from 2004-2006 and usually involve actually booting from a floppy and getting the blinking cursor. The other few say a bad CD.

I'll check around tomorrow and see if I can figure out what is going on. You could try burning the ISO using a different burning software like http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm but I doubt the burning is the problem since you have tried two burners and two computers running imgburn.

Our goal is to get the PC to boot any CD to a DOS prompt. Once that is accomplished we can worry about getting the BIOS files on the CD for flashing.

******
The bootivy.iso and the nuovoivy.iso both have the BIOS files (awardflash and 5.14 rom) on them but it does us no good if we can't get to the A:> prompt.
******

Don't worry, this is going to bug me. I will be looking for a solution.

 

Ill give the burning another shot on the link you posted tomorrow. And thanks for the info, I'm getting most of this now. Thank you again for your help.

 

Go into your BIOS and disable the floppy drive. A dying or non-existent floppy drive can cause a computer to not boot. Since it seems to hang after the floppy drive is mentioned, it might be worth a shot.
If it boots up after disabling the floppy drive, we can work on fixing that later, after you have the computer running smoothly.

 

The problem is, is that I cannot even get into the BIOS. It seems to be corrupt which is why im trying to boot from a CD (which is the only thing that the machine is doing at startup). The only way anything is gonna work is if the right CD with the right bootable software overcomes the corrupt BIOS.

*My machine doesn't have a floppy drive.
*Another problem could be a hardware issue but I've already cleared the CMOS and changed the CMOS battery. What other hardware problems could be causing BIOS issues?

 

@sach2,
I have attached a cd iso (pureboot.iso) image of a MS Dos 6.22 floppy that will boot to the A: prompt: on my computer at least. Also I have attached an iso of the BIOS firmware with awdflash ready to go per these instructions. Joeyarcay, please do not use these until sach2 has had a chance to review them.

 

Hi tgell an joey,

It can't hurt to try either of those ISOs to see if you can get to a prompt. Since you have RW discs go ahead and try one. (If it can get to a prompt we learn something. I don't think they will work for actually flashing the BIOS because I tried similar with other people having the problem and because that PC has a SATA CDROM it can't see the R: drive where the awdflash and rom files are located.)

My current thought is that the bootblock program might be making a list of boot devices with the CD (floppy emulation) being first on the list and hanging at looking for a second boot device. Pure speculation on my part. I'm thinking disconnecting (unplugging) the HD might be informative just to rule that out as a possible reason for the hang.

I'm going to try to find some information about the boot block program detailing exactly the steps it takes to boot. I haven't looked closely at your pc specs but if you have any thing like media card slots make sure they are empty. We want only one possible boot device the CDROM.

 

Just to try something different now since you have RW's, try burning at the slowest speed and/or changing out your DVD optical.

 

I'm gonna go ahead and disconnect the HD and try burning at the slowest speed. Ill give those two ISO's a shot since i have RW CD's now. Thanks for those tgell. Thanks for the info guys, I'll go testing out to see what happens. Ill post in a few

 

Just tried booting up with all of the isos provided to me. Same blinking underscore. ANy ideas??

 

Motherboard? The northbridge handles BIOS ROM data.

The EEPROM itself might be flaky (if that's the case, you're talking UV flashing) - you might check the board, see if the EEPROM is in a socket. If so, it could be pulled and flashed at any good repair shop.

Just throwing out hardware related thoughts, in case the bootblock solutions don't pan out.

 

I'm not finding anything that looks promising.

Did this problem start with a BIOS flash or just one day appear out of the blue?

 

I just want to also make sure you set your clear cmos jumper back the way it should be on pins 2-3.

 

For some reason, the switches on the awdflash in the autoexec.bat file did not have the /f which is the flash switch. I also updated it with the latest awdflash I could get. So, I have attached the revised iso file. One more thing, if the flash stops, try to pressing Ctrl + home to force the flash.

Edit: Pressed submit too soon. Here is the attachment. I am going to have to add another post to attach it. Okay, figured it out.

 

Did set the pins back to jumpers 2-3. and im gonna try the iso file as soon as I get home. Sach2, from what I remember, i believe this computer had a virus and for some reason just shut off one day. I can be mistaken, but thats what I remember.

***BY THE WAY! I sort of gave up and ordered another a new (SAME) motherboard today. Here is the link: (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...faae739&itemid=250720131407&ff4=263602_304652)

*I will need assistance as to what exactly I will have to do when I swap them. I have never changed a motherboard in the past and do need to know if there are any precautions or steps I have to take. Would it be sort of a just plug and play switchout? Or do I have to download drivers/software/firmware for the motherboard to operate successfully? Can someone run this by me real quick?

 

I swear I searched all over for that.

It's not even offered on the page for his PC.

Sorry I missed it...

 

Before I forget, that PC is based on the same Narra board, unless I am mistaken.

 

It is based on the Narra board but it differs slightly on a couple of its components. Specifically, it is a M2n68-LA "Ivy8" board. It does get a little confusing seeing all these closely related motherboards.

 

I've "extracted" a BIOS more than once for an SR series PC, from an update file.

Yours, however, is behaving rather oddly.

 

I agree, that is why i just said screw it and i ordered another motherboard entirely. I believe that will fix the problem now lol. If not, i just might have to kill someone to take out the level of frustration. haha

 

Just curiousity, why didn't you go with an aftermarket board?

Being hemmed in by an OEM board, well, kind of sucks. Especially when the board has pinouts for four memory slots, and only two have slots!


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4433878&CatId=2323

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3672389&CatId=3644

The second link is the same price as the OEM board on eBay.

 

Hmm, I realize you've about had it with this board but I wonder if you could just eliminate memory as a problem. I have looked at a lot of links today and am still not sure exactly what is going on with the old board. When you got the new memory did you try it by itself in each of the two slots?

Something about the fact that the bootblock sees the image it is supposed to boot and when it transfers control to let it actually boot things stop is making me question whether it is a memory problem.

If you boot with no memory do you just get a long beep or does anything appear on the screen?

 

@mekanic: I know computers well but am not well versed with motherboards and the components. Also, this is not a computer for myself, it is for my dad. It is just a quick fix until he buys himself a brand new computer in a couple of months. Just switching out the exact board would be the simplest of options for me to take care of and be done with this matter with the small amount of knowledge I have regarding boards. This I can do quickly without taking a second look.

@sach2: I hadn't tried moving the ram to the other slot. I'll give that a shot when I get home. Regardless, a new board is on its way lol. I really would like to thank you and everyone else on this thread for the help you've given me. Trust me, I've learned in the past 3 days about motherboards and internal components than I have my whole life. Just the learning experience made it worthwhile. Thanks again.

*Ill post after giving the memory switch a try with the results

*We'll be in contact for some help installing the new board, just to make sure I don't mess anything up


And to answer your question sach2: nothing appears on the screen, just the long beep indicating no RAM memory