Asus X83V: how to force into BIOS?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by zapp, May 20, 2012.

  1. zapp

    zapp Staff Sergeant

    hello folks - need a little help from somebody that knows asus units and their occasional issues. This is a X83V notebook that will power up, display logo, give the little welcome jingle [sometimes several times] but will not boot a CD/DVD nor anything else. Pressing F2 does nothing. Pressing F9 does nothing. Stays on the Logo screen, and tries to access HDD [can hear the clicks] and seems to initiate DVD drive, but will not load from it.

    any ideas?
     
  2. the mekanic

    the mekanic Major Mekanical Geek

    Ordinarily updating the BIOS, or flashing it is a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" type of rule.

    These days, especially if you are running an SSD, updating the BIOS can help performance, and compatiblity. Updating my Asus board to the latest visibly helped performance.

    In your case, it's mostly broke, so I would say flashing BIOS could be a viable option to get your notebook back. I also must ask if you have hooked up an external keyboard and tried the F keys. It may be hardware related regarging no function key capablity. It can happen sometimes. Also, have you pulled the HDD, and the ROM drive and tried to boot "naked"? The clicking says it might be your HDD.

    Flashing BIOS can be done two, and even three ways. If the EEPROM is removable, you can order a new updated chip from Asus. If it isn't, you will normally need a flash drive, installation software (from Asus), and the BIOS ROM file.

    I'll look up your model, and see what I can find...
     
  3. zapp

    zapp Staff Sergeant

    well, after several power-ups, it started just going into BIOS on its own, landing on the first screen but with the cursor in unpredictable position [changed with many tries, but usually landing on the clock]. The only keys it would respond to were function, then it will freeze. so press F9, get a response "do you want to reset defaults", hit OK and it freezes. Screen stays, power stays, but clock stops and you're done. Wash/rinse/repeat.
    no other keys have effect, it seems. tried removing one ram module ... actually pulled both, reseated one, left batt out, removed hard drive, tried again, with not keys pressed just power button. gave the Logo, the happy tune, and eventually went into bios again on its own, same as before, with same symptoms.

    corrupt bios? cooked processor?
    I see not way to hookup an ext keybd... did you mean usb? i would be surprised, but willing to try.

    is it difficult to get to the cmos batt? would it do any good?
    oh... it was accurate as to the date.... that surprised me.

     
  4. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Is the CDROM easy to remove? I think trying to navigate BIOS with both CDROM and HD removed is worth a try. (A bad HD or CDROM can cause hangups in BIOS)
     
  5. zapp

    zapp Staff Sergeant

    hdd definitely bad - won't communicate at all. put my ear on it and it makes the repetitive clicking until it finally stops and ceases spinning. wash/rinse/repeat.

    ok: progress. batt in, cd/dvd & HDD removed, one DDR in, booted with my old 6lb HP usb keyboard attached, it booted into bios and keyboard works. all I've done so far is revert to defaults [f9 , ok, then F10 to save, exit]. was able to pull all the bios screens and negotiate with no issues.

    what next?

     
  6. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Try to pinpoint which piece of hardware is bad.

    Try with HDD and CDROM removed using the internal keyboard (USB removed). Can you still navigate BIOS?

    If you can navigate with only the internal keyboard then add the CDROM back and see if that hangs BIOS. (I would expect it should hang.)

    If it doesn't hang then add HDD and see if it hangs. If it hangs try the last combo I can think of which is no CDROM but HD attached. Does it hang?

    There are other combos but do the keyboard one first to figure out if the internal keyboard works without the CDROM and HDD, so we can rule out keyboard first.
     
  7. zapp

    zapp Staff Sergeant

    quick update: shoved its own dvd backinto the bay. powered up, this time different: instead of going to cmos, I got a diags screen: CMOS CHKSUM BAD. "press F1 to load defaults and restart". did that and popped in a win xp cd ['cause it was near...] booted. loaded win xp but bailed with bluescreen.

    you think I could load bios from a boot flash?
     
  8. zapp

    zapp Staff Sergeant

    without the DVD drive in bay, it goes directly to Setup/bios/cmos.
    - with attached usb keyboard can manipulate/navigate bios
    - without attached usb kbd can do nothing [so far]
    - with usb kbd and dvd in drive bay, can force boot from that device
    - have done these with batt-in from batt, and with batt-in from a/c, and with batt out from a/c. see no diff thus far

    have not run memtest

     
  9. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    So there seems to be a problem with the internal keyboard.

    I don't think you have a BIOS problem.

    With USB keyboard, HDD and CDROM attached does the HDD show in BIOS?
     
  10. zapp

    zapp Staff Sergeant

    why would I get a "CMOS CHKSUM" error?
    I haven't found anything that will id the hdd - it won't communicate.
    what does this tell: I have a dead T61 t'pad: [that's what started all this...] - 80gb sata w/vista on it that i tweaked. threw that in the asus.
    per usual, it booted to bios. I turned off the internal touchpad, internal numlock, and set the SATA op to 'compatible', saved and restarted, it went directly to BIOS again. this time I just exited w/o save, it did a NVRAM check then tried to boot from the drive.
    it bailed, of course due to devices not matching but maybe I could nuke that drive and start over.

    at this point, I may as well load a more modern bios for it, eh?

     
  11. jlphlp

    jlphlp Master Sergeant

    Hi,

    "Repetive clicking" from the hard drive about 1 -2 clicks per second indicates that the HD can not read. The clicking is the head seeking the first track over and over with no success.

    Good Luck, Jim
     
  12. zapp

    zapp Staff Sergeant

    so, copied/downloaded the later bios. tried the flash utility which is a bios selection on this system. can't get it to load. the bios says to press F4 at post. reading on an asus forum, supposedly for this particular unit, somebody says press F2. does not support cd/dvd or usb drive [is sd considered a usb drive?]. so how would one know whether or not the utility is even there, healthy, and how would one go about trying to flash a good bios?

    when I select the flash utility from the bios menu and hit "OK" it simply bails out of cmos and enters POST again. invoking F4 or F2 does nothing at that point.
     
  13. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    I know you want to flash the BIOS but put that aside for a minute.

    The CMOS chksum probably relates to a bad CMOS battery. Do you only get that error after removing devices? I'm thinking you are seeing only when having removed AC and main battery while swapping out devices. So with no AC and no main battery and the old CMOS battery not able to remember settings when starting up again you get the error. Without removing AC restart the laptop and it should not give you teh chksum error.

    Using the USB keyboard, try booting to the installation CD with the working 80gb HD. Go ahead and select to install and see if when you get to the partitioning screen if it sees your HD and it's size and existing partitions. If it gets that far then you probably have a good chance of being successful with a fresh install.
     
  14. the mekanic

    the mekanic Major Mekanical Geek

    If you are capable, remove the laptop keyboard, and boot with the external one.

    Let us know what happens...
     
  15. zapp

    zapp Staff Sergeant

    haven't removed kbd yet. But success finally by taking a hdd from dead thinkpad [my other thread] and wiping it, put it in blank, grabbed windows 8 cust preview, first tried SD boot. Would not boot from SD [it works on other systems], burned a DVD, it did boot from DVD and installed. This is all with the external usb-attached kbd/trackpad [tray-style] kbd. Now it boots normally from the HD. All the previous work had the oddity that it would always return first to bios, would have to Esc out, then it would attempt boot.
    There are some unknown device drivers missing but I can solve that in time.
    the Device manager shows both keyboards and pointing devices. so... probably not just a loose cable.

    I finally noticed a telltale sign for the first time... I have had this sick unit in a dark corner of my shop... yesterday while working with it I saw light rippling off the bezel covering the base of the unit around the keyboard - its the shiny plasticky stuff - along the right side its clearly dented as though it got stomped on or mashed somehow - which is good news/bad if you think of it... apparently the display/lid was open when the attack occurred, otherwise it would be toast. the display is fine other than a few mars on the face - pixelwise its perfect. nvidia gpu apparently intact and rolling. I notice no unusual warming but no big tests yet.

    Question: assuming I replace the kbd: I'm unfamiliar with asus stuff. is this a fairly generic kbd and could someone give me a tip on what to look for? it does not appear to be one of those floppy membrane pads like the throwaway dells etc use - taller keys with a shiny plastic composition roughly 30x11 cm. where would i find an array of such?
     

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