Can this motherboard be saved?

I have an Abit AV8 socket 939 motherboard which stopped booting up a couple of days ago. LEDs on the board light up, fans start spinning, and the POST indicator displays numbers, but nothing comes up on the screen. After about 5 seconds a two tone alarm starts going off. The tones are of equal length. I don't know much about POST, but according to the manual I think it's getting all the way through. The final code is "9.0." - "Complete uGuru initial process. AWARD BIOS take over booting job".

I've tried resetting the CMOS both with and without the battery. I've tried another PSU, different memory, memory in different slots, and removing every component (HDDs, optical drive, PCI soundcard, video card) - same result every time. Any suggestions as to what else I can try before trashing the motherboard?

 

The motherboard is not initializing the BIOS when it is time for the BIOS to take over & start the computer.

I had a AG8 that did the same thing.
From doing research on the problem I learned the only fix is a replacement BIOS chip & that doesn't always work.

If you were happy with the speed of the computer I suggest simply replacing the motherboard with one that will accept your CPU,memory, etc.

Otherwise it's upgrade time.:-D

 

Thanks. Too bad, but I already have an asus m3n78-em and an Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Brisbane 2.8GHz on the way. It is indeed time for an upgrade. :cool

 

Well rather than just throwing it out I would firstly try:

- Removing the Video Card and booting (listen for BIOS Error beeps) and then re-seat it,
- Removing all RAM and booting (listen for BIOS Error beeps) and then just add 1 module,
- Finally, re-flashing the current BIOS.

It is assumed you have checked the Abit site for a "new" BIOS chip as they can be easy to swap out, this mobo looks the easy to swap sort:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/116/1/

Abit BIOS guide (this looks really cool):

http://www.abit.com.tw/banner/bios-guide/index.htm

You may develop a greater understanding of the problem at that site.

 

BIOS's:

http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/down...&pTITLE_ON_SCREEN=AV8&pSOCKET_TYPE=Socket 939

 

I've tried booting without the video card, booting with no memory, and booting with 1-4 memory modules. Same result every time - the repeating two-tone error beep.

And maybe I'm missing something, but how can I flash the bios from a file if I can't boot up the computer?

On the other hand, I did find a replacement bios chip for ~$15 on ebay. For that much it might be worth the risk.

 

Valid question, but you can flash some BIOS's after they have become corrupted, you are indicating you are at least "powering up" .

Here is a method or 2, my mobo can do it by forcing the Floppy or USB to be read:

http://smallvoid.com/article/flash-motherboard-bios.html

It may only work on some mobo's though, but if it is looking like worse case scenario and you have a potentially largish paperweight on-hand you have nothing to lose.

Goggling this "flashing a corrupt BIOS" or something similar starts generating articles on this topic.

Here's a pommie store that sells Abit AV8 BIOS chips you can use as a refrence:

http://bios-repair.co.uk/ref/mabitcr.htm