BIOS update problem

As some of you will know, I've been having problems with the new SATA hard
disk.

So I tried to upgrade the BIOS of my Asus K8 SE Deluxe motherboard. I used
the flash update tool and everything appeared to work perfectly - but now my
PC doesn't work at all.

It resets either during boot or at login or shortly after boot. This happens
constantly. Safe mode is the only cure.

I solved my SATA problem by reverting to my old IDE drive and this
invariably gave me a stable machine - until I did this BIOS update. Now no
mater which drive I try to use (SATA or IDE) I get constant resets. I tried
removing all mention of RAID/SATA/Promise from Control Panel but the problem
persists.

I can't even restore the BIOS to its old settings (I saved an image before
updating it) since the PC resets before I have time to do this.

Now I have an unusable PC.

Help!

Bobby

"Bobby" wrote in message ...
As some of you will know, I've been having problems with the new SATA hard
disk.

So I tried to upgrade the BIOS of my Asus K8 SE Deluxe motherboard. I used
the flash update tool and everything appeared to work perfectly - but now my
PC doesn't work at all.

It resets either during boot or at login or shortly after boot. This happens
constantly. Safe mode is the only cure.

I solved my SATA problem by reverting to my old IDE drive and this
invariably gave me a stable machine - until I did this BIOS update. Now no
mater which drive I try to use (SATA or IDE) I get constant resets. I tried
removing all mention of RAID/SATA/Promise from Control Panel but the problem
persists.

I can't even restore the BIOS to its old settings (I saved an image before
updating it) since the PC resets before I have time to do this.

Now I have an unusable PC.

Help!

http://www.badflash.com

-- Bob Day

"Bobby" wrote in message
...
As some of you will know, I've been having problems with the new SATA hard
disk.

So I tried to upgrade the BIOS of my Asus K8 SE Deluxe motherboard. I used
the flash update tool and everything appeared to work perfectly - but now
my PC doesn't work at all.

It resets either during boot or at login or shortly after boot. This
happens constantly. Safe mode is the only cure.

I solved my SATA problem by reverting to my old IDE drive and this
invariably gave me a stable machine - until I did this BIOS update. Now no
mater which drive I try to use (SATA or IDE) I get constant resets. I
tried removing all mention of RAID/SATA/Promise from Control Panel but the
problem persists.

I can't even restore the BIOS to its old settings (I saved an image before
updating it) since the PC resets before I have time to do this.

Now I have an unusable PC.

Help!

Bobby
Ah so these are the motherboard details! When you say the flashing appeared
to work perfectly, how do you know - did a message pop up saying so? The
only Asus boards I've flashed have been using a Win98SE system formatted
disk and a progress bar was shown. At the end I've always reset the BIOS by
doing the shorting the jumper trick for a few minutes (have a read of the
manual) - that's essential, have you done that?

If the machines a new build, what are the PSU details (make/model and power
rating)? FYI often OS's will need to be reinstalled after a BIOS flash -
especially if it involved a disk controller, that's why its always best to
do the job when the drive is still empty.

Paul

"Paul Murphy" wrote in message
...
"Bobby" wrote in message
...
As some of you will know, I've been having problems with the new SATA
hard disk.

So I tried to upgrade the BIOS of my Asus K8 SE Deluxe motherboard. I
used the flash update tool and everything appeared to work perfectly -
but now my PC doesn't work at all.

It resets either during boot or at login or shortly after boot. This
happens constantly. Safe mode is the only cure.

I solved my SATA problem by reverting to my old IDE drive and this
invariably gave me a stable machine - until I did this BIOS update. Now
no mater which drive I try to use (SATA or IDE) I get constant resets. I
tried removing all mention of RAID/SATA/Promise from Control Panel but
the problem persists.

I can't even restore the BIOS to its old settings (I saved an image
before updating it) since the PC resets before I have time to do this.

Now I have an unusable PC.

Help!

Bobby
Ah so these are the motherboard details! When you say the flashing
appeared to work perfectly, how do you know - did a message pop up saying
so? The only Asus boards I've flashed have been using a Win98SE system
formatted disk and a progress bar was shown. At the end I've always reset
the BIOS by doing the shorting the jumper trick for a few minutes (have a
read of the manual) - that's essential, have you done that?

If the machines a new build, what are the PSU details (make/model and
power rating)? FYI often OS's will need to be reinstalled after a BIOS
flash - especially if it involved a disk controller, that's why its always
best to do the job when the drive is still empty.

Paul
Oh and there's a downloadable manual for your board he
http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock..._se_deluxe.pdf
It contains good news - please read it *all* and lots will be made clearer
(especially the part about BIOS recovery - for peace of mind).

Paul

Paul - The BIOS software does have a facility for recovering a corrupt
BIOS - but my BIOS is not corrupt. My PC boots OK - well, OK for 2 minutes
before it resets. So the repair facility does not work for me.

I think that something went wrong with my BIOS upgrade since neither my new
nor old hard drives now work correctly (I'm getting constant resets and BSDs
using either drive). So I plan to reload my old BIOS.

Bobby

"Paul Murphy" wrote in message
...
"Bobby" wrote in message
...
As some of you will know, I've been having problems with the new SATA
hard disk.

So I tried to upgrade the BIOS of my Asus K8 SE Deluxe motherboard. I
used the flash update tool and everything appeared to work perfectly -
but now my PC doesn't work at all.

It resets either during boot or at login or shortly after boot. This
happens constantly. Safe mode is the only cure.

I solved my SATA problem by reverting to my old IDE drive and this
invariably gave me a stable machine - until I did this BIOS update. Now
no mater which drive I try to use (SATA or IDE) I get constant resets. I
tried removing all mention of RAID/SATA/Promise from Control Panel but
the problem persists.

I can't even restore the BIOS to its old settings (I saved an image
before updating it) since the PC resets before I have time to do this.

Now I have an unusable PC.

Help!

Bobby
Ah so these are the motherboard details! When you say the flashing
appeared to work perfectly, how do you know - did a message pop up saying
so? The only Asus boards I've flashed have been using a Win98SE system
formatted disk and a progress bar was shown. At the end I've always reset
the BIOS by doing the shorting the jumper trick for a few minutes (have a
read of the manual) - that's essential, have you done that?

If the machines a new build, what are the PSU details (make/model and
power rating)? FYI often OS's will need to be reinstalled after a BIOS
flash - especially if it involved a disk controller, that's why its always
best to do the job when the drive is still empty.

Paul

"Bobby" wrote in message
...
Paul - The BIOS software does have a facility for recovering a corrupt
BIOS - but my BIOS is not corrupt. My PC boots OK - well, OK for 2 minutes
before it resets. So the repair facility does not work for me.

I think that something went wrong with my BIOS upgrade since neither my
new nor old hard drives now work correctly (I'm getting constant resets
and BSDs using either drive). So I plan to reload my old BIOS.

So which is it - both your first and second paragraph cant be correct -
either there was a problem with flashing the BIOS (corruption) or there
wasn't? If your not sure, then what makes you think that reloading your old
BIOS (or for that matter flashing it originally) will fix it? After all its
not as if an original motherboard BIOS would fail to detect SATA HDDs
altogether (the problem you claimed to experience). A quick test of whether
the problem is hardware or software related would be whether its stable
booting off a Win XP MS-DOS start-up floppy disk - do you know how to make
one of these and how to setup the machine to boot from it?

If you want to progress this issue, the answers to my questions (including
those at the bottom of the email) will be needed. If you don't know the
details or how to find them, perhaps the best bet is to take it to a
computer shop for them to repair it before your efforts damage it. Flashing
a BIOS is not something to be undertaken unless you really know what your
doing (assuming that's what's required and from what I've read its not). If
you want to cooperate then the reply should be BELOW the relevant post in
this case, as when the thread was started the original respondents replied
with bottom posts. It just makes things unduly difficult if you choose to
top post when everyone else is bottom posting because people have to scroll
to both the top and bottom of the email to figure out what's going on. Now,
are you going to answer my questions?

Paul


Bobby

"Paul Murphy" wrote in message
...
"Bobby" wrote in message
...
As some of you will know, I've been having problems with the new SATA
hard disk.

So I tried to upgrade the BIOS of my Asus K8 SE Deluxe motherboard. I
used the flash update tool and everything appeared to work perfectly -
but now my PC doesn't work at all.

It resets either during boot or at login or shortly after boot. This
happens constantly. Safe mode is the only cure.

I solved my SATA problem by reverting to my old IDE drive and this
invariably gave me a stable machine - until I did this BIOS update. Now
no mater which drive I try to use (SATA or IDE) I get constant resets. I
tried removing all mention of RAID/SATA/Promise from Control Panel but
the problem persists.

I can't even restore the BIOS to its old settings (I saved an image
before updating it) since the PC resets before I have time to do this.

Now I have an unusable PC.

Help!

Bobby
Ah so these are the motherboard details! When you say the flashing
appeared to work perfectly, how do you know - did a message pop up saying
so? The only Asus boards I've flashed have been using a Win98SE system
formatted disk and a progress bar was shown. At the end I've always reset
the BIOS by doing the shorting the jumper trick for a few minutes (have a
read of the manual) - that's essential, have you done that?

If the machines a new build, what are the PSU details (make/model and
power rating)? FYI often OS's will need to be reinstalled after a BIOS
flash - especially if it involved a disk controller, that's why its
always best to do the job when the drive is still empty.

Paul

So which is it - both your first and second paragraph cant be correct -
either there was a problem with flashing the BIOS (corruption) or there
wasn't?

There wasn't.The upgrade went perfectly (according to the upgrade program
which even verifies the BIOS installation).

If your not sure, then what makes you think that reloading your old BIOS
(or for that matter flashing it originally) will fix it?

Because I thought something weird might have happened during the upgrade.
But I did reload the original BIOS and I am still having problems. So that
didn't fix it.

After all its not as if an original motherboard BIOS would fail to detect
SATA HDDs altogether (the problem you claimed to experience).

The original mobo would have detected the SATA drive if I had configured the
BIOS correctly.

A quick test of whether the problem is hardware or software related would
be whether its stable booting off a Win XP MS-DOS start-up floppy disk -
do you know how to make one of these and how to setup the machine to boot
from it?

No I don't know how to create this. I do know how to get the machine to boot
from a floppy. But the machine appears to be fine in DOS mode (I was messing
around with the recovery console for 10 minutes and the machine was OK).

At the end I've always reset
the BIOS by doing the shorting the jumper trick for a few minutes (have
a read of the manual) - that's essential, have you done that?

I have now. I did this first thing this evening. It made no difference.

If the machines a new build,

It was a new (home made) build about three months ago. And it worked
*perfectly* until I messed about with my new SATA drive.

what are the PSU details (make/model and
power rating)?

550W no-name PSU.

FYI often OS's will need to be reinstalled after a BIOS
flash - especially if it involved a disk controller, that's why its
always best to do the job when the drive is still empty.

I can't do a clean install on either HD (SATA or PATA drives) without the
thing resetting.

I'm at a complete loss.

"Bobby" wrote in message
...
So which is it - both your first and second paragraph cant be correct -
either there was a problem with flashing the BIOS (corruption) or there
wasn't?

There wasn't.The upgrade went perfectly (according to the upgrade program
which even verifies the BIOS installation).

If your not sure, then what makes you think that reloading your old BIOS
(or for that matter flashing it originally) will fix it?

Because I thought something weird might have happened during the upgrade.
But I did reload the original BIOS and I am still having problems. So that
didn't fix it.

Not likely to fix anything going back to the previous version if the
original flash to the new version went well (and you mentioned the upgrade
verified the installation). It's clear that the BIOS version has nothing to
do with this and had the question been asked before you attempted to flash
it in the first place I would have advised against it.

After all its not as if an original motherboard BIOS would fail to detect
SATA HDDs altogether (the problem you claimed to experience).

The original mobo would have detected the SATA drive if I had configured
the BIOS correctly.

That's what I suspected. So have you read the manual or had someone explain
it to you? That would go a long way towards you understanding things better.

A quick test of whether the problem is hardware or software related would
be whether its stable booting off a Win XP MS-DOS start-up floppy disk -
do you know how to make one of these and how to setup the machine to boot
from it?

No I don't know how to create this. I do know how to get the machine to
boot from a floppy. But the machine appears to be fine in DOS mode (I was
messing around with the recovery console for 10 minutes and the machine
was OK).

OK, no need to do the DOS boot test then but in future its just the same as
formatting a floppy disk but there's a "tickbox option" in XP which reads
"create an MS-DOS startup disk" this will copy across the required files.
Note: I would advise against using one of these disks for BIOS flashing
though because it loads various extras unlike (for example) a Windows 98
boot disk.

Given that the machine is stable in a non-windows environment your challenge
will be to find exactly which part of the Windows XP installation on the
fresh SATA disk causes instability. Perhaps the point at which it
spontaneously reboots will give you a clue.

At the end I've always reset
the BIOS by doing the shorting the jumper trick for a few minutes (have
a read of the manual) - that's essential, have you done that?

I have now. I did this first thing this evening. It made no difference.

OK fair enough - at least that's ruled out as a possible cause now. After
all the settings were erased using this process do you know what to set them
to (or what each one is all about? If, like most people, some of them have
you baffled then there's this excellent reference here which explains BIOS
options: http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=1

If the machines a new build,

It was a new (home made) build about three months ago. And it worked
*perfectly* until I messed about with my new SATA drive.

Ok that would imply that all of the hardware is up to the task then. In
terms of "messing about" with hardware, I advise you to read up on what it
is that you intend to do *before* you do it, you could also attend some
computer hardware courses. That way your actions will be informed and you
wont end up wasting your time (so much) not to mention reducing the chances
of damaging anything e.g. Anti static precautions and the golden rule of
checking all peripherals are disconnected from the motherboard (particularly
USB devices) before flashing BIOS's etc.

what are the PSU details (make/model and
power rating)?

550W no-name PSU.

Since you've mentioned the system was working perfectly before the new drive
came along and the PSU is still nearly new, its unlikely to be a
contributing factor, although I must say I've never seen a "no-name" PSU
(and I used to work as a computer tech), its just that some are more
reputable and reliable than others.

FYI often OS's will need to be reinstalled after a BIOS
flash - especially if it involved a disk controller, that's why its
always best to do the job when the drive is still empty.

I can't do a clean install on either HD (SATA or PATA drives) without the
thing resetting.

At what point does it reset and does it consistently occur at exactly the
same spot irrespective of how long the machine has been running? Have you
reviewed what the manual contains about Windows installation. Finally, have
you got hold of newer SATA controller drivers from the Asus website for your
motherboard?

That would be a few things I'd try, along with checking ALL the BIOS
settings (according to that reference website I posted a link to above).
After that, if there's no developments, I suggest you take it to a computer
shop for attention. Am I right that you can no longer even install XP on the
original IDE HDD while the SATA one is out of the machine/unplugged fully
(even after rechecking the BIOS settings) without it rebooting?

Paul

Bobby, I hate to be a pessemist, but at the rate you are going I suggest you box
everything up and take it to a proffesional before you really fry something....

Bobby wrote:

As some of you will know, I've been having problems with the new SATA hard
disk.

So I tried to upgrade the BIOS of my Asus K8 SE Deluxe motherboard. I used
the flash update tool and everything appeared to work perfectly - but now my
PC doesn't work at all.

It resets either during boot or at login or shortly after boot. This happens
constantly. Safe mode is the only cure.

I solved my SATA problem by reverting to my old IDE drive and this
invariably gave me a stable machine - until I did this BIOS update. Now no
mater which drive I try to use (SATA or IDE) I get constant resets. I tried
removing all mention of RAID/SATA/Promise from Control Panel but the problem
persists.

I can't even restore the BIOS to its old settings (I saved an image before
updating it) since the PC resets before I have time to do this.

Now I have an unusable PC.

Help!

Bobby

On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:56:02 +0100, "Bobby"
wrote:

As some of you will know, I've been having problems with the new SATA hard
disk.

So I tried to upgrade the BIOS of my Asus K8 SE Deluxe motherboard. I used
the flash update tool and everything appeared to work perfectly - but now my
PC doesn't work at all.

The odds of a bad flash using an update tool are MUCH higher
than just using the traditional update from a DOS boot
floppy. For this reason I suggest never to flash any other
way. Just because it works once or on another board doesn't
mean it's guaranteed to work that "next" time.


It resets either during boot or at login or shortly after boot. This happens
constantly. Safe mode is the only cure.

Did you enter bios and load setup defaults? Try clearing
CMOS too. You're lucky it boots at all, but did you save a
copy of the original bios? It would be better to reflash
the known-good version you were using first to get system
back to state it was in first, before trying some other
method to flash the bios which (can't even be known to work
regardless of flash method, yet).



I solved my SATA problem by reverting to my old IDE drive and this
invariably gave me a stable machine - until I did this BIOS update. Now no
mater which drive I try to use (SATA or IDE) I get constant resets. I tried
removing all mention of RAID/SATA/Promise from Control Panel but the problem
persists.

Whatever drive you installed XP on, you should leave that
drive as boot drive and in same IDE and/or SATA position as
it started out, until you get this resolved.



I can't even restore the BIOS to its old settings (I saved an image before
updating it) since the PC resets before I have time to do this.

Now I have an unusable PC.


What do you mean you can't restore it?
If you saved the bios and/or have another copy of it (for
example, downloaded from manufacturer) simply boot to DOS
floppy and reflash the known good bios, then load BIOS
defaults in the bios menus and/or clear cmos, finally making
any changes you needed per your specific parts, like raising
the FSB per CPU if applicable, etc.