It's a long shot...BIOS problems

Kameleon · Post by **Kameleon** » Wed Apr 09, 2003 6:45 am

I hate Giga-byte. I tried to e-mail them through their support system but the script has errors and doesn't work, and they don't give any other way to contact their Tech support...anyway, here's what I sent to them, if anyone could give me any suggestions at all I would be most grateful

4. M/B Vendor: GIGABYTE

5. M/B Model Name (Printed On Board): GA-7DXR

6. M/B Ver. (Printed On Board): REV 1.0

7. BIOS ver. (Posted On Screen): F10a

8. Operating System: Win 2000 OTHER:

9.VGA:
Vendor: OTHER: Creative
Model Name(Printed On Board): MS-8817
RAM (Posted On Screen): 32MB
BIOS Vendor (Posted On Screen): Not shown
DRIVER (Posted On Screen): 4.3.4.5

10. CPU: Vendor:AMD

Interface: Socket A
Speed: 2000MHz

11. The CPU FSB's setting: Auto
Multiplier's setting: Auto
Voltage's setting: Auto

12. Question:
Ever since upgrading to F10a, which was needed for my impending upgrade from an Athlon 1.2 GHz to an XP2400+, I have been experiencing problems. With both processors, the BIOS would sometimes show as F10a and sometimes as F6. When the computer starts with the F6 showing, the XP2400+ is shown incorrectly as an Unknown Processor Speed 2000 MHz, and on the Promise ATA100 screen the computer does not detect my WD1200JB which is on IDE3. I tried setting my DualBIOS to boot from Backup instead of Main, but then the computer would power on, POST, and show nothing on the screen. I have now switched it back to Main and the problems remain. Another problem that has started since the flash to F10a is that my computer will now not soft-reset - anything that usually restarts the computer, even leaving the BIOS setup screen, causes the computer to go dead, with power running to everything but nothing happening on the screen and no POST. What can I do?

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Wed Apr 09, 2003 6:18 pm

Ouch. Unless Gigabyte provide an alternate solution, I'd recommend putting your old CPU back in (if you've still got it), reflashing the BIOS with F6 and redoing the entire process. Once the upgrade is complete, put the XP2400 back in. It sounds to me like the flashROM wasn't written to properly and needs to be done again. If you can find it you may want to disable the second BIOS chip before reflashing.

Kameleon · Post by **Kameleon** » Thu Apr 10, 2003 5:22 am

OK, update: Gigabyte doesnt include the default BIOS's on their website, so i tried reflashing an older BIOS that I've had some success with in the past (F9) and the problems continued. Then I reflashed F10a in and it's still as ropey as ever. Another problem seems to have developed since trying the Backup BIOS - occasionally the computer wont do anything on startup - all the fans start up and that's it - no POST, no nothing.

Anyway, I'm getting a bit tired of this, so I think I'm gonna clear my CMOS and start over with the whole thing. And hope that I get a reply from the Taiwanese Gigabyte website

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Thu Apr 10, 2003 7:07 am

::waves hand hypnotically in front of Kameleon::
You must buy an MSI motherboard.

:

ockets check from MSI::

I'd say you should probably expect a lot of problems since the F10 BIOS is a beta version. Another alternative is to swap your Athlon XP 2400+ for a 2200+, which is supported by the F9 BIOS.