ASrock Corrupt bios

[Soulkeeper]

I just received an A75M-ITX

the board got a corrupt bios within 2hrs of getting it ...
first bios setting I made to change the bclk and the system never came back on.
clr cmos, removing cmos battery, nothing helped.

typical symptoms of a junk board.
their EFI interface even had the X/Y axis reversed on the mouse, like they never bothered testing it.

So I gotta return the paper weight now and deal with this crap asus board

Just no happy endings for FM1 + llano
I'm not at all happy with this experience, looks like i'll have to build an i5 system afterall

Should I do a newegg RMA ?
15% restocking fee, or replacement seem to be my options ....
Should I contact ASrock instead ?

 

[Soulkeeper]

I emailed asrock asking if I can order a replacement bios ...
I've seen this before with cheap motherboards, if you set something wrong in the bios you're screwed.
you gotta always have a backup bios handy ....

 

[NumericalMethods]

Hey, that certainly sucks. Before you RMA the board...

I've been having problems getting my Asus P7P55D-e to recover from some failed memory settings. The thing won't even go through the POST sequence at all. I have successfully recoved the board twice from this state this week, although it was a serious pain.

To do so I had to strip the board bare and remove the CMOS battery, then leave the CMOS jumper in the reset position overnight. Rebuild the system et voila, everything working perfectly again. This only happened to me when I got the memory settings way out, I can normally reset the BIOS from overclocking failure very easily.

You might want try one last time with a similar method? Good luck anyway!

 

[Soulkeeper]

Hey, that certainly sucks. Before you RMA the board...

I've been having problems getting my Asus P7P55D-e to recover from some failed memory settings. The thing won't even go through the POST sequence at all. I have successfully recoved the board twice from this state this week, although it was a serious pain.

To do so I had to strip the board bare and remove the CMOS battery, then leave the CMOS jumper in the reset position overnight. Rebuild the system et voila, everything working perfectly again. This only happened to me when I got the memory settings way out, I can normally reset the BIOS from overclocking failure very easily.

You might want try one last time with a similar method? Good luck anyway!

I tried all that cept the overnight part, the clear cmos jumper was set for upto a minute, still no go.
I know with the asus board it really don't even need a clr cmos jumper because if you just power off the psu for a few minutes and then reboot the system it'll eventually detect and reset everything automatically ... I'm 95% certain the bios chip itself is corrupt. Searching google shows this is apparently common with ASrock motherboards. Hopefully ASrock will email me back and I can order a preflashed replacement bios for $15 + shipping like their website says. I think i'd rather do that then go thru an RMA with newegg.

 

[NumericalMethods]

Yep, fair do's. If you can get a replacement BIOS chip then that would be a pretty good option. I dread RMAing motherboards because of some of the refurbished tat that you get back.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Anyone know how long it takes for them to respond to an email ?
support@asrockamerica.com is what I used
apparently they also have user@asrockamerica.com

maybe I should have emailed the other one ?

 

[vshah]

email both, and write up your problems in a newegg review as well...most companies have reps that monitor those.

 

[Modelworks]

That is extremely odd that the bios go bad like that. The way those chips work you cannot just corrupt the contents easily, you really have to work at it. The chips do not operate like a usb flash drive. The host cpu sends it a command and then the data it wants written, then the chip writes the data to itself, confirms the write was good and then moves on to the next write. If a write fails the sector is marked as bad and a new one mapped in place of it and the process repeats. Even pulling the power during a write doesn't harm the chip because to do damage you have to disconnect power within the 50ns window the write is taking place. They really are a lot better than the old parallel flash.

I would remove the battery, place jumper on board, wait for 5 minutes, remove jumper, replace battery. Make sure the battery is not installed when you short the jumper. If it doesn't work then , chances are a new chip will do nothing.

 

[Soulkeeper]

That is extremely odd that the bios go bad like that. The way those chips work you cannot just corrupt the contents easily, you really have to work at it. The chips do not operate like a usb flash drive. The host cpu sends it a command and then the data it wants written, then the chip writes the data to itself, confirms the write was good and then moves on to the next write. If a write fails the sector is marked as bad and a new one mapped in place of it and the process repeats. Even pulling the power during a write doesn't harm the chip because to do damage you have to disconnect power within the 50ns window the write is taking place. They really are a lot better than the old parallel flash.

I would remove the battery, place jumper on board, wait for 5 minutes, remove jumper, replace battery. Make sure the battery is not installed when you short the jumper. If it doesn't work then , chances are a new chip will do nothing.

You're right in theory, but i've seen several bricked systems that required buying replacement bios chips over the years. It's more common with cheaper boards, possibly because of the method they use during the post process more than the write process itself ... I dunno.

 

[Soulkeeper]

I got a response from asrock, and have mailed them a check
I'll hopefully get the replacement next week
gonna likely go ahead and buy me a flasher also, because if it happens once it's likely to happen again. I had a via chipset board that'd do this often and would hotswap and flash in another system.

i've also got a bricked 775 motherboard upstairs with a corrupt bios ...
and I had to send a gigabyte board in for repairs for a corrupt bios just a few months ago (likely caused by a power outtage), and that board had dual bios go figure.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Ok, I got it running again

Purchased myself an FT2232SPI Programmer
problem solved

 

[paolocar88]

hi mate!
i have experienced the same problem with my a75m-hvs and i'm trying to solve the problem by myself.
can you tell me which blocks need to be programmed?
if i remember correctly when i updated the bios it programmed the last blocks of the memory.
is it correct?
i'll develop a custom programmer with an fpga since i'm using those devices at my university... i know what to do during christmas holiday..... :sneaky:

 

[Soulkeeper]

hi mate!
i have experienced the same problem with my a75m-hvs and i'm trying to solve the problem by myself.
can you tell me which blocks need to be programmed?
if i remember correctly when i updated the bios it programmed the last blocks of the memory.
is it correct?
i'll develop a custom programmer with an fpga since i'm using those devices at my university... i know what to do during christmas holiday..... :sneaky:

Welcome to the forums.
In this context, "programming" a bios chip involves first erasing _all_ the blocks then writing ...
I suggest you research the subject, be careful.

 

[bankster55]

Why would he do research when he has you?
How about where and for how much you bought the programmer and a step by step tut on how to redo a bios chip?
I am sure it would become an instant hit all over the internet.
I know I would appreciate it, for one.
And remember - its Christmas, Ebenezer!

 

[Soulkeeper]

Why would he do research when he has you?
How about where and for how much you bought the programmer and a step by step tut on how to redo a bios chip?
I am sure it would become an instant hit all over the internet.
I know I would appreciate it, for one.
And remember - its Christmas, Ebenezer!

Google is better for that
keyword "FT2232SPI"
research is required, without it he's better off just going to badflash.com or similar.


flashrom info

I purchased my parts from digikey
$45.11 was my total not including jumper wires and the capacitors (which I already had)

Here is what mine looked like after assembly

this is setup for a DIP8 to be plugged right into the breadboard

 

[bankster55]

hmmmmm.....

looks like buying another chip would be best - lol
thnx 4 pic

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah, it'll only pay for itself if you use it 3 times or more
some other chip programmers cost $100's and even $1000's
compared to those this is extremely cheap however

 

[bankster55]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffYh0qM1HXQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MojDdg0OSFM

http://samedisk.com/en/productinfo.php

 

[Soulkeeper]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffYh0qM1HXQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MojDdg0OSFM

http://samedisk.com/en/productinfo.php

I chose the FT2232SPI for my particular situation based on the fact that it had great linux and flashrom (the program) support. It was ideal for me and easy/fun to put together. There are a few dozen other cheap alternatives.

 

[paolocar88]

hey thank you for the replies!!

i've solved the problem because i've managed to find an old (rs232!!!) universal programmer here in my university...

my question was about if the flash memory had to be programmed entirely or only some blocks but when i downloaded the bios i've seen that it was 4MB which is exactly the size of the memory so i've flashed all the chip and now it's ok..

your solution is indeed the cheapest and the simpler if someone needs to do that, unless they can use an universal programmer like i did...

thankyou for the inspiration

bye guys!!!