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From: Daniel Prince on 28 Apr 2010 20:03
My brother bought an ASUS M4N78 PRO motherboard. He installed a
triple core AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8 GHz CPU and four gigs of
Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) 240- pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 (PC2 6400).

He started the computer and was able to get into the BIOS. He set
the date and time. He also changed the boot order to CDROM first.
He did NOT change anything else or try to flash the BIOS.

When he rebooted, he did not press a key when the system asked him
if he wanted to boot from CD. The system then tried to boot from
the hard drive. The hard drive has Windows 7 (32 bit) on it that he
installed when he had an ASUS M4A78 Pro motherboard. It seemed as
if Windows was not loading.

He stopped the boot process. He thought he might have to reinstall
Windows 7 to remove the drivers that were on the hard drive from the
previous motherboard. The previous motherboard was an ASUS M4A78 Pro
that he had returned because it had stopped working just after he
had installed Windows 7 with it.

He rebooted and got a BIOS checksum error. The BIOS asked for a file
on the DVD that came with the motherboard. The BIOS said not to
insert the DVD if the DVD drive was a USB drive. His drive was IDE
so he inserted the DVD. The system seemed to find the file it was
looking for.

He does not remember the exact wording but first it said something
like, "Clearing BIOS," with a small rotating star to indicate that
it was working. This message disappeared and then it said something
like, "Writing BIOS," with the same rotating star. This message
disappeared and then it said reboot to regain system. After
rebooting, there was no video. The CPU fan and case power light
came on. There were no beeps from the case speaker.

He removed the memory and got one long and two short beeps. He put
the memory back, one stick at a time, and it was still dead. He says
that he cannot get into the BIOS at all now.

He has left several phone messages with ASUS tech support but they
have not replied.

He reset the CMOS and installed a different set of DIMMs. The
motherboard still did not post.

Does anyone know what is causing this problem? Can he fix it
somehow or does he need to send it in for warranty repair? Thank
you in advance for all replies.
--
Whenever I hear or think of the song "Great green gobs of greasy
grimey gopher guts" I imagine my cat saying; "That sounds REALLY,
REALLY good. I'll have some of that!"
From: TVeblen on 28 Apr 2010 20:18
On 4/28/2010 8:03 PM, Daniel Prince wrote:
> My brother bought an ASUS M4N78 PRO motherboard. He installed a
> triple core AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8 GHz CPU and four gigs of
> Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) 240- pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 (PC2 6400).
>
> He started the computer and was able to get into the BIOS. He set
> the date and time. He also changed the boot order to CDROM first.
> He did NOT change anything else or try to flash the BIOS.
>
> When he rebooted, he did not press a key when the system asked him
> if he wanted to boot from CD. The system then tried to boot from
> the hard drive. The hard drive has Windows 7 (32 bit) on it that he
> installed when he had an ASUS M4A78 Pro motherboard. It seemed as
> if Windows was not loading.
>
> He stopped the boot process. He thought he might have to reinstall
> Windows 7 to remove the drivers that were on the hard drive from the
> previous motherboard. The previous motherboard was an ASUS M4A78 Pro
> that he had returned because it had stopped working just after he
> had installed Windows 7 with it.
>
> He rebooted and got a BIOS checksum error. The BIOS asked for a file
> on the DVD that came with the motherboard. The BIOS said not to
> insert the DVD if the DVD drive was a USB drive. His drive was IDE
> so he inserted the DVD. The system seemed to find the file it was
> looking for.
>
> He does not remember the exact wording but first it said something
> like, "Clearing BIOS," with a small rotating star to indicate that
> it was working. This message disappeared and then it said something
> like, "Writing BIOS," with the same rotating star. This message
> disappeared and then it said reboot to regain system. After
> rebooting, there was no video. The CPU fan and case power light
> came on. There were no beeps from the case speaker.
>
> He removed the memory and got one long and two short beeps. He put
> the memory back, one stick at a time, and it was still dead. He says
> that he cannot get into the BIOS at all now.
>
> He has left several phone messages with ASUS tech support but they
> have not replied.
>
> He reset the CMOS and installed a different set of DIMMs. The
> motherboard still did not post.
>
> Does anyone know what is causing this problem? Can he fix it
> somehow or does he need to send it in for warranty repair? Thank
> you in advance for all replies.
> --
> Whenever I hear or think of the song "Great green gobs of greasy
> grimey gopher guts" I imagine my cat saying; "That sounds REALLY,
> REALLY good. I'll have some of that!"

The bios checksum error means the bios is no good.

"The read-only memory (ROM) containing the BIOS program is protected by
a checksum value as a double-check that the ROM code is correct. This
checksum is compared against the values in the ROM each time the PC is
booted and if there is a mismatch, this code is generated."

"You can attempt to clear the CMOS (either a jumper to reset or a reset
button on the board - read the manual), but if that does not work then
it means the bios chip is bad. Return the board.
From: Paul on 28 Apr 2010 22:33
Daniel Prince wrote:
> My brother bought an ASUS M4N78 PRO motherboard. He installed a
> triple core AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8 GHz CPU and four gigs of
> Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) 240- pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 (PC2 6400).
>
> He started the computer and was able to get into the BIOS. He set
> the date and time. He also changed the boot order to CDROM first.
> He did NOT change anything else or try to flash the BIOS.
>
> When he rebooted, he did not press a key when the system asked him
> if he wanted to boot from CD. The system then tried to boot from
> the hard drive. The hard drive has Windows 7 (32 bit) on it that he
> installed when he had an ASUS M4A78 Pro motherboard. It seemed as
> if Windows was not loading.
>
> He stopped the boot process. He thought he might have to reinstall
> Windows 7 to remove the drivers that were on the hard drive from the
> previous motherboard. The previous motherboard was an ASUS M4A78 Pro
> that he had returned because it had stopped working just after he
> had installed Windows 7 with it.
>
> He rebooted and got a BIOS checksum error. The BIOS asked for a file
> on the DVD that came with the motherboard. The BIOS said not to
> insert the DVD if the DVD drive was a USB drive. His drive was IDE
> so he inserted the DVD. The system seemed to find the file it was
> looking for.
>
> He does not remember the exact wording but first it said something
> like, "Clearing BIOS," with a small rotating star to indicate that
> it was working. This message disappeared and then it said something
> like, "Writing BIOS," with the same rotating star. This message
> disappeared and then it said reboot to regain system. After
> rebooting, there was no video. The CPU fan and case power light
> came on. There were no beeps from the case speaker.
>
> He removed the memory and got one long and two short beeps. He put
> the memory back, one stick at a time, and it was still dead. He says
> that he cannot get into the BIOS at all now.
>
> He has left several phone messages with ASUS tech support but they
> have not replied.
>
> He reset the CMOS and installed a different set of DIMMs. The
> motherboard still did not post.
>
> Does anyone know what is causing this problem? Can he fix it
> somehow or does he need to send it in for warranty repair? Thank
> you in advance for all replies.

It's possible, that the BIOS file on the motherboard DVD, is an
earlier revision than the one flashed into the board, at the factory.

To start, I'd check the CPUSupport chart.

http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M4A78%20Pro

Phenom IIX3 720 (HDX720WFK3DGI),2.8GHz,95W Board BIOS
rev.C2,SocketAM3,Triple-Core 1.02G 1005

Phenom IIX3 720 (HDZ720WFK3DGI),2.8GHz,95W,
rev.C2,SocketAM3,Triple-Core ALL 0409

It's hard to say what revision might be on the DVD. Perhaps the file name
will tell you, or perhaps not. On the motherboard discs I have here, the
recovery BIOS is generally at the root level of the disk. Use "explorer" in
Windows to look at the file names.

There are two possibilities:

1) Flash update failed, requiring some kind of recovery process.

2) Processor needs a later revision of BIOS, than is now flashed into the board.

To escape from (2), a person might insert an older processor in place of the
720, so that the board will operate again. Then use flash tools to put a later
flash image into it. Then reinstall the 720 processor, when it is known an
adequate revision is installed.

For (1), you could try the procedure in (2), use an older processor, then see
if the boot block survived the update. If it did, then you might have the option
of using the built-in "DVD reading thing". But this time, you would *NOT* insert
the original DVD. You'd provide your own DVD, with a different BIOS version on it
at the root level. Read the manual, see what BIOS recovery options are available,
and then try those options and see if one will work.

In a sense, the motherboard CD/DVD is a "trap", if you're using a very recently
released processor. Because it can get you in this version mess.

Returning the motherboard, is the final option.

It could always be some other hardware failure on the motherboard, but what
are the odds of that happening at just that instant.

Paul
From: Mike Tomlinson on 28 Apr 2010 23:15
In article <k3jht5153dsg9fmio3u8t8g2rvug4ckneh(a)4ax.com>, Daniel Prince
<neutrino1(a)ca.rr.com> writes

>Does anyone know what is causing this problem?

The BIOS lost its contents for some reason, so the emergency bootblock
code (a short piece of code which does enough to bring the machine up
and load a new BIOS image from floppy or CD) asked for a disc with the
BIOS image file. It then attempted to clear and reflash the BIOS (that
was the spinning star) but failed. The BIOS is now empty or full of
junk and cannot boot the machine. In tech terms, it's bricked :o)

As for why the BIOS lost its contents, could be a lot of things. But
the first I would check is that he has not got any motherboard stand-
offs in the wrong place where they are shorting on the back of the
board.

> Can he fix it
>somehow

Doubt it. If the chip is in a socket, you can take it out and some
places will re-flash it if you send it to them with a copy of the BIOS
image.

> or does he need to send it in for warranty repair?

Might be the best option.

--
(\__/)
(='.'=) Bunny says Windows 7 is Vi$ta reloaded.
(")_(") http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/windows_7.png


From: Daniel Prince on 29 Apr 2010 19:51
Paul <nospam(a)needed.com> wrote:

>Daniel Prince wrote:
>> My brother bought an ASUS M4N78 PRO motherboard. He installed a
>> triple core AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8 GHz CPU and four gigs of
>> Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) 240- pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 (PC2 6400).

>It's possible, that the BIOS file on the motherboard DVD, is an
>earlier revision than the one flashed into the board, at the factory.
>
>To start, I'd check the CPUSupport chart.
>
>http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M4A78%20Pro
>
>Phenom IIX3 720 (HDX720WFK3DGI),2.8GHz,95W Board BIOS
>rev.C2,SocketAM3,Triple-Core 1.02G 1005
>
>Phenom IIX3 720 (HDZ720WFK3DGI),2.8GHz,95W,
>rev.C2,SocketAM3,Triple-Core ALL 0409

How can he tell which CPU and board revision he has?

>It's hard to say what revision might be on the DVD. Perhaps the file name
>will tell you, or perhaps not. On the motherboard discs I have here, the
>recovery BIOS is generally at the root level of the disk. Use "explorer" in
>Windows to look at the file names.
>
>There are two possibilities:
>
>1) Flash update failed, requiring some kind of recovery process.
>
>2) Processor needs a later revision of BIOS, than is now flashed into the board.
>
>To escape from (2), a person might insert an older processor in place of the
>720, so that the board will operate again. Then use flash tools to put a later
>flash image into it. Then reinstall the 720 processor, when it is known an
>adequate revision is installed.
>
>For (1), you could try the procedure in (2), use an older processor, then see
>if the boot block survived the update. If it did, then you might have the option
>of using the built-in "DVD reading thing". But this time, you would *NOT* insert
>the original DVD. You'd provide your own DVD, with a different BIOS version on it
>at the root level. Read the manual, see what BIOS recovery options are available,
>and then try those options and see if one will work.

I am thinking of buying an Athlon II X3 435. Is that an older
processor that should work with the BIOS on the DVD?

>In a sense, the motherboard CD/DVD is a "trap", if you're using a very recently
>released processor. Because it can get you in this version mess.
>
>Returning the motherboard, is the final option.
>
>It could always be some other hardware failure on the motherboard, but what
>are the odds of that happening at just that instant.
>
> Paul
--
I don't understand why they make gourmet cat foods. I have
known many cats in my life and none of them were gourmets.
They were all gourmands!
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