10-10-2012, 08:46 PM
After much time spent trying to determine what is causing my problem, I determined it was a corrupted BIOS. I have this compaq desktop that will only get to the compaq splashscreen and freeze. You are not able to enter into any menus -- it's as if the keyboard is dead. Even after removing every single component except for absolute minimum, it still does the same thing. I've even used a known good power supply, swapped the RAM with known good RAM and even tested the original RAM (tested with no errors). That leaves me to say the motherboard is bad.
I assume the BIOS is AMI. I am not sure on this however. I cannot determine for sure which manufacturer makes it. How exactly do I find this out?
Motherboard is an ASUS A8AE-LE. Computer is a Compaq Presario SR1834NX. I tried the AMI recovery method (using a floppy with the .rom on the disk). Upon start, the floppy disk drive does not appear to be accessed (no green access light appears).
Update: Again, I really don't know if it's AMI or AWARD. I assume from the ROM file I found that it's AMI. The way I got the ROM file was by downloading the installer from Compaq then opening it as an archive using 7zip and pulled out the ROM (315.rom). I then did some poking around here to discover CDs and flash drives are potential devices to use as well. Upon boot neither the flash drive nor the floppy seems to be accessed. However, the CD-ROM drive does seem to have activity. I assume if there's activity (green access light flickers for 5-6 seconds) there could be hope? Perhaps I'm erring in the way I'm putting the file on or which file or that I have the wrong BIOS manufacturer?
Update 2: I kept thinking over and over that there has to be a way to connect another PC to this one. A way to directly communicate with the BIOS to flash it. Well sure enough I came across a few things about people who have actually done it.
http://superuser.com/questions/29221/is-...ios-update
First answer. I found something similar to what he found, just not by the southbridge. It has 9 pins instead of 7. I don't know if it's my direct access way or not. This computer is dead, probably will be tossed. I have nothing to lose. Thoughts?
http://i50.tinypic.com/1zg43cy.jpg
I assume the BIOS is AMI. I am not sure on this however. I cannot determine for sure which manufacturer makes it. How exactly do I find this out?
Motherboard is an ASUS A8AE-LE. Computer is a Compaq Presario SR1834NX. I tried the AMI recovery method (using a floppy with the .rom on the disk). Upon start, the floppy disk drive does not appear to be accessed (no green access light appears).
Update: Again, I really don't know if it's AMI or AWARD. I assume from the ROM file I found that it's AMI. The way I got the ROM file was by downloading the installer from Compaq then opening it as an archive using 7zip and pulled out the ROM (315.rom). I then did some poking around here to discover CDs and flash drives are potential devices to use as well. Upon boot neither the flash drive nor the floppy seems to be accessed. However, the CD-ROM drive does seem to have activity. I assume if there's activity (green access light flickers for 5-6 seconds) there could be hope? Perhaps I'm erring in the way I'm putting the file on or which file or that I have the wrong BIOS manufacturer?
Update 2: I kept thinking over and over that there has to be a way to connect another PC to this one. A way to directly communicate with the BIOS to flash it. Well sure enough I came across a few things about people who have actually done it.
http://superuser.com/questions/29221/is-...ios-update
First answer. I found something similar to what he found, just not by the southbridge. It has 9 pins instead of 7. I don't know if it's my direct access way or not. This computer is dead, probably will be tossed. I have nothing to lose. Thoughts?
http://i50.tinypic.com/1zg43cy.jpg