Hot Swapping

[Idontknow]

Thanks for the warning Silencio. Put the BIOS back into the AV8X-X and the machine booted fine.

Garak, it was a little funny when I see that the boot block will not be touched. Is that BIOS an AMI or Award chip? The BIOS file end with .AWD. That means its a Award BIOS. Can you use AMIflash to flash an Award BIOS? If it is possible, I am going to try again. Just ordered a new ASUS A8VX-X as a replacement. I might as well try again.

Thanks for your help!

[Garak]

Yup, I found it hard to beleive also, but the AMIflash is just programming software, all it does is read and write from the chip, certain versions support certain chips, I tend to find 853 or 864 do the job for most, although 826 is my knew found love.. supports nearly all the chips I use Feel free to ask any questions, I will answer what I can

[Ruslan]

Thanks for the warning Silencio. Put the BIOS back into the AV8X-X and the machine booted fine.

Garak, it was a little funny when I see that the boot block will not be touched. Is that BIOS an AMI or Award chip? The BIOS file end with .AWD. That means its a Award BIOS. Can you use AMIflash to flash an Award BIOS? If it is possible, I am going to try again. Just ordered a new ASUS A8VX-X as a replacement. I might as well try again.

Thanks for your help!

Sorry to be late, ;-) , but I will try to answer some of the questions...

You don't have to look for new MB just to reflash flash BIOS in PLLC32 (small square) case :-)... All you need is just only PLCC32-to-DIP32 converter usually used for universal EEPROM programmers, so you can use any of your an old motherboards with 2 Mbit BIOS (yeah, it should be 2 Mbit) ...
You can find them on Internet sold separately ... or just ask me - I started to build and sell them recently (6 USD + shipping)... ;-)

Aflash is it great flash utility made by ASUS and works ONLY for ASUS boards.
AMIflash is cool and universal utility for all non-ASUS boards...
AMIflash can be working incorrectly with ASUS boards because of non-standard I/O ports used by ASUS BIOS software... not always, but sometimes it can happen...

About your problematic MB - far not always it can be defective BIOS causing motherboard won't boot... BIOS chip problem is the easiest to fix, by the way, (if you know how to do it, of course)... but quite often it can be problem with voltage regulator IC (especially after PSU's failure). So, I would check also all the voltages coming to the CPU, memory, AGP slot and so on...

Feel free to ask me any questions...

[TripleRLtd]

Ruslan and Garak come through!!!
Again.

[slgrieb]

For starters, be sure the video card is COMPLETELY seated. Take out the screw and push the card down firmly. Sorry if this sounds too obvious, but try it. An improperly seated card will produce these sysmptoms, and looks are deceiving. If that doesn't work, try to find a post card to pop in and check the readout. The problem may be different or more than a BIOS issue.

You can buy a BIOS chip for about $24 bucks plus shipping, but heck, you can find some great newer boards for $60 to $80 bucks with free shipping. Try http://newegg.com/

[Idontknow]

Thanks all. I already ordered an ASUS A8VX-X borad from Newegg. $59.99 plus free shipping. Not a bad deal .

I probably will use the AMIflash utility and try one more time before I call it quits. According to Ruslan, there is a chance of reflashing the BIOS using the AMIflash utility. It doesn't hurt to try it at this stage.

Thank you all again .

Will post result after trying.

[Idontknow]

Hi all,

I don't know if this can happened. Is it possible that the DVD ROM drive can cause the demise of the ASUS A7V333 motherboard? After I got the new ASUS A7V8X-X motherboard, I just reinstall everything instead of trying to flash the old BIOS from the dead board. Formatted HDD and install a fresh copy of Windows. After I loaded the Verizon software, the Sony DVD drive failed to be detected again. Then Windows failed to boot. Restore and restart, nothing. Disconnect Sony DVD, Windows noe started and everything seems OK. Could the plug and play electronic in the DVD be the culprit? I originally suspected the hard drive. Maybe someone can shine some light into this.

Thanks!

[Garak]

Software, It's got to be software... whats this Verzison software do? if it's DVD playback softwasre best advise would be buy something like Power DVD or WinDVD.

[confus-ed]

Software, It's got to be software... whats this Verzison software do? if it's DVD playback softwasre best advise would be buy something like Power DVD or WinDVD.

Has he even installed any 'burning/dvd' stuff yet ?

More likely the dvd doesn't like its cable & the dma settings its getting 'back', windows has a disturbing habit of deciding it can't read cd/dvd stuff after it boots !? (it turns the transfer speed to off, instead of to PIO 0, which is 'slowest'. Using 40 sense cables not 'new' 80 sense ones 'helps' as well)

Try putting it on a seperate cable on it own, set in bios to pio only for best compatibility, windows is just 'not good' with this autosensing of dma business, not good at all, chipset patches play a part in this especially on via systems(this is one), if they ain't 'just so' you can have fun ...

[NooNoo]

and check the jumper settings for the dvd. Yes it is possible that a bad logic board will upset the ide controllers. A bad floppy drive can do it sometimes.

[Idontknow]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the replies. To answer the questions:

The Verizon software is for the DSL service. It does not look to the DVD ROM. I am not using any DVD burning software (DVD burners are still expensive and the standards have not been finalized). I am using the the regular 40 wire cable, not like the hard drive's 80 wire. I've already tried a couple of different cables. Try setting the Sony DVD as master and slave but same result. I am currently replaced the Sony drive with an NEC 12X DVD ROM. I am going to try it for a few days and see. By the way, i am using Windows XP Pro.

Thanks for the help!

[Idontknow]

Hi all,

Just want to let you know that since I took out that Sony DVD Drive and replaced with the NEC DVD drive, there hasn't been any problems with the system. I have been using the system twice a day without any boot problem or windows problem. I am not sure, but that Sony DVD seems to be the problem for all the previous trouble. Thanks for all you help before.

[confus-ed]

Well glad its fixed ! .. even if it meant getting another unit.

So either the unit was 'iffy' or your boards bios just didn't like it.

[Idontknow]

Thanks!

I think its the unit because it also wreck havok on another motherboard.

Thanks for all your help!