Flashed BIOS with Wrong Version but it works!

[zak2000]

Hello:

I've read through the posts here as well as a number of other sites but have not be able to find where the following has been addressed. Hopefully someone will be able to help me -

I recently purchased an ASUS P5GD2 Premium MB (BIOS ver. 1.04) and, after getting everything up and running, decided it would be a bright idea to update the BIOS to the latest version. ASUS has a Windows based program that you pretty push a button and the flash update is hands-free, which is what I did. Now my system is running on a BIOS for an ASUS P5GD2 Deluxe MB! All I can think is that ASUS screwed up in their posting!

It is the wrong BIOS but the computer boots and running. The only problem I can see is that one of the LAN hookups can not be used as Windows says there are not enough resources. I have not added any expansion cards, except the video card, so I think it's being caused by the BIOS error. I can't tell if anything else is not working as it should.

I have tried each of the three BIOS flashing utilities that ASUS included on the CD that came with the board but none will let me flash it back to the original BIOS. The error messages usually say something about the names not matching. I can't get the CD that came with the board to boot the system so that I could try the last flashing program they included.

From what I've read, if the BIOS were really hosed, this would be an easy fix, but it isn't!

Any guidance here would be greatly appreciated.

[Ruslan]

Welcome to Windrivers Forums!

Hello:
I have tried each of the three BIOS flashing utilities that ASUS included on the CD that came with the board but none will let me flash it back to the original BIOS. The error messages usually say something about the names not matching. I can't get the CD that came with the board to boot the system so that I could try the last flashing program they included.

That flash utility is checking for compatibility of current and new BIOSes...
now, as you can guess, they are different...
I don't remember exactly that ASUS Windows-based BIOS flasher - can you look for an option in settings like "BIOS ID tag checking"? By disabling that an option you should be able to re-flash the BIOS...
If not, you can try another utility like Uniflash from http://www.uniflash.org/ .
But in that case you can do it only at your own risk - it is very easy to completely screw up the BIOS, is something will go wrong...
Don't forget to save current BIOS into file before doing any attempt to flash the BIOS...

By the way, why not to try to return back that motherboard under warranty?
(if you still have any warranty for that board, of course)...

[zak2000]

I can't afford to go 1-2 weeks without this computer, that's why I didn't return the board. I've ordered a replacement chip ($25 with shipping) but was hoping to still be able to fix this one and have a backup in case I run into problems in the future.

I checked the ASUS Windows flasher and the only options it has are to add a personalized logo at bootup and set the BIOS to downgradeable (I tried to reload the original BIOS but I get an error that says they don't match and have to exit).

Do you know if AMI has a flasher that could address this (the BIOS on the board is AMI)?

I saw a couple articles on hot swapping the chips to fix the BIOS but I don't trust doing it that way (its a PLCC type chip and the socket is pretty small).