can anyone please help or advise, my pc kept crashing mostly when i was on the net, BIOS error was the most common message. so went to mercury website (motherboard manufacturer) printed out details to reset & update bios. basically it said use flash file on CD, save BIOS which i did on floppy, then using download update BIOS and flash file from CD i was installig new BIOS, the screen showing progress, so i thought all was ok, then screen went black no warnings nothing!.i left it on for about an hour but still just blank screen. now it wont boot at all not off floppy,CD or hard drive, it used to show MERCURY logo before booting to windows,CMOS or floppy, now it doesnt even do that. the BIOS is AMI and the CPU AMD Duron 2.1GHz, o/s Windows XP Pro. Can anyone please advise or help ?
thankyou EAMONN.

Just a long shot Eamonn,
but I was having BIOS problems, machine not booting up, incorrect beep codes, BIOS errors etc .. As a last resort I decided tp replace the button battery on the mortherboard, and all was well!! Cured with a £1-99 battery from Maplins. Might be worth a try, good luck

Two out of ten flash attempts results in creating expensive door stops.

Sounds like a trip back to the manufacturer or to one of the specialty shops that can reprogram your bios.

thankyou Tokyo prince but my pc is a non beep error machine, it "was" a visual error message pc, it did say my CMOS battery was low a few times, but i put a new one in and measured voltage on the original battery it was fine. thanks agian anyway.

thanks Thong Inspector, it dont look to good if that is the case, i did save old BIOS settings on to a floppy, is there anyway i can put them back without spending lots of cash i haven't got?
EAMONN.

I dont see any info on your machine...

Non-beep machine? AMI uses beep codes if the internal speaker is hooked up.
(Is this a laptop?)

Is your bios chip removeable?

If it is removeable and you have a copy of the chip you can probably find someone at a user group or at a local college to flash it for you.

If you do find someone to do it you might pick up a second blank chip and have them flash both. Once you are setup to do it flashing a second is really easy.

I purposely bought a motherboard with dual bios chips so I can switch between them and restore as needed if something goes wrong. Gigabyte...

hi Thong Ispector, no internal speakers, in fact it had no sound at all until i installed audio driver from instalation CD, so external speakers only. i dont know what the BIOS chip looks like, but after a good look at the board the only removable chips appear to be the CPU and mem modules, this was a handbuilt machine as i could not afford a new one as i'm on sickness benefits and virtually houseboud so you can see how much i need to get it going, its my window to the outside world.my sister is typing these on her PC until i get mine sorted, she's just typing what i telll her,thanks again Eamonn.

I have seen new motherboards for AMD for $30 - $50 and that will probably be your best bet.

I got an AMD 2400+ with motherboard at Frys for $59 (Friday One Day Sales)

Sorry you are having problems...

Hi Eamon,

From reading this I'm sorry to say that it does indeed sound like your problem is a severe one. Unless you have someone knowledgeable available to repair that motherboard for you it would cost more than it's worth to get a technician to do it for you. And I daresay if you had such a person available to you then you wouldn't be asking us!

A secondhand motherboard/processor/ram bundle sounds the best bet, or a secondhand motherboard which is suited to your processor and RAM.

thanks catweazle, loved your show when i was a boy(electrickery), but i guess your right i need someone knowledgeable to repair, i can install drives but i think thats my limit, the lad i paid to build the pc for me could do it but since i finnished paying him off,he doesnt respond.thanks for your input i will gladly listen to any advice.
Eamonn.