Gigabyte ga-8i945p-g bios update failure - help needed

[JANINE]

hi

I am asking this question as I have been totally baffled all day on this and have been looking for a fix now for quite a while. My friend presented me with this board after he had attempted to flash its BIOS using the @bios utility on the supplied software disc. After updating the bios the pc auto restarted and upon doing so it presented a blank monitor screen and no post beeps. there is power running to the board as all fans spin up and the hard disk interface adapter lights up but nothing more.

I have tried looking online for a solution and have established that the board should have a q flash utility upon it but i cant even access that. I have also looked into other possibilities of attempting to solve this problem without having to resort to brute force and removing the bios chip and replacing it with a new one. I cannot flash with a floppy as the computer does not have one installed in it and unfortunately neither does the machine i am using right now. Also I have read that the boot block on the bios is only compatible with older video cards and not the PCIe one that is installed. the board does not have an onboard video adaptor.

Secondly can any body confirm as to whether this board should have a backup BIOS chip as i am getting conflicting information?

Please any help would be much appreciated

[TnTinMN]

Usually, the best place to start is to get the manual.

From the manual page 59.

A. What is Dual BIOS Technology ?
Dual BIOS means that there are two system BIOS (ROM) on the motherboard, one is the Main BIOS and the other is Backup BIOS.

Under the normal circumstances, the system works on the Main BIOS. If the Main BIOS is corrupted or damaged, the Backup BIOS can take over while the system is powered on. This means that your PC will still be able to run stably as if nothing has happened in your BIOS.

B. How to use Dual BIOS and Q-Flash Utility?
a. After power on the computer, pressing <Del> immediately during POST (Power On Self Test) it will allow you to enter Award BIOS CMOS SETUP, then press <F8> to enter Flash utility.

I wish you Good Luck with this.

[JANINE]

I dont think you have read my post quite properly. Unfortunately the backup bios chip is not present on the board as the seller desoldered it before selling the board onto my friend. Had it of had the backup chip on it everything would have been ok as I could have dealt with the problem there and then but unfortunately like i said that chip is not present.

However since making the 1st post in the thread here I have done some quite extensive research into this and it seems its quite a common problem with these boards and the only way out of this if you cannot for some reason acess either chip then the only other option is to replace the main chip with another one and you can buy them pre-programmed from Germany for around £9 including postage which is what i think I am going to resort to eventually as a floppy flash also failed to work.

The place I have been looking to buy from is here www.bios-chips.com

[JANINE]

Referring back to my previous thread where i mentioned possibly having to desolder the chip from the board, I am just wondering if I could reprogram the chip myself using a chip programmer with the right parts and software on it. What do you think? Any advice?

[caperjack]

wow ,that pretty advanced ,quite the undertaking ,but i guess if you know programming and what info to put in the chip as to what you want to tell the motherboard to do before it loads windows ,just might be possible ,but easier i think to just buy the preprogrammed one .just a though

[JANINE]

Im glad that you agree with me Caperjack. I have read after doing some googling that it is possible to do it oneself if you know how to get to files called hex files in the BIOS update. That is the pain in the .... bit so i think I will go and get the preprogrammed one.

[JANINE]

After much huntin about I have gone out and bought a preprogrammed chip and am waiting for it to arrive. however after some research I have now been able to make a bootable diskette with the right information on it and hopefully that might do the trick while i am waiting for the new chip to arrive.