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Ok I received an hp pavilion 7970 desktop, that the owner had figured was shot.

the powersupply and old 56k modem were shot but most everything else seemed in working order.

I tried to install a 60gig seagate harddrive, but I couldn't get it to boot up the windows install CD. I couldn't get it to boot up the existing windows either.

I attempted to update the bios, but there were no sure bios updates for this board. I searched around, and found out that it is comparable to an Asus P4T-M motherboard. The mother board that is in it, is a WMT-LX, which I googled, and found it to be an odd Asus. Asus's site doesn't doesn't have records of having this board nor any updates. After reading some forums, and help pages I heard it was comparable to the P4T-M so I tried to update the bios with the updates for the P4T-M.

I used AFlash to flash the bios, and it said it was successful, but now it sticks at the "black screen" where it says Floppy disk, and the drives, and below it in another box it has all the pci slots, and whats installed there.

I can't get it to boot with the CDRom, and I can't seem to get the OLD bios back. I did save it onto the AFlash disk, but when I go to reinstall it, the program doesn't recognize the file.

I just would like for this machine to be up and running. It seems to be pretty nice 1.5 ghz, 512mb of the dreaded RD ram. 32xburner, dvd rom, and geforce 2 mx 200 - this is ideal for my father in law. Someone please help me fix this. I would really not like to have to buy a new board.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

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What happened to the machine matches a common "cross‑flash / corrupted BIOS" failure: after a mismatched firmware write the POST runs but device initialization or boot order never completes. has already done the risky step of using another board's image, so recovery should start with the least invasive actions and move to hardware fixes only if those fail.

Try these steps in order:

  • Power down and clear CMOS (remove battery or use the jumper for several minutes) and then boot with the minimum parts fitted (one memory module, no add‑in cards except video if needed). This rules out misconfigured settings or hardware conflicts preventing media detection.
  • Verify the optical drive and boot media on another machine to be sure they are good. As suggested, confirm that the drive itself will boot known good media before assuming firmware is the only issue.
  • If the board supports a vendor "recovery" mechanism, create a small DOS boot floppy or CD with the official recovery tool and the exact BIOS image for that board/chip and attempt an emergency flash from DOS. The flasher must match the BIOS chip type and image format; many utilities refuse unknown formats.
  • If the software route fails, identify the BIOS chip (read the part number on the 8‑pin or SOIC8 package). A hardware SPI programmer (CH341A or similar) and a SOIC clip can read the current contents and write a correct image; this is the most reliable recovery method for a corrupted boot block.

Cautions: do not attempt another cross‑flash with an image for a different board; that commonly makes the problem permanent. If uncomfortable with chip‑level work, a local electronics repair shop can reprogram the EEPROM. If the motherboard is inexpensive or the chip is soldered and inaccessible, replacing the board may be faster and cheaper than professional rework.

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