SimonH

Flashed the bios on my old Asus P55T2P4 mobo this afternoon so that I could put an AMD k62 chip on it.
Flash prog worked okay and no errors were reported. When it boots up it shows the new bios version number and goes through all the usual stuff, memory test, pnp init, finds and recognises the HDD (I set it to auto find) and CDROM. I get "ESCD updated successfully" and "DMI updated successfully" messages then "Invalid system disk........" blah blah blah.

No floppies in the drive and have changed the boot sequence around a couple of times with no joy.

Any ideas how I can get it to recognise/access the C drive and boot up normally??

HHxx

I assume you haven't touched any of the insides since the bios finds all the devices.

This all worked just before the flash update?

Try booting from a floppy disk. If that works try accessing c: from there. If you can read it, it may be the MBR is corrupt?!?!

H

SimonH

Oooo - there's clever. Found an old 95 boot disc (system has ME on it). That's eventually gotten me to a C:\ dos prompt. What's the file address I need that'll fire up Windows?

SiDHEaD

u need to rebuild the MBR - try "fdisk /mbr" at the prompt. (You might need fdisk on the floppy if it isnt in DOS path variable.

chiark

Just a thought - after flashing BIOS you normally need to go into the BIOS and "load defaults". Some even recommend a CMOS reset...

SimonH

At the risk of sounding dense what is the MBR?

SimonH

done the load defaults jobber

suba

i think MBR stands for master boot record.

if i am wrong, load your guns .

SiDHEaD

u are correct. it enjoys dying just to frustrate us all

SimonH

fdisk/mbr made the computer think a little then announce "wrong MS DOS version".........

Being an **** I didn't make a boot rescue disk thing.....can I create anything on my other PC (this one - XP) that might help?

super_si

if its boot discs you need

http://www.bootdisc.com

Will m/board load cd rom?

Si

HHxx

I'll make it easier.

WinME boot disk maker.

SiDHEaD

The reason it didnt work was because you were running fdisk from a different version of dos to the one you were booting off (on the disk). Try to get a matching version pair.

SimonH

Cheers for the links. Made an ME boot disk and tried to start windows in safe mode from it. It went through a load of stuff (finding all the pci cards etc etc) then just ended with an A:\ prompt.

Argggggg. So close and yet.....

super_si

could be a real long shot.

Take a:\ off system, boot off cd rom if you can!

Si

SimonH

"Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM: Failure ..."




thanks anyway....

super_si

was that the error if you took the disc drive off?

In BIOS does it actually see all the drives

a
hard drive
cd rom

Or does it fail before that?

Si

HHxx

Whoooo, did you say started windows with the boot disk?

All you need is the ME bootdisk, boot from this, minimal boot. Run FDISK /MBR from the command prompt. Reboot without floppy disc in and it should boot from the hard disk.

H

SimonH

Yup, did all that. Did the fdisk/mbr bit, rebooted and same old story.
It's wierd; it finds everything including the hard drive as it starts up but I just keep getting the Invalid system disk nonsense.

I may have to take the fire axe to it.....

Foot_Tapper

Simon, a long shot, but....

If you run fdisk, view partitions; is the boot partition (c drive) set as ACTIVE ??

ozzy

Simon,

The "invalid system disk error" is either a corrupt MBR, no active partitions or the geometry in the BIOS is wrong. To fix the MBR problem, you must boot off a floppy disk with the same version of OS. So, if you're running ME on C:, then you need an ME boot disk otherwise you get incorrect DOS version.

If you've tried all that, then it sounds to me that with the BIOS upgrade it's reset or modified the geometry that it detects for your hard drive.

Usually if that's knackered, you don't get to a C: prompt, even booting off a floppy disk.

Also check the partition status as FT suggests.

You could also try SYS A: C: to copy the system boot files from the floppy to the C: drive.

Stefan

SimonH

Hmmm...I can get to C prompt through the floppy boot up thing and I can dir the C drive quite happily.
I'll try checking the partitions though.

Ta

super_si

Could u not cut the losses and just format again, set up logic partition again and try it

si

SimonH

fdisk shows the one partition, i.e. the C drive, to be active. Tried fiddling with pretty much all the settings in the CMOS/BIOS setup to no avail....

I can buy a replacement motherboard on eBay for about £7 which might be the easiest thing.

Still annoying though.....


Pint of something alcoholic to the person that solves this........ [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

HHxx

If you can be bothered, stick the ME disk into the XP box and try and boot it with that. That should tell you if its something to do with the disc or the new bios.

H

ozzy

Simon,

What about downgrading the BIOS. You should be able to download the original version. That would at least tell you if the motherboard is OK.

Do you have a spare hard disk?

If you can backup the drive, then just re-format it. If it were me I'd fix it on die trying Don't like any small bunch of electronics getting the better of me

Stefan