Comments on: Don’t be cheap

By: Zexy

Zexy — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:09:31 +0000

Pretty much have to agree with the general tone of the posts here. I’ve learned through many years and experiments with cheaper boards that the time invested trying to get them to be stable is usually not worth it. Nowadays, I generally restrict my mobo purchase considerations to 3-4 brands. ASUS boards are usually my first choice even though there is a premium price paid. I look in the closet at the old mobos I have from years past and ASUS has always been a solid performer.

By: nixternal » Didn’t listen to my own self

nixternal » Didn’t listen to my own self — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:01:41 +0000

[...] previous post, Don’t be cheap, I stated that when purchasing computer components that you shouldn’t be cheap. Well, I [...]

By: nixternal

nixternal — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 17:10:40 +0000

@erik: ya, this motherboard even has that warning, well had that warning It doesn’t show at all but it is well documented

Today I am going to head to Fry’s and pick up another 754 mobo, and then RMA this one. Unfortunately Newegg won’t let me RMA it and pay more for a better board. Oh well. You live and learn right?

By: Scott Testerman

Scott Testerman — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:26:08 +0000

I recently had a similar problem with my not-at-all-cheap motherboard. The board is getting pretty long in the tooth and started doing bizarre things, so I downloaded the last-ever BIOS update and tried flashing, with similar results to yours. I flashed, the flash failed even though it appeared to go fine, and voila! No boot.

Here’s how you may be able to cure all your problems, or at least your motherboard problems:
1) If you can get into the System Setup, pick the option for “Load Failsafe defaults” or similar (not Optimized defaults). Some BIOS versions will automatically load these, others will choose the Optimized defaults. Failsafe seems to work better for BIOS flashing. If you can’t get into Setup, then proceed anyway.

2) Configure your boot floppy to boot and autoflash your BIOS via an autoexec.bat file. Remove all files on the floppy except command.com and the hidden boot files, autoexec.bat, and the biosversion.bin (or whatever it’s named) BIOS file. Don’t use a config.sys, and don’t try to load upper, etc.

3) Put the floppy in the drive and power on. If the system is able to load DOS, it will do so and begin the BIOS flash. If it can’t load DOS, the BIOS has an emergency backup routine that will search for an appropriate BIOS file on the floppy and flash using its own mechanism.

4) If nothing happens at all, try removing ALL files from the floppy except the BIOS file, which means the BIOS will only have one file from which to choose.

5) Remind the computer, in very stern tones, that scrap metal businesses do accept computer parts, and that failure in the face of urgently-needed work is not acceptable.

GOOD LUCK!

By: Matt Galvin

Matt Galvin — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:43:43 +0000

You get what you pay for I always say :-/

I’ve got an Asus M32N-SLI Deluxe with an AMD X2 5200+, not cheap but not terribly expensive, but oh man… it is rock solid!

By: mossholderm

mossholderm — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:48:46 +0000

Here’s a nifty trick to avoid putting in a floppy drive:

Make a Freedos disk image that contains your BIOS and the flasher, as well as command.com and the .SYS files. Then use PXELINUX and MEMDISK to boot over the network from the floppy image.

You could also do the same thing with a FreeDOS boot CD, but the PXE lets you modify the image over time, and if just so much cooler