[RESOLVED] MS-6547 Ver: 1 (645 Ultra) POST issue

MS-6547 details

PC was running fine, decided to flash AMIBIOS from 1.6 to 1.9, BIOS flash completed, rebooted PC, at POST a few seconds later, screen froze, powered down, powered on, no POST. Within the last few hours, have maybe had POST come up maybe 3 or 4 times, once it actually got into Windows, but froze, I'm now trying to flash to BIOS 1.8, as I fear maybe the BIOS did not complete and is scrambled. I've tried countless CLEAR CMOS attempts, and actually did manage to Load setup defaults, but after it hit the Windows XP splash screen, froze. PC also has a D-Bracket LED for troubleshooting;

D-Bracket Troubleshooting

Now, I get most of the time, Green amber light on 1 then goes to red, then Green amber light on 2, and vice-versa. This is a clients PC. The only thing I can think off doing is finding another AMIBIOS chip that is identical and flashing that with 1.8 BIOS and then swap AMIBIOS chips, then warranty the other mainboard. I'm a little lost, this is the first BIOS flash that has gone bad in all my years as a consultant!

I tried the BIOS Recovery for AMI BIOS twice, first time with 1.8, then with 1.9, both times, I heard the 4 beeps, after powering back on, still NO POST! Gimme a break!

1. Rename the desired AMI BIOS file to AMIBOOT.ROM and save it on a blank floppy disk. e.g. Rename 12345678.ROM to AMIBOOT.ROM

2. Insert this floppy disk in the floppy drive. Turn On the system

3. If no floppy access occurs press and hold Ctrl-Home to force update. Follow insructions on the screen and it will read the AMIBOOT.ROM file and recover the BIOS from the A drive.

4. When 4 beeps are heard you may remove the floppy disk.

5. Restart the computer.

It POST once, I had a boot disk all set to go to flash, I entered the BIOS though, on exit from BIOS, no POST. Damn...

I've now done about 5 BIOS Recoverys, all give me the 4 beeps after disk activity, no POST on reboot.

Try removing the memory stick in the first bank and try and boot.....

AMI 4 beeps = either system clock failure/1st memory bank


Liam

Tried that, in each bank. Any other suggestions. I may have to attempt a Hot Flash next week?

All fixed! After many, clear cmos attempts, bios recoveries, which all failed, had to be patient, to wait for next successful P.O.S.T, then used a Win 98 bootdisk to get to command prompt, then manually ran amifl827.EXE, and then flashed BIOS version 1.8, all healthy again. A lesson for all the kids out there!

Glad it's resolved.:) Thanks for posting the solution too.


Liam

Just froze, half way through an MS Office 2003 install. Back to to sqaure 1.

got P.O.S.T again, will try reverting back to original 1.6 BIOS.

ok, successfully flashed to 1.6, boot into GUI, then restart PC via Start Menu, PC then dosen't POST. D-Bracket returning original error. Strange.

Ok, update, replaced mainboard with an ASUS P4S800-MX SE, set that up fine, POSTS straight away, unlike the MS-6547, clean install Windows XP SP2, install all the drivers, reboot a few times in between driver installs, plug USB flash drive in to install some software, enter Windows Explorer, FREEZE, reboot, test, enter Windows Explorer, navigate to the directory I want, FREEZE. Replace memory, re-enter Windows, fire up Windows Explorer, try my hardest to freeze Windows, it works, so memory is fine. Decided to run SeaTools Desktop Edition v3.02.03en via bootable CD, finds this error:

"One or more errors were found in metadata file records"

Now, the only thing I have left to replace, that would warrant replacing, would be the IDE cable to the Primary IDE port. Thoughts? What a nightmare system!

Thaat will thrrow things for a loop.
Get Perfect disk defrag tool, last time i looked they had a trial version.

Highlight C:\, then in the menu, Click defragment, the select defrag off line.

I select abou everyything for XP and then reboot the computer.

Hope this works for you, becuse the only thing else I can thiink of iss tto low llevel that drive aad do a clean install. :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Train

Thaat will thrrow things for a loop.
Get Perfect disk defrag tool, last time i looked they had a trial version.

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what's the URL Train.

I've just ran Windows XP's defrag utility in Safe Mode, and on reboot and I'm now running Scandisk.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Train

Hope this works for you, becuse the only thing else I can thiink of iss tto low llevel that drive aad do a clean install. :(

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Know any good Low Level Format utilities.

If you want to do a LLF then you need to use the drive manufacturer's own utility. Here are the most common utilities:

Seagate Seatools

IBM / Hitachi Drive Fitness Test

Maxtor Maxblast 3

Maxtor PowerMax

Western Digital Software & Drivers

Fujitsu Utilities

Found the utility for Seagate drives; you need to use the DiscWizard Starter Edition utility, not Seatools, thanks for the tip though.

How Do I Low Level Format an ATA (IDE) Hard Drive?

Beg pardon, you need the DiskWizard software:

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di...lfmt_what.html

Yes, just noticed this, downloading the .iso now, hopefully this painful issue will be over in a few hours. Will let you know.

This keeps getting better and better, when I assembled the PC yesterday, didn't fire up right away, unplugged the ATX power to the mainboard a few times, fires up, thought nothing of it, didn't fire up just now after many attempts, swapped PSU's, fires up no problem, go into Windows, try my hardest to crash it via Windows Explorer, to no avail, running the LLF utility anyway. So, could be a combination of that error on the HDD reported via Seatools, and now a faulty PSU.

All fixed; ran an extensive writing zero's test over the HDD with the LLF utility, as well as creating a new MBR, also installed a brand new 450W PSU. All fine. A combination of the first mainboard not POSTing sometimes, HDD error with NTFS and an itermittent PSU. Fun stuff.

That sounds as if it was quite a challenge. I'm glad you got it fixed in the end :)