Flash bios

S

steps3314

Geek Trainee
Hi all

I have a problem with a Fujitsu desktop.

I recently tried to boot the machine and found no display on the screen. After some troubleshooting i thought i needed a new graphics card until i tried it in another machine and it works fine. Also i tried another card in my desktop and the same result occurred. No display.

So i removed the CMOS battery and therefore reset the BIOS i think.

Now when i boot i get some display regarding AWDFlash.exe

After googling this it look like i need to flash the BIOS.

I have not done this before and understand that if not done correctly i could ruin the MOBO.

I downloaded the most recent BIOS from the fujitsu website but what i have is a rar file and it contains no files. Although it is 1.76mb in size.

Using Nero i created a bootable disk with this file and tried to boot from it but nothing is happening.

My machine does not have a floppy drive.

So can someone advise on the best way to update my BIOS using a cd.

Or maybe even removing the HDD and copying the files over to it.

MOBO: ASUS A8NE-FM

Thanks in advance for reading this.
 
steps said:
Now when i boot i get some display regarding AWDFlash.exe
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what exactly does it say

flashing the BIOS is not a good idea because if you have a power failure during the flash you effectively turn your mobo into a very pretty paper weight (dead mobo as you said)

flashing the BIOS should only ever be done if you are 200% sure it will rectify the problem your experiencing

you don't say if you've tried different monitors, have you ?

Edit: and what BIOS revision does the mobo currently have ?
and what BIOS revision did you try to upgrade to ?
 
donkey42 said:
what exactly does it say

flashing the BIOS is not a good idea because if you have a power failure during the flash you effectively turn your mobo into a very pretty paper weight (dead mobo as you said)

flashing the BIOS should only ever be done if you are 200% sure it will rectify the problem your experiencing

you don't say if you've tried different monitors, have you ?

Edit: and what BIOS revision does the mobo currently have ?
and what BIOS revision did you try to upgrade to ?
Click to expand...

I do honestly believe that this is the only way forward.

I have tried multiple monitors but to no effect.

Not sure the exact version of BIOS but i am sure it needs a new BIOS installed.
 
steps3314 said:
I do honestly believe that this is the only way forward.

I have tried multiple monitors but to no effect.

Not sure the exact version of BIOS but i am sure it needs a new BIOS installed.
Click to expand...
well don't say i didn't warn you

click here for a how to

and just ignore any reference to a floppy drive, if it wants you to write to a floppy just burn to a CD if it want's you to write a disc image to floppy just burn the floppy image and other files to CD, or it may be easier to add files to the floppy image before burning it to CD

BTW: if you choose to flash the BIOS, don't blame me or HWF if you kill something, as i recommend that flashing the BIOS is a bad idea unless your 200% sure it will fix it

anyway, good luck with it
 
donkey42 said:
well don't say i didn't warn you

click here for a how to

and just ignore any reference to a floppy drive, if it wants you to write to a floppy just burn to a CD if it want's you to write a disc image to floppy just burn the floppy image and other files to CD, or it may be easier to add files to the floppy image before burning it to CD

BTW: if you choose to flash the BIOS, don't blame me or HWF if you kill something, as i recommend that flashing the BIOS is a bad idea unless your 200% sure it will fix it

anyway, good luck with it
Click to expand...

thanks for your help mate

dont worry, this is the last resort and i am solely responsible for this.

Will try it later and post results
 
steps3314 said:
thanks for your help mate
Click to expand...
no probs

steps3314 said:
dont worry, this is the last resort and i am solely responsible for this.
Click to expand...
glad you understand

steps3314 said:
Will try it later and post results
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well, good luck, and apologies for all the "recommended crap" but you understand why i had to put it all so all is good, as i said before, good luck with it all and keep me updated so i can help someone else in your position :beer:
 
Well i got this problem sorted yesterday evening.

The delay was in looking for the support cd that should have come with the MOBO.

Never did find it.

So i downloaded the latest BIOS file ( actually had to try a couple different files)

The first few would not boot off the cd.

The system did finally boot after i reset the CMOS jumpers and removed the battery for some time.

Anyway the machine would boot at every third attempt (the first two would give no display and beep codes)

When on the third and sometimes 4th attempt the machine would eventually boot but was very unstaple. After being logged in for 3-4 mins the system would hang and i would have to reboot. I was positive at this stage mind.

I changed the time and after re-booting it was saving which was good.

I was getting closer and closer with this and realised that the MOBO was not in fact damaged.

Eventually found version 1011 BIOS for A8NE-FM and put it on a cd.
Changed Boot sequence and finally a BIOS update screen.

Ran the update (took less than 20 seconds)

System is now booting and is stable.

Result

Thanks for all your suggestions and advice.

Just to point out that i also tried with a floppy startup disk but could not fit the bios file on a floppy. The system would read the floppy drive and allow me execute the flasher utility but had no way to access the bios file from cd or disk even. It wanted it on a Floppy drive. Kinda hard with the 1.44Mb size restriction.
 
Steps3314;149791]Result[/quote]congrats[quote=Steps3314;149791]Thanks for all your suggestions and advice.[/quote]np said:
Just to point out that i also tried with a floppy startup disk but could not fit the bios file on a floppy. The system would read the floppy drive and allow me execute the flasher utility but had no way to access the bios file from cd or disk even. It wanted it on a Floppy drive. Kinda hard with the 1.44Mb size restriction.
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you could have booted a CD boot disc, to allow you to access a CD from, say, DOS & access the CD with the BIOS file on it or you could have reformated the disc with maxformat to format the diisc with additional space (i think upto 1.72Mb, 1.68Mb useable space)

BTW: that's my stupid memory for you[ot]there was a freeware util called GRUtils that formatted floppies to DMF but i can't find any reference to it[/ot]anyway congrats again
 
you could have booted a CD boot disc, to allow you to access a CD from, say, DOS & access the CD with the BIOS file on it

Never thought of that.

Nice to know in the future though.

I must say though i felt great after getting it to work as i put alot of time and effort into it including researching

Its one of those, if it works you'd go through it again in the future: and if it doesnt work you would run everytime.

:)
 
Steps3314 said:
Never thought of that.
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thats my stupid memory for you

BTW: glad you sorted it, even though flashing the BIOS is as you said "a last resort / someone disparate and grasping at straws"

a CD or USB pen can behave exactly like a floppy as long as the BIOS allows booting from such devices[ot]personally i prefer to boot CD / DVD burnt myself rather than USB pens[/ot]
 
I tried using a USB drive.

So im wondering if you can create a StartUp disk using a USB.

Would be handy. I will google it.
 
Help needed again.

This machine has suddendly packed up again.

When it boots you can log in. However after about 5 minutes the systems hangs and you are forced to reboot.

I have tried to re-install XP but the machines freezes while it is copying the Os files acrosss to disk.

Could this be a memory issue or is the MOBO damaged.

I may try to flash the BIOS again but cant see this helping.
 
steps3314 said:
Help needed again.

This machine has suddendly packed up again.

When it boots you can log in. However after about 5 minutes the systems hangs and you are forced to reboot.

I have tried to re-install XP but the machines freezes while it is copying the Os files acrosss to disk.

Could this be a memory issue or is the MOBO damaged.

I may try to flash the BIOS again but cant see this helping.
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well to test mem you can use Memtest86+ and mobo's usually give beep codes at boot / turn on

did you do a clean install of XP ?
 
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