Good luck solving this...please do!!

daveydave · 22 May 2006 at 22:53

right hi guys hope u can help. the story is such...
i have a ASUS P5S800VM board...brought in a packard bell Imedia1507 in october...i had a dodgy mid bios update crash back in november and the pc wouldnt boot to xp.... Due to not having a reocvery disk i used the xp recovery disk from my dads Medion comp...my comp returned and was all good but i had lost and parkard bell software. It was like a clean xp installation. Anyway as you will probs know, packard bell provide bios updateds..they are called santiago bios updates, they have only provided 2 updates recently and also they're bios updates dont allow fully bios control..so no overclocking or ram timing tweaks.

I have tried all methods of asus updates and bios updates non work. i cant even use asus probe...as while i install is pops up with an error message saying " can only be used on asus boards" when i try the EZ flash from boot it finds and reads the file off the cd i burnt in onto, but then says flash failed. When i try use the windows based flash utitly it says that model of the bios image doesnt match that of the one currently installed and will not allow me to continue....any ideas? plus is there a way of just forcing the bios to update??

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 01:25

split · 23 May 2006 at 01:48

plus is there a way of just forcing the bios to update??

You can force a flash with AWDFLASH but NOT with AFUDOS.exe that your board uses.

ASUS make a tool for the P5P800-VM called "ASUS Update V7.01.01 Install Program for Windows 2000/XP/2003 & 64bit Windows XP/2003". (right click Save target as...on this. (AsusUpdt_V70501.zip)

That tool is like a windows tool that flashes the BIOS.
DON'T let it download anything, just pull down the tab and select "Update BIOS from file" and point it to the BIOS file you have. (see here )

DON'T do it with BIOS files on CD's either stick it on your hard disc and make sure it extracted so it reads summin like P5PVM109.ROM

I would suggest if it won't update then it's locked into packard bell (yes they can do this)
I can prolly tell you if you save the current BIOS to file. (asus tool allows that)

What I find strange about your post is the bit when you say it finds the file on a CD when you use EZ Flash.
EZ Flash always looks for a floppy and never a CD.
See here...

Note: If you have not placed any floppy disk into the floppy drive, you will see a warning message stating "Floppy not found". If the utility can not find the correct files in the floppy disk, it will show "p4c800.ROM not found!" (Assuming the motherboard is P4C800) message.

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 11:08

no it does too, i write the update file...rename correctly to a cd and run EZflash...it checks for a floppy and then a cd

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 13:13

okay i alreadyhave the asus update tool and this wont let me update with the new bios. so its locked to packard bell.....what are my options?

hp7909 · 23 May 2006 at 13:30

david.n.c said:
okay i alreadyhave the asus update tool and this wont let me update with the new bios. so its locked to packard bell.....what are my options?

You know the answer to that

Had a HP once & could hardly change anything despite it having an Asus motherboard - tried even contacting them. Ended up buying another mATX (Asus) board

But after that had to buy a new PSU (mATX type), etc

Lets just say I wasted a lot of money :mad:

Could have built a new machine that would be easier & cheaper to upgrade. To get any performance increase out of these PCs (HP, Packard Bell, etc), its easier/better to upgrade standard components like processor, RAM, hard disk & graphics card.

Indy500 · 23 May 2006 at 13:31

hp7909 said:
To get any performance increase out of these PCs (HP, Packard Bell, etc), its easier/better to upgrade standard components like processor, RAM, hard disk & graphics card.

If the PSU can handle it.

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 13:32

oh okay, well im gona be changing boards in a week or so, but wanted 2 tweak this one for my dad, cos im putting this board in his pc

split · 23 May 2006 at 13:36

Have you tried the "ASUS Update V7.01.01" yet, or is that what you have been using?
I can also tell you some of the windows updaters don't work if the BIOS file has an older date, and they are fussy with file names.

This may come down to using a floppy and good old AFUDOS rather than EZ flash.

Also when you download that santiago bios thing from Packard Bell's site, what on the CD it makes? (exact file names including hidden)

If you work out how that is able to flash the BIOS, it might tell us why EZ flash won't.

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 14:28

yeh i've been using that proggy already, and it doesnt like the filenames, even when renamed.

http://support.packardbell.com/uk/item/index.php?i=6960040400&psn=047571420301

here is a link the bios, you 1st have to create the bios boot disk, do that then look at the file it creates and extract that....that mite help you.

i'll try AFUDOS

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 14:41

what about using Winflash??

Indy500 · 23 May 2006 at 14:42

Should work with any Award-based bios.

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 14:44

ok i'll give it a shot

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 14:45

do i want to update all blocks??

Indy500 · 23 May 2006 at 14:49

david.n.c said:
do i want to update all blocks??

Yes. Keep in mind you'll probably need to redo the bios settings afterwards.

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 14:50

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 15:02

winflash keeps crashing so not rele a good idea im guessin

split · 23 May 2006 at 15:05

david.n.c said:
winflash keeps crashing so not rele a good idea im guessin

I can see this ending in tears.
If you have the slightest instability, do NOT proceed.

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 15:12

yeh good call i mite just leave it ...seeing as its gonna be put into a pretty low spec rig in a week or so

daveydave · 23 May 2006 at 15:13

cheers for all the help guys...