Intel board possible dead BIOS

[Tonny123]

Hey, I have an Intel Desktop Board DH61CR that suffered from intel's shenanigans. Specifically, a failed BIOS update, and then a failed BIOS recovery, and then the board was dropped, left outside, yeah. It was abused. Here is the configuration:
Intel Core i5 2500
4GB DDR3 no-name (known good)
POST Card (for LCD POST messages)
ENYLE Unrated PSU (oddly good)

 

Here is what I have done:
1. Tried to recover with built in recovery feature - Ended up bricking it even more
2. Cleared CMOS
3. Looked at POST card LCD - Just showed "-- --" forever

4. No codes without RAM
5. Tried a different processor still "-- --"

6. Shorted BIOS Recovery jumper, caused board to shut off

7. Did reflow - Did nothing

8. Checked for bent pins, no bent pins

9. Looked for any shorting pins, no shorting pins

10. Tried without CPU, RAM, only PSU, mobo and POST card, still got "-- --"

 

What i believe is that the BIOS is so dead that it doesn't even start POST, thats why the card outputs -- --. I looked that up in the manual of the POST card, said its not a post code, means "No Activity".

Checked Voltages with the card, 12v rail good, 5v rail good. Also, as soon as i short the power pins, IRDY and RESET flashes on the POST card, so some initialization is working, but just stops at POST.

No blown caps.

No source of water damage.

No cracks in board.

 

I was gonna remove the BIOS chip and have a friend try to reflash the chip, but Intel only provides .BIO files, and I need a .ROM or .BIN. I extracted the .BIO, and its litterally just folders with all the BIOS modules. Found the splash screen too. I think when flashing the BIOS, the bios itself just updates all of its modules by opening the .bio and copying everything in it to itself, unlike other bioses, that boot into a special boot sector, and just flash a .bin file onto its other system sector.

 

Image is what i get on the POST card.

[moriel5]

I cannot say for sure, but does this occur with every PCI slot?

Do you have a PCIe-based QiGuan card?

 

In other matters, I've had a similar situation with my Intel DH55HC a few times in the past (I still got QiGuan factory codes, even when I did not get any post codes), and what solved it was a CPU replacement (not outright, just put in a different CPU, and after it posts, you can return the old CPU).

 

Apparently Intel has a failsafe when replacing CPUs that resets the firmware, to prevent issues from settings with older hardware.

 

If you have another 2nd gen (Intel does not support 3rd gen very well on the 6-series motherboards, due to the Intel ME firmware installed not meant to work with them) Core i3/5/7 or a compatible Pentium, just swap out the CPUs, and after the system posts, swap them back.

The CPUs can even be the same model (I think, I do not remember).