Weird, buggy, old hardware and a weird dumb request.

[Vbgf]

Hello everyone.

Here is my situation: I have an old, but still pretty OK system (Athlon x2 4800+ and 4GB DDR2 RAM) with a dead motherboard. I got a cheap second hand mobo replacement for that PC from some guy but the freaking thing is weird AF.

 

The motherboard in question is ASUS m2ns-nvm/s and as far as i can tell it's a mobo from a pre-build Packard-Bell machine. When i try to turn the PC on it gives me a "BIOS ROM checksum error" and then proceeds to boot from a "IDE ATAPI" device. I've read around the web and turns out that this means my bios is screwed up and i should reflash it via the CD. I can't get into the bios and the only thing that wants to boot is an IDE CD drive.

 

Problem is that i cant find any bios for this mobo anywhere. I've searched around but nothing comes up.

 

That got me thinking - can i trick the PC to boot to a HDD somehow without going in the bios and changing stuff (because obviously i can't do that)? Can i get some sort of software/code/whatever that can be executed from the CD ROM (CD boot does work, tested with DOS) that seeks and boots the HDD. Basically boot to CD that transfers the PC over to the OS on the HDD. I'm sure i've seen this somewhere before, something like "boot other device" from the CD menu screen. A boot loader on a CD if you will.

 

I know this approach is not the best way to solve this but i can't think of another one. Can you guys help? If i can fix the bios that would be great! I can't buy another mobo, they are quite expensive here.

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Vbgf said:

Hello everyone.

Here is my situation: I have an old, but still pretty OK system (Athlon x2 4800+ and 4GB DDR2 RAM) with a dead motherboard. I got a cheap second hand mobo replacement for that PC from some guy but the freaking thing is weird AF.

 

The motherboard in question is ASUS m2ns-nvm/s and as far as i can tell it's a mobo from a pre-build Packard-Bell machine. When i try to turn the PC on it gives me a "BIOS ROM checksum error" and then proceeds to boot from a "IDE ATAPI" device. I've read around the web and turns out that this means my bios is screwed up and i should reflash it via the CD. I can't get into the bios and the only thing that wants to boot is an IDE CD drive.

 

Problem is that i cant find any bios for this mobo anywhere. I've searched around but nothing comes up.

 

That got me thinking - can i trick the PC to boot to a HDD somehow without going in the bios and changing stuff (because obviously i can't do that)? Can i get some sort of software/code/whatever that can be executed from the CD ROM (CD boot does work, tested with DOS) that seeks and boots the HDD. Basically boot to CD that transfers the PC over to the OS on the HDD. I'm sure i've seen this somewhere before, something like "boot other device" from the CD menu screen. A boot loader on a CD if you will.

 

I know this approach is not the best way to solve this but i can't think of another one. Can you guys help? If i can fix the bios that would be great! I can't buy another mobo, they are quite expensive here.

unplug the CD drive. Then it can only boot off the HDD. 

[VoyexTech]

If I was you what I would do is try resetting the CMOS by removing the Mobo battery and reinstalling it after 5 min. That might do something in the mean time I'll talk to some of my over click ng friends and see if I can find a bios for the mobo. 

[VoyexTech]

Ok I managed to find this with a quick web search. I believe that this is the correct bios for your Mobo.

https://www.wimsbios.com/biosupdates/asus/6A69NA01

[Vbgf]

6 minutes ago, NovaMan01 said:

unplug the CD drive. Then it can only boot off the HDD. 

Initially there was no CD in the system, it didn't want to boot from the HDD then. The mobo is in a state of "something's wrong, please give me something to recover with" and only seeks CD-ROM drives. Sadly it doesn't think my HDD as an IDE ATAPI worthy boot device.

 

7 minutes ago, VoyexTech said:

If I was you what I would do is try resetting the CMOS by removing the Mobo battery and reinstalling it after 5 min. That might do something in the mean time I'll talk to some of my over click ng friends and see if I can find a bios for the mobo. 

I tried that several times. I even left the battery out of the mobo for days but nothing changes. I've been tackling this mobo for around a week now

[Vbgf]

1 minute ago, VoyexTech said:

Ok I managed to find this with a quick web search. I believe that this is the correct bios for your Mobo.

https://www.wimsbios.com/biosupdates/asus/6A69NA01

I found that as well, problem is it's an add scheme and i can't download it. It redirects me to BiosAgentPlus site where it requires an account to continue. I don't think that's legit. Can you confirm that the source is OK?

[VoyexTech]

1 minute ago, Vbgf said:

I found that as well, problem is it's an add scheme and i can't download it. It redirects me to BiosAgentPlus site where it requires an account to continue. I don't think that's legit. Can you confirm that the source is OK?

I just saw that sorry about that I'll see if I can find a clean one 

[intender]

not sure if the asus board is the same as the prebuilt board, but you could try this one https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M2N/HelpDesk_Download/

[VoyexTech]

If you want the bios you'll have to call Packard bell yourself and see if they have the bios update or look for a similar/mod bios to use instead. Here is their number (it is from London) 0371 467 0008 

[Vbgf]

18 minutes ago, intender said:

not sure if the asus board is the same as the prebuilt board, but you could try this one https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M2N/HelpDesk_Download/

I've tried the version 0808 beforehand but the flash utility refused to flash that bios. The error was "System was not new AWARD BIOS version!". As far as i know the bios is Award BootLock v1.0 and it's not supported by ASUS.

9 minutes ago, VoyexTech said:

If you want the bios you'll have to call Packard bell yourself and see if they have the bios update or look for a similar/mod bios to use instead. Here is their number (it is from London) 0371 467 0008 

I'll send a ticket to them via mail soon, thanks.

[Stefan Payne]

19 hours ago, Vbgf said:

When i try to turn the PC on it gives me a "BIOS ROM checksum error" and then proceeds to boot from a "IDE ATAPI" device. I've read around the web and turns out that this means my bios is screwed up and i should reflash it via the CD. I can't get into the bios and the only thing that wants to boot is an IDE CD drive.

Have you checked the voltage of the onboard battery? Usually a CR2032.

If you get that message the first thing I'd check is if the battery is good or not. Well, probably not. 

 

 

Does the board have any bad caps???