AMI BIOS questions

[bigbeark]

I think there may be a BIOS problem with my ASUS P5-E. I addressed this with a post in the Asus motherboard forum, but I think this may be a corrupted BIOS problem, not hardware. The board booted once and loaded the OS. Now it's stopping in the BIOS

The BIOS codes that show up on the PCI card are 85, 60 and D4(twice). This is using 1 stick of RAM and moving it from DIMM A1 to A2 to A3 to A4.

85 is Password/soft error check (DIMM A1)
60 is DMA #1 base register test (DIMM A2)
D4 is Uncompressed RUNTIME code (DIMM B1 and B2).

85 is very close to the end of the BIOS sequence.
I could buy a replacement BIOS chip but it's worth more than the board.
Want to know if this sounds like a BIOS problem.
Are there any BIOS programmers you can buy that will work on this chip, do they require a lot of skill to use, and how do I tell what kind of BIOS chip I have.

Thanks for your advice.

[stj]

Re: AMI BIOS questions

out of curiosity, how much is a pre-programmed chip?

[bigbeark]

Re: AMI BIOS questions

out of curiosity, how much is a pre-programmed chip?

Bios Depot on Ebay sells them for $15. I got one for a SOYO board a couple of years ago after trying everything else but it didn't fix it.

[stj]

Re: AMI BIOS questions

can you post a photo? searching p5-e gives me several different boards!

[bigbeark]

Re: AMI BIOS questions

can you post a photo? searching p5-e gives me several different boards!

Sorry the full description is P5-E VM DO. The BIOS appears to be AMI Win BIOS.
The codes are here: http://www.bioscentral.com/postcodes/amibios.htm.

The board is here: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5EVM_DO/. There are 8 4v 680uf polys around the CPU socket. They are series TWV. They are UCC for sure. There are a number of KZE 6.3v 330uf on the board. These are non-vented type There is one of these near the Northbridge and two near the Southbridge. There is another UCC cap 16v 470uf between the PCI-E and first PCI slot. I can't see the Series ID, but given it's location maybe this one is bad. Will try to get photos tomorrow. Thanks.

[stj]

Re: AMI BIOS questions

o.k. it looks like an 8pin serial bios that is soldered in with an 8pin header next to it for programming.

so you dont replace it, you re-flash it from the connector.

[diif]

Re: AMI BIOS questions

You reflash it from USB. From https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5EVM_DO/

CrashFree BIOS 3
Simply restore corrupted BIOS data from USB flash disk
The ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 allows users to restore corrupted BIOS data from a USB flash disk containing the BIOS file. This utility saves users the cost and hassle of buying a replacement BIOS chip.

[piernov]

Re: AMI BIOS questions

Official AMIBIOS8 POST code list may be more meaningful.