XP won't load after BIOS upgrade

Hello, I'm not sure if this should be under XP or Hardware, but here's my problem. I just upgraded an older system with an ASUS A7V266 motherboard. Put in new hard drives and did a clean install of XP sp2. Got all the updates, etc and had it working fine. I ran SiSoft Sandra and it recommend a BIOS upgrade which I had intended to do but had forgotten about. So I got the latest BIOS for this motherboard from ASUS's website. I had to boot with a 98 boot disk to run it. Flashed the BIOS and went from 1002c to 1011. Restarted the computer ok and and started to load windows. At the welcome screen the computer would quickly restart. This went on in a loop several times until I started troubleshooting. I tried safemode and got the same issue. I noticed what looked like a blue-screen-of-death for a microsecond before the restart. I booted and hit F8 and chose disable automatic restart. This time I got the BSD with a message about IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. I tried again and got the BSD with PSN_LIST_CORRUPT. So obviously something about the BIOS upgrade conflicts with windows. Is there anyway to troubleshoot this or fix it without having to reformate /reinstall?

Thanks for you help in advance.

 

boot to u'r sp2 installer disc and go thru the install options till u see 'R' for repair install. choose that and let it install on top.

above assumes that u have the proper bios image too. i'd check that if u didn't already.

 

Thanks. I was able to locate 3 Bios versions for my motherboard at ASUS's sight. Had the same trouble with all of them. Unfortunately I don't have the original one.

I tried the "R" repair install of windows. It started out doing well at first. During the copy stage where it copies over files before installing them it would come up with errors saying it couldn't find a certain file. It gave the option to try again or skip. I ended up having to skip them and at about 40-50% I got the BSD again. Which leads me to believe my motherboard may be toast. I tried booting the computer with a Winternals boot CD. I got the BSD while this was loading as well.

Is it worth trying a clean format install of windows? Or do you think I need to replace the motherboard?

 

A new Bios chip will cost you a little less than a new motherboard. I would opt for a newer mobo.

 

System Restore from Safe Mode?

 

Have you gone through the bios settings to see if anything is set wrong? The upgrade will have reset the bios to the defaults, which may not be suitable for the hardware now in the computer.
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/New_BIOS_Guide/Index.htm
http://www.lostcircuits.com/advice/bios2/1.shtml

 

Make certain that you are using the correct BIOS version. A7V266 is the base model, there is also A7V266-E, A7V266-M, A7V266-EX. I suggest you open the case and read the model number off the motherboard
http://support.asus.com/repair/repair.aspx?root=110&SLanguage=en-us
Don't select a "beta" upgrade. Run the most recent "final" upgrade.

Don't miss this step:

EDIT: save and exit
You will have to go back to the BIOS again and run "LOAD OPTIMUM SETTINGS" or wording like that.

If the BIOS has "Identify Hard Drives ", you will need to run that.

Matt

 

Thanks for all the responses. I tried a lot of things, including your suggestions. But now I'm at the point where the system won't even boot so I can't do anything except replace the motherboard. I did come across this website that maybe useful to anyone who might have a similar problem in the future.

http://www.a7vtroubleshooting.com/info/bios/

 

If you may have changed a BIOS setting and now the system won't startup, do a "clear the CMOS ". Read the motherboard manual, you need to disconnect all power (you could remove the CMOS battery for, say, 30 minutes instead).

Before you change the motherboard, open the case and remove all the dust. Use a soft brush, take it outside and blow the dust out with a can of compressed air. You can unscrew fans, clean them and heatsinks they are attached to. Be careful of your electrostatics, it will tell you about it at the beginning of the motherboard manual.

I would pull and reseat the connections, drives, cards and the RAM modules. It should be covered in the motherboard manual.

Matt

 

If XP was running ok before the bios update then it’s more likely your problems are to do with that bios update, rather than a motherboard fault.

Either the update was not fully successful, you have the wrong update or the bios settings are out. Your first mistake was using a 98 startup floppy as the drivers on it can cause problems. Use a pure DOS boot disk Driver Free Disk For Bios Flashing (drdflash.exe)

If the flashing is now not successful then a new bios chip is significantly cheaper than a new mother board – about $25

The fact that a boot CD won’t run could also be down to the bios settings being out. In particular check the memory, graphics card and processor settings.