Epox 8RDA+ Boot Problem.

[Shadow_pig]

Right, im going to buy new ram soon.. so i need advice, or someone to dig up helpful info for me because i cant find much.

What it is about 2 months ago my MB died on me , well.. at least ithink so, it will not boot up and i keep getting this error on the screen saying EEPROM bios checksum failed.. or something simular, it says to update the bios.. my friend downloaded the bios image and flash program onto floppy, however all you can do on the screen is press enter and when the disk is in it reads it and rejects it saying the file is incorrect, but infact its not incorrect.. its the right file.

I've heard about problems with the board but im not going to let it go, it wasnt exactly cheap.

If someone can tell me if paying £10 for a replacement bios ( i need to send a cheque they wont let order online for some reason ) will fix it then ill buy one. But is there any other way?

[brad]

When your friend downloaded the bios flash, was it a single file or was it in another folder or zipped? Only the actual file should be on the floppy. I'd view the contents of the floppy and see. brad

[Shadow_pig]

[brad]

How were you attempting to flash thie bios? Were you in dos? Were you using a batch file?

Here's the actual Flash .
If you want to flash easier you can download your Magic Flash .
Also found this warning from Epox:
Our Nvidia based motherboards use a different style of BIOS chips than our other products. To successfully flash the BIOS you will need AWDFLASH.EXE v8.22a or newer. Older flash tools will corrupt the BIOS and leave the board dead. Please ensure to only download BIOS updates for our boards from an official EPoX website. Please note BIOS update files are not interchangeable between the EP-8RDA and EP-8RDA+.
brad

[SirCujo]

brad is on the right track. Make sure the flash utility is the latest available. When bios is corrupted, usually you need to jumper out the CMOS, pull the battery, and let it sit for a little while. Put it all back, then when it looks for the floppy, it is looking for a batch file to put the bios back in.

Your boot block is ok since its getting as far as it is. If your bios was gone, it would do nothing at all. You just need to read the Epox site and look for the bios recovery process.

Good luck!

[Shadow_pig]

Thanks for the links, but the magic flash utility is useless since it wont go into windows, just to 1 screen in dos like i said above. ill look at the update instructions and see what happens. I'll check back later.


Edit : Hmm.. it says to type UPDATE at the dos prompt for update procedure, but all i can do is press enter when it asks for the files and nothing else. Still... ill try to update it by putting the files on floppy and just pressing enter, thats about all i can do anyway.

[brad]

Did you read the instructions that came with the MagicFlash.zip?
The only thing it does is run from Windows. Were you connected to the internet when you ran the .exe? You have to be connected so it can update your bios.
Here's the instructions (without the pics) I'd point you to a URL but I had to download the utility to find it's instructions.

Magic Flash User's Guide

Magic Flash is the software for auto detaching the BIOS version of motherboard right now and also can link to the EPoX BIOS server to update the newest version BIOS automatically. Our purpose is to make your system more easier to get the newest version of BIOS from the internet.

Functional Description
Start the MAGIC FLAH soft utility and detach the BIOS version of motherboard from the internet, then software can display the message on the local message window. Follow the four buttons of the utility and flash the new BIOS step by step then you can find that the BIOS was flashed automatically without any difficult step .
Meaning of the 4 buttons:

Make sure updating the BIOS of the newest version BIOS or not. (C)
Download the newest version.BIOS (D)
Reflash the Former version BIOS (R)
Start flash the newest version BIOS (F)
Picture (1) is the screen of pressing the button of ( C ) ,and you will find that prevent user from wrong operating , each step just show only one button. Then when the step is finished , the original button will disappear and the button of next step will show out automatically .Each function of the button will be shown in the Server window.

Press the button of downloading the newest BIOS (D) and the SERVER MESSAGE can show the model name of this motherboard and the date of flashing this BIOS.


Also you can see the size of BIOS that you have updated from the internet.
After download the BIOS , you can see the file of the BIOS located . Then begin press the button of (F) for flashing the BIOS

When you want to flash the BIOS, you will meet a lot of inevitable situation. For example: Out of electronic power temporary will cause the failure updated , and can not boot the system again. So once you enter the step of flashing BIOS , the MAGIC FLASH will show the pop-up as below to double check whether you are ready or not.
Below is the content of warning:

After check the content, press yes and begin to flash the BIOS.

After flash the BIOS, screen will show the Reboot Message for you to reboot the system. Press the button of yes and the system will automatically be shut down and also be reboot again. After rebooting step, the system is updated successfully.

When you flash the newest version BIOS, the file of old BIOS will be still saved in your system HD. It will help user to recover the old BIOS if you feel it is not good to use the newest one.

If you really want to recover the old version BIOS, then press the button of (R) and choose the old BIOS version from that you have ever download from the internet. And the utility will run as before.

When recover the old BIOS, the screen will still display the pop-up information for you to aware of sure to flash this BIOS or not. If yes, please press yes button and the MAGIC FLASH will run the step.

And the system will also show the action of how percentage this procedure have been flashed.

After finished the step of recovery, reboot the system and finish the step of recovery.
brad

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