V1J failed BIOS flash, screen will not come on

I recently upgraded a partition on my V1J to windows 7 build 7000 to give it a spin. My audio drivers were not working, so it was suggested that I update my BIOS. I flashed my BIOS using the winflash utility from ASUS, but since I did that, my screen will not come on. The notebook makes the startup sounds and I believe is booting all the way to windows, but nothing comes on the screen. I have already tried disconnecting the CMOS battery for 20 minutes to let it clear, with no results. I spoke with ASUS tech support and since I am out of warranty, my only option is to have them replace my mobo for ~$500.

I was wondering if there is any other options I can try on this. I tried creating a USB boot disk using this method http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=138271&page=2. But from my USB drive activity light I dont believe it is flashing the BIOS. My USB drive certainly is recieving power though. Are there any other options I have? I'm a broke college student and I badly need my laptop, and can scarcely afford the $500 bucks to fix it. I've heard of doing a blind flash, and it sounds like thats pretty much what I was attempting from the asus forums. Any help would be tremendously appreciated.

 

If you can verify that your notebook is booting into Windows, then you have answered a critical question regarding the BIOS. If you destroyed your BIOS during a flash, you would not be able to boot to Windows at all. I am not certain that you would be able to boot to BIOS Setup either, unless you notebook has dual BIOS for just this sort of situation.

One way you can verify whether or not Windows is loading is to plug in an external monitor, play with your notebook's [Fn + F7] or [Fn + F8] keys, and see if Windows is loaded by looking at your external monitor.

Others will have other suggestions. Stay tuned.

Jeremy

 

Sorry to hear that mate but if you flashed within W7 you did a big mistake. The Asus flasher has issues on Vista x64 and you can imagine the issues it has with W7. Something happened in the reboot process and the image became corrupted.

Flash Bios within Bios....easier and safer. The blind flash is the way but...don't know if it will get to the flashing procedure . Does your mobo have pins for BIOS reset?

 

An Asus will not post on an external monitor...the external is automatically detected when the OS loads. If there is no post on the notebook screen your solution is not okay.

 

This was one of the first things I tried, I used the HDMI that I normally use for watching movies off my laptop and couldnt get the notebook to output through there.

Yea in hindsight it wasnt very smart of me, I was getting frustrated with my audio not working and I made a hasty move, perhaps a very costly one .

I did not see any jumper pins at all on the motherboard when I dissassembled to disconnect the CMOS battery, also apparently the BIOS chip is soldered on so its not as simple as replacing that. Any tested blind flash methods? I thank you guys for your help.

 

from what it sounds like, only part of the bios is bad (looks like vga for one, possibly other modules). a force flash won't work because there are no parts missing, so it won't check any removables for images.

all i can suggest you do,
-find someone with the same laptop and partition table
-exact order of keystrokes to get to ezflash and flash the first file from a usb drive

if you haven't put together your notebook, think you can take some high-res pictures of the board (particularily around the bios chip)?

 

What if I pull my HDD out so it looks at removables for boot?

Later on tonight I can probably get some pictures of the board, its not all that easy to take apart, its pretty much a 2-man job since I need someone to hold the board while I disconnect/reconnect the little ribbon cables.

 

Don't panic, don't despair . We will find a solution. We need someone with an identical laptop to record the BIOS within BIOS flash steps .

I could try with my U6...you reckon that will help?

 

Thanks I definitely need the reassurance. That may work. I'm not sure what socket the U6 is or if it matters but the V1J is a Socket M with AMI BIOS if that helps anyone find a compatible BIOS sequence.

I should note that since I unplugged the CMOS battery there is beep after the Asus startup tone, could just be the POST tone but not sure. If I insert a windows boot cd the drive will spin up and it appears to read the disc just fine.

edit: dur your specs are in your sig, different socket but perhaps similar BIOS's?

 

Can you confirm your V1J is ATI X1600 video card?

 

ATI X1700 actually, which seems like a much less common and less supported card than the X1600

 

Then you have V1JP not V1J, video BIOS are different that's why you don''t get display, I might have a solution for you by make a bootable bios flash Cd.

 

See thats the thing, the notebook i purchased is the V1JP, the serial number on the back says V1JP, but when I tried using the V1JP BIOS drivers from the ASUS website winflash said they were not compatible, then I tried the V1J BIOS and it said they were compatible, thus the confusion. I flashed with V1J BIOS because it would not allow my to flash with V1JP. Obviously the V1J BIOS was a poor choice

And if you have a possible solution I'm all ears, I have my roomates laptop at my disposal for a few hours so I'll try whatever.

 

Let me get this straight. Not only you used a poor environment but you also flashed the wrong image???

 

Here, V1JP bios flash bootable CD ISO:
http://www.gentechpc.com/Asus/V1JP/V1JP-313.zip

Unzip it and burn the ISO to CD and:

1: Turn on the computer and insert the CD, turn off the computer right after the CD is in.

2: remove your HD so you don't need to change boot sequence since you can't see the screen.

3: Turn the computer back on, the bootable CD is fully automated, it'll boot straight to the CD and start to flash BIOS, the bios version is 313.

4: usually it'll take about 1 minute to complete the BIOS flash, but since you can't see what's on the screen so I suggest you wait 5 minutes.

5: turn it off and restart the computer.

Hope it will work for you, good luck.

 

Mine turns off on its own after flashing. Does this behave differently?

 

I use AFLASH2 for DOS so I can create a bootable CD and AFLASH2 does not turn off by itself, if you use EasyFlash in the BIOS yes, it'll turn off the computer when BIOS flash is completed.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. We always learn something new...

 

Apparently yes I got a little cocky and screwed up.

I tried this and it didnt seem to work, it is notable that the drive did not sound like it spun up to full speed like it does when i insert a windows cd, it sounds like its idling for about 1 minute and then shuts down, it does the same thing if i insert any other non-bootable cd. Perhaps its not running? I used UltraISO to burn it. Do you reccomend a different burning software or is there something special I should do? I have the notebook opened up now to triple check everything is plugged in correctly, anything I should take note of while its opened?

Also I really want to thank you guys for helping me out with this.

 

I may have missed the actual BIOS chip, I am much more familiar with desktop motherboards than notebook, this is the first time I've gotten into a notebook.

 

M38857M3 CMOS chip in the second picture, but the third one looks interesting as well. too close to risk getting a replacement and soldering it on...

what if you removed the auto script, and just typed the command manually?

 

UltraISO should work and I've tested the the ISO and it's bootable.
The file size is very small so you may not notice it's booting.
burn another disk and try again.

 

How would I do that?

Tried with Ultra ISO, Nero, and MagicIso, same result. One curious thing though, when I try to explore the disc ive burned on my working computer, it doesnt show any files on it, the disc is titled V1JP_ISO, and shows 1.76mb used on it, but I am unable to see any files on it. I have turned off all hidden files I believe.

 

The files is only visible under DOS mode.

Download and burn this boot test ISO and test on your friend's computer to see if it's bootable:

http://www.gentechpc.com/Asus/V1JP/Boot_test.zip

Also try burn it with slower speed 10x or under.

 

Tried out the boot test, its definitely bootable. I then tried reburning the image you gave me at 4x, in both magiciso and ultraiso, still same thing .

However there is something quite interesting, when I put the boot test disc in my notebook, after startup there is considerable disc drive activity, speeding up and down, laser moving around, it is very clear that the notebook is reading the disc and booting from it. The disc drive also stays spinning. With the BIOS iso however, there is some brief reading when the computer is first powered on, and then just slow spinning for about 30seconds before the drive powers down.

The two discs are loading up very different from one another, it seems like the notebook is certainly booting from the boot test disc, while it still does not appear (sound) to be booting from the BIOS iso. Whats the difference between those two that could be causing that?

edit: Well, I dont seem to be able to recreate that effect, now the boot test is acting like the others, the one time it was very different though. Weird. The windows 7 install disc I have ironically boots everytime.

 

the boot test and bios iso are the same boot disk, all I did on boot test disk was removed the bios file from the bios iso so it won't destroy your friend's laptop. it's difficult because you can't see what's going on on the screen.

is bios version 313 the one that didn't work with winflash?

 

Strange, I will have to keep trying that ISO then. Would you have any idea what the difference is between my windows 7 boot disc that loads everytime and the iso you gave me?

The bios i flashed with was the 305 for the V1J. For some reason winflash would not let me flash with the 313 V1JP bios, but rather told me the 305 for V1J was the correct bios. I'm guessing it got the compatibility screwed up since I was running it in windows 7 and flashing with that incorrect V1J bios is to blame for all this.

It does seem like we are on the right track though, hopefully i can get that iso to work. I really do appreciate your guys help. When I get off work I should have some news.

 

Are you still getting a system beep when you power on [noted on page 1 of this thread]? I think that removing the battery clears the BIOS clock. The beep could be a prompt to enter a date and time. I do not think you will be able to move forward to boot from the CD and BIOS flash ISO without providing date and time settings for the BIOS.

Try to enter some sort of date and time if you are still getting a system beep at power on.

This is a bit of a long shot...

Jeremy

 

Maybe AFLASH2 also doesn't recognize BIOS 313 in DOS, let's try older BIOS 310 and 311:

http://www.gentechpc.com/Asus/V1JP/V1JP310.zip

http://www.gentechpc.com/Asus/V1JP/V1JP311.zip

 

Yea im still getting that beep, and as I said earlier it didnt occur before I disconnected the cmos battery, date and time settings are a possibility, but I would need to know what keystrokes I need to do for that.

Awesome thanks, I should have these tested out within the hour.

 

Ok, some small news

Those new images you gave me GenTech at first behaved the same as the 311. But when I press F2 after post the disc will spin up and is read, after it spins down, each time I hit enter it spins back up for about 30 seconds. So something is going on with my keypresses. Are there any keystrokes for aflash I could try?

 

Press F2 will take you to BIOS and the boot disk won't do anything.

The boot disk I made is fully automated, once it boots up it'll flash the bios automatically and you don't need to type anything.

You did unscrew and remove the HD right?

It's possible the laptop is trying to boot from LAN instead of CD, try this:
1: Press "ESC" key when you hear the Asus logo sound
2: It'll bring the boot option.
3: Since you can't see the screen, it's possible the first option is LAN and 2nd option is CD/DVD.
4: press down arrow key and press enter, or just press enter try either one.

 

I made a video using W3J notebook ATI X1600 since I don't have V1Jp with me, and you were right about it won't boot straight to CD for some reason, I must hit "ESC" key and choose boot from CD, the boot device option might be different from the video but usually the CD/DVD is the 2nd option.

Watch the video and use your imagination to flash the BIOS on your V1JP, if you choose the right option to boot from CD you will hear the CD drive starts to spining:

<object width='480' height='295'><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gM7KHp5Yw0U&hl=en&fs=1&ap=%2526fmt%3D22"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gM7KHp5Yw0U&hl=en&fs=1&ap=%2526fmt%3D22" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='480' height='295'></embed></object>

 

Ok Ill keep trying that, thanks for posting that video, it gives me a much better idea of whats going on.

For some reason it still seems like F2 is the only way I can get the drive to spin up though, its very odd. The computer starts up, asus tone, then that beep. After the beep it sits, wont spin up or anything. If I hit F2 with the CD in, it will spin up and begin to read. If I hit F2 with the hard drive in, it will boot up to windows, I know this because the wifi light will come on on the front and I can see it pick up an IP in the DHCP page on my router.

I know that doesn't really add up, because F2 should take me to BIOS, but that seems to be what is going on right now.

I'm going to keep trying to get it flashed with the disc though, maybe try the original BIOS it shipped with? Got to snag a few hours of sleep soon but I don't have class tomorrow so I can spend some more time with this.

 

Ok well I decided to try it one more time before bed and something strange has occurred. For some reason the black screen is all screwed up, its showing these strange pictures and words on it and it putting off way too many colors. Oh wait.......





































IT WORKS!!!!!!!

GenTech, I really don't know how to thank you. You've obviously gone out of your way and spent some of your time time helping me with this, and I cant express how grateful I am. I would've easily been out 500 bucks at least. Thank you so much.

I also want to thank everyone else who contributed and helped out with this. Honestly you guys have made my month, I'm ecstatic I have my notebook back! These forums have a great community and after seeing that, I'll have to hang around

As far as what finally fixed it, im not 100% sure what EXACTLY it was. I was just trying a couple more times before I went to bed (its 4:50am here) switching between the 311, 310, and 313 discs trying different combination of esc, arrow keys, and enter. jxtx you were right about the beep being from my bios clock not being set, as when it finally worked it took me to the POST screen, telling me that the clock was not set, with two options: press F1 to load with current values, or press F2 to enter setup. What I think happened is, I meant to press F2, hit F1 by mistake, and then hit esc, down arrow, enter. But again, not entirely sure as I am a bit sleep deprived and I wasn't paying close attention. The 313 BIOS burned on 4x speed was eventually the working disc.

Again, thanks so much to everyone, and GenTech, if you are ever near Lawrence, KS or Kansas City I'm buying you a beer.

 

your really good congrats , gentech do you have this process for a asus m51va? it util to save if you have, problems happens, never know when happen

 

I am happy you fixed it. In 2009, flashing a BIOS is not that hard and with the help of the experienced GenTechPc rep, you managed to fix a broken bios.

The days when you need to send your lappy for a new motherboard due to a bad FLASH are long over. Sorry I could not be more helpful due to my different model.


Never ever flash in an environment where you KNOW there are problems. Always use the DOS Flasher or the EZFlasher!!!!

 

No problem. I'll be there if Royals make it to the world series this year.

Hope you'll never need to use it.

That is correct.

 

So, mattj19, from your experience, would you say that the requirement to set the BIOS clock after removing the system battery was blocking your attempts to blind flash the BIOS? If so, it seems like ASUS BIOS writers should make a change. I would want a blind flash to move forward regardless of the system time settings.

Jeremy

 

I have certainly learned my lesson!

Yea I think thats definitely what was stopping it, granted it wouldn't of been an issue had I not opened up my notebook and disconnected my CMOS battery, which alot of people wouldn't try. But you're right it should allow the boot disk to load up even in that situation, maybe do something like proceed with boot if no option is selected in 10 seconds.

 

I wonder how this issue can be brought to the attention of ASUS engineers. It seems to me that this would be an important correction to BIOS programming, especially when situations like you faced occur. There are situations that occur that require disconnecting the CMOS battery.

Maybe one of the ASUS retailers reading this thread can send a message to an ASUS representative.

Jeremy

 

I think the biggest issue is that WinFlash won't read the correct BIOS for his model, in fact, it reads BIOS from different model with different VGA BIOS under Windows environment results system won't post.

If WinFlash reads correct BIOS for his notebook then non of this problem will happen to him.

Also my W3J won't boot from boot disk even I disable hard drive.

 

Impressive piece of work on this thread! Great help, Ken!

 

Ken,

Just wanted to say you are awesome to take time out of your busy schedule to help out so much with this issue. You are one of the many reasons this community is great and you will always have any future laptop sales form me.

Keep it up man.

 

this thread alone has been the deciding factor in who i get my next laptop from. Very impressed with the level of expertise and customer support for well a customer that may have not even been from gentech.

Amazing how much gentech goes out of their way fro anyone on these forums.

 

This thread was resolved a week ago, but I'll add my two cents as a V1Jp owner:

- my V1Jp also came stock with 305. 313 is required for Vista from what I heard.
- NEVER use WinFlash to update ANYTHING (you're really asking for it). It does things which can freak users out and it can sometimes crap out in the middle of flashing. Too many things can go wrong with WinFlash. Safer to use DOS or the EZFlash in the BIOS.
- Something worth noting is that the early V1Jp units shipped with BIOS 305 *BUT* it cannot be downloaded from the ASUS website. The only plausible explanation is that they used the same V1J 305 BIOS for both V1J and V1Jp, but then installed the ATI X1700 card with its VBIOS already loaded into it. When you do a BIOS update, the VBIOS is included in the flash bin. With Winflash, it sees the BIOS as V1J (since the actual label in in the BIOS *wrong*, it even said it in the BIOS as V1J) and not V1Jp, downloads the V1J BIOS and messes up your VBIOS (V1J is X1600, V1Jp is X1700) and then you can't see anymore. So the PC WILL boot, just that your VBIOS is can't process things correctly (so a blind boot flash disk would fix it). If you had 310 or newer, it would read V1Jp and *probably* download the right file.
- TSST L632 is crap. ASUS seems to like using Samsung for their laptop drives. It's particularly sensitive to the types of disks and burn quality and not as good as a desktop reader. Cheap media and disks that aren't burnt at low speeds (ie: ~4x) will usually have trouble.
- V1Jp seems to have a recovery mechanism which *sometimes* works and will knock down the BIOS back to your default if POST fails a few times. I had it accidentally go off when my system stalled out at POST because of my V1 docking station, and after powering it down twice, next startup kicked it into EZFlash and almost gave me a heart-attack when it immediately proceeded to flash my BIOS down to 305... -_- I suspect that the file it used was one of the files left on the C:\ from the factory. Would likely not trigger on a bad VBIOS (maybe deliberately put in incompatible USB devices and have it hang a few times on startup during USB detection? ;p).
- In this situation, maybe one of those USB VGA adapters could've been useful, though it's impossible to say whether the corrupted VBIOS would interfere with it or not.
- In a blind flash situation, it would've been recommended to remove all bootable devices *except* for that CD or a USB (ie: remove HDD). That way, you don't have to blindly fumble with the boot menu. A USB FDD could also be useful if you could get one cheap (20$ if you know where to look), since no need to make an ISO and then try to extract a floppy boot sector to boot it up and etc. etc.