Dead Motherboard
August 21st 2007 12:27 am
My motherboard is somewhat useless right now. I flashed my BIOS because I was having problems with Vista and new nVidia drivers. Maybe it’s the BIOS I thought. Previously I could not get Ubuntu installed for some reason. My BIOS was pretty old so maybe it was the problem.
So I download the Asus update program which I have used successfully probably a dozen times before. Installs just fine. Download the latest BIOS. Backup current BIOS. Flash with new BIOS. Reboot.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEP BEEP.
Shit.
According to Google, this means there is something wrong with the video system. Okay why does it still do it when I have no video cards in it? Or when I have a known good video card installed? I’ve tried pulling the RAM, video cards, resetting the CMOS, everything I can think of, twice. Nothing is making it work. My friend suggested a ‘long’ CMOS reset, where you basically let it sit in reset mode for a day. It fixed a problem for him once so it won’t hurt to try.
If it doesn’t work, hopefully Asus will warranty it. I really don’t feel like dropping $300 on a motherboard when I have reptiles to buy.
About the author... Daniel Huckstep is a software engineer(ing student) at the University of Alberta. He enjoys all aspects of computers and their software, reptiles, guitar and music creation, reading, and macaroni salad. 
