[K7D Master] Bios Hang after Flashupdate

Hello

I today tried to update the bios of my MSI K7D Master - L (with two
MP2000+)to the version 1.82. Unforunatedly this did not work. During
the updateprocess I could see the on the screen the red squares
meaning "updating cmos failed". Only some where white meaninf
"sucessfull".
After reboot nothing happens anymore. The bottprocess hangs before I
can see anything on the screen. And the LED say red-green-red-red
According to the handbook that means: "Memory detection test - testing
onboard memory size - the d-led will hang if the memory module is
damaged or not installed properly."

This is what I tried:

1. Take out the battery on the mainboard for 10 MInutes
2. Setting the jumper for "clear-cmos" (while pc was turned off, i
left the jumper that way for 20 secounds, put it back to normal and
turned pc on)


What can I do? Wat do I have to do if the memory module is REALYY
damaged?

 

Christ! This is exactly what happened to me yesterday!
I have some failure info on the screen too. And it seems only thing I
can do at that time is "Press F1 to continue" as the screen message
says. So I did it. And the board is unable to boot any more.

I did CMOS clearance as you did, also tried the BIOS recovery
procedure as MSI web described. But no luck. I've sent a request to
MSI through their web. Let's see how they can help.

Please do post here if you got your problem solved.
Thanks and good luck,

Chris

 

Looks like I'm joining an elite club of failed K7D updaters!!

I've got the same problem as you two. I had V1.3 and 2x2000+ MP
processors (one was a green board and one was brown).

I made a boot disk in XP, copied the two files for 1.82 to the disk
and booted up in the server.

I used the switches /sn/py/cc/cp/f as shown in the supplied readme
file and got the same red blocks with a few white sucsessful blocks.
Pressed F1 to reboot and now a blank screen. No POST beep and no
signs of any "life" from the machine.

One thing that I didn't check was the "BIOS flash write control" as
mentioned in the readme.

This is the second server in the company with this happening. With
the other it was assumed that the board was faulty and was replaced
with this one.


AAAARRRGGGHH!!

I'm glad that I found this post although we are no wiser as to what to
do now.


I'll also have a look if there is any solutions and will report back.

Thanks

Dave Machin

 

Dave,

I had a problem when flashing my K7D too. I was using onc CPU FWIW.

I asked MSI to send me a replacement BIOS and they did since I could not
get it booting properly.

I also suggest you use the "Winflash" FlashROM update utility, it seems
to be much more reliable. I don't do DOS updates on this board anymore.
If you goto www.2cpu.com, and search, someone there posted a link to
download WinFlash...

I don't think you have any options besides replacing it, but ask MSI to
send the BIOS with latest firmware so you don't have to mess with it
again.

Best regards,
John.

 

Here is a copy of the e-mail that I sent to MSI. Let's just hope that
it hasn't fallen into the MSI company Blackhole...









We are running a K7D Master with 2x2000+MP and 4x1b Crucial DDR
memory.

The board had V1.3 of the BIOS.



I have tried to update the BIOS from1.3 to 1.82.

I downloaded the BIOS update file from
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=73
and followed the instructions in the "How to flash the BIOS" text file
supplied with the BIOS.

I then created an XP boot disk, copied the two files (update exe and
bin file) to the floppy as shown in the text file and booted up the
server.



At the command prompt I typed the following as instructed in the
supplied text file:

awfl823d w6501kms.182 /sn/py/cc/cp/f



As the update took place I noticed that there were a lot of red blocks
indicating a write fail on that block. There were also a few white
ones indicating a successful write.



After the update had finished I was instructed by the program to
"Press F1 to restart"



After the reboot was presented by a black screen and no POST beep.



As we were having problems with the system, we assumed the board to be
faulty and got a replacement from our supplier in the UK, Bluepoint.



The replacement also had V1.3 so thinking the other one was faulty we
did the same update, double checking that we had followed the
procedure exactly (we had). Result…same black screen.



After some investigation on Google I discovered that I am not the only
one who has encountered this problem but no-one has found a solution
as yet.



Here are some of the posts I found so you can see it is not just me:



http://www.msi.com.tw/program/e_ser...=b6e58a9d83e9b64503e1592172c9163d&hilight=K7D



http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...09251028.313772e9%40posting.google.com&rnum=1



http://www.msi.com.tw/program/e_ser...=0e0dab9a415915ba19370c820bf1c819&hilight=K7D



http://www.msi.com.tw/program/e_ser...=972264fbb8efcbdad3cda6c171b4712e&hilight=K7D



Some of the posts say not to use a floppy, not to use XP boot disks,
not to jump BIOS releases (go incrementally). One mentioned that the
update program itself was at fault and that the Windows updater should
be used.

If this is the case then why on earth is none of this mentioned in the
instructions for the BIOS or a note on the website stating some do's
and don'ts for updates??

Now I would really appreciate some help and feedback on this problem.
I would also like to speak to someone at MSI UK, and not just get
dropped by the IVR system after trying to get through to Technical
Support.

I look forward to your response.



David Machin