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BIOS issues on Gigabyte GA-BX2000

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First post, by vt4000

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Hi all,

I recently picked up a Gigabyte GA-BX2000 Slot-1 motherboard at a local PC recycler and have been trying to get it up and running. I'm using a Pentium III 500 MHz and an NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64 video card.

When I first boot the system up, I get the police siren beep code (high-low-high-low repeating) and get stuck on this glitched BIOS screen:

2aG1hAOh.jpg?2

If I remove the CMOS battery and turn off the power supply for about 5 minutes, I get a successful POST, but a "Backup BIOS Checksum Error". I then see this screen, which I think is the system trying to flash the Backup with the Main BIOS:

Pb4frOch.jpg?1

Things I've tried so far:
I was able to get it to boot from a floppy (after removing all power and the CMOS battery for 5 min) and used the DOS utility to flash the BIOS. The date at the bottom of the screen has changed from 1999 to 2002, but I still get the glitched screen and a freeze on reset.
I tried about 5 different CPUs (Celeron, Pentium II and III). I noticed if I used a slower CPU (Celeron 300 instead of PIII 500), it would actually do the memory test while on the white screen, but freeze afterwards.
Tested 3 different PSUs with the same results.
Tested varying amounts of RAM and slots with the same results.
Tried clearing the CMOS using the jumper - no effect

Does anyone have any ideas of how to reflash the backup BIOS and exit this annoying loop? Unfortunately the BIOS chips are soldered down.

Reply 2 of 3, by appiah4

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I use the exact same board. For whatever reason, the BIOS chips are prone to failing on this board it seems - on mine the default bios is flaky but the backup bios is working so I use that.

When you boot, right before disk detection you should be given an option to go into dual bios settings, F11 IIRC - do it.

In the Dual BIOS settings menu it will give you the option to a) flash the backup BIOS onto the default bios, IF the default BIOS is NOT working fine, b) flash the default BIOS onto the backup BIOS, IF the default BIOS IS working fine. If your default BIOS is passing checksum validation, you should be able to back it up back onto the backup bios chip.

Granted, that may not fix the issue, the chip may have gone kaput, as my default bios chip has. In that regard, you can switch the BIOS priority to the working BIOS, disable dual bios checks and functions and use the board as a single BIOS board with just the working chip on that menu. That is what I did.

Regardless, my BX2000 came with 6 bulging caps that needed to be replaced. I did not recap it completely (time issues, and I SUCK at soldering so trying to fix what wasn't obviously broken was an invitation to break what was working..) but MAYBE if I recap it completely my default BIOS chip will work fine as well, who knows. I would suggest a recap of the board for you.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 3 of 3, by vt4000

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I did a little further visual inspection, and I think I know why the second BIOS checksum failed...
4tNZHvXl.jpg

I also found 2 pads on the board that, according to the manual, disable the second BIOS when shorted. I bridged them with jumper wire and it didn't seem to have any effect, nor did snipping the Vdd pin on the cracked chip.

I do have replacements for all ten 1200µF 6.3v capacitors (top of board near CPU), so I think I'll try that next.

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