# [SOLVED] BIOS ROM Checksum error



## arnes_king (May 24, 2012)

Hi everyone, i am new here and i need a little help 

I have a Maxdata PC which has an ASUS P4B533-V motherboard.

It had first an Intel Pentium 4 2.00 GHz processor and i upgraded it with an Intel Pentium 4 3.06 GHz HT processor.

It was all working good except that the bios didn't supported Hypertrading Technology, so i googled a bit and i found out that with an bios update/flash i could get the HT to work.

I knew that flashing the BIOS was not a good idea but .....

So i checked what bios version was on it and it was 1004-8, then i went to the website of asus choosed my motherboard and downloaded the latest non-beta bios file, it was 1008, it was zipped and when i unzipped it i got an awd file (512kb)

I wanted first to flash it over the in-built feauture called EZ Flash v 1 but i couldn't get it to work because i had no floppy disks.

Then i downloaded the utility Asus Update, which is for updating BIOS from windows (i know it was no good idea), and i started the program.

First i made a backup of my old bios with that tool and it is a .ROM file. Then i continued to update my bios, choosed the .awd file which i downloaded previously and started.

The tool has 3 stages, the first one goes without problems, i think it was "Erasing ROM", the second one is some FLASHING, but it just cycled, it finishes the second one and then starts again with the first and so on maybe for 10-15 minutes.


Then it suddenly finished but it failed on the third step, something with verify and EEPROM

I knew that when i turn off the PC that it wont turn on again, so i tried to restore the backup that i made but the same happened.

So i gave up and turned it off, after turning it on again i got the following message :

Award BootBlock Bios v1.0
Copyright (c) 2000, Award Software, Inc.

BIOS ROM Checksum error

Detecting floppy drive A media...
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER


Then i got a floppy disk, made it bootable used awdflash and tried some bios updates to install, i get it working i get awdflash working but it wont update everytime it says wrong bios file or something, i also tried some other tools but with no success.

Now i want to ask you if someone could help me with a step by step tutorial from the beggining, how exactly to make the floppy bootable, which flash tool to use exactly and if you can help me to find the right bios file for me which should work.


I hope that i will get good help here and thanks in advance.

P.S. I know that i could change the bios chip but here in Bosnia there is no place where i can buy it and nobody who can do that, and i don't want to order the chip from ebay or something and then mess it up.....


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*

This link explains Asus EZ-Flash in detail. I prefer using a USB stick.
Good luck.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- EZ Flash 2 - the safest way to update BIOS


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## arnes_king (May 24, 2012)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*



Tyree said:


> This link explains Asus EZ-Flash in detail. I prefer using a USB stick.
> Good luck.
> 
> ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- EZ Flash 2 - the safest way to update BIOS


Thanks for the quick answer 

But i didn't mentioned that i can't now acces EZ flash, the bios nor something else, the only thing that shows up after i start the PC is that it asks for a bootable floppy disk, so my only way out is to flash it over some dos tool.

I also tried removing the CMOS battery and resseting the CMOS completely but still the same, i am just not sure if this motherboard has some sort of jumper which prevents from updating the bios like some have and i can't find it in the manual.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*

You shouldn't be screwing around with bios flashing tools! Stick to utilities provided by your motherboard's manufacturer. You should get that backup .ROM file created by asus update. You will need to access that drive containing this file using a different machine. You want to have this file in a bootable floppy disk. Follow the link provided on the previous post. Look at post number 7 in that forum, there are details on how to create a bootable floppy containing no drivers, only the flashing tool (AFUDOS) and the ROM file. You will need another machine to do all these. Once you have the floppy ready with these two files, follow the instructions in that forum to flash the bios. This should not update, but restore the bios to the backedup/initial version. Post progress up to this point.


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## arnes_king (May 24, 2012)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*



Stancestans said:


> You shouldn't be screwing around with bios flashing tools! Stick to utilities provided by your motherboard's manufacturer. You should get that backup .ROM file created by asus update. You will need to access that drive containing this file using a different machine. You want to have this file in a bootable floppy disk. Follow the link provided on the previous post. Look at post number 7 in that forum, there are details on how to create a bootable floppy containing no drivers, only the flashing tool (AFUDOS) and the ROM file. You will need another machine to do all these. Once you have the floppy ready with these two files, follow the instructions in that forum to flash the bios. This should not update, but restore the bios to the backedup/initial version. Post progress up to this point.


Thank you very much for your detailed answer.

I did that followed the guide and made the bootable floppy the way they said in the topic, i tried it with afudos v 4.40 (i think) and i tried the backup.ROM file and i tried some others but i just get this :

Error : "BIOS does not support AFU"


I am now reading in the manual on how to flash it in dos using aflash, i will try that and update results here.


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## arnes_king (May 24, 2012)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*

I tried aflash v 2.21 (something like that)

i booted it up and when i start aflash in dos it comes to the screen where the options should be listed but it is just blank :/

I downloaded some other bios versions from the ftp asus site and tried them again with afudos and awdflash but still the same problems .....


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*

Does aflash at least display the current bios version? Try using the same version 1004 with aflash. If that fails, try afudos.


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## arnes_king (May 24, 2012)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*



Stancestans said:


> Does aflash at least display the current bios version? Try using the same version 1004 with aflash. If that fails, try afudos.


Now i tried the oldest aflash version which i found and the newest bios file because it was in format name.002 and i have read that this is good and that i just have to rename it to name.ROM

I did so and this old aflash version started up it showed everything and i flashed it, it displayed that the FLASH IS SUCCESSFUL but i get still the same problem when i restart the pc 

EDIT : It was alfash version 2.17

i tried again to clear the cmos and all but still the same, and when i now try again to access aflash i get the same as before with the newer version, no info is displayed !

I don't know anymore what to do and it confuses me that it told me that the flash was successful but nothing changed :/


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## arnes_king (May 24, 2012)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*

I've MANAGED IT 

It WORKED, with my backup bios.ROM and with AFLASH 2.17 it worked  !!!!!

My PC is finally working again


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*

Word of caution! Next time you wanna update the bios, keep the backup close. AVOID ASUS UPDATE. Use the inbuilt update tool in the bios. Then progressively update the bios just to make sure a smooth update, that is, start with the immediate update version 1005, 1006... upto the non-beta 1008. Before every update, make a backup of the existing bios. I know you are scared to try again, but if you want that HT feature, i saw a bios update that enables that feature by default (because it's disabled by default). There's a high chance this feature is already supported by your current bios, but it's disabled by default, so you wanna enable it. HT is cool, it's like having two processors in one package.


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## darfvayda (Apr 9, 2012)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*

Keep trying. Flash the new bios again, just do from your DOS bootable USB/floppy... NEVER from windows! Too bad you had to learn the hard way. Yeah safest bet is upgrade your bios in incremental stepse, one revision at a time, like Stancestans said. Although I have had luck skipping 2-3 revisions at a time (knock on wood) I have NEVER tried flashing from Windows! (although I may one day, just for fun!). Even if your old bios can enable HT, you should still try and get the newest bios, because it should be eating you up inside to know you don't have the latest greatest bios!


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: BIOS ROM Checksum error*



arnes_king said:


> I've MANAGED IT
> 
> It WORKED, with my backup bios.ROM and with AFLASH 2.17 it worked  !!!!!
> 
> My PC is finally working again


Glad you got it resolved. The Bios should ONLY be updated if/when the update directly addresses the problem(s) you are experiencing.
It is very rare that a Bios needs to be updated and if/when it does, NEVER do it through Windows. 
Rule of thumb for the Bios-if it ain't broke - don't fix it.


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## arnes_king (May 24, 2012)

Yeah i knew that all before, but i was dumb, i didn't really prepared and checked everything 100% before i did it, i just wanted to try it asap, and it costed me 3 days to fix it ....

But now i know how it is going, i have an internet caffe and it was one of the 8 PC-s, i don't really need to use the HT feature on that PC, i can switch it's CPU with one other on a board which supports HT, but maybe i will anyway try to update the BIOS again, maybe ....

Anyway i am glad that i got it working and a BIG THANKS to everyone here


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