help please....BIOS corrupted....?!

[evansuk2000]

Hi all, I've just reinstalled my Hyper 212 Evo heat-sink because one of the back plate screws was loose. While I was uninstalling the heat-sink the backing screws were coming loose, and to cut a long story short the large Evo heatsink fell (I was supporting it) and seemed to hit the graphics card area quite gently.

Whilst I was at it I cleaned and removed the CPU, then re-inserted it in the socket, as advised, but had to nudge it gently to get it fully back in the socket.

When I restarted my PC - it turned off, and then came up with a message stating the BIOS was corrupted, and it was re-installing the prior BIOS. It reinstalled the version that came with the PC (F14) - and booted up fine...apart from a usb network adapter not working (Which worked after plugging back in) I have since reinstalled the latest BIOS, and everything is running ok!

Please can someone explain what on earth happened? Have I caused any damage?

MOBO GA Z77 D3H REV 1.1
I7 2700K @3.5

[absic]

The BIOS can become corrupted in several ways and without knowing what you were actually doing it is hard to say what caused it.

Removing components or knocking them, even "gently" can cause a problem, especially if there is any residue current in the motherboard. Working on the motherboard with the unit powered down but still plugged into the mains with the mains power still running is a common cause of this as, although things look dead, power is still being drawn.

Not shutting the PC down correctly can cause BIOS corruption. Pressing the power button on the PC Case or the mains switch off is something that can happen quite easily and cause this.

From my own experiences with corrupted BIOS, once it has recovered from the backup chip things normally remain OK and I haven't noticed any long term issues because of this happening.

[evansuk2000]

Thanks, everything is working ok now! So I haven't fired one of my bios? They should both be working ok now?

Also it wouldn't be anything related to a damaged CPU would it? Is a corrupted BIOS ever related to damaging a CPU at all? Just being paranoid I might of damaged the CPU somehow?!

[absic]

I understand your concerns but it is really difficult to damage the CPU. That said, it is very easy to damage the pis in the CPU socket especially if you are a bit heavy handed when removing the heatsink. But as the system is now working OK I don't think you have done that.

The BIOS chips are soldered to the motherboard and are also difficult to actually damage. If there was a major problem with the BIOS chips I wouldn't expect the system to POST or BOOT.