GA-7VT600 - BootBlock issue

[tblo163]

I've not used my Gigabyte GA-7VT600 mother board for about a year,having been out of the country.and in my absence my son borrowed the original HDD and it was lost during a house move,this would have been no problem to me as I have spare hard drives and installation set up discs.However on powering up the Award BootBlock error was displayed(attatchment) and I cannot find an option to solve this issue.I have checked out just about everything,Changed Ram cards,cd/dvd and floppy drives,graphics card,cables and ribbons,new cmos battery and cleared cmos.I have contacted Gigabyte support and their response was complettely negative.I was hoping for a clue as to wether the bios or chipsets were corrupt and if any could be replaced etc.,so I'm stuck on this one,I have never had any experience with BootBlock,so I don't know how this problem occured. Any advice welcome.

[Dark Mantis]

Can you get into the BIOS at all? If you can you need to disable the feature that is trying to load the nBIOS cofiguration backup from the hard drive. Obviously it is looking for it and can't find it because it was on the original HDD.

[tblo163]

No,I cannot access the bios menu at all,the error message is constantly on the screen and searching hard drive,even if one is not connectedAs I said,I contacted Gigabyte support hoping that they would simply tell me what part of the mother board was damaged,but the response was negative,bearing in mind that they must have a circuit diagram for it.(screen shots),Thank you for your reply.

[Dark Mantis]

In that case the only way forward that I can see is to do a BIOS flash. If you can download the latest BIOS update for your motherboard and then copy it to a usb pen drive you can access the Q Flash program without going into the BIOS itself. Just press the "END" button as you boot the computer and you should be given the option to run the update. Let me know if you have any questions.

[absic]

In that case the only way forward that I can see is to do a BIOS flash. If you can download the latest BIOS update for your motherboard and then copy it to a usb pen drive you can access the Q Flash program without going into the BIOS itself. Just press the "END" button as you boot the computer and you should be given the option to run the update. Let me know if you have any questions.

Actually, on these older Socket A boards you might not be able to do that. If I remember correctly you have to first get into BIOS then press F8 for the QFlash utility. Also they don't have the Dual BIOS advantages of the newer boards for recovery.

The BIOS is a single 2Mb chip that sits below the PCI slots and, unless you have another board, I don't think you will be able to change it. The fact that this motherboard is also quite old (at least 6-7 years at a guess) I'm not really surprised that Gigabyte can't help although it is disappointing.

You might be better off scrapping it, rather than spending a long time trying to salvage it.

[Dark Mantis]

Actually, on these older Socket A boards you might not be able to do that. If I remember correctly you have to first get into BIOS then press F8 for the QFlash utility. Also they don't have the Dual BIOS advantages of the newer boards for recovery.

Right if that is the case then there is probably nothing you can do. I guessed that it wasn't a dual BIOS but didn't realise you couldn't flash from outside the BIOS.
Thinking outside the box for a moment, obviously his BIOS is looking for a backup on his hard drive so is it possible to provide it by writing a copy to the hard drive and then installing it(the hard drive) in the computer? Long shot I know but I don't like to be beaten on these things.

[absic]

Thinking outside the box for a moment, obviously his BIOS is looking for a backup on his hard drive so is it possible to provide it by writing a copy to the hard drive and then installing it(the hard drive) in the computer?

I don't believe this would work as the BIOS is looking for an image not the files. To create the image you would need to be able to access the BIOS which is the cause of the problem.

new cmos battery and cleared cmos

Just double checking on this point, when you cleared CMOS did you remove the power lead from the PC and the battery from the motherboard for at least 10 minutes and did you also short out the CMOS pins? I have had situations where even leaving the CMOS battery out overnight, it hasn't reset properly and I have had to go through this a couple of times to get it to clear.

[tblo163]

Tried the flash drive option,and it didn't make any difference,screenshots of bios and drivers from Gigabyte.I realize there may be some physical damage,but as you said " I don't like to be beaten" and if it blows up,it will make an excellent frizzby.

[tblo163]

Yes I have cleared the cmos in the usual way,

[absic]

As a matter of interest are you getting any beeps from the mobo? On these earlier boards they used different POST error codes and it might narrow the field as to which part of the BIOS is corrupt if you are getting any.

[tblo163]

No beeps from the board,there does not appear to be a "buzzer" on this boared,the only response other than the bootblock screen display is the power LED is flashing,and the CPU LED only lights up momentarily on power-on and power-off.

[absic]

No, that's always a problem, you will need to attach a mobo speaker to hear the beeps. This needs to be attached to the front Panel header of the motherboard (below the IDE connectors) and the pins should be coloured orange. There are 4 pins in a straight line and the mobo speaker header fits the 2 outside pins. If you still have your mobo manual check page 27 for this.

[tblo163]

Connected mobo speaker as you suggest,NO beeps,so it looks like a dead end.What puzzles me is Gigabytes negative response to finding a solution for this issue,they must know the circuit in detail and viewing the 1000s of posts on this forum I'm wondering why there are so many problems with their products.

[Dark Mantis]

The thing is they are a huge multi-national company and obviously have a sizeable market share. So there is no wonder that a percentage of their products have problems. That said I don't think the way in which they handled your request was very tactful or even constructive. I can tell you now that you require a new BIOS chip but that isn't much help as I would doubt that even Gigabyte would keep these in stock for that length of time. The chip may be able to be sourced from an old board if you can find one on ebay etc.

[tblo163]

Ok,thanks for that,at least I your positive response has given me the insight as to the prospects of repairing it and if it does not work then it's no great loss.As Bud Abbot & Lou Costello said,"That's another $20 gone south" Thanks for your help.Terry