Award BootBlock - Keyboard error

[winsyrstrife]

What a night last night was....(Not in a Good way)

I had been getting blue screens in Windows XP since I had built this machine. After several software tests with no results, I decided to go with physical checks. After removing one of the RAM chips, everything worked fine. "Great", I thought, "Now I can get back on track".

How wrong I was...

I decided to test the VCore Voltage of my processor, to see what the difference was. I adjusted it from 1.7 to 1.75. Took forever for the machine to POST, so I knew it didn't take. I restarted the machine, while Windows XP was booting. Figured the worse thing I'd get is a chkdsk recovery.

Wrong Again...

Startup had been corrupted. "OK, my own stupid fault, I cancelled it improperly. Now I'll just repair the corrupted files." Booted from the Windows XP Pro CD (yes, made it myself), and started repair. EVERYTHING took about 5 minutes to take if it involved the hard disk. It would not find C:.

"Blast it, now I've lost my data. Oh well, at least it was a new install. Not much lost. Wipe drive and recreate parititions."

Not that simple.

Windows XP setup did delete and create a new partition, but it can't format the space. Stops at 11%. So I figure IBM has something to fix this. I D/L their DFT (Drive Fitness Test), and planned to use it.

Lo and Behold, now my board locks up at "Award BootBlock BIOS Checksum error - no keyboard present". Funny, I thought that thing plugged into the PS/2 port was a keyboard. Conveniently, Award/Phoenix doesn't have anything about BootBlock on their site.

I'll be calling ECS today to begin the RMA process. Then later I have the joy of returning a RAM chip, then an IBM drive.

The IBM part really threw me for a loop. I didn't think changing the voltage by .05 volts damages a hard drive, if so it wouldn't be an option.

If anyone can help, I am very thankful. Wish I had a webcam running last night so you guys could have seen the Twilight Zone I endured...

[winsyrstrife]

Tried about 20 different tests. Not in the mood to list them all, but they basically consisted of removing all devices including fans.

Used other video card
Switched RAM
Changed cables
Changed floppy drive
Removed hard drive
Created 3 different boot disks
downloaded flash utilities/BIOS updates

Does no good cause the blasted BootBlock won't pick up anything, namely the keyboard. Looks for floppy then restarts, even if a floppy is in the drive.

ECS is only offering support Via E-mail :mad: , so they're no help. I've been using other forums to find some more info.

All I can hope on is leaving the clear CMOS jumper on overnight. I've done it about 10 times, no more than 1 minute. Maybe 6 hours will help discharge it.

[rextex]

I don't envy you!And I'm sorry, but don't have any suggestion other than replugging the keyboard.

Welcome to Sysopt though,anyway.Come back again.Too many people make one post and then quit.There are a lot of good people online here.Tonight is a little slow,however.
:cool:

[rextex]

Wait a minute... IBM DFT uses Disk Manager.Disk Manager controls the Boot process.The boot block contains the Disk Manager boot code, that is the problem.
Hang on.. Will someone help us out?I'm usually good on these issues.But right now the solution escapes me.
Will rack my brain and return......!

[winsyrstrife]

Funny you should say that. I think the big problems started when I put the disk in my machine. It's the first disk I ever booted up with in the machine as a matter of fact.

Hmmm....has this happened with DFT before?:confused:

[rextex]

Look, i don't know exactly the setup used by XP but I have used some tools on Win95 ,98 that involve this.
You can try this:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/nfdisc_partition.html
and I think it'll do it.
If it doesn't work try the command in nfdisc:
zap
That should remove all boot block ****.
You will have to repartition and everything after if you do that though.

[winsyrstrife]

I don't have the HD in the PC right now. Took it out as a test phase. I figured I'd be able to isolate the problem this way. Only things running are board, vid card, RAM, and processor.

I thought the problem was with the motherboard now, just trying to get that past "no keyboard detected".

BTW, thanks for the welcome. I found a lot of info when first coming here. Nothing's worked yet.

I'll try it tomorrow, have to wake up early. Thanx for the suggestions.

[rextex]

No problem, Happy to help.BTW you might try entering the bios setup program and then just select "save to cmos and exit".Sometimes the cmos just doesn't auto-reset stuff it detects or that changed (like ram upgrades) and that will tell it to use the new value/device.Checksum error is when something doesn't add up to the way it was before.Sorry I didn't tell you that before.Like I said I'm having trouble thinking tonight!
Later.:)

[winsyrstrife]

I wish I could get that far. Computer does not get to POST. First and last thing is:

Award BootBlock -BIOS Checksum error- Keyboard error or no keyboard present. Checking Drive A:, then an automatic reboot.

I left the CLEAR CMOS jumper shorted for about 5 hours. Tried it before I left today for work, no luck :( .

[winsyrstrife]

I got an RMA for the board. The tech at www.newlinepc.com gave me some more recommendations. I hope it works. Don't feel like having to wait 2 weeks for a return.

[rextex]

Did you try the save to CMOS thing?

[winsyrstrife]

Wouldn't I have to see the normal POST process and device detection screen to get into BIOS?

I don't get that far. Immediately, Award BootBlock comes up.

[Mr Miyagi]

The Boot Block comes up after a bad BIOS flash or somehow otherwise corrupted BIOS image... Did you flash the BIOS? I beleive it checks the A: drive looking for a good BIOS file to replace the on ROM. You may wanna try going to the mobo manufacturer (ECS you said?) and get the BIOS update for this board. Stick it on a floppy, shove it in the drive and boot it up...

[rextex]

Well, if it is the "boot block" per the bios.Then go to this page, you should have the answer.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:NMJSujI205EC:www.drd.dyndns.org/howto/BIOS-Recovery.pdf+award+boot+block+help&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1

[winsyrstrife]

Thanks for all the helpful input.

I did create a boot disk with DrDos, and added my Motherboard's BIOS file and flash utility, about 2 days ago.

The system doesn't even pick up the disk. It says "checking drive A:" then restarts.

I even made the autoexec.bat file, using Bovon's great instructions :) I found in the forum. No good.

BTW, should that "Keyboard Error or no Keyboard present" error be a normal thing that happens with BootBlock ?

[winsyrstrife]

I've wrapped up the board to send back. I'll let you all know how the RMA went.