[Dannyjebb]

Hi all, just wondering if anyone can help with this before I go and buy a new mobo etc.

 

I had an old computer I made quite a while ago with an ASUS M2N MX SE PLUS motherboard. I have recently bought a new laptop so no longer need the computer so gave it to my brother, I had upgraded the RAM to 2 x 4GB sticks which I am sure the computer read as 8GB but when I was at my brothers yesterday it was only showing as 4GB so did a bit of research and some mixed views. some say 4GB is the max for this MOBO. Others say that you can get higher, it has vista 64 bit basic OS. Anyway I read that updating the BIOS to the latest would allow more RAM to be recognised so I downloaded the asus update utility, downloaded the newest BIOS file from asus and loaded it on, but at the end of the process it says not verified.....Couldn't figure out why and when I restarted the computer it now it wont load and just comes up with  bad BIOS checksum. loading from floppy.....failed...loading from CD ...failed.... and then repeated.

 

I don't know much about BIOS stuff so had a google online and it seems using the update utility from asus is a bad idea lol...anyway too late for that. I no longer have the original CD so cant use the asus crash free bios stuff. I have read about making a USB bootdrive...formatted the USB stick to FAT32 and put the bios file onto it, after renaming it to M2PLUSSE.ROM as the instructions online say. but when I put the USB stick in and start the comp I still just get the floppy and CD check and then fail messages.

 

All this has been pieced together from info I have found online but I haven't found an actual step by step guide to using the USB stick to do this.

 

Wondering if anyone else knows how I can do this or is the mobo goosed?

 

I have tried other basic things like taking out the CMOS battery and resetting the BIOS jumpers.

 

Thank you for any help.

 

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Hi,

 

Did you press ALT+F2 on machine start up to access the recovery mode?

 

Not sure it looks for the M2PLUSSE.ROM file on the USB Flash Drive! make sure you use an USB port on the back directly connected to the motherboard and not one in the computer case.

 

By the way the Specifications for the motherboard on the Asus website https://www.asus.com...specifications/say Max 4GB

 

2 x240-pin DIMM, Max. 4 GB, DDR2 1066/800/667/533 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended.

 

[SleepyDude]

Hi,

 

Did you press ALT+F2 on machine start up to access the recovery mode?

 

Not sure it looks for the M2PLUSSE.ROM file on the USB Flash Drive! make sure you use an USB port on the back directly connected to the motherboard and not one in the computer case.

 

By the way the Specifications for the motherboard on the Asus website https://www.asus.com...specifications/say Max 4GB

 

2 x240-pin DIMM, Max. 4 GB, DDR2 1066/800/667/533 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended.

 

[Dannyjebb]

Hey thanks for your reply. Yeah I have tried pressing alt and f2 but nothing happens it just comes to the screen as in the video. It does say on the specs you can use a usb flash drive. Yeah ive read now that the max is 4GB I'm sure it read as 8 previously but maybe not.

 

Just hoping I can get this BIOS to work. Don't suppose you know if I make a CD to do the BIOS from do I just need the M2PLUSSE.ROM file on the CD?

 

Thanks

[SleepyDude]

Yes you only need the .ROM file on the CD, download the latest BIOS for that board https://www.asus.com...pDesk_Download/and rename the file to M2PLUSSE.ROM

 

 

Edit: Just to be more clear extract the ROM file from the zip you download.

Edited by SleepyDude, 12 March 2016 - 01:16 PM.

[Dannyjebb]

Hey, So I downloaded the bios file from asus support website, renamed it as M2PLUSSE.ROM, burn it onto a CD but still no luck. it finds the CD then says looking for M2PLUSSE.ROM....cannot find file M2PLUSSE.ROM ....then back to floppy From what I can read online you only need the M2PLUSSE.ROM file on the CD. I did find one site though talking about other files needed to make an iso image.

 

Danny

[SleepyDude]

Hi Danny,

 

It could be related to the format used on the CD. What was the program you used to burn the file into the cd?

 

When you open the CD on windows the file name is all uppercase, lowercase or mixed?

[Dannyjebb]

Hi,
Just used the burn wizard on my MacBook, (click on the file, go to file and burn to cd)
Not opened the file in Windows but if I open the cd on my MacBook once it's been added to the cd the file name is M2PLUSSE.ROM

Thanks

[SleepyDude]

Hi,
 
I don't know the format used by the mac when burning the CD!
 
I create an ISO containing the file M2PLUSSE.ROM, extract the ZIP https://www.dropbox....SE-ISO.zip?dl=1  try to burn it using the option on the program to create a CD from an image. Burning from ISO will not change the format used.

 

 

Edit: In case you don't know how to burn an ISO http://lifehacker.co...mg-file-to-disc

Edited by SleepyDude, 14 March 2016 - 06:20 AM.

[Dannyjebb]

Hi again sorry not been back for a while.

 

So I downloaded the file you made and made the cd using the mac disk utility and selecting the M2PLUSSE.ISO.......then tried that but no luck still. Still says can't find the file....I have put the CD back in my mac and confirmed it has the M2PLUSSE.ROM file on there.    I have followed the instructions, dragged in the .ISO file then clicked burn.....I can't see anything saying create CD from an image

 

is there any free software that might be easier than the disk utility?

 

Thanks for your help so far

 

Danny

[SleepyDude]

Hi,

 

I think you did it correctly.

 

Did you notice if the machine actually tried to read the file from the CD? Usually there is some sound associated with reading...

 

I suppose you don't have a floppy drive and a floppy disk? (I know very ancient but useful for this type of thing)

[Dannyjebb]

Hey, yeh there are two beeps as the computer tries to read the file and then another 4 beeps when it says unable to find the .rom file. No I don't have a floppy, I would buy one but I can't really justify spending one for this little problem. I have bought all the necessary stuff to build a new PC with an i5 processor and a z97 mobo. Was just more of a personal challenge to fix this first

 

Thanks for taking the time to try and help though

 

Danny

[SleepyDude]

Hey, yeh there are two beeps as the computer tries to read the file and then another 4 beeps when it says unable to find the .rom file. No I don't have a floppy, I would buy one but I can't really justify spending one for this little problem. I have bought all the necessary stuff to build a new PC with an i5 processor and a z97 mobo. Was just more of a personal challenge to fix this first

 

I keep some from old decommissioned machines we never know when one is needed specially when working with old hardware (most recent motherboards don't have connections for an fdd)

 

If you have a chance try with a different CD/DVD unit maybe the drive is failing to read the disk not uncommon, sometimes burning the discs at low speed can help avoiding read errors.