BIOS 2745 for D975XBX2 Motherboard

hamishnorton · Post by **hamishnorton** » Thu May 17, 2007 6:25 pm

Has anyone had trouble posting after flashing this BIOS update? It appears to load successfully on my board but the board will then not post (or boot!). I had to use a recovery floppy to BIOS 2692. I have a QX6700 and 8GB of ECC memory, if that makes a difference. What configurations have people got who loaded this successfully? what about unsuccessfully?

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Thu May 17, 2007 7:39 pm

Just flashed mine successfully with no drama. I always reset bios settings to default before flashing. Went ahead and made a recovery floppy first just in case.

rbichamp · Post by **rbichamp** » Thu May 17, 2007 8:29 pm

Same problem here. I started the flash process from Windows Vista 32-bit, it restarted the computer and completed the flash successfully. After that it hasn't POSTed...

I have 4 GB ECC (2 Kingston 2GB)
Intel E6600
Cooler Master eXtreme Power Duo 650 (for now)

I'm going to try and recover and post back.

EDIT:

UPDATE: I first tried recovering to 2745. Not surprisingly it didn't work. I recovered back to 2692 and I'm working again.

Any ideas how we can get 2745 to work?

FullMoon · Post by **FullMoon** » Thu May 17, 2007 9:59 pm

Worked for me.
I have an E6600 and 2Gig of non-ECC

Wonder if it has something to do with the amount of memory or ECC VS non-ECC ?

Dandruff · Post by **Dandruff** » Thu May 17, 2007 11:51 pm

didn't work here too. back to 2692.

i'm running ECC ram. hardware-revision of the board: 505

on abxzone one member wrote about a successful update on a 506 revision board ...

urkraft · Post by **urkraft** » Sat May 19, 2007 3:07 am

Worked perfectly here at first try.
e6600, 4gb Non-ECC board rev 505

ubiquityman · Post by **ubiquityman** » Sat May 19, 2007 2:05 pm

Doesn't work here.
rev 505 with QX6700 & 2GB ECC RAM.

I've tried unplugging EVERYTHING: USB, PS2, Video card, hard drives, DVDs, Floppy, etc.

Pulled out the battery and waited for a few hours with the power supply disconnected. No dice.

Monk · Post by **Monk** » Sat May 19, 2007 3:56 pm

Just out of curiosity did you folks use the Express or ISO update?

If you used the Express, was it in Vista or XP?

ubiquityman · Post by **ubiquityman** » Sat May 19, 2007 4:06 pm

I tried both the Express method under XP and the floppy disk BIOS recovery method. Both completed successfully and behaved the same.

vbironchef · Post by **vbironchef** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:09 pm

worked for me, no problems.

ubiquityman · Post by **ubiquityman** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:16 pm

Can you tell us your configuration:
RAM Type, CPU.

Monk · Post by **Monk** » Sat May 19, 2007 9:10 pm

Updated to 2745 a few minutes ago using Express thru XP 32Pro. No problems so far. We'll see how the rest of the evening goes!

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Sat May 19, 2007 9:30 pm

I used 'Express' running XP Home w/SP2

ecc8gb · Post by **ecc8gb** » Sun May 20, 2007 6:03 pm

ubiquityman wrote:Doesn't work here.
rev 505 with QX6700 & 2GB ECC RAM.

I've tried unplugging EVERYTHING: USB, PS2, Video card, hard drives, DVDs, Floppy, etc.

Pulled out the battery and waited for a few hours with the power supply disconnected. No dice.

YES, the 2745 flash-update punished me good!1!!! (haha, I have to let out a laugh at myself, otherwise I'll smash my PC out of frustration!) The flash-process (from burned-CD .ISO) appeared to complete successfully. But after the mandatory reboot, the system just sat there -- I could see the HD-ligtht flickering every so often, and the hard-drive even made some occasional noises, but no video, no POST-screen, nothing else.

I tried powering-down (unplugging AC power-cable from back), then rebooting, but even that didn't fix anything. I running with 4 x Crucial 1GB DDR2-667 ECC 5-5-5-15 RAM. I tried pulilng out two sticks, but that didn't help. I also tried some generic Infineon (2x2GB DDR2/667 ECC 5-5-5-15) RAM. Unfortunately, I don't have any non-ECC RAM laying around.

ubuiquityman, do you need non-ECC RAM to do the floppy-recovery? I'm having no success with the floppy-recovery. I removed the jumper entirely, unplugged power, powered back up, etc. The floppy drive spins every s often, but I don't hear any beeps. The floppy isn't making normal noises, either. It's as if it can't track the disk. (I tried two different disks and two different 3.5" floppy drives, so I don't think the hardware is faulty.) This is with either the previous-BIOS (2692?) and the latest (bad) BIOS.

My board-revision is older than yours: 504 -- does that really makea a difference?

ubiquityman · Post by **ubiquityman** » Sun May 20, 2007 7:04 pm

Thank goodness for the 2nd (backup) PC.

I only have ECC memory as well, but the recovery floppy process works because the computer doesn't boot into BIOS per se.

It's NOT booting DOS like one might expect. The floppy drive access is all done through BIOS.

Make sure you leave it for 5 minutes. It takes that long before the floppy drive shows any activity.

rbichamp · Post by **rbichamp** » Sun May 20, 2007 7:07 pm

ecc8gb wrote:ubuiquityman, do you need non-ECC RAM to do the floppy-recovery? I'm having no success with the floppy-recovery. I removed the jumper entirely, unplugged power, powered back up, etc. The floppy drive spins every s often, but I don't hear any beeps. The floppy isn't making normal noises, either. It's as if it can't track the disk. (I tried two different disks and two different 3.5" floppy drives, so I don't think the hardware is faulty.) This is with either the previous-BIOS (2692?) and the latest (bad) BIOS.

ecc8gb, how long did you wait when attempting the recovery method? In my case (and I think this is normal), you have to wait over 5 minutes for it to complete. It appears like nothing is happening during that time, but eventually it completes.

EDIT: looks like ubiquityman and I were responding at the same time!

ubiquityman · Post by **ubiquityman** » Sun May 20, 2007 7:30 pm

great minds think a like!

So far, every post that I've seen from people that have the non-booting problem after reflash all have ECC memory.

I'm pretty sure that is the problem.
If anyone that has ECC memory feels so inclined, set the Memory to non-ECC before reflash and see if it makes any difference.

To date, I've counted about 7 or so cases online of folks that have the endless POST loop and the common theme is that they all have ECC memory.

My case with the S3 Standby problem on the Marvell controller is at Intel's Level 2 tech support, so I will try to call Intel Monday morning and tell them the flashing problem and see if they can get a fix out soon.

ecc8gb · Post by **ecc8gb** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:41 am

ubiquityman wrote:Thank goodness for the 2nd (backup) PC.

I only have ECC memory as well, but the recovery floppy process works because the computer doesn't boot into BIOS per se.

It's NOT booting DOS like one might expect. The floppy drive access is all done through BIOS.

Make sure you leave it for 5 minutes. It takes that long before the floppy drive shows any activity.

Yeah, I turned on the PC and waited for almost 10 minutes.
The floppy starts moving after 30 seconds, and then the PC just sits there with the 'occasional' floppy griding (every 20-30 sec.)

It's almost as if the floppy isn't being accessed properly.

I don't hear any beeps or anything. Did you hear the beeps? The manual makes it sound lik I should hear 2 beeps very quickly. Sigh...oh well! Maybe it's time to RMA the board... ugh

One last question ubiquityman -- after you flashed to the 2692 BIOS (from an ECC system), and your board went into an endless loop -- did you try swapping out the ECC-RAM for non-ECC RAM? I may try buying some non-ECC RAM tomorrow, and then maybe my hosed 975XBX2 will be bootable enough to flash it back to the 2674 BIOS.

UPDATE

Ok, I'm a MORON! I did the recovery-flash all wrong, haha! I re-read the 'bios recovery' page on Intel's website. I was using the WRONG file! I tried the MS-DOS BIOS-update, but there's a separate file (*.BIO) just for the floppy-recovery process -- GRRRR, I should have read directions more carefully the first time around!

Anyway, my motherboard is been successfully downgraded to 2692. I guess I'llhave to wait for Intel to issue a different (fixed) BIOS for us older (Rev 505 and older) motherboard using ECC-RAM.[/b]

Dandruff · Post by **Dandruff** » Mon May 21, 2007 2:04 pm

yeah, anyone contacted intel? the email-support site for the XBX2 isn't working here!?

ubiquityman · Post by **ubiquityman** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:27 pm

Yes, I spoke to tech support today.
The person I spoke with says that they tried the new BIOS with ECC memory and found that it does not POST as I had described.

Now we have to wait for them to fix it.