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m5500i-r3 bios update now wont boot

post #1 of 17
11/30/10 at 4:41pm
Thread Starter 
I ran the update for bios 2.06 and now my computer wont boot. It powers on. caps scroll and numlock lights are on. The HDD access for a sec and then it reboots. It does this over and over again.
Druthlen
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post #2 of 17
12/1/10 at 1:40pm
Not good. Are you sure the bios was compatible?
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post #3 of 17
12/1/10 at 2:32pm
Thread Starter 
I downloaded it from this website. It said it was 2.06 for m5550. I have m5500i-r3 which is supposedly a m5550. I did some digging and this motherboard is the same one used in a almio PI 1556. The bios chip is sst 39vf088. I found a website that will sell me a new chip flashed with the pi 1556 bios. I am at a total loss so I guess im gonna resolder a new bios chip on and pray.
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post #4 of 17
12/1/10 at 2:52pm
You know how to do that?
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post #5 of 17
12/2/10 at 4:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Druthlen View Post
I ran the update for bios 2.06 and now my computer wont boot. It powers on. caps scroll and numlock lights are on. The HDD access for a sec and then it reboots. It does this over and over again.
Druthlen
What happened if you just tried to boot from an installation CD/DVD?

cheers ...
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post #6 of 17
12/5/10 at 4:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Druthlen View Post
I am at a total loss so I guess im gonna resolder a new bios chip on and pray.
No need to do that, check out my Bios recovery thread:
http://www.notebookforums.com/post3175965.html
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post #7 of 17
12/7/10 at 4:56pm
Thread Starter 
That was actually very helpful. I now know that the bios flash didnt fail. The Video card I have in there is a 8600m GT. This is not the card the machine shipped with. The previous owner flashed the bios with the amilo pi 1556 bios version 1.26 because for some reason the graphics card works with that bios. When i flashed it to 2.06w m5500i-r3 bios the video card wont work with that bios. So now i need a card that will work with the bios so I can flash it back to the amilo pi 1556 1.26 bios and reinstall my 8600M GT. The behavior I am getting is all caps.scroll.num lock and power led are solid. HDD led lights up and blinks and then it reboots over and over and over. I have researched this and alot of ppl have this issue with the 8600m GT in this machine. So I ordered a nvidia 7600 Go card. With anyluck this card will allow it to boot into windows and I can flash it back to fujitsu Amilo pi 1556 1.26 bios.

On a side note I have decided I dont like alienware support. Thier techs insisted I had to replace the MB after failed bios. I spent 3 yrs working in a dell facility doing board lvl repair on MB with failed bios chips. It seems their techs didnt even know what a Bios chip was thinking the MB was as low lvl as it could get. BAH.

I am thinking of buying the clevo B5130 barebones from rjtech for 464. Thoughts on that machine?
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post #8 of 17
12/7/10 at 5:09pm
Constant rebooting could also indicate a faulty graphics card btw.
I know that the machine is supposed to work with 2.06w and the 8600M GT also, so maybe the card is toast? Did you perform the flash to 2.06w with a CD or winflash (always a good chance of bricking the machine)?
Have you tried reverting to 1.26 via crisis recovery method?
Also, you can perform the crisis recovery without any card installed, as
there is no screen output.
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post #9 of 17
12/7/10 at 7:41pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you for replying. The card was working perfectly with the 1556 bios. It bricked when I upgraded the bios and hit enter to reboot and it was doing this. I cant seem to get it to access usb. It does try to access the cd drive but no cd I have tried works. I used barts method to create a pheonix recovery cd but it doesnt work. I havent tried usb floppy maybe that is what I am missing. oh and I dont have a battery. Could that prevent it from going into recovery mode?
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post #10 of 17
12/8/10 at 2:27am
Missing battery could be a potential reason for not entering recovery mode and I am
fairly sure that USB and Floppy disk are the only viable options for the recovery.
You have to keep trying. The Ctrl+Home keys have to be pressed before and during pressing the power button to ahve the USB stick accessed.
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post #11 of 17
12/8/10 at 6:21pm
Btw, crisis recovery creator seems to be working only under Windows XP,
so maybe your problem was trying to create the recovery stick under 7?
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post #12 of 17
12/10/10 at 2:31pm
Thread Starter 
Good idea. I have a windows xp box. Ill try that.
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post #13 of 17
12/10/10 at 2:48pm
Best of luck, and keep us posted on the outcome.
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post #14 of 17
12/11/10 at 1:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Druthlen View Post
Thier techs insisted I had to replace the MB after failed bios. I spent 3 yrs working in a dell facility doing board lvl repair on MB with failed bios chips. It seems their techs didnt even know what a Bios chip was thinking the MB was as low lvl as it could get. BAH.
They do know what a BIOS chip is, but policies and warranties with manufacturers state that the whole motherboard must be returned.

They are not allowed to just return the single chip, much less let an end user risk de-solder and soldering it back again. Too much risk of causing more damage than good.

Yes, I know that some of us can be quite handy and know our ways around computers, but companies cannot simply take that risk with end users.
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post #15 of 17
1/8/11 at 4:59pm
Thread Starter 

No go

Well Windows 7 was infact an issue. It was not creating the crisis recovery disk. I loaded a emulation of windows xp and it loaded a crisis recovery disk just fine. Unfortunately, I still cant recover the bios. I bought a battery and it didnt help. My next step is to buy a nvidia 7600 go card and try that. Will post updates.
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post #16 of 17
9/25/11 at 10:08am

I have the same problem.  M5500i-R3 w/ 8600gt MXM2 card (upgraded from dead 7600go).  I am about to part this thing out.  Were you able to fix the problem?

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post #17 of 17
9/25/11 at 6:24pm
Thread Starter 
No bricked, sold for parts.
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