Corrupted BIOS?

I bought a Biostar TP35D2-A7 from newegg when I upgraded my computer, but it seems to have a problem.  It recognizes all my hardware and it is possible to go to my OS, but it doesn't let me enter the BIOS setup function from POST.  Everytime I try it just displays a blank screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner.

Part of the reason I bought this board is that it is possible to fix the BIOS by booting from a floppy and using "awardflash.exe" and the latest BIOS on a floppy drive.

However, Biostar's site is broken and doesn't have the awardflash.exe for download and I don't have a floppy drive anymore.

So three questions.  Is it my bios if it won't enter setup during POST?  Are all awardflash.exe programs the same regardless of manufacturer?  Should I make a bootable CD to save time/money or try scrounge up a floppy drive?

That does sound fairly strange.  Is the blank screen part of some password protection on the BIOS?

Sometimes when working with Dell Optiplexes, a motherboard replacement got me a m/b in an indeterminant state.  Once, this state included a password (I shit you not!).

If you're OK with the following, then wipe the CMOS via some m/b jumper and then pull the battery just to make sure.  Maybe that'll clear it up and you'll be able to get into it then.

Tried clearing the CMOS before, haven't tried yanking the battery.

I get the splash screen for the BIOS so I know the chip has at least something, but trying to select any options at POST gets nothing.

"F8 for System Config
F9 for Boot Device Selection
F1 to Continue or F9 for Setup"

Only F1 works and sends me straight to windows.

http://www.lejabeach.com/Biostar/P35D2A7/

I found this site that has the latest BIOS and Awardflash programs.

I managed to borrow a USB floppy drive that the computer can boot from at start up and made a bootdisk with these files.

After I select the bios I just get a Please Wait! message in ver 8.82a for half an hour and the rest of the awardflash programs continue flashing the "select a file" portion and don't even get that far.

Would getting an internal floppy drive really make a difference?

Well, I advise first clearing the CMOS for a couple of minutes, then yanking the battery for another couple of minutes.

After that, lean on that F8 key.  Just to cover all the possibilities, does your F8 key work?  Swapout the keyboard temporarily, just to be sure.

I don't think your diskette drive selection is a problem.  However, I've gotta ask if the BIOS config is trying to load from it?  I remember seeing something like that, but that was years ago, probably in the 486 era.  That would be fairly bizarre today to see the BIOS try to load a configuration program from the diskette drive (which as you stated, is missing).

Having you ever played 4chanbo?  BUMP COVERS SPAM.

Clearing CMOS didn't work just from the jumpers, I took your advice and yanked out the battery.

Worked like a charm, BIOS is working perfectly now but is still on the old version.

I think I'll wait on getting a real floppy drive before I try updating and risk messing up with the USB floppy.

In the meantime, thanks Redcream, I'd probably would have RMA'd the damn thing without your help.

{blush}