After troubleshooting and researching for almost a month, I have finally come to my wit’s end with this error. I am going to try to mod the BIOS before sending in the board or ripping off the chip. Any advice for further troubleshooting is appreciated, as I may have missed something.
Here is the problem. I bought an old Alienware system to spruce up as a low to mid range gaming system for a friend, using spare parts I have. I only invested in it because of the Mobo being compatible with what I had on hand. I unfortunately already began to buy parts as well before I ran into the issue, so I am invested in getting this build to work. Hindsight, I should have gutted the system. Oh well.
Anyways, the mobo in question is an Asus M3A32 MVP Deluxe, and it has an AMI BIOS. The system build is one of the last ones before Alienware was bought by Dell, so it already had the final driver and chipsets released installed. I checked with Asus, and confirmed this is a board that can accept socket AM3 chips with a BIOS flash to a more recent version. So, first step was to flash the BIOS. I used EZ Flash and flashed from a USB stick a .rom I got direct from the Asus site. All went well with the utility, and it confirmed it was successful. On reboot, I get the following:
"Checking NVRAM…
Not enough space in Runtime area!!. SMBIOS data will not be available. Press F1 to
resume"
Pressing F1 does not, in fact resume. System refuses to boot past it. Cannot load live discs either. I can, however, access the BIOS and chance things, and save things. I can access EZ Flash too and reflash with the same result. That is all I can do. No beep codes because beeper wasn’t installed and I don’t have one on hand. Not sure what good it would do, as there is an error message telling me it’s problem.
Googling around reveals this is a VERY common problem with Asus boards in this generation, and it always happened when using EZ Flash. It’s some kind of design flaw with the board ROM or the BIOS. Not sure.
Here is a list of everything I have tried, all of which end up in the same place of an unbootable system that only loads BIOS:
Reflashed BIOS. Many times. I tried the same one I had flashed to. I downloaded a fresh one and tried that. Tried the original BIOS and received an error regarding a newer BIOS already being installed. I was only able to successfully flash one version behind the new one I flashed. I suppose I could try to go back, one version at a time, until I am at the original?
Cleared the CMOS in every way I know how. Popped the battery. Set the jumper. Cleared in BIOS. Settings cleared fine (reset the clock and everything), but still the same error, even when I chose to load defaults fresh off the reset.
Unplugged the Harddrive out of fear there was a bootloader virus on this used system, then reflashed the BIOS again and kept the harddrive unplugged. Nope.
Fiddled with all kinds of settings in BIOS. Couldn’t even tell you which ones, I just starting messing with all of them then resetting. Same result.
Got quite irate with the Asus customer service both on the phone and through Email, since they use Indian call centers and I couldn’t get an actual tech at Asus to talk to to save my life. Just some very non helpful people telling me everything I needed was on the website, insisting I can fix it if only I would download driver packages there. Obviously, none of the support people are understanding what is happening here… and they only offered managers for me to speak with. That just ticked me off more, because a manager doesn’t know any more than them. NEED A TECH.
I read around on this issue and found suggestions to get the installation disc, pop it in, and hold down ctrl plus pgup on boot to get access to a utility that would clear the NVRAM properly before a flash. I don’t have the original disc, nor could find an .iso. I did, however, get my hands on the .iso for another Asus board of a fairly similar generation, maybe only one gen newer, in hopes that would work. Nope, couldn’t get this magical utility to start.
So, at my last wits and the Indians asking me to send the board to Asus (I doubt they will fix it, long out of warranty which I already explained to the guy TWICE.). I am ready to break stuff, then I will send it in if a modded BIOS doesn’t work. Nothing else I can do at this point…
So! Here is a link to the Asus .rom files for this board. https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M3A32M…pDesk_Download/
I flashed to the 2301, though the 2104 would have worked too for the CPU I am using. The mobo currently has the 2104 on it, and I can flash it back to the 2301. Both give the same error.
I followed along on the guide here, picked up the MMTOOL V3.26. I opened the ROM file, and had no idea what was safe to try to chuck out of the file. Tried to remove language files, no dice. Was able to remove images, but not sure if that did anything. Still shows as 1MB in size, the same as the original, even after saving it and reopening. I am not sure if I can dig in deeper to just eliminate the error or find a conflict causing the issue. Maybe just making the .rom smaller will do the trick? Every ROM on the Asus website unzips to 1MB… I am not supposed to be feeding in a zipped file to the ROM, am I?? This is far from my first BIOS flash, but it is sure making me second guess myself…
I am going to try to daisy down the BIOS version and see if I can’t get it back to the original. I will report back in a minute with the results.
All wisdom is very appreciated at this point. 
EDIT:
Nope, can’t daisy version down. I can only flash to 2104, 2202, or 2301. All give the same error.
in this situation only thing you can do put bios chip out and reflash with programmer or spi header if your board have any since ezflash and rest of flashers do not do full bios write, only update some regions
sometimes this can be avoided by flashing bios one by one (incremental) to get to the latest one, sometimes can be avoided with dos bios flash
@ Imaya:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
I hope, that ala_borbe’s suggestion will help you.
@ ala_borbe:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum and thanks for your contribution!
Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)
@ala_borbe : I will see if I have the proper headers on the mobo this weekend. I found some guides for the procedure too, thanks for the lead! I found guides for using both an Arduino Uno and a Pi, both of which I have. I have access to all needed components as well, so this is a feasible, if not a bit intimidating, project.
@Fernando : Before I spend a weekend doing open heart surgery on the SPI chip, I would still like to try to fix the BIOS itself. If I brick it badly, I still was planning on doing the surgery anyways. Since there are newer versions of EZ Flash out, would it be possible, therefore, to swap out the old version, swap in the new version, flash the bios with my modded new BIOS with the updated version of ezflash, then use the new version of Ezflash to reflash again properly with the modded BIOS, and hopefully clear this up? Do you know if we have a procedure and/ or the proper EZFlash module lying around that I can plug in?
I am new to modding BIOS, and this is all a learning experience for me. I am reading the guides and trying to get a grasp on how this will work and what is possible.
Thanks!
@ Imaya:
You should better ask these questions one of our BIOS gurus (e.g. CodeRush or lordkag). They know much more about the risks of such BIOS modding procedures than me.
Have you tried the AMI flash recovery?
I tried it once on a messed up MB, and it did work, had to use a PS/2 keyboard when hitting ctrl+home.
Here is some info from MSI, but works with other brands also.
@Pacman : Thanks! I came across the key combination while browsing here. There is supposed to be something similar built into the board, but requires I have the original motherboard disc, which I do not have. I had tried it with a disc I burned for a similar board, but it did not work. I might have access to a floppy drive, though there are many unknowns. I have no idea if it is working, don’t know where I can find an actual floppy (I do have some buried deep in my storage, but whether they are still in usable condition is questionable), and the drive I saw might actually be SCSI, not IDE. Another weekend project is to dig around my makerspace and see if I can find a working IDE floppy drive and an actual floppy disc for it. Should be able to find a PS/2 keyboard somewhere too, those are still common enough.
Keep the idea coming, guys! I am making a list of things to try this weekend before working on the actual hardware. I might as well mess up the the BIOS properly before doing the external flash procedures.
You shouldn’t need a floppy though, what i did was i formated a USB-stick as FAT, not FAT32, renamed the BIOS file to “AMIBOOT.ROM”.
But, hitting the Ctrl+home combo at just the right time is a bit tricky, and that is why you have to use a PS/2 keyboard, a USB keyboard is initialized to late, i had to hit the key combo several times very fast to trigger the recovery.
@Pacman : As a follow up question, while reading through the mobo user’s manual, it also mentioned that there is a size limit on USB sticks that can be used with their Crash Free BIOS utility, which is similar to what we are discussing here. They specify a limit of 8GB on the stick, which I imagine is to limit the number of partitions created. Any idea of similar sensitivity to stick size/ number of partitions with the AMI tool? I ask, because my smallest stick easily available is 16GB. I need to dig to find my old 128MB one I kept around for such instances.
I am not sure why there is a size limit, but, i have been thinking about the presice way i did it, so you can try if you want.
You will need:
A USB-stick size doesn’t matter, but it will be erased.
Win32 Disk Imager.
A PS/2 keyboard.
+ some files.
First i downloaded a floppy disk image from here the MB i recovered needed FAT12 USB-stick, so the easiest way i found was to write this floppy image with Win32 Disk Imager
This will make a 1.44MB FAT12 partition on you USB-stick with the DOS files, then delete all the files from the USB-stick, but don’t re-format it.
Copy the 1MB BIOS file to it, rename it to "AMIBOOT.ROM"
Connect only the PS/2 keyboard, monitor and power to the computer, Power on and press the Ctrl+home combo several times fast, it may take a few tries, otherwise try a different USB port if it doesn’t work.
I finally got around to giving this a try, Pacman. Unfortunately, it did not work. No response. I tried a stick both formatted in the method you mentioned, as well as one formatted in regular FAT. Neither one ran the recovery tool. I am not sure if this is actually because the system doesn’t detect a bad BIOS?
Hooking up a floppy is beyond reason, as I both cannot find a disk lying around, nor anything that would allow me to interface with any of my computers in order to even WRITE the needed disk. I would have to spend money on adapters and/ or parts, at which point, I might as well just buy a new motherboard.
My next attempt before surgery is to cause a bad flash, then try to use the recovery tool. If this is a terrible idea, someone needs to speak up before this weekend, because I am not finding any less intrusive/ damaging methods of fixing this!
Well, purposely causing a bad flash would not be the recommended way in most cases, but since you have both an Arduino and a Raspberry PI to use as programmers,
and you would have to reprogram the BIOS chip anyway (or buy a new one), since the board is unusable, and seemingly not recoverable any other way, i guess you could try it.
But first i Think it may be good that you check that the BIOS chip is supported by the software & HW you would have to use, if you would have to remove it and reprogram.
EDIT: Obviously, you would have to consider the risk of not being able to recover the BIOS and left with only the option to buy a new chip, Before making your decision.
@Pacman
I am really ready to just buy a replacement board. But the time it will take to properly hook up the super custom case stuff and redo the wiring makes me very wary, and is why I don’t want to spend the $30 to do so.
I just went ahead and properly bricked it. I exhausted all other attempts, even trying small things like clearing the CMOS a million times and replacing the battery.
It is currently not POSTING, but is reading the stick I formatted in the method you described, not the FAT one. Let’s see what comes out of the oven…
I am too scared to look, and have been avoiding dealing with this system for too long. sigh
OK, let’s hope all goes well, seems like it should work if it’s reading from The USB stick.
Welp, I guess that explains that. Something more is at play, because the crashfree BIOS is not kicking in. There are supposed to be prompts on-screen indicating it is looking for a source to read from, which I am not seeing. Beeper is not installed, and the pins are removed, so I have no idea what the board is trying to tell me. I can tell it is in a panic, screaming out to all ports, which is why the stick lit up. The USB keyboard will flash on and off, and case lights are pulsing (they do that when there is I/O activity) But it doesn’t seem to want to read either stick. I left it for an hour to fix the BIOS, but it didn’t work. Maybe I need to try an older version. Not getting the on-screen prompts concerns me, however. There is no indication the CrashFree is kicking in, and instead I have a truly good and bricked board now.
@Imaya
Did you name The file exactly “AMIBOOT.ROM” with capital letters?
Also did you try All USB ports? I had to try a few before it found The file.
Here is also some information that suggests alternative BIOS recovery file naming.
Also, if i remember correctly, there is no on screen information until the BIOS file is found and it starts flashing it.
@Pacman
Yes, I definitely have it named correctly on both sticks. For completion sake, I also tried putting a copy of it with the original name on the stick too.
I did not try every port, just the top ones and the front ones. When messing with it, I couldn’t tell if the front panel or top row were being read first, but it was definitely one of them. I am going to try to fill up the FAT formatted stick with every BIOS version I have, and will cycle the ports when I do it. I formatted it specifically to FAT 16 per the Mobo’s user guide as well. I did skip the CMOS reset after crashing the BIOS, however, so that needs to go on the list of things to try too.
That post might be onto something! Thanks for the lead. I will throw a copy on there with the M3a32mvp.ROM name and see what happens. I believe the manual did say the AMIBOOT.ROM was what was expected, but that isn’t working. Everything is worth a shot right now.
It is like starting all over again…
Whats wrong with just getting a ch341a?
@Imaya
That is strange, could it be that it is not Reading the USB stick, just powering it and initializing it?
Does it blink more than just quickly when you Power on the MB and press ctrl+home?
To me it seems it would be best to try all ports to make sure.
You can have more than one copy of the file on the stick, so just try all files with .ROM extension and .BIN and put them on the stick.
If you format with FAT16 pherhaps you should limit the partition size to maybe 1GB or so.
Otherwise you will have to remove the BIOS chip and use the Raspberry, Arduino or Another programmer.