WTF just happened?!  

I just tried calling Asus support about the BIOS weirdness. Because I have an Asus Essentio Tower, they transferred me to Motherboard Support. The guy wanted the serial number from the back panel of the tower, but I was breaking my back, back there and trying to read the tiny numbers to him and he said none of them were correct. SO I finally took my cell and took this photo and he still didn't like the numbers. He had me open a command prompt and try to get the SN of the BIOS but that didn't work either. I think he was in Asia. I could barely hear him, with a lot of static. Now I need to find the command prompt for the BIOS SN.

But I told him what happened and he said that he'd never heard of Windows 10 changing the BIOS settings from AMD to Intel. One other guy there, before I talked with this guy, said it was possible! In short, then he says that maybe I should call Microsoft! Good luck with THAT! I'd be going around with them for WEEKS!

But I need to find the BIOS SN and how to flash it. On the web, I found reference to Asus having some kind of EZ Flash, where you can put the BIOS on a USB chip and flash it that way. This is unbelievable...

Why won't this work?

If the computer is that old I would replace the Cmos Battery (CR2032 usually) AFTER taking photos of the current Bios screens so you can restore the options if needed ....ie some are not set to "Optimised defaults" , and consider updating the current Bios if not already the latest for the MB.

The inaccessible boot device was likely cos the Bios lost it's boot order for one reason or another and the default meant it didn't auto boot to the Hard-drive any longer. Doing a Startup Repair can usually reset this for you...assuming it is set correctly in the Bios 1st.

If the Comp. was running off your UPS when you came home , it's likely you had a power failure or surge or something , which may indicate why the bios was corrupt too.

KB

The setup screens are hosed! It went from saying it's an AMD process to INTEL! I cant even comprehend how an AMD cpu can run with bios being set to Intel.

MamaBear said:

Why won't this work?

Is this what Asus Support told you to do ? did you use the Command Prompt with Admin. Rights ? ((also called an elevated prompt)

The bios no# is usaslly available on the Post screen and or in the Bios itself. I have never seen a bios serial # on a sticker.

Oh wow! I had this saved from years ago! Must have taken a digital photo! I guess it WAS an Intel! Apologies guys. Must be getting old. LOL Now is that the serial number at the bottom?

But wait, the system is ok now. I don't need to worry about this anymore?

Wow. Thought I was going crazy!

MamaBear said:

Oh wow! I had this saved from years ago! Must have taken a digital photo! I guess it WAS an Intel! Apologies guys. Must be getting old. LOL Now is that the serial number at the bottom?

But wait, the system is ok now. I don't need to worry about this anymore?

Wow. Thought I was going crazy!

:) AMI is not AMD indeed ........ you are on Bios 206 the very 1st one released ...see below.

does not mean you don't have issues , replace that battery and keep finger crossed the Bios remembers its settings.

No idea why Asus support could not find your model from those photos you took , it took me all of 3 mins at Asus Support Site to find your latest bios and Drivers etc.

ASUS USA


Bios 402 was the last and latest Bios

Well Asus support didn't see that screen photo of the BIOS boot - I just found that. Profuse apologies again. What happened is that I've always preferred, and shopped for AMD over Intel, since that crippled processor thing years ago. But apparently when I found this deal on a refurbed Asus tower in 2010, I went for it despite being Intel. Whew.

So now I have to reset to the issue that Windows 10 is just a buggy POS, and maybe rest the PC to Win 7, though I'd rather not.

But I SHOULD take photos, as suggested, of the BIOS settings, and change the battery anyway. Even that North Bridge and South Bridge stuff, I suppose. Or just get the Asus EZ Flash first and use that if the battery change resets it?

By the way, I think you searched for Windows 8 there, but this was a Win 7 machine originally, before this recent switch to Windows 10.

I used the photo you took of the back of your tower with the CG5270 number to find it at Asus above.

Changing the battery ($2) will clear the CMOS , so take photos of all pages and areas so you can replicate all settings. Usually it is good to boot into the Bios and "Load optimised Defaults" and then save and reboot then go back to the Bios and setup anything as needed for your particular system, the save and reboot , back to Windows.

You are on an initial release Bios , mostly they are not known for their stability , so I would upgrade to the latest/last just incase it fixes something else other that the Temp.Probe mentioned. Make sure you are comfortable with the process etc before attempting it, this will also reset the bios , so take those photos as mentioned.

There are two manuals their too if you don't have them already too

This comp maybe old enough that you need to boot to a command prompt and do the bios flash from there if there is no option in the bios itself , usually called EzFlash , though it may look for the bios file on a Floppy if the Computer had a Floppy Drive rather than USB.

Kbird said:

I used the photo you took of the back of your tower with the CG5270 number to find it at Asus above.

Changing the battery ($2) will clear the CMOS , so take photos of all pages and areas so you can replicate all settings. Usually it is good to boot into the Bios and "Load optimised Defaults" and then save and reboot then go back to the Bios and setup anything as needed for your particular system, the save and reboot , back to Windows.

You are on an initial release Bios , mostly they are not known for their stability , so I would upgrade to the latest/last just in case it fixes something else other that the Temp.Probe mentioned.

When I searched for Win 7 releases, I thought it said this was the latest, that I have on this machine.

Then I don't know how compatible it is with Windows 10 either.