BAD Flash recovery solution for the C90S

[RGS]

you dont need a boot system, just a valid media. DOnt create a DOS starup system. Just do the format WITHOUT the boot system. BTW, if your USB has a valid media, you dont need to format the USB drive.
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BTW, I get some amount of emails about this bad flash trouble. I guess a lot of people at some point get a bad flash but many just dont like to ask about that here. I think this thread should be an sticky somewhere but again I wrote this one so dont get my word for granted

[NightWalker]

Sorry to sound stupid RGS, but what do you mean by a valid media? I'm using Cruzer Micro USB flash drive. I'll reformat again as you suggested. Thanks a bunch for the assistance!

[RGS]

it is not problem to assist you cause I ve been there and no one could help me then so I was out of my laptop for almost a week until ASUS tech go back to me. Any readable device, in my case was a pen. BTW, you dont need to format your usb pen if you can read it on any other computer. If it is readable, just put the FILE in there and follow the first post instructions and you will be fine

[NightWalker]

Still nothing : / I reformated the usb flash drive as a FAT32 partition and made sure not to select another other options. I then downloaded the C90S bios file and named it "C90S.BIN" and placed it in the root of the flash drive.

Popped it in my C90S and power it up. The USB flash drive lights up once and then doesnt do anything even when I press Alt+F2. I'm really stumped at this point. Does anyone happen to know where the CMOS battery is located? Maybe I could try removing that.

[NightWalker]

I found the CMOS batter... It was right in front of me next to the notebook battery lol. I unplugged it and maybe it will help.

EDIT: Nope : /

[Tinderbox (UK)]

Hi.

I found a nice simple page with info for recovering after a bad flash, print it out and keep it with your manual.

even make a recover disk, just in case.

http://www.biosman.com/biosrecovery.html

regards

John.

[NightWalker]

RGS,

Got your PM and I am following it to a T right now : )

Tinderbox,

Great site! Thanks for the info!

One more stupid question... Does the C90S use an AMI bios or an Award bios? I thought it used AMI but I need to be sure before something else goes wrong lol.

[RGS]

it is AMI and Biosman couldnt help me. AMI tech support was the one that told me that for laptops, each carrier adapt their BIOS recoveries to their own spec or style I ve been in all major sites about BIOS recovery back then. I learn a great deal though about Phoenix & AMI recovery because back then I didnt know what BIOS brand had the c90s (didnt pay attention to startups )

[RGS]

btw, here is a good page to find your BIOS Brand for people that just want to find out without restarting their cpu

http://scan.esupport.com/?r=36&CFID=...TOKEN=46800373

[NightWalker]

UPDATE:

I tried everything I could with a CD, USB flash drive, and even a USB floppy drive and still had no luck : / I RMA'd it with Asus and luckily bios updates ARE covered under warranty!

In the RMA notes it says they replaced the motherboard with an F06 revision. However, when I cracked open the ACE door it looked exactly like my old board and it was still an F09 revision. Vista hasn't bugged me to reactivate my copy of Windows yet like it did last time I had to have the motherboard replaced either.

I think they have a sneaky bios recovery method that no matter what they wouldn't tell me. Anyway, all is fixed as far as I can tell.

RGS, thanks again for all the help! + major rep!

EDIT:

"Windows was deactivated due to a hardware change" Looks like they did in fact change the board.