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Think I've bricked my EX475 BIOS, won't run POST, fixable?
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Author:  a62vw [ Tue Jun 02, 2020 11:00 am ]
Post subject:  Think I've bricked my EX475 BIOS, won't run POST, fixable?

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Hi,
I'm not sure ho many experts are still active here but I thought I'd give this a shot!
I decided to ressurect my old EX475 (after blowing off the dust!) that's been sitting idle for a while, and install Ubuntu server for some local file storage. In doing the Ubuntu setup and formatting the drives, I accidentally formatted the internal USB disk, and in doing so, assume I also then wiped the BIOS as it won't now go past the initial BIOS screen, and doesn't even start the IDE drive detection. (I have the KVM VGA/Keyboard adaptor fitted).
Is it beyond repair or is there a way I can re-flash / re-code the BIOS? Obviously it won't boot from USB stick either so I can't use normal BIOS flas tools.
There's a guy local to me selling a refurbed motherboard but at £129 I'd rather not have to go that route!
Any suggestions for recovery would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Vaughn.

Attachment:
Homeserver boot failure.JPG
Homeserver boot failure.JPG [ 92.07 KiB | Viewed 18113 times ]

Author:  Ruben Rocha [ Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Think I've bricked my EX475 BIOS, won't run POST, fixabl

If it were me.
I would have re installed the original os.
Just to make sure of no hardware issues since it was sitting idle for a while before attempting a Ubuntu install.
Could be a drive is faulty ,corrosion in the cpu or ram or backplane sockets.
I have never dealt with the ex47X series I have the ex490.
But I will say a lot of people have posted strange behavior and it came down to a dead bios battery and the date was out of sync.
If you think about it the server has been around a long time.
Battery replacement is probably long overdue.
Just look at the post date

Author:  a62vw [ Tue Jun 02, 2020 3:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Think I've bricked my EX475 BIOS, won't run POST, fixabl

Thanks for the suggestions. The battery has been replaced prior to booting up (I realise these boxes have been around for a while!). The drives were working fine, tested and reformatted. I had the Ubuntu server up and running but made some changes to partitions, and mistakenly deleted the USB SSD at which point it failed after reboot. The power supply is a new upgraded. The fans are all running good, and interior all clean of dust and dirt. I bricked the BIOS, end of, I just need to know if I can rebuild it. I have done plenty of BIOS reflashes in my time but never had a scenario like this!

Anyother suggestions would be welcome!

Author:  ultraviolet [ Mon Feb 07, 2022 9:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Think I've bricked my EX475 BIOS, won't run POST, fixabl

a62vw wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions. The battery has been replaced prior to booting up (I realise these boxes have been around for a while!). The drives were working fine, tested and reformatted. I had the Ubuntu server up and running but made some changes to partitions, and mistakenly deleted the USB SSD at which point it failed after reboot. The power supply is a new upgraded. The fans are all running good, and interior all clean of dust and dirt. I bricked the BIOS, end of, I just need to know if I can rebuild it. I have done plenty of BIOS reflashes in my time but never had a scenario like this!

Anyother suggestions would be welcome!


hi there, i've actually been through exactly this scenario on my ex475. the problem is that the grub bootloader used by most linux distros somehow hangs the bios, and as long as it is present on an attached storage device the bios acts like that. it's some kind of weird bug on amd platforms of this era, i have another machine with a socket 754 sempron that acts the same way. i made the mistake of trying to install grub on the internal flash on my ex475, only to end up in the same situation. thankfully, you can fix it! but the process is a little bit involved. you need to disassemble the machine and ground the reset pin on the controller chip for the internal flash while the bios loads. that way, the bios will not see the internal flash and will allow you to boot off a usb drive. then once the boot process starts, you can let go of the reset pin on the internal flash controller and wipe that drive from the running os. then when you install a linux distro, if you are using the internal flash, you need to use a bootloader like syslinux instead of grub. i know this may sound a bit involved but i'd be happy to post pics if you're still around and would like the info!

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