Bios is all in German

[Lona]

When the machine starts to boot do you aways see the same things up to the point where it gets to the Windows logo and the freezes unless of course you enter the BIOS?

If so do you see the hard disk drives register correctly in the POST?

To my mind there are many factors that could give the symptoms you describe.

Maybe the BIOS has become corrupted.
This could be in two forms, a setting like the Language that has been referred to already.
A good starting point to start to fix this would be to look for the Load Fail Safe defaults option and select this and see if the PC boots. If not it may be that the code in the BIOS has become corrupted and to put this right the BIOS would have to be reflashed with the right firmware (code) again.
To flash a BIOS you must get all your ducks in a row and do it right otherwise the machine will to all intents and purposes be rendered useless!
That said I have done this a number of times and by far the best way is to boot it in from a prepared floppy disk or a bootable CD failing this.

As has already been said you must obtain the exact right BIOS firmware code for your motherboard (right down to the correct mobo revision number that should be on a label on the mobo). Get this code, preferrably direct from the mobo manufacturer's web site. The download will often be a zip file containing the firmware code file that will likely be in the form of a .rom or .bin file and the flash tool too.

Next you need a bootable floppy and I would recommend a DOS bootable floppy or a Windows 95 or 98 one. I would avoid a Windows ME type or later. Such bootable floppy disk images can be download from the web and Google finds any number. You will also need the flash tool/program for you particular BIOS. AWDFLASH.EXE is a common one but it is BIOS type dependent and is often available from the same source that you can download the BIOS code from.

With your bootable floppy disk prepared with just the boot files, the flash tool/program and the .rom or .bin file on it there is one important step left.

Go back into the BIOS and make sure that your floppy disk is the first boot device. If you cannot get that far because the BIOS is too badly corrupted the next best things is what you have done already and that is to make sure that the settings are all cleared by removing the CMOS battery and if there is one, moving the CMOS clear jumper to the clear position, being sure to have the mains power removed by unplugging it at the wall socket before moving the shorting link to the clear position. I know there are some machines where you can do this without unplugging the mains but not being familiar with yours this is the safest way to proceed. Once you have cleared the BIOS be sure to put the jumper back into the normal position before you reconnect the mains power to the machine.

Now put the floppy disk you have prepared into the floppy drive, boot the machine from it and follow the prompts. You may be offered the option to save the existing BIOS code if so do so. Next cross your finger, trust that you have got it all right and go for it. I just hope that you are successful and that your machine is not one of these "modern" ones with no floppy drive although I am given to understand you can achieve much the same from a bootable CD but have never done it this way myself.

I hope by now you machine is alive and well again.

If not maybe you have a hard disk drive failing, the one containing the operating system would be favourite from the symptoms you describe. The last one I recall that I had go down kept reporting diminishing capacity in the POST where you see them register themselves when all is well. This is why I asked early on if you always see the same thing reported in the POST before the machine tries to go into Windows.

Next it could be the processor overheating and the thermal cutout operating to protect the processor from damage. A faulty or even dirty clogged up processor fan might cause this. I read on another forum of someone who had a clip break and the fan became dislodged.

Another favourite for machines freezing is duff memory. There is the Memtest program that can be downloaded and run ad nausea to check out the memory very thoroughly but for starters you could try, assuming that you BIOS will let you, enabling the memory test in the BIOS that makes the machine take longer to boot but does not Skip the memory test. I expect the option in the BIOS that you need to look for will refer to Skip Memory test. If you see this disable it and boot again and watch as the memory check runs through in the POST.

That's all I can think of for now. I hope there is something in my ramblings that is of assistance to you.

Best of luck 

Hi Les,  I have been on the Medion site and downloaded the latest bios update for my model. It came as a zip file which I unzipped and it's in the from of an exe.

Now I don't know whether to burn it to a disc as I don't have a floppy drive in pc or whether just to hit the exe and hope for the best.

[LesD]

Hi Les,  I have been on the Medion site and downloaded the latest bios update for my model. It came as a zip file which I unzipped and it's in the from of an exe.

Now I don't know whether to burn it to a disc as I don't have a floppy drive in pc or whether just to hit the exe and hope for the best.

Hi Iona.

I have never done a BIOS update this way so I am out of my depth but I have done a bit of Googling and at the end of this link:

http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2.nsf/web/1C76A239C79D9A32CA256E93000A4B5C

I found the following, which I am not sure is still on topic for your Medion 8383 but take a look and see what you think. If you think it is there is a method to flash the BIOS using an exe file described in the extract below which is from the post by Pranesh Pal Posted: 11/07/2004 (Note it is a four year old post)

(The one immediately before it makes interesting reading too knowing of your predicament!)


"3. There is Bios and chipset driver updates available on the medion website.

4. Flashing the BIOS can be bit of a worry. The downloaded file (biomd8088.exe) has to be run in windows and the files then extract to C:\Medion by default.I suggest you change it to C:\BIOS. From here copy all the files to RECOVERY drive E: ROOT Drive. (Don't delete things here as this is all the restore files in case of a system crash). Then boot the PC into DOS using the supplied boot CD. Choose boot to DOS and then Go to the RECOVERY area using DOS commands. When you run the BIOS update program (md8088.bat) it runs AWFL826B.EXE and the BIOS data is in W7048im7.10a.

When you run the batch file some instructions come up in German and nothing happens and you just sit there wondering if you have wrecked the PC.

Thankfully it is somewhat equivalent to : "Press any Key to Continue". The BIOS update is smooth after that. I suggest that you do a BIOS update with the system hooked to a UPS if you have it. !!!

The instructions on the MEDION site are not helpful for the Update".


OK I am adding this edit as I have done some more Googling on this mobo and it seems that cooling the processor and excessive fan noise as a result was an acknowledged issue as told in detail here:
http://md8083.hertsinternet.com/forum/YaBB.cgi?board=medionpcs;action=print;num=1102191454

There is am implication that this impacted on the Graphics card and with the other information I found about Graphic card failures I do wonder if it is the Graphics card that is your problem and not the BIOS.

Maybe you should hold off fashing the BIOS until the Graphics card issue is investigated.

Again the point at which your very first descriptions of the point at which the PC freezes as it is about to go into Windows seems to me to be the point when the initial VGA for the POST and initial stages of the boot process changes to the higher mode resolutions. If the Graphic card for whatever reason is unable to support the higher mode resolution the freezing you describe could well be the result.  The fact that you were encouraged to try and re-install the nVidia drivers support this theory too. If the machine works in VGA I would very much doubt that flashing the BIOS will have much influence on the higher mode resolutions as this is down to the Graphic card and its drivers.

Do you have another graphics card you could try or is the graphic in built on the Mobo? From my limited experience of onboard graphics I recall that on the machine I remember you did have to allocate some of the main RAM (memory) to the graphics/video function but this was a long time ago on a much older class of machine. If it is onboard graphics that has failed and you have a spare PCI slot a separate graphic card plugged into such a slot may get you going again. The mobo in the PC I am currently using had its onboard LAN port fail about a year ago so I got a separte LAN card plugged it in and away it went again. I did have to visit an option in my BIOS to disable the onboard LAN so it is possible that if we are talking about onboard graphics with the Medion that you would need to do the same. I know not easy unless you have a command of German by the sound of things.  There are simple on line translators that might help e.g.

http://www.freetranslation.com/

I have my  for you.

[Lona]

Hi again Les

I've been wondering myself if maybe the graphics card has died and when the pc boots up it can't find it.

What is really annoying is the bios being in german and when pc switches on at first, behind the intel logo the black screen has white dotted lines running from top to bottom.

When actually in the bios there's lots of (((((((( and half the instructions are missing and what I can guess at are all in german

I managed to get pc to boot last night from xp recovery disc and was very tempted to do a complete reinstall of windows but I have so many files I decided against it.

[Rik]

If it wasn't finding the card, Lona, there should be no display and a series of 'protest beeps'. It would be worth removing the card, making sure the contacts are clean, getting any dust off and then re-seating it though.

[LesD]

Hi again Les

I've been wondering myself if maybe the graphics card has died and when the pc boots up it can't find it.

Hi Lona,

I have read what Rick says and of course if the whole thing has failed he is right but I can imagine a scenario where the basic VGA functions and the higer resolution modes do not. Under these circumstances the first thing to go for is the drivers but from what you say you have been there and done that.

What is really annoying is the bios being in german and when pc switches on at first, behind the intel logo the black screen has white dotted lines running from top to bottom.

This sounds like one of those "splash" screens that are really annoying when things go wrong and you really need to see the information behind them! 

When actually in the bios there's lots of (((((((( and half the instructions are missing and what I can guess at are all in german.

Is there corruption of the messages that are in German? It sounds like it if some of the instructions are missing. I was hoping if you could type bits into the on-line translator it might help you make some sense of them.

I managed to get pc to boot last night from xp recovery disc and was very tempted to do a complete reinstall of windows but I have so many files I decided against it.

I think you were wise to hold off. Another graphics card even a cheap one off eBay might be worth a try before you do anything too drastic!

P.S. When you are up in VGA mode maybe you could copy your most precious files to a memory stick to preserve them or to move them somewhere else temporarily.

One thought where were you when you removed the old nVidia drivers, in Safe Mode? Sometimes doing it there is more thorough that in normal Windows mode. If you didn't, this is a bit of a long shot but it may be worth a try. If you do give it a go install them again in Safe mode too.

[Lona]

If it wasn't finding the card, Lona, there should be no display and a series of 'protest beeps'. It would be worth removing the card, making sure the contacts are clean, getting any dust off and then re-seating it though.

We took the card out just today, Rik.  reseated it and dusted the whole pc which wasn't all that dusty as it was cleaned not long ago.

I've booted it up just now and am going to install the driver again for the graphics card so we'll see what happens.

[Rik]

 

[Lona]

same thing black screen, power off, then reboot, safemode, uninstalled graphics driver the reboot and windows starts.

I'm completely stumped.

[Rik]

ATM, my money is on a corrupted BIOS.

[Lona]

ATM, my money is on a corrupted BIOS.

So would you recommend flashing the bios?  I've already tried removing the battery and moving the jumper to try and clear the bios

[Rik]

It's a potentially destructive move, Lona, but the German and the brackets shouldn't be displayed. You could try repairing/re-installing Windows first (certainly try and get your files off), but if that doesn't cure the problem, the BIOS would be the only way to go. However, there's always a risk that it will make things worse. Might be worth a word with Medion before doing anything.

[LesD]

It's a potentially destructive move, Lona, but the German and the brackets shouldn't be displayed. You could try repairing/re-installing Windows first (certainly try and get your files off), but if that doesn't cure the problem, the BIOS would be the only way to go. However, there's always a risk that it will make things worse. Might be worth a word with Medion before doing anything.

I am with Rick all the way Lona, apart from repairing/re-installing Windows because if you get into Windows in VGA mode I don't think it can be all that broke if you see what I mean.

Can you see the E: bit in that link I found that was said to contain all of the restore stuff? If so maybe those instructions for flashing the BIOS would work for your Mobo. The references to 8088 in the file names (i.e. md8088.bat) led to think that they were strictly for a different model Mobo. There is always an element of risk with any firmware flash be it BIOS, optical drive etc. so it has to be your decision in the end. The only BIOS update I had fail was one I did from within Windows. Everyone I have done from the boot in DOS type of approach has been successful.

As Rik says the corrupted text strings in the BIOS screens is very suspicious all be they in German. I don't think this is right either. Often as a machine boots the content of the BIOS ROM gets Cached in memory and held there. It is this that makes flashing removable BIOS chips possible by the hot swap method as the code gets written back as the machine shuts down. This is also a possible mechanism for corruption getting into the BIOS and speculatively speaking this may have happened to your machine. I just don't know if such a BIOS corruption would have the outcome with the higher mode graphics resolutions that we have speculated about.

Maybe the Medion Forums if nothing is forthcoming from Medion direct might be the place to go as was suggested early on.   

[Lona]

Well I'm getting some help on Medion forums but nobody can explain why bios has reverted to German.

[Inactive]

Can you see the E: bit in that link I found that was said to contain all of the restore stuff? If so maybe those instructions for flashing the BIOS would work for your Mobo. The references to 8088 in the file names (i.e. md8088.bat) led to think that they were strictly for a different model Mobo.

There is ( was ) an 8088 model, a fair bit older than Lona's model.

I would honestly think that if the Medion Forum cannot come up with a solution, things look fairly dire, sorry to say.

[Odos]

I have come across a similar type of problem on an E-Machines computer in the past. Everything would be working fine when suddenly windows would freeze and the bios would be currupted. In that particular case it turned out that the usb controller in the southbridge was shot. Reflashed the bios and installed a usb adapter card and the machine ran for quite some time after that before giving up the ghost.

As the graphics seem to be involved in this particular case I wonder if there is a fault somewhere in the graphics subsystem. I assume that it's an AGP graphics card you have, if so and you can't get it to run with that card after a reflash, then perhaps you could get hold of an old second hand PCI card ( you can pick them up for just a few pounds ) and try with that.

[Inactive]

On my Medion it has a Medion logo near the start button, if yours has this, click on it, it gives some options at Powerquest System Restore to;

Recover boot files


Recover system and Driver Files.


Restore factory settings ( not advised ).

There is also a link to " system information "


Worth a look.

[Lona]

I have a disc with powerquest on it that came with pc but so far haven't installed it. 

Last thing I want to do is re-install windows.

[Inactive]

This doesn't re-install Windows Lona, it gives the three listed options, only the Restore Factory Settings would do that, the first and second options do as stated.

[Lona]

I thought you might want to see pictures of my bios screen and the screen which shows when I switch on pc.







I was advised by Medion forum to buy a new battery which I did this morning but it has made no difference.
The next suggestion is a new graphics card which could well be the problem.

[Rik]

A graphics card has to be worth a try, Lona. I reserve flashing BIOS to 'last resort'.

[Lona]

A graphics card has to be worth a try, Lona. I reserve flashing BIOS to 'last resort'.

Have you ever seen a bios like that though.  Half in English and the other half in gobbltygook.

I showed those pictures to a pc expert last night and he said he had never seen anything like it.

[Rik]

Not in a long time, Lona, but I can remember something similar back in DOS days when the character set in the graphics card had become scrambled. No reason to suppose it can't still happen I suppose.

[LesD]

Have you ever seen a bios like that though.  Half in English and the other half in gobbltygook.

I make no claims to be an expert at anything, jack of all trades master of none as they say but no, never ever have I seen a BIOS display look like that.    It has to be corrupt.

I saw above mention that your Medion machine may use an AGP card. If that is the case on the two Gigabyte Mobo that I have running in Carol and my machines that both use AGP this is a selectable option in the BIOS. If the Medion is the same and this setting has been corrupted in your BIOS it may be that your graphics card is OK and simply not being setup for use by the BIOS. So if this adds confusion I am sorry but it has a plausibility I am sure you would agree.

If you are sure that you have downloaded the exact right BIOS for you mobo right down to its version that should be on a label on the mobo itself and that you know the correct way that this BIOS is to be installed I would flash the BIOS. Having seen those pictures I don't think there is any other way to go!

Take a look at the BIOS chip and see if it is the sort that plugs in. Many are soldered as was the one in Carol's Gigabyte Mobo that I corrupted with the bad flash from within Windows. I was fortunate that where I work we used to have the facilities to de-solder chips so for a box of chocs, a kind, skillfull lady removed my soldered in BIOS chip and put a socket on the Mobo in its place Its a long story but Arthur in the Netherlands flashed the chip with a clean copy of the correct code for circa £15 and had it back to me within the week. Eureka that machine runs sweetly once again so never say die. 

If yours chip plugs in and it all goes wrong there is always Arthut to fall back on.
You can email Arthur at: info@flashbios.org
he's a very friendly chap or take a look a his website here:
http://www.flashbios.org/

If you do your research, use the right method, the correct BIOS file for your mobo with the right flash tool you will succeed I am sure.   

I did the ABit mobo I got on eBay just a month or so back to try Ubuntu 8.04 on and that was just to bring the BIOS up to the latest version. Even though I have done more than I can remember that moment of pressing the final Enter Key is still filled with suspense! 



An edit because I have joined so many forums over the years what's one more! 

I have just joined the MD8083 FAN SITE Forum and posted the following question.
If I get anything useful you can be sure that I will let you know.

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How to flash the BIOS of an 8083

Hi,

I am new here and joined because I am looking for a step by step guide to flashing the BIOS in a Medion 8083

I believe the correct BIOS files have been downloaded from Medion but in the zip is an exe file.

I have flashed many a BIOS from a bootable floppy using a .rom or .bin file with the like AWDFLASH.exe but I don't know what to do with the files I found in the zip file I got from Medion and a guide on how to use them was not included!   

Any help or advice would be very much appreciated. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can check for replies yourself here:

http://md8083.hertsinternet.com/forum/YaBB.cgi?board=owners;action=display;num=1213643957;start=0#0

[Lona]

Hi Les

I don't know what an AGP card is. My graphic card is nvidia6700XL. 

Also my model is md8383XL and not md8083.

I was just about to remove the graphics card but can only see one screw and really don't know how to get it out.

I haven't a clue what a bios chip looks like.  I just about know where the memory sits and the psu and the cooling fan.  The Motherboard to me is a like a foreign land and I've never got further than fitting memory and a psu.

I really must thank you for all the help you have offered and as you say it could just be a matter of a corrupt bios.  I would hate to go to the expense of a new graphic card to end up back at square one.
All the same I am really scared at attempting to flash the bios.

[Sebby]

Undo the screw, then grip the card at the top and pull upwards. It will require some force to unclip it. To put it back, line it up and push down hard, making sure it clips in completely, then put the screw back in.