Need help with bricked Intel DG33TL after bad flash update.

[bstor4]

Motherboard is a DG33TL. Started getting 'The AA number has not been programmed on the system'' on boots after cleaning my system. I checked all connections. Removing bios jumper did nothing. I upgraded bios from DPP3510J.86A.0293.2007.1002.1519 TO DPP3510J.86A.0572.2009.0715.2346. The system would still blue screen until I changed the bios drive settings on advice from forum.  I should have stopped there but followed another post for bios recovery "unplug your computer while it is updating the bios to intentionally crash the update, then follow Intel bios recovery instructions." I pulled the power cord when "flashing image for main firmware" displayed when flashing the same 0572 bios as before. Now I have a blank screen on boot. Any help is appreciated.

[n_scott_pearson]

What FLAMING IDIOT told you to power off in the middle of a BIOS update and WHY did you listen to them? Never, never, never pull power during a BIOS update!

Unfortunately, it's probably too late now; you may have well and truly bricked your board and, if so, there is no coming back from this.

...S

[n_scott_pearson]

On second thought there are two things to try (other than praying):

1. Try moving the yellow BIOS Configuration jumper from the 1-2 pins to the 2-3 pins and then power on. This might get you to the maintenance menu.
2. Try unplugging the system from A/C power and removing the CR2032 battery from the board. Wait 15 minutes to be sure. Put it back together and see if it will POST then.

...Scott

[AlHill · Accepted solution]

0572 was the last bios for your board. I have attached the bios release notes for reference purposes.

https://web.archive.org/web/20191120150651/https://downloadmirror.intel.com/17930/eng/DP_0572_Releas...

The USB stick should be formatted FAT32, on a Windows machine, not linux or MAC. With the .bio file as the only file on the stick, use one of the black usb ports on the rear of the board. Power On and wait. It could take some time, so be patient.

However, the advice you received saying to unplug the computer while doing the bios update is about 1000% wrong. If that was from the Intel support site, provide the link so we can have it removed. By pulling the plug, you have very likely roached the board.. Also, what changes to the bios drive settings did you make? Seems like you have had some very bad advice. And, from where did you get the 0572.bio file?

If you are able to flash the bios as I defined above, I will be surprised, but let us give it a chance. It could take 15 minutes or more.

Doc

[AlHill]

I was responding at the same time. You said it much clearer than I did!.

Doc

[bstor4]

Reply to Al.Hill. All the reply buttons turned into dots. Anyway it worked. Thank you so very much. You really saved me a lot of time.  I was not looking forward to replacing my motherboard. Two of the threads for an old Idata (Intel) post where I saw the advice have been removed. Another thread recomended changing the drive settings for those getting blue sceens because of the error The AA number has not programmed on the system. I changed Configure SATA as from AHCI to IDE. I'm not sure if it was changed because of the error now occuring but the blue screens stopped and I'm able to boot into the original HD. I found the bio file on archive.org.

I'm still getting the AA number issue but with open another thread since this one looks shut down.

[AlHill]

I am glad you have it working. Surprised, but glad. Regarding th AA number, I do not believe there is anything you can do about that.

Doc

[AlHill]

Also, if the Sata Mode was set to IDE when the OS was installed, changing it to AHCI in the bios will prevent the OS from loading. Now, there is a registry setting to allow you change the boot to AHCI, which must be made in the OS before you change that setting in the BIOS.

I am assuming Windows 10 is not your OS, correct?

Doc

[n_scott_pearson]

The AA number is stored into the flash during the board manufacturing process. Due to BIOS security requirements, there is no tool that can be used in the field to update this information. It is unclear what you could have done that would have resulted in this information being wiped out, but there is no getting it back. You will just have to put up with the message.

Sorry, reality bites,

...S

[AlHill]

@bstor4​ One more question - was this board previously repaired by having the bios chip replaced?

Doc

[bstor4]

The AA number issue started after I used a leaf blower to clean out the case. Stupid huh. I've done this before on dozens of PC's even this case and have never had an issue like this before. When I saw the message I thought I blew something loose so I checked all the connections, cables, and reseated the memory. That fixed nothing so I started troubleshooting the bios which led to the brick issue. Now I'm back to just this AA issue. Thanks you for the info and your suggestions Scott.

[bstor4]

I'm using winxp sp3. I have some software that will not work on another version and like xp better than win7, 8 or 10.  I have my PC setup so that I can just pop SATA drives into 3 slots so I can use the PC with any OS I load on any HD. Since the PC was toast I have been using a spare laptop. Watching the bios reload from a bricked state was really cool. I never knew any mfg had that security blanket built into their boards.

On another note on this board there is a bios jumper. I was able to get it to work to enter the maint. mode to reset bios passwords by switching the jumper from 1-2 to 2-3 but I was never able to get the the third option, remove the jumper, to work. My impression was if you pull the power cable, remove the battery, press the power button for about 10 seconds to clear the capacitors, then pull the jumper, put back in the battery, plug it power cable and turn on the PC the that would trigger a reinstall of the factory bios stored on the board. Then you could turn off the power and put the jumper back to 1-2. On this note the product manual has a url for jumper bios recovery but Intel has removed. So have you ever gotten the jumper method to work to restore a bios and have you ever heard of orig bio being stored on motherboards for restore purposes?

[bstor4]

I bought this board new onlike from Newegg a long time ago. It has never been repaired or had the bios chip replaced. Read my other reply's to Scott about how the AA trouble started. One thing I did while taking that battery in and out was I replaced it so I can get more life from the board.

[AlHill]

The removal of the jumper, and a usb stick inserted with the .bio file is the proper recovery process. You could get back to the original bios if you had the .bio file and recovered it the same way (probably).

A leaf blower, eh? Well, I have a compressor in the garage that I have used. But, I protect all the fans. With that much air, the fans were never intended to spin that fast.

Doc (square root of three squared)

[n_scott_pearson]

@bstor4​,

No board that I know of supports a reset to factory BIOS as you have described. One vendor, GigaByte, however, has a feature called Dual BIOS, which essentially means you have two versions (or copies) of the firmware stored in separate firmware hubs and, if the active firmware hub gets into a bad state, you can switch to the other firmware hub. This is an expensive way for them to get around the fact that they had a flawed BIOS update methodology and (knee-jerk reaction) they didn't want to take the time to fix it properly. I would think that this is a security nightmare.

It's true that the links in the manual don't connect any longer. Here are active links to the pages referenced (and a few others besides):

• Manuals, Guides, and Specifications for Desktop Boards

• Intel Desktop Boards Supported Memory
• Intel Desktop Boards Supported Operating Systems
• Intel Desktop Boards Supported Processors

• Intel Desktop Boards BIOS Update Instructions
• Intel Desktop Boards BIOS Recovery Instructions

• Intel Desktop Boards BIOS ID Codes
• Intel Desktop Boards BIOS Overview
• Intel Desktop Boards BIOS Settings Glossary

• Intel Desktop Boards BIOS Issue Troubleshooting
• Intel Desktop Boards USB Issue Troubleshooting
• Intel Desktop Boards Memory Issue Troubleshooting
• Intel Desktop Boards Graphics Issue Troubleshooting

• Intel Desktop Boards BIOS Password Clearing
• How to Clear the CMOS on Your Intel Desktop Board

• Intel Desktop Boards BIOS Beep Codes
• Intel Desktop Boards Port 80h POST Codes

Regarding your AA issue, you've somehow damaged and/or corrupted the (flash memory) firmware hub. That, in a board this old, it recovered from this (give or take the AA warning) is pretty impressive -- but (there's always a 'but'), I would be concerned that there was physical damage and the part is on the verge of dying completely.

Hope this helps,

...S