Mac address is not valid on CMOS and FLASH

[Rhadamanthys]

I have the Motherboard from ASUS and have Windows XP running on the system. Everything was really working fine on the system. Now in the Morning when I got up I have seen that the system is not getting booted. When I just power up the system I have seen that it asks me to press the F2 key for setup in addition to this it also shows me the message to press the F11 key for boot menu. Nothing wrong I guess but then it simply says that Mac address was invalid in both cmos and flash. What is this? Can anyone here would like to tell what can be the issue for this and what can be done so that the issues like this can be avoided here. Really any help in the matter will be really appreciated. Hope that you all will come with the suggestions soon.

[Amie]

In my opinion it seems that you must have done some changes in the BIOS. Or I would say that you must have FLAHED the BIOS and hence you are getting the issue. Well if that is the case then it will be better if you can just see for flashing the BIOS again and see if that can really help you in any manner. Also did you amend the MAC address in BIOS; it can be the issue because of this step as well. So if you have done something like this in the BIOS then you can just try to change it again to the previous value. After that reboot the system and then see if you see the issue again in your case.

[BiGMaCHiNe]

I do not think that there is any thing that you all can do here. I would like you to see if you can just have the replacement for you. Just do one thing. If you have the system under the warranty then please get the ASUS motherboard replaced and see if the replacement really works for you. I do not think that there is any other issue but I really feel that the BIOS of your system have got corrupted and hence you are getting the issue. I would have really suggested you to go with flashing the BIOS but it seems that you will be required to go with REPLACEMENT.

[Connect_Me]

I really feel that the issue is with BIOS and hence if you are having the issue then you can seriously go with updating the same. I think that the best way to update the BIOS is via Internet and hence here are the things that you will be required to follow:

• You will be required to install the ASUS Update utility as the first step.
• Now you will be required to close all the Windows Applications that are running on the system.
• Then you will be required to launch the ASUS Update utility
• Once you launch it then you will see ASUS Update window appearing.
• In this window you will be required to select the Update BIOS option.
• Now once you are done with this then you will be required to go to the Internet option and choose Next option.
• Select the ASUS FTP site and then select Auto Select and finally click on Next option.
• Now you will be required to select the BIOS version that you want and then choose NEXT
• You will see the update getting started; wait for the update to get complete.

[ME-Mysha]

NO I do not think that you should avoid the option of FLASHING the BIOS and here are the steps that you can follow so that you may not miss on anything and do not end up with something weird things. First of all you will be required to have the latest BIOS for your computer. You can get the same from the official site of computer manufacturer’s website. Hope that you will be able to find the thing for you and that too without any trouble. After this you will be required to prepare a startup disk for your computer. Now place the CD in the CDROM and then select it from My Computer. Now after this you will be required to select the Create An MS-DOS Start Up Disk. In the second CD you will be required to copy the BIOS and Flash Utility files that you had downloaded from the computer manufacturer’s website. Now reboot the system and when you see the BOOT SCREEN then you will be required to press the DELETE key so that you can enter in the CMOS setup. Go to the Advanced option and then select the StartUp Disk option in there. Now remove the Startup Disk and then place the second disk containing the flash utility and the new BIOS. Repeat the steps again and then follow the instructions that come to your screen. Hope that you will like the suggestion that I have made here.

[Rhadamanthys]

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions that you have made here and will see if I can really find all this things working for me. Well I really think that working with the BIOS is really risky and hence I think that the option that can really work for me is the REPLACEMENT. I have things under warranty and will see if that can really go in my way. In addition to this I just want to try flashing BIOS and hence I just want to know if anything goes wrong here with this then can this wrong thing will be covered under the warranty as well. Just asking with the curiosity.