Need help with Asus MB BIOS problem..

Thanks in advance to all those who offer help up front since my time online has been drastically reduced.

Built the machine less than two months ago for my son to work on his videos/editing/photographs, etc. He fired the machine up and got this message.

Boot Block Compatible Version Ver.009
Bad BIOS checksum. Starting BIOS Recovery
Checking for floppy
Floppy not found
Checking for CD ROM.
CD ROM not found

So I stick the ASUS CD Rom in and now we get the following message.

CD ROM found Reading file A8N32SLI.ROM. Completed
Start Erasing (prompt is blinking)
Start Programing (prompt is blinking)
Please turn off your system and power on again to get system back.

I do so and the machine goes through the same identical process as listed above.

I went to the ASUS website to make a disk for the BIOS but they do not show one for the variation stamped on my MB which is 1.01

I had called ASUS and they said that my BIOS chip was bad and they shipped me another one which I installed and it does the exact same thing as the one I yanked out. I was told that the BIOS would be loaded on the chip they sent.

That person has the same exact problem except that I did not clear the cmos. After going over the problem with asus techs after installing the new BIOS chip I was told to ship the MB to them for "repair." The tech told me that it appeared to be a different problem, other than BIOS, and that was the reason they shipped another chip. Guess what?? I went and bought an identical MB, since I will be building another machine for another son, and VOILA..same chit. I am now looking at this from another perspective. I now have identical ASUS MB's and if I have to send them both back I will have a "spare" for the duration of their three year warranty...Thank you for the info and I'll go buy a battery and see if that helps.

PS..then again I may return the second MB which I just purchased yesterday and go with something else. Recommends..??

so my opinion is not worth much about recent boards. I built with an Asus K8N, which was a nice product.

Generally, I avoid "cutting edge" stuff unless I have a professional interest, because it tends to make you "bleed" more, and I am lazy unless I'm paid.

WRT the battery, I have a volt-ohmmeter that I use to check voltage. I suppose a new one would do the job, but I prefer to test. It seems unlikely, but a BIOS that fails checksum and will not hold the settings through a power-off is what you get if the CMOS battery is dead or weak.

Good luck with that, at least you know it's not just you.