Bios updates

[.cage]

Think a Bios update might sort out some of my problems, and probably enhance performance seeing as i'm using one from dec2001, but my floppy drive is screwed, is it safe for me to boot DOS from a CD and install from there?

 

[xane]

Which mobo/chipset ?

 

[.cage]

http://www.ecsusa.com/K7S5A.cfm

 

[throdgrain]

I know this is a stupid question, but if anyone could help me out with exactly how to update my bios, that would be a big help i have an Athlon processor (2.0xp) and an Asus Motherboard, a V7333 if i remember correctly.
Go on someone, amaze me with your genius ! Thanks

 

[Pro]v[etheus]

Go to the Asus website and check for bios updates for your particular mobo, simple as that but proceed with caution !!

 

[Yaka]

not totaly sure bout this cage but try copying the bios to cd then upon boot up press F8 and slect the dos/cmmd promt

 

[Insane]

.cage : depending on the problem with the floppy drive itself, either the cables loose, powers been knocked out, or the drive is b0rked, either way its a 5 minute job swapping the cable ends round, or £10 for a new Panasonic floppy drive! funnily enough, if your going to make a bootable CDrom, you'll need a floppy drive to pull the boot disk out of! *doh*


Throdgrain: Installing a new BIOS is easy

First, Get a Windows 98 boot disk (if you dont have one they are available here.)

Second, get a brand new floppy disk, this is the important part 3/4 of bios failures are due to recycled floppys being the host to the file.

get your BIOS and extract it to the new floppy disk (if you wonder why im saying two disks, you'll soon see! ) hopefully you should have 2~3 files.
Kt726638.BIN (the name will change, but the file extension is the same
README.TXT
AWDFLASH.EXE (or similar program)

insert your boot disk and reboot the machine, and let it boot. you'll get the good old command prompt

C:\>_

go to your A:\ (this is the floppy disk itself if your not DOS literate)
now swap the boot disk for the bios disk, then type:

awdflash.exe

or whatever the flash programs called

now, first it will prompt for a file, thats where you will type in the name of the BIN file

second option, it will ask you to save your previous bios, hit Y then type in a name for the backup bios (something simple like backup.bin may be the best)

then it will prompt you if you wish to overwrite your current bios
(from this point onwards, dont press your power button )
hit Y if you do, or if your getting terrible nerves press N. then take it to a specialist computer company (PC World does NOT count for that!)

then its a couple of minutes then it will say "remove disks and power off machine for changes to take affect" or similar.

power the machine off at the button, then unplug the power cable for a couple of seconds.

turn her on and whola one freshly flashed bios, all you have to do now is to tweak the bios, oh and put that floppy disk away just in case you need to go back a revision

most people say "dont use floppys to flash bios" because it will corrupt data, these are the people who just grab the first spare floppy disk that comes to hand and formats it to be sure always use good quality floppys (no, PC Line are NOT high quality, neithers those Niceday packs you picked up for £2 each!)

 

[kameleon]

what insane said except sometimes you have to load setup defaults