Updateing my Bios

[Teh Krypt]

I get blue screen errors after I install a lot of programs, including my sound cards drivers.

Ive talked to various people and they think I need to update my bios.

I looked at the Gibabyte website but the bios update program dosnt seem to work for me.

I really need a "Idiots guide to updateing my bios"

Ty

 

[Cadire]

Apart from a few modern motherboards, bios updates are done with a bootable floppy, with the required bios files on them.

Once you've booted up with the floppy, there's usually a batch file to run, which calls the flash routine. There should be a readme file with the update, which will explain how to run it.

It's important that you don't interrupt the flashing process... as you'll almost certainly be left with an unusable bios. Flashing should not be done on an overclocked system (revert back to 'normal' speed).

As for the blue screen errors, what are they? It could well be that a bios update is needed, but it could also be something as simple as a misbehaving driver, or flaky memory (especially if you're overclocking).

Edit: If you don't have the means to create a bootable floppy, you can get some from here.

 

[Teh Krypt]

Ok ive got a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE

I downloaded the bios update for it, "Chipset not supported"

:help: :help:

 

[Cadire]

I took a quick look at the Gigabyte download page The latest bios is 7zxe_fae.zip, while the latest non-beta is 7zxe_f9.zip.

I don't know why it would say 'Chipset not supported, unless you've downloaded the wrong one?

 

[Teh Krypt]

Originally posted by Cadire
I took a quick look at the Gigabyte download page The latest bios is 7zxe_fae.zip, while the latest non-beta is 7zxe_f9.zip.

I don't know why it would say 'Chipset not supported, unless you've downloaded the wrong one?

This is why im so confused

I don't understand why it won't work.

 

[old.Whismerill]

Be very carefull with such operation tho, a BIOS update requires a full attention, and many little things like : your current BIOS also on a floppy (in case the new one crashes your PC).

 

[Cadire]

Are you sure you're trying to flash the bios from DOS, i.e. after booting with a floppy? This type of bios update cannot be done from within Windows.

It might be worth downloading Sandra and running it to see what it thinks your motherboard/bios is.

As Whismerill said, flashing ones Bios can be dangerous, though if you follow the readme/instructions supplied you should be ok. Just make sure you understand each step, and don't just blindly click/type 'OK'

 

[Teh Krypt]

Originally posted by Cadire
Are you sure you're trying to flash the bios from DOS, i.e. after booting with a floppy? This type of bios update cannot be done from within Windows.

It might be worth downloading Sandra and running it to see what it thinks your motherboard/bios is.

As Whismerill said, flashing ones Bios can be dangerous, though if you follow the readme/instructions supplied you should be ok. Just make sure you understand each step, and don't just blindly click/type 'OK'

Ok, I went about it the newb way, I was doing it from windows

There dosnt seem to be a readme with the .zip file..
Any chance you could direct me to one that should work?

 

[Cadire]

OK, here's how you do it....

... before you start tho, you take full responsibility if your bios falls over/gets eaten by the cat/ blows up (it shouldn't, but you never know!).

If your system is overclocked, DON'T flash it until you have reverted it back to normal.

Download this file . It's a boot disk image.

Put a floppy into your drive, and run the boot622.exe prog. It will format the floppy to be bootable.

Download whatever bios version you intend to use. Extract the files onto the floppy. Make a note of the name of the bios file (i.e. 7ZXE.FAE). I recommend you download your current bios version also.. .in case it all goes tits up. Copy this to a different floppy in the same way as the first.

Make sure floppy is inserted, and reboot your system. It will start up in DOS.

Once you see the dos prompt (it looks like A:>) type 'flash864' (without quotes). This is the name of the flash prog.

Once the flash prog starts, you get 2 options. One is to specify where the bios file is. Just type in the name you made a note of earlier (you did make a note right?).

In the second box, type a path and name for your backup. I don't know for sure, but this looks like a backup of your current bios.

Press ok, enter/whatever... and it should start to flash. Obviously I don't know what happens here, as I don't fancy flashing my Epox board with your Gigabyte bios

You should get some sort of indication that the update was successful. Remove the floppy and reboot. You may need to go into your bios to set it up again.

Good luck

 

[Teh Krypt]

It wont all fit on the disk.

 

[Cadire]

You only need to put the extracted files on the disk, not the original bios file.

 

[Teh Krypt]

Heh, Thank you for your help, ive updated my bios tho it didnt solve the blue screen error on start up after I installed my sound card drivers or daemon-tools, im using windows xp if that has anything to do with it..

(Its a Hercules Fortissimo 3 7.2 sound card)

 

[Cadire]

A description of the error message is needed to see what is actually happening, but it does sound like a device driver is doing naughty things.

Have you got the latest driver for your soundcard?

 

[Teh Krypt]

Originally posted by Cadire
A description of the error message is needed to see what is actually happening, but it does sound like a device driver is doing naughty things.

Have you got the latest driver for your soundcard?

Well.. it says windows has been shut down to prevent damage (or something to that effect)

And to update my bios.

can't remeber the rest of the message but it didnt mention any individual error.

-- Will try the drivers now

Edit: While reading the "how to install" on the sound card website, it said about having the latest service pack.. I have recently reinstalled win xp, do you think that could be the problem? It works before you see..

 

[Teh Krypt]

Aww im all confused, nerf computers.

My old HD ran the sound card fine

im on 56k and its really bad (16.8kbs connection speed adverage)

So need to know if it is the service pack as its a 30mb download.

I wonderd if theres a way to transfer the files from my laptop as I have service pack one there...

The network wont work on this HD (heh) but I can get it working on my old HD I guess.

 

[Cadire]

If it says you need the latest service pack, I guess you do

It might be possible to lift it off your laptop, I'm pretty sure it shoves it all in a temp (hidden) directory)

Some UK magazines have it on their cover CDs, might be worth getting it that way.

Otherwise I guess you'll have to leave it downloading overnight (I hope you have a download manager!).

 

[Teh Krypt]

Thank you very much for your help.

A few more things went wrong like the internet runing at 16.8kbs, internet needing to dial up 10 times to get connected ect..

I formated and everything works fine, Im guessing it was some messed up windows instalation?