Updating / Flashing BIOS on a motherboard / video card / cd/dvd drive /etc
This is a general recipe that explains the basics of flashing one's bios or firmwares. The principles are the same throughout each realm. Requirements: Boot disk, flashing program (usually Award or whatever your pc uses), and the bios file. This recipe will refer to motherboards more specifically.
Flashing your motherboards bios (Award used as example)
Requirements:
boot disk (windows 98 or just a Windows 2000/XP disk, see other the other relevant recipes for info)
bios/firmware file
bios/firmware flashing utility
Step 1. Save bios file and bios flashing utility to the bootable floppy
(for me, i copy the awdflash.exe and the 293884.bin to my floppy)
Step 2. Reboot your computer to the boot disk. You might need to change your BIOS settings to boot to floppy as the first device or you might be able to temporarily choose a boot device.
Step 3. Once you are booted to the A:
Type: dir *.bin
this command will list files that end with .bin (ie your bios file, in my example 293884.bin)
Step 4. Now type: awdflash 293884.bin
replace awdflash with the program you use (aflash.exe or etc..) and the 293884.bin with your bios file.
Go through your prompts and reboot once it finishes.
Step 5. Reconfiguring your BIOS settings
After you flash your bios, the settings will usually revert back to the factory settings or they will say "error loading" or something... this is because the new bios file might contain different options or new settings...
Save your settings and hopefully your system runs better and more stable (given you updated your bios for those reasons)
Notes:
=most motherboard manufacturers have Windows Based flashign utilities. If your not comfortable using a boot disk and dos commands to flash your bios; stick with the Windows program they provide
=sometimes updating your bios will not solve problems but make problems worse. Its a good idea to have a copy of your current bios (you can make a copy using awdflash or get one from the motherboard's website). i'm a update fanatic so i always keep my firmwares and bios's updated.
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