Updating BIOS by CD...how?

[2Cold Scorpio]

I'm trying to update my BIOS for my IP-35 Pro. Problem is, my floppy drive is acting weird, so I'm gonna have to do it via bootable CD. Unfortunately, my efforts to make a working disk have failed. How do I make one work? I have Roxio Media Creator 10 as my burning suite, and WinImage if its needed. Help!

[hokiealumnus]

I'm trying to update my BIOS for my IP-35 Pro. Problem is, my floppy drive is acting weird, so I'm gonna have to do it via bootable CD. Unfortunately, my efforts to make a working disk have failed. How do I make one work? I have Roxio Media Creator 10 as my burning suite, and WinImage if its needed. Help!

I haven't actually seen someone try via bootable CD. I'd imagine it's much the same as a bootable floppy. You need three files: IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM (these three are the only files necessary to boot to DOS). After that, unzip your BIOS and write those files to the CD as well. I reiterate, I have not seen this done and take no responsibility if it doesn't work.

Come to think of it, the flash process might need to write something to the media (guessing...I have no idea TBH), which isn't possible with a burnt CD. That possibility is why I recommend you take the other, probably easier route and use this guide to make a bootable USB flash drive.

[TheReaFireblade]

Motherboard manufacturers usually include both the files and the flashing utility needed to flash the BIOS, plus instructions on how to perform the upgrade (be it from floppy disk or CD), on their website?

Strangely however, Abit (UK) appear to have instructions for creating floppy disks only, so I've just Googled 'Creating a bootable BIOS update CD', and there are plenty of guides on the subject - including these:

Method 1 / Method 2

So download the BIOS file(s) off the Abit website, then follow those instructions ^^

[2Cold Scorpio]

I've been trying other guides just like these, but so far to no avail (what happens is I can boot into DOS just fine, but most of the guides place your BIOS files into a "R:" or a "Z:" drive...problem is, of all the disks I've made, when in DOS, it'll never acknowledge these new 'drives' (it literally won't change over to them; says "Drive Not Found" or some similar message). Its hard to explain... I'll try these too, though; I might get lucky.

One of the old guides I'd tried following are here: http://bay-wolf.com/bootcd-bios.htm

Also, using a USB flash drive isn't an option; I don't have one, nor have the funds to get one at the moment.

[timread]

You need to edit the boot CD ISO file to add the required bios flash program and BIOS file to the boot cd. Most of the boot cds will use mscdex so that DOS can access your boot CD. There's a useful guide here:

http://www.bootdisk.com/txtfiles/flashcd.txt

or use method II that Fireblade posted earlier.

Actually, Bay Wolf's guide should have worked for you if you added the BIOS flash files to the CD you burnt. Why did it fail for you?

[2Cold Scorpio]

You need to edit the boot CD ISO file to add the required bios flash program and BIOS file to the boot cd. Most of the boot cds will use mscdex so that DOS can access your boot CD. There's a useful guide here:

http://www.bootdisk.com/txtfiles/flashcd.txt

or use method II that Fireblade posted earlier.

Actually, Bay Wolf's guide should have worked for you if you added the BIOS flash files to the CD you burnt. Why did it fail for you?

I'm not sure, as I did what it said, however, when i got to DOS and tried switching to Z:, I always got an incorrect drive letter error, or some such (I can't remember the exact message). Heck, I even tried making a WIndows boot disk and putting the BIOS files on a second CD, and that didn't work either.

[Taz]

You can also use a USB pen drive to boot off and flash the BIOS. This is the method that I use. Once the USB pen drive has been formatted to be bootable, it's a piece of cake to boot off it and flash your BIOS. There is a HP utility to do this.

Here is a link with good instructions on how to do this: http://www.gamebeat.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1057

[timread]

Hm. Why not try another tack, and use uGuru to flash the BIOS from Windows?

ftp://ftp.abitshop.com/pub/utilities.../uguru3109.zip

[Agent]

Hm. Why not try another tack, and use uGuru to flash the BIOS from Windows?

ftp://ftp.abitshop.com/pub/utilities.../uguru3109.zip

Although I've never had an issue with uGuru some people prefer to flash out of Windows as its safer.

There is a much easier way than most of the methods above.
Burn the BIOS and flash program to CD (they should be together in the Zip/Rar normally)
Download the UBCD (its free).
Boot off it. Chose the option to boot into DOS.
Swap the CD - run the flasher like you would from a floppy. Sorted

[Ksmgangsta]

hmm, thnx this topic helped me

[2Cold Scorpio]

Although I've never had an issue with uGuru some people prefer to flash out of Windows as its safer.

There is a much easier way than most of the methods above.
Burn the BIOS and flash program to CD (they should be together in the Zip/Rar normally)
Download the UBCD (its free).
Boot off it. Chose the option to boot into DOS.
Swap the CD - run the flasher like you would from a floppy. Sorted

Yeah, I'm leery of updating it from within Windows; too high of a chance of making my mobo useless.

I may try what you said, Agent; it was similar to what I tried yesterday using a Windows Me boot disk burned to CD and tried to swap the disks (for some reason, even that didn't recognize my other drive), but it wouldn't allow it; maybe that tool will do the job. I'll give it a shot after I finish FSB testing for my new overclock.

[sleepyhead]

Ahh glad I'm not alone in the boat with trying to flash BIOS from CD. I been through a few CDs trying to get it to boot into DOS and then recognise the CD with BIOS. I even tried a boot CD with the BIOS on the same CD but that just wouldn't boot at all.

Agent - Thanks for the tip I'll give that a go (once I get my stuff back).

[2Cold Scorpio]

Ahh glad I'm not alone in the boat with trying to flash BIOS from CD. I been through a few CDs trying to get it to boot into DOS and then recognise the CD with BIOS. I even tried a boot CD with the BIOS on the same CD but that just wouldn't boot at all.

Agent - Thanks for the tip I'll give that a go (once I get my stuff back).

I went through a few CDs myself until I dug up some of my old CD-RWs. Problem solved in that respect. I tried having the BIOS files on the boot disk itself many times to no avail. Have yet to try Agent's method (been busy with OC testing... ^_^; will likely try after I determine those values but before I actually overclock). Glad to know I'm not alone. lol

[timread]

I've definitely had this working before (using a boot CD that is!) - I just can't remember which of the many boot CD guides/builds I used. I've got a great DOS boot CD with Dell BIOS updates for all our Dell Latitude/OptiPlex models and ghost's diskwipe utility.

One of the tricks is making sure EMM386/himem are not loaded - this seems to stop most BIOS update programs from running in a DOS boot CD environment.

I forgot some of the boot CDs allow you to switch CD once they've booted to DOS, thanks for that reminder Agent.

I've also tried using a WinPE2.1 boot USB key (sweet!) but again it's only been the most recent Dell BIOS updates where they specifically say in the list of fixes that one is to allow BIOS flash from WinPE.

Manufacturers should make this easier... oh wait, they did, Windows BIOS flash utilities

[Agent]

The important thing with swapping the disk is how the data is loaded.
The UBCD I linked above will make a RAMDrive and load the DOS files onto it. This means that once you swap the disk the data is still accessible should it be needed.
While the chances are you could boot of a disk and swap without the use of the RAM drive, if the command-line needed to read from the source disk its going to crash. Not fun if thats mid-flash

[2Cold Scorpio]

A small question (completely off-topic, but I'm curious) if anyone, particularly folks familiar with Abit boards here: what's the max safe voltages for the MCH Voltage and the ICHIO voltage? I'm working on overclocking, and while i know my CPU's max safe voltage (an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750), I'm unsure about these values. I figured asking in here, since its a small question, was preferable to making a whole new topic. ^_^

I also ask because the quicker I finish my current overclocking project (actually, just determining the max speeds my different components can run), the sooner I can get back to flashing the BIOS and then finishing my overclock.