Flashing A Bios

[r1zeek]

I know all i do is download the latest (and correct) BIOS for my mobo, put it on a floppy and boot using it.

Only thing that confused me is under Xp, when I go to format a floppy, should I select "Bootable" or do I just copy the files across and it will be able to access the BIOS from the floppy to flash it?

Hope that wasn't too confusing
Cheers

[Allen]

Depends on your mobo. For Asus boards (well, my old one anyway) you just needed the .bin file on the disk and you needed to hit Alt-F2 (I think) on BOOTing and it would load up a program to flash. For other mobo's, you'll need a flashing program which you have to run in DOS so you would need a boot disk.

[r1zeek]

Im planning on flashing an old AOpen MX3W Pro E (P3 board) but I also wanted to know how to flash on other boards aswell.

I noticed when you select the bootable option is puts a ton of rubbish onto the disk, probably to make it boot.

So ill just make it bootable, stick the BIOS on a flash it or will a need a program todo that?

[Allen]

I believe you only need two files on the disk, command.com and another... I can't remember off the top of my head!

Can anyone confirm this?

:edit: I think I may be talking crap again...

[yamangman]

Err, no, you don't need to put MS-DOS on the disk Allen . Don't choose bootable r1zeek, just a blank formatted floppy with the files on it you need for flashing (should be a readme on the site you get them from somewhere). Most newer boards you can flash from within Windows.

Most boards you don't choose to boot from floppy, you have to press a key combo like 'alt-F2' to run the flash software in the EEPROM.

[r1zeek]

Err, no, you don't need to put MS-DOS on the disk Allen . Don't choose bootable r1zeek, just a blank formatted floppy with the files on it you need for flashing (should be a readme on the site you get them from somewhere). Most newer boards you can flash from within Windows.

Most boards you don't choose to boot from floppy, you have to press a key combo like 'alt-F2' to run the flash software in the EEPROM.

Right, cheers for that, ill give it a go later.

Would it be possible to flash from a CD?

*virtual rep. for both of you*

[yamangman]

I doubt it, either from a floppy with the key combo, or from within Windows.

[Allen]

Not everyone has new mobo's yamangman, so you will need a bootable floppy depending on the mobo. I didn't have the time yesterday to go and find out for r1zeeks particular version, so what I said still stands for other readers also wanting to flash their mobo. Also r1zeek wants to know how to flash other mobo's and the Alt-F2 combination might not work on his other motherboards. If you do need to make a bootable floppy though, you will also need the flash program on the same disk as well as the .bin BIOS file.

And personally, I wouldn't trust Windows flashing at all. Have heard some bad things about those programs...

[yamangman]

Alright, personally I've never, ever heard of making an MS-DOS bootable floppy to flash a BIOS. Unless your talking about pre PII motherboards.