Flashing

First off my apologies to any1 who was expecting content of the x-rated nature :P

but nay this is related to bios flashing.I consider myself adept at most things computer from building compies to o/cing them.But flashing the bios has always been a....dangerous area. Cos its easy to do it wrong.

I've got an Epox 8rda+ with its origional bios.Now i went to this web site 4 instructions:

http://www.epox.org/bios/#biosimagefiles

well as u know there are 2 ways (usually to flashing ur bios):

Alt-f2 method and Bootdisk Method

But with the 8rda+ there is a third way, a utility called "MagicBios" which does all the flashing from windows and u simply have to restart. easy eh? but a couple of month ago i was reading on other forums not to do this as it was WAY to dangerous, and the alt-f2 way was not gr8 so that put me off, but then i came across this

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/view...67991057036fed

These guys seem to use MagicBios with no probs....

Basically im not sure which method to us and was wondernig if any of u lot could reccomend and most safest way :)

The stuff i have 4 flashing is :

awdflash_v8.24f

8RDA3A17.rar (bios image)

Is that the correct AwdFlash since if u use a wrong 1 that can also make u flash it wrong?

As always any help would be really appreciated :)

Adam.

Hi Frosty,

I personally do all my bios flashing from DOS, maybe its just a personal preference, but I have flashed over 30 mb's now and I have never had a problem.......oh I tell a lie, only an MSI 865PE (it had to be done from windows!?!) but I l8r found out that board was knackered.
Let us know how you get off.

I've to agree with madwelshboy... I've flashed a number of mobos over time and I've always flash them in DOS - my trusty old Win98 clean boot FDD is still very useful! Can't think of another of doing such things for sure.

:) If you do screw up a BIOS flash it can be recovered by preparing a bootable floppy disk with the flash program, BIOS file and ideally autoexec.bat on it. You should be able to blind boot from the disk if necessary to reflash with the previous BIOS. Of course another option is to use a mobo like Gigabyte which usually possess a backup BIOS so you should never be able to kill your mobo through flashing.

:cool: Anyway the safest method is certainly using a bootdisk with a flash program and BIOS both downloaded at the same time from your mobo's own website. Double and triple check it is the correct BIOS for your EXACT mobo (inc rev where applicable), and read any instructions or warnings given. Before flashing backup the current BIOS file to the floppy disk, usually 'old.bin'. Only a computer crash or power cut should mess you up. Using the F2 method uses a BIOS flash utility built into the BIOS which may not be the newest version, risks are a little higher doing it this way but still absolutely tiny. The riskiest but usually quickest and easiest way is to do it in Windows but again be sure you're using stuff from your own mobo manu's website. Risks are still tiny but being you are in Windows means the PC is doing many taks behind the scenes and stands a bigger chance of stuffing you up. I'd certainly rec flashing only if a new BIOS addresses an issue you have or if it has been 6 months or more.

i didnt really it was that dangerous, all i did was use MSI's live update, put it onto a floppy, restarted, did the usual press any button to continue, are you SURE you want to continue y/n?

and it worked, woops :D

note to self - must read small print

Well i went ahead and flashed it, kinda good and bad. I flashed from floopy using boot disk way, was bricking it as i watched the little bars move, then to my delight it was all done, was a bit panicy when nothing i did on keyboard responded and it wouldn't go past bios screen, all it needed was to take out keyboard end and then re-place it (strange no?).

first improvement was i could get into windows with an fsb of 190-195 but wasn't stable in games :( tried 185, also wasn't stable in games so i have previous fsb as b4 flash 180 ,no matter cos its bargin-bucket ebuyer ram :)

But 1 thing wich confudles me, after i booted into windows at 195 a coupe of times an error on boot up came up ie :

"A file is either missing or damaged in:
c:\windows\system32\config\system"

Even settings at default did nothing, i had 2 format :(
(system-restore was off)

After i formatted i had system restore on and started ocing to see if compy errors had happened bcos of ocing, same thing happened at 195 but luckily system restore fixed it.

Is it common for files to get damaged or deleted via overclocking?, i find this strange :(

Still on the upside mobo can take Bartons and Thortons and is more stable.

Tah Adam.

The "c:\windows\system32\config\system" error is a common one on XP when you push it too much. Although most of the time simply clocking it back to a safe speed is enough :)

You really should test your overclock with Pre-OS tools though before booting into your OS.
Take a look at the excellent www.memtest86.com

hmm thx agent this memtest86 could come in handy :)

memtest86 always before trying fsb that might be too high, saves formatting later :)