Mother board bios upgrade

No direct experience myself, but have you searched MSDN Forums? You'll probably have to have a few goes with different search terms, but they may come up with something useful. There's a lot on there; got me out of a hole a couple of times.

Good luck.

Nor will you find one. Don't worry about it. The warnings are because everybody is just protecting ass.

If you are used to computer operations just read their instructions and do it. Do make sure you are looking at a bios that is a match for your motherboard.

j.

I usually find that in the ZIP file (usual in such cases) that you downloaded, there is a text file giving you full details of how to do it. Un ZIP and read.....

or

there is a separate .txt file on the web site with full details of the method......

There was two files. I were looking for the text file but the two files is AWDFLASH, an application file and 4PGM4A06 which is a "bin" file. No read me. On the epox website they talk about a program called "flashmagic" or magicflash... but I can not find a download of it anywhere. I also e-mailed their technical support. No responce. They seem to have a lot of ass to cover.

Did you look at the bin file with a normal text editor?

It may be an idea for you to send me a copy and let me look, email me from CR4 and I will send you my actual email address for you to send me the file in question.

Google doesn't work? It showed up 885,000 hits for me on how to flash a bios. Read a couple of the first few hits and they all pretty well say the same thing. (on how to do it with at clean boot disk and the .bin file).

Use your "flashing a new bios" as a search string in Google (or your favorite search engine).

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/biosflash1.html

http://www.overclockers.com/articles1132/index02.asp

http://www.bootdisk.com/bios.htm

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-75555-How-to-flashupdate-your-BIOS.html

Must be close to 20 years since I flashed a new bios. We never thought nothing of doing it back then. Now, it is a little harder with lots of computers not having a floppy to boot off of. In that case, just make a bootable CD.

You mention the motherboard vendor and the chipset. I would want to know the BIOS vendor's name. Go directly to the BIOS vendors website to get the flash software if the Epox site doesn't link to it. It is not difficult to flash a BIOS upgrade once you have the right software. As Andy said, it should be in a zip file with instructions.

My guess is the BIOS is by Award (Update AWDflash to V8.54B). The version number needs to be 8.54B or greater.

Where it talks about patch system hung, this means that pressing F10 will restore default values to get around the bug in the old version. I don't know what update microcode means. Read the documentation.

So the trick is to get the Award BIOS version 8.54B unzipped to a floppy or USB drive, something that the BIOS recognizes (floppies are being phased out and replaced with USB drives).

The only other problem is if you lose power in the middle of writting the flash upgrade. That would be bad. The machine may not boot at all. If UPS is available, use it. The flash only takes 30 seconds or so. You should be ok without backup power.

I would suggest you some non-standard decision to treat virtual OS like VmWare or Innotek VirtualBox.



If you need SP2 for Life Cam or other software to work, not to play, just take a look here or here . First is proprietary product, but you can try one for one month, second is free. I used both under linux where I could launch MSWindows and other OSes. Now I'm using virtualbox and I very like it.



I do assure you --- it's absolutely safe way to get XP with SP2 working inside your host OS.

Both files are so called "ZIP" Files, you need to have a program (there are plenty of free ones around) to "unzip" the files first and save them on your hard disk.

From either zip file you sent there was two files one was Awflash.exe and also a .bin file (the data that needs to be downloaded onto the motherboard).

I suspect that on the website are further details on how to run the Flash program correctly. It will not run on my main board as it (my main board) is not of the correct type.

The two .zip files you sent have two different .bin files, you need to find out which one is 100% correct for your board......

If you gave me the original website, I could look for the final details you need.....if you wish.

Some main boards can be updated while running windows still, some need a bootable floppy or CD, I do not have enough infos to say exactly what you need, but I suspect that it will run while still in windows.....and perform the update.....

Thanks for the advice so far. I did unzip the files but I sent you the zip files because they are smaller to e-mail. The website I got the one from is www.epox.com That is the manufacturer of my board. Here is a link to the page where you type in the motherboard model etc. Choose Motherboard, then EP-4PGMI, And then Bios. Then it gives you some server errors well it did give me) Refresh the page... Version 04.10.16 is the one I downloaded. It is also the most recent 2004-10-18... Yes I know that is a long time ago, but like I said earlier the desk top is still working fine. It is the windows that keep on breaking. Pun Intended..

It will not let me go to thze page for the BIOS download. I also did not find any detailed infos with regard to "how" the upgrade is made.....

I have tried and tried to get to the correct page, its simply not possible from here.

I am afraid that I am unable (very sadly) to help you further......It should not have been difficult to do......this is a warning to anyone contemplating an Epox product to leave well alone and buy something else, anything else will be much better!!! No support and awful web pages are what Epox have, eg. a "Poxy" website!!!

I have over the last 6 years only bought main boards from MSI. I have only had two problems, both were fixed as fast as humanly possible, what more could I ask.....? The support people were friendly and guided me perfectly at no extra cost.....

MSI Germany (in Frankfurt, Hanauer Landstrasse) Many thanks Guys, you were/are GREAT!!!!

Yes, I have to agree with you there. Web page sucks chunks and there is not much support. Although I were happy otherwise with this motherboard. I will try MSI next time. Thanks for the effort anyway. I think I will let the bios be for now untill I get conflict problems. So far the SP2 installed and my computer did not crash as before. Keep well. Regards Oom Sarel

Have a great weekend.

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