"Flashing" your M/B Bios

[The Hulk]

Has anyone here "flashed" or updated your motherboard BIOS? I have a Gigabyte M/B (AMD for XP+ CPUs) and have gone to their website for instructions and the files - no problem there. Everyone I talk to, including the computer store/shop I bought my M/B from, shy away from wanting or suggesting I update my BIOS.
Reason I want to, is I had a AMD 2200 XP+ CPU and upgraded to a 2800 and the BIOS does not recognize my CPU now. Windows does not know what it is either (because BIOS doesn't), but runs fine regardless (well, don't know if it's fully utilizing the faster FSB of the 2800, and the extra cache it has over the 2200).
Anyone have personal experiences, good or bad, doing this?

Also - how do I make a boot diskette (1.4M) with Windows 2000?

Thanks,
Hulk

 

[psyno]

They shy away from it because it's potentially risky; a bad flash could mean a dead motherboard, which will usually leave you either with the option of replacing the BIOS chip, or forsaking the board.

That said, it's not hard. The biggest danger really is if the power goes out. Obviously you won't want to do it with defective gear attached either, like don't flash the BIOS to try to heal a malfunctioning CPU.

Personally, I've done it dozens of times without a problem. The easiest way to make a DOS startup disk from Win 2k (I think, I don't actually have it) is to open My Computer, right click on the floppy drive, select format, check the Create DOS startup disk option, and click OK or whatever.

Generally, it's not worth it unless you know the update to solve a specific problem you're having. I'd say in your case, it's quite likely that a BIOS flash will help, but if I were you I'd probably try to confirm that first. There is probably a CPU/BIOS compatibility listing maintained by Gigabyte somewhere. Good luck, and keep in mind Murphy's Law.

 

[The Hulk]

Thanks Psyno. I did plan on going back to the Gigabyte website to research anything I have missed.
I did forget to mention my M/B has one of those Dual Bios chips - never used the second half of it, but do think it is in case the first BIOS is blown away.
Will cross my fingers about the power going out, and unfortunately know Mr. Murphy very well.... :rolling:

 

[creed]

i'v had nothing but problems with Gigabyte, recently had to RMA one with Nforce 3 chipset- couldn't run my memory in dual chanel.

 

[[Matt]]

i'v had nothing but problems with Gigabyte, recently had to RMA one with Nforce 3 chipset- couldn't run my memory in dual chanel.

heh.... for 2 days on my current system i had my dual channel ram running in single channel because i didnt RTFM. On my previous dual channel systems you had to place the RAM in alternate slots that are colour coded in a way that you have to place the 2 ram modules in the same coloured slots. However on my new MSI neo2 platinum you have to place the ram sticks in the slots of the SAME colour. It wasnt until i noticed the channel config written on the motherboard that i noticed i had placed the ram sticks in a single channel configuration.

lets hope you didnt make the same error! :E

 

[creed]

heh.... for 2 days on my current system i had my dual channel ram running in single channel because i didnt RTFM. On my previous dual channel systems you had to place the RAM in alternate slots that are colour coded in a way that you have to place the 2 ram modules in the same coloured slots. However on my new MSI neo2 platinum you have to place the ram sticks in the slots of the SAME colour. It wasnt until i noticed the channel config written on the motherboard that i noticed i had placed the ram sticks in a single channel configuration.

lets hope you didnt make the same error! :E

i tried first just running with 2 sticks of 512, it detects them and runs them in dual but shortly i get BSOD, only way i could run the system stable was on 333 but even on these settings i couldn't pass the 3dmark.

 

[The Hulk]

Note to all who care:

My BIOS has a utilty called Q-Flash, which means I can Flash straight from BIOS (new BIOS file on floppy). I follwed the instructions and was successful last night. This fixed my problem with the BIOS (and ultimately Windows) not knowing what my CPU is. In my case, it is *slightly* faster now (knowing to use 333 FSB versus 266 and to use the double cache size as my old 2200+). Thanks to all who contributed.

Next is better CPU fan and advanced cooling for my 9800XT =)

Praying with all for HL2 Gold news...


Hulk