A7N8X

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Dexter

I have a A7N8X board and I think I have to upgrade the bios to the most
recent bios which appears to be 52502.zip. My current bios is 1007, and is
this stamped on the motherboard. If not, where can I verify which bios I do
have .I think I want to flash it to the most recent, according to Asus's
website. I currently have 1 stick of 256DDR with a PC of 400. I'm planning
to change OS to XP sp1 , and add another 256 ( Can't afford the 512 at this
time.) Can I go without flashing the bios if I don't go with the 400, but
install a 333? Also, I'm told that XP has a utility built in to flash a
bios. Actually, is flashing necessary at all. I'm also adding another
drive, either an 80G, or a 120G. Am I going in the right direction? Is there
a web page the gives a good explanation of flashing? TIA for any help I can
get.

Dexter
 
"Dexter" said:
I have a A7N8X board and I think I have to upgrade the bios to the most
recent bios which appears to be 52502.zip. My current bios is 1007, and is
this stamped on the motherboard. If not, where can I verify which bios I do
have .I think I want to flash it to the most recent, according to Asus's
website. I currently have 1 stick of 256DDR with a PC of 400. I'm planning
to change OS to XP sp1 , and add another 256 ( Can't afford the 512 at this
time.) Can I go without flashing the bios if I don't go with the 400, but
install a 333? Also, I'm told that XP has a utility built in to flash a
bios. Actually, is flashing necessary at all. I'm also adding another
drive, either an 80G, or a 120G. Am I going in the right direction? Is there
a web page the gives a good explanation of flashing? TIA for any help I can
get.

Dexter
Click to expand...

Flashing the motherboard is always a risky thing to do. In the case
of the A7N8X, there are different revision numbers of board, there is
non-deluxe versus deluxe and so on. These require different versions
of BIOS file, so you must be very careful to get the correct one.

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/download.aspx

Enter motherboard name and select All from the pulldown menu.
Click the correct motherboard name and a page of files should
appear. Click the "More" link next to each BIOS file, to read
any warnings or special instructions about install. The release
notes should be there too, telling you what is fixed.

The safest way to upgrade, is a DOS bootable floppy based method.
When running DOS, you have the guarantee that nothing else is
happening on the computer to interfere with the flash. But the
"More" link has the final say, as some BIOS cannot be installed
with all possible installation methods, only a subset of the
methods.

If the computer is stable and working for you, there is little
reason to be flashing. If you do flash, and it goes wrong, then
the final answer is to get a new flash chip from badflash.com .
Purchasing the BIOS Savior (~$25) before attempting a flash,
makes it easy to escape from a mistake. See ioss.com.tw for more
details about that dual flash chip adapter.

The manual has instructions on flashing.

HTH,
Paul
 
52502.zip does not appear to be a valid ASUS BIOS update file....they are
usually named like an81007.zip designating this as version 7
Just because you are installing SP1 and more ram is no reason to flash to a
newer BIOS.
If you read the release notes that come with the new versions you will usually
find that it "fixes" or "enhances" something ....usually stuff that helps to
overclock.
There are like 8 versions of the A7N8X boards out there and you need to look at
the board inside the case around the PCI slots and find your specific version
before you go looking on the ASUS website for newer BIOS.
http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/download2.aspx?item=a7n8x&type=like&file_type=BIOS
MY A7N8X del ver 2.0 came with a program called "Asus Update" that lets me check
on the net for a newer Bios and install it thru update.The other way is to make
a bootable floppy with a specific Asus flash file and the bios bin file.On the
ASUS website you will find the flash file and instructions.
peter
 
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