Upgrading the BIOS can cause problems; however, I guess I've been lucky and
never run across one. I've flashed several boards. Read the version info in
the ReadMe file to see what the changes are in the newer versions. I am
running the D865PERL and flashed it to 12 when I built the computer. It is
running fine. Some things to keep you out of trouble:
1) If flashing from a floppy disk, do a FULL format on the floppy disk
before you put the flash files on it to make sure the disk is good and that
the format isn't weak.
2) Make sure you won't get a power bump while flashing.
Intel has a safety feature, they have a BIOS recovery disk you can download
should something go wrong. Use of this disk would require moving the jumper
on the motherboard. The instructions should be on Intel's website, hopefully
in the readme for the recovery disk.
Whenever I put a new computer together, the first thing I do once I have it
running is flash the BIOS to the newest version then install the operating
system. If the flash fails at this point, then its a bad board and it goes
back to the vendor.