easy bios flash?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dimitri
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dimitri

is there an easy way to flash you bios?

i mean for novices and without any danger of loosing your computer?

have an ASUS A7N266-VM motherboard.

can i check my current bios setting, so i make sure not to install
something older?

cheers, dimitri
 
dimitri said:
is there an easy way to flash you bios?

i mean for novices and without any danger of loosing your computer?

have an ASUS A7N266-VM motherboard.

can i check my current bios setting, so i make sure not to install
something older?
Click to expand...


Flashing a bios is *never* 100% safe.
Unless there is some very specific reason to flash your bios...such as
adding
some needed feature your present bios does not have...you should just leave
it alone!

If you do decided to flash your bios...
as a precaution...check your floppy drive first with a normal boot disc to
be sure it works ok.

also use a new floppy and run scandisk on it to make sure it's OK...

then...be sure your machine is on a UPS...as a power failure during a flash
could be a killer.

One last thing: you may want to be sure you can obtain a replacement bios
*first* just incase something goes wrong
 
is there an easy way to flash you bios?

i mean for novices and without any danger of loosing your computer?
Nope.

have an ASUS A7N266-VM motherboard.

can i check my current bios setting, so i make sure not to install
something older?
Click to expand...
Why do you want to flash your BIOS?

There are only ever two reasons to:

1) It fixes a bug affecting you
2) It adds hardware support, such as bigger drive support or newer
CPUs, that you ARE going to use.

--
Conor

I'm so grateful to the USA for their contribution to the war on terror.
After all, if they hadn't funded the IRA for 30 years, we wouldn't know
what terror was.
 
dimitri said:
is there an easy way to flash you bios?

i mean for novices and without any danger of loosing your computer?

have an ASUS A7N266-VM motherboard.

can i check my current bios setting, so i make sure not to install
something older?

cheers, dimitri
Click to expand...

also before you do anything, check your MOBO handbook to see if it has a
jumper to reset the back to default BIOS.
 
dimitri said:
is there an easy way to flash you bios?
Click to expand...
Yes, if you have a floppy drive you can make a boot disk and run the
aflash program from it. I never recommend using the windows easy flash
utility. It's too buggy and in this case newer was not better.
i mean for novices and without any danger of loosing your computer?
Click to expand...
No. There is always a risk but the more you know the safer you will be.
However, if you follow the directions and don't loose power your odds of
screwing up are very low. Just don't flash during and ice or wind storm
and you should be ok.
have an ASUS A7N266-VM motherboard.
Click to expand...
I have built several pcs using this exact board and have flashed updated
the bios on all of them. Not once did I have a problem.
can i check my current bios setting, so i make sure not to install
something older?
Click to expand...
Absolutely. One of several ways to do this is to simply hit the pause
key as the pc begins to boot and the bios screen appears showing this
info. You can pause at any screen and then continue by hitting pause
again or the enter key.
You can also enter bios by hitting the delete key during boot. Just exit
without saving changes to continue booting.
Post back if you need more instructions.
 
dimitri said:
is there an easy way to flash you bios?

i mean for novices and without any danger of loosing your computer?

have an ASUS A7N266-VM motherboard.

can i check my current bios setting, so i make sure not to install
something older?

cheers, dimitri
Click to expand...
In a nutshell, I never flash the BIOS if I don't *have* to. I borked an
A7N8X with an apparently successful flash I did not need. OTOH, I just
updated the BIOS on my A8N-VM CSM because it was not stable with the
shipping BIOS. All went well, but as others have noted, it's always a crap
shoot.
 
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