How many flashes can a bios chip handle?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greysky
  • Start date Start date
G

Greysky

Before it breaks? I have heard the number of reliable bios flashes you can
do to a bios chip is 5. After that the programmable gate arrays inside them
begin to malfunction. If this is true, I should be getting worried.... my
P4P800 Delux board started out life with version 1006, and now I am up to
1015. I hope I am not into the danger zone - I want to wait to flash to
version 17 when it gets out of beta.
 
There is no practical limit....Certainly I can say for sure I've flashed my
current board 20 or more times without issue.
 
Greysky said:
Before it breaks? I have heard the number of reliable bios flashes you can
do to a bios chip is 5. After that the programmable gate arrays inside them
begin to malfunction. If this is true, I should be getting worried.... my
P4P800 Delux board started out life with version 1006, and now I am up to
1015. I hope I am not into the danger zone - I want to wait to flash to
version 17 when it gets out of beta.
Click to expand...
Normal manufacturers spec, is between 1000, and 10 million flashes,
depending on the chip used. In the past, the numbers were a lot lower, and
some of the flash programs do not use the best algorithms for reliability
(there is a very significant trade of in speed, and the 'full' programming
spec often requires features not available on the motherboard, such as
verifying at different supply voltages), however a failure below perhaps 100
flashes would be exceptional.

Best Wishes
 
"Greysky" said:
Before it breaks? I have heard the number of reliable bios flashes you can
do to a bios chip is 5. After that the programmable gate arrays inside them
begin to malfunction. If this is true, I should be getting worried.... my
P4P800 Delux board started out life with version 1006, and now I am up to
1015. I hope I am not into the danger zone - I want to wait to flash to
version 17 when it gets out of beta.
Click to expand...

Here is a sample device, used on an A7N8X Deluxe -

http://www.sst.com/products.xhtml/serial_flash/49/SST49LF020

It says 100,000 programming cycles and data retention of 100 years.
If you can believe it.

Paul
 
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