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View Full Version : Oh noes! Bad bios flash!!

StandingCow
October 13th, 2006, 03:20 PM
:( Yep, just had a bad flash, the good news is... its an excuse to upgrade.


ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131530

and

eVGA 512-P2-N635-AR Geforce 7950GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130061

So, now, I cant shut down my computer, and pray to god that it does not crash until I get the parts :ninja:
Modest Genius
October 13th, 2006, 04:59 PM
hmm, thats an interesting one, although how you can run it at all with dead flash is beyond me...
Mirsky
October 13th, 2006, 06:23 PM
Because the new BIOS version isn't used until the PC reboots. SC, what motherboard do you have? ASUS and I believe ABIT have dual BIOS chips so you can recover from a bad flash.
Evil Superstar
October 13th, 2006, 06:43 PM
Don't a lot of BIOS version have some sort of internal back up or fall back system in case stuff like this happens?

edit: I can't read - so what Mirsky said
Enforcer
October 13th, 2006, 08:16 PM
Dude just RMA it and resell it or use it again. What motherboard is it?
StandingCow
October 14th, 2006, 12:24 AM
Its an Asus A8V. If I can get it to boot (I will try when the new shit comes) I will upgrade my brothers comp.
Modest Genius
October 14th, 2006, 02:19 AM
but how does he know its bad if he hasnt tried booting off it? indeed, when would it even notice it was bad except on a boot?
StandingCow
October 14th, 2006, 03:33 AM
but how does he know its bad if he hasnt tried booting off it? indeed, when would it even notice it was bad except on a boot?

Because, when I try and run the update again it says there is no bios, this is from the EZ flash program...
StandingCow
October 14th, 2006, 04:33 AM
Ok update. I finally stopped being a panzy and decided to look into this further.

New ASUS boards, like mine, have a crash free bios, meaning, it will recover from a bad flash, so I restarted, put in my motherboard CD, and it reflashed... go to restart... CPU not recognised... FUCK, I forgot that the intial bios released does not support my CPU.

So, I throw in my old CPU, reflash my bios, put my dual core back in, and Im back up and running.

But.. since I already spent the 400 bucks and the shit is shipping.. I will just put my old motherboard in my brothers PC.
Somedude
October 14th, 2006, 05:01 AM
BTW... Probably pretty apperent now, but try to avoid the EZflash utility, it's usually anything but easy. Their Winflash update utility isn't really any better. I haven't found a suitable substitute from the BIOS manufacturer flash tools. Nothing makes me more nervous with my computer than when I'm updating a BIOS or firmware. :)
StandingCow
October 14th, 2006, 05:04 AM
BTW... Probably pretty apperent now, but try to avoid the EZflash utility, it's usually anything but easy. Their Winflash update utility isn't really any better. I haven't found a suitable substitute from the BIOS manufacturer flash tools. Nothing makes me more nervous with my computer than when I'm updating a BIOS or firmware. :)

Yea, I was always a bit aprehensive about that.. everytime I used it it worked, but I always felt that, something such as a flash should be done when nothing else is happening in the system.
Modest Genius
October 14th, 2006, 03:23 PM
my personal experience suggests that installing BIOS updates is easiest from within BIOS itself
StandingCow
October 14th, 2006, 03:52 PM
my personal experience suggests that installing BIOS updates is easiest from within BIOS itself

You cannot flash the bios from within bios... because it would be in use. Do you mean a dos prompt?
Modest Genius
October 14th, 2006, 04:10 PM
last time I did it, I booted into BIOS, where there was an 'update bios' option
Evil Superstar
October 14th, 2006, 07:05 PM
isn't the traditional way using boot disks?
StandingCow
October 14th, 2006, 08:12 PM
isn't the traditional way using boot disks?

Yes.
Modest Genius
October 14th, 2006, 08:42 PM
yeah, which is why I fail to see the logic in the modern trend of making PCs without floppy drives...
Evil Superstar
October 14th, 2006, 09:29 PM
yeah, which is why I fail to see the logic in the modern trend of making PCs without floppy drives...

The logic being that floppy disks are now replaced with cd or usb sticks iirc.
StandingCow
October 14th, 2006, 11:01 PM
you can boot off CDs and USB sticks. Although.. it is nice to have a floppy drive.
Modest Genius
October 14th, 2006, 11:05 PM
yeah, you can boot off USB, but that's dependant on your BIOS handling the hubs. and its a bit of a waste of a CD for a few kB of boot info
Prowl
October 15th, 2006, 06:36 PM
floppy drives are shitty and old and slow and keeping them around for the occasional bios flash is retarded. What needs to be done is for BIOS's to support flashing from USB devices.

And yes, it's near impossible to totally cock up your bios on a modern ASUS board. As you discovered
FaKToR
October 16th, 2006, 12:04 AM
isn't the traditional way using boot disks?

I seem to recall replying to this post by affirming its correctness however my post seems to have been deleted despite Bob Barker's enthusiasm.

Again you are correct about booting from boot disks.
Rob_F
October 16th, 2006, 12:35 AM
Use a USB key to flash your motherboard, that way you can back up your current BIOS if the replacement is corrupt and the chance of corruption is almost nonexistant.

If I get made a mod in the tech support group, I'll make a tutorial on how to get DOS up and running on a USB key. It can be difficult on certain flash drive models that have a funky internal file structure (the DOS "sys" command ends up writing to the wrong part of the disk), but I haven't met the USB drive/CF Card/SD Card/Memory Stick that I couldn't make bootable.
FaKToR
October 16th, 2006, 02:05 AM
You? A mod? Oh god no.
Rob_F
October 16th, 2006, 03:09 AM
You? A mod? Oh god no.

It's a pretty creative thing; that is, to offer to do something while having no intention of actually doing it. This is most effectively achieved by placing the offer on a contingency that seems ambiguous to most; but happens to be one wherein you have intimite knowledge that it will never happen.

The things you learn in the work world :menkey: