$29 for a BIOS upgrade?

  • Thread starter Thread starter asfsd
  • Start date Start date
A

asfsd

Is this a trend? Went to Phoenix/Award BIOS website, and they referred me to
a rather aggressive third-party vendor which apparently handles all their
upgrade issues. I had to give them my email address, and their greed and
persistence are rather offensive.

Is the era of downloading free bios upgrades over? If I shop carefully, I
can replace my entire MoBo and CPU for $40-$50. Why would a BIOS I may not
need be worth $29?
 
Eek... where are you finding a mobo/cpu combo for $40? Are you sure it's
not made of cheese and tin foil? Feces? Dirt?
 
The manufacturer of your computer or motherboard often
provides BIOS updates at no charge.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Is this a trend? Went to Phoenix/Award BIOS website, and they referred me to
| a rather aggressive third-party vendor which apparently handles all their
| upgrade issues. I had to give them my email address, and their greed and
| persistence are rather offensive.
|
| Is the era of downloading free bios upgrades over? If I shop carefully, I
| can replace my entire MoBo and CPU for $40-$50. Why would a BIOS I may not
| need be worth $29?
 
Is this a trend? Went to Phoenix/Award BIOS website, and they referred me to
Who makes the motherboard and the computer that you have this issue with -
e-machines?
 
Is this a trend? Went to Phoenix/Award BIOS website, and they referred me to
a rather aggressive third-party vendor which apparently handles all their
upgrade issues. I had to give them my email address, and their greed and
persistence are rather offensive.

Is the era of downloading free bios upgrades over? If I shop carefully, I
can replace my entire MoBo and CPU for $40-$50. Why would a BIOS I may not
need be worth $29?
Click to expand...
If the mobo is still in production, the mobo manufacturer would
handle bios updates for free. Even if it's not a current board,
the manufacturer would still have the old BIOS' for download,
even if they don't update them anymore.

Sometimes a third party will continue to develop BOIS updates
for older motherboard beyond the last free BIOS offerered by
the manufacturer. Then you'll pay $$

Don't go to the Phoenix website, visit the site of the people who
made the board. For example, Asus, Intel, Abit, Iwill, etc,etc.
Dave
 
This I will check out right away. The $29 option obviously is not what I
need.
Thank you.
 
It only has the speed of my existing 3-year-old processor (1.2 Gig). I may
have to choose the cheap option right now. Fry's also has a 2.4 Gig for $75.
Keep in mind that I have to wait a month or two to get this kind of deal,
which only runs for a few days and is probably a "loss leader."
PS: If these MoBos are made of dirt or feces, they certainly have a nice
metallic finish!
 
No. I just did the naive thing and Googled Award, which is the brand of BIOS
I have. Soyo is the MoBo manufacturer.
 
LOL!

--
LB



asfsd said:
It only has the speed of my existing 3-year-old processor (1.2 Gig). I may
have to choose the cheap option right now. Fry's also has a 2.4 Gig for $75.
Keep in mind that I have to wait a month or two to get this kind of deal,
which only runs for a few days and is probably a "loss leader."
PS: If these MoBos are made of dirt or feces, they certainly have a nice
metallic finish!


carefully,
Click to expand...
 
asfsd said:
Is this a trend? Went to Phoenix/Award BIOS website, and they referred me to
a rather aggressive third-party vendor which apparently handles all their
upgrade issues. I had to give them my email address, and their greed and
persistence are rather offensive.
Click to expand...

I didn't go to the site and check, but if what you say is true, then
Phoenix/Award OWN the "third pary" business. Compaq was the first, as
far as I know, to have a similiar program years back, ie you needed more
ram, and the tech would refer you to a suppossedly "third party" site,
but was really run/owned/controlled by Compaq.
 
asfsd said:
Is this a trend? Went to Phoenix/Award BIOS website, and they referred
me to
a rather aggressive third-party vendor which apparently handles all
their
upgrade issues. I had to give them my email address, and their greed
and
persistence are rather offensive.

Is the era of downloading free bios upgrades over? If I shop
carefully, I
can replace my entire MoBo and CPU for $40-$50. Why would a BIOS I may
not
need be worth $29?
Click to expand...


Phoenix doesn't deal with end users. They deal with manufacturers and
system builders. That isn't you. So they shoved you off to someone
that does deal with end users.

If the BIOS is no longer supported (because the mobo is way too old),
you expect to get prime rate prices when compared to newer hardware that
is currently in demand? You think that you would pay the same price for
a brand new and in perfect condition fender for a model T Ford today at
the price it was back then?

Is there a reason why you did not visit the web site of the manufacturer
of your motherboard? Just because Phoenix might be the source of the
BIOS programming doesn't mean your motherboard maker hasn't modified
that programming to conform to the actual hardware implemented on that
motherboard. Get the BIOS flash update for your mobo from the mobo
maker's web site. You didn't mention what you have so I couldn't go
look to see what they have for flash updates.

By the way, $29 doesn't sound like an outrageous price (for a
one-product purchase). Almost 2 decades ago I paid $14 and that was
simply to have the BIOS PROM copied to another PROM and then some
additional drive parameters added to the table so I could support a
larger drive. With inflation, $29 sounds about right. Did you check
what the price would be at http://www.mrbios.com? Of course, if you get
it from the web site for your mobo maker, the update is free.
 
In any case, it looks like a great way to make money, just not from this
customer.
 
Vanguard said:
larger drive. With inflation, $29 sounds about right. Did you check
what the price would be at http://www.mrbios.com? Of course, if you get
it from the web site for your mobo maker, the update is free.
Click to expand...

True. Many sites that sell bios upgrades can be had for free from the
mobo maker. To date, I've never had to pay for a bios upgrade file.
 
This is good advice.
Question: how to determine the model of Soyo MoBo I have? I did not receive
the original packaging, and the board has no label on the front side. Can XP
or my BIOS tell me the model of my MoBo?
 
asfsd said:
This is good advice.
Question: how to determine the model of Soyo MoBo I have? I did not
receive
the original packaging, and the board has no label on the front side.
Can XP
or my BIOS tell me the model of my MoBo?
Click to expand...


There should be a label but it might just be white paint characters.
Could be the "label" for the model is around the card slot connectors.

You could try using Belarc Advisor or Everest Home (used to be called
AIDA32) to see what ID strings it lists for the mobo.

So what is not working that you really need the BIOS flash update?
 
To be honest, I do not really agree with the advice to flash my BIOS, but
was puzzled as to how one does this, anyway. The basic symptom I am having
seems to be temperature-related (need to chill the machine to start it).
There may be some kind of MoBo defect as well, in that when I turn on the
power at the PS, the green LED on the case front turns on (most of the
time). When this does not happen, my chances of starting the machine are
much better.
I now realize I can get a nice MoBo from Newegg for about $30 including
shipping, and it will accommodate my 1.2 Gig CPU nicely. The CPU appears to
be working fine.
 
This I will check out right away. The $29 option obviously is not what I
need.
Thank you.
Click to expand...

Who is your mobo manufacturer?

www.asus.com
www.intel.com
www.gigabyte.com
www.soltek.com.tw

Jesus, like hell I would pay 29.00 for a 256k rom file.

If you are in the process of building a new PC, don't make the mistake
I did and try to put a Celeron-D in a older board. These may seem like
the replacements for the old P4, but they are prescott and are not
compatible.

Total headache time due to prescott: 3 Weeks.
Jason Marshall
Australian Unemployed IT Technician/ASP Web Developer.
Email me: (e-mail address removed).

ATTN: Help Others: Please keep all replies to my posts in the newsgroup.
Failure to do so can result in your message not being answered.
 
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