Bios update?

[lurker]

I have an Asus a7v133 board with bios date 1001c, and the latest is
1009.

I've d/l'd the updated bios and the flash utility, and the instructions
say to boot from a floppy to perform the update.

What do I have to do to get system to boot from floppy? I enter present
BIOS setting and there is no choice for a floppy under "boot" section.
Another setting in BIOS is set to swap A/B. I presume cable hookup is
reason for this????

I'm still with Win98se, and "Help" says to boot in MsDos, do it through
restart, etc. Is this a "pure" Dos setting in which it safe to try
the update?

Or, is there any real advantage to do the update at all?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Lurker

 

[philo]

I have an Asus a7v133 board with bios date 1001c, and the latest is
1009.

I've d/l'd the updated bios and the flash utility, and the instructions
say to boot from a floppy to perform the update.

What do I have to do to get system to boot from floppy? I enter present
BIOS setting and there is no choice for a floppy under "boot" section.

it's in there somewhere
although it may be hard to find...
look for "boot order" or something like that

Another setting in BIOS is set to swap A/B. I presume cable hookup is
reason for this????

I'm still with Win98se, and "Help" says to boot in MsDos, do it through
restart, etc. Is this a "pure" Dos setting in which it safe to try
the update?

Or, is there any real advantage to do the update at all?

You probably should not bother to update unless there is a specific
new feature you need...
if the flash does not work...you could end up with a totally unusable
machine


btw: if you do flash the bios...just make absolutely certain
you have the right one...and be sure your machine is on a UPS
....just in case of a power failure

 

[John Smith]

Bios can be dangerous to work with. I wouldn't recommend to flash bios
if you are certain you will benefit.

to flash a bios. insert a 3 and 1/2 floppy into the your computer.
open my computer and right click on 3 1/2 floppy and select format.
Select the option that says ms-dos system disk. I would recommand you
download ramdisk. This lets you create a upper memory to copy over your
bios and flash your bios which makes it faster. Copy of the bios onto
the floppy and the flash bios utility. Insert the floppy and most likly
if will boot from your floppy if it does not. Either hit f2 or del key
to go into your bios. From there look for boot options. Select floppy
as your first item to boot from. Most likely you will use + or - to
select certain option. Save your setting and restart with the floppy in
the drive.
run the proper command and restart. You may need to reset your cmos.

good luck

 

[Sooky Grumper]

<snip>

His question was about how to set the boot order in his particular BIOS,
John. He knows the rest.

 

[Sooky Grumper]

<snip>

His question was about how to set the boot order in his particular BIOS,
John. He knows the rest.

Sorry John, that was rudely phrased.

 

[lurker]

Thanks guys,

Just a little verbal reinforcement helped a lot. Switched cable
connections to flopply so I did not have to reverse A/B. Further
inspection showed a choice of "Legacy device" which was not selected.
I selected it, and then used the + and - keys to "rotate" it to the
number one(1) position.

Sure enough, restart used the floppy to boot from.

Now that I have the mechanics of the situation figured out, what
will I gain by updating the motherboard bios?

Lurker

 

[Sooky Grumper]

Thanks guys,

Just a little verbal reinforcement helped a lot. Switched cable
connections to flopply so I did not have to reverse A/B. Further
inspection showed a choice of "Legacy device" which was not selected.
I selected it, and then used the + and - keys to "rotate" it to the
number one(1) position.

Sure enough, restart used the floppy to boot from.

Now that I have the mechanics of the situation figured out, what
will I gain by updating the motherboard bios?

That's where John and philo's responses contain a very valuable gem of
information: unless you're having problems, you may gain nothering but
stand to lose everything. Does the website tell you what was improved in
that version of the BIOS? What about the README file that came with the
BIOS update?

 

[DaveW]

WHY do you want to update your BIOS? If you attempt the update and it fails
for any reason you will be left with an unuseable motherboard. (People
update their BIOS's to fix specific problems that they are having.)

 

[lurker]

That's where John and philo's responses contain a very valuable gem of
information: unless you're having problems, you may gain nothering but
stand to lose everything. Does the website tell you what was improved in
that version of the BIOS? What about the README file that came with the
BIOS update?

I downloaded the files from the Asus site but did not see any history
or explanations. Oh well, since I'm not having any great difficulties
I'll leave well enough alone.

Thanks again,
Lurker

 

[Ruel Smith (Big Daddy)]

WHY do you want to update your BIOS? If you attempt the update and it
fails
for any reason you will be left with an unuseable motherboard. (People
update their BIOS's to fix specific problems that they are having.)

Or to get new features. I remember my board had a BIOS update that allowed
booting from the RAID controller, which wasn't available with earlier
BIOS's.


--
Big Daddy Ruel Smith

My SuSE Linux machine uptime:
8:50pm up 39 days 5:36, 2 users, load average: 1.19, 0.50, 0.18

My Windows XP machine uptime:
Something less...

 

[tomcas]

I suggest you do an update. Here's the bios history of your board.
http://www.a7vtroubleshooting.com/info/bios/index.htm#133
Here are some flashing tips-
Download Dr. Dos for making the boot disk, it's quick, easy, and you don't
have to worry about running low on memory while you are flashing due to
extraneous drivers.
http://www.hellasystems.de/ftp/Utilities/BootDisk/DrDos70/drdflash.exe
Use the German version flash utility 2.21 because it has two useful dos
programs that allows you to save your existing bios settings to a text file
and it allows you to clear the CMOS without having to short the solder pads.

ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/BIOS_FLASH_UTILS/aflash221.zip
Save your current bios file to the floppy when you run Aflash just in case
you may need it. Also if you want you can save your current bios settings to
a text file using the CMOS program. After flashing to the new file, you can
clear the cmos with the clrcmos program . When you re-Boot to bios the first
time load setup defaults.

 

[lurker]

Thanks so much! I see from your first reference that 1009 is for board
rev 1.05 and up. Since my board is only rev 1.04 I'll check out some
of the earlier updates.

Lurker

 

[tomcas]

That's not correct. What the update list for rev 1009 says is

"1. Support 48-bit HDD.
2. Add support to new Thoroughbred CPU. And support up to XP 2200+
(PCB VER. must be 1.05 . or above)"

What #2 means is that it enables you to use an XP2200+ provided your
board is a 1.05. or above. It does not mean you need a 1.05. board to
use the 1009 bios. In fact I have a 1.05 (not dot) board and installed
this bios to enable me to add a 160gig drive.
Go ahead and use this bios. Post back if you have any questions.

 

[lurker]

Thanks again for the explanation,

Quickly, I had started browsing to 'catchup' with the idea of maybe
building a new system when I ran across the udpated BIOS. If I am
understanding what you've said correctly, after I do the BIOS update,
I could then udpate my present AMD Athlon 900 to a faster processor.

Is this a good approach, or would my 'older' Asus board be a
bottleneckin terms of bus speed, memory speed, etc?

 

[tomcas]

Thanks again for the explanation,

Quickly, I had started browsing to 'catchup' with the idea of maybe
building a new system when I ran across the udpated BIOS. If I am
understanding what you've said correctly, after I do the BIOS update,
I could then udpate my present AMD Athlon 900 to a faster processor.

Yes, offically with a rev 1.04 mobo you could go to an Athlon 1400.
http://www.asus.com.tw/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx

Un-offically you might be able to go to a Palimino XP but it's a crap shoot
if it will work.
http://www.a7vtroubleshooting.com/info/cpu/index.htm

Is this a good approach, or would my 'older' Asus board be a
bottleneckin terms of bus speed, memory speed, etc?

I don't think you can look at it purely from the standpoint of
bottlenecking.
Think more in terms of value. Older processors in the higher frequencies
command a premium partially because of the demand from people whom are
trying to eke out as much as they can from older chipset motherboards. The
same thing applies to older memory. The other side of the cost driver is the
limited supply- they are no longer being produced.

If your board could take at least a Throughbred XP I'd say it was worth a
try and if you had trouble you could just keep it and get a new board. But
you are stuck with Palimino XP. They are slower, hotter, and again are more
expensive due to supply and demand.
I think it's time to move on. For value buy at the knee of the curve.
Currently, for the Thourobred XP, that looks to be around an XP2400. For
the Barton, an XP 2500 is a real good value today and would probably be my
choice.
I'd stick with Asus but switch to the Nvidia chipsets. The all in one boards
have come a long in the past couple of years and if you are not a serious
gamer you will probably find even the onboard video suitable. Typically the
onboard audio and LAN suit most needs. Until recently my choice for a budget
system was an Thourobred XP2400 and Asus A7N266VM of which I built several
with very good results. Today the A7N8-VM series seems to be taking its
place with more up to date features like Barton support , dual channel DDR,
USB 2.0. If you've already got a decent video card and you want a little
more features the A7N8E-X deluxe has got most everything except firewire and
sata.

 

[lurker]

Thanks again,

Time to research some of the ideas you've presented.

Lurker