BIOS upgrade A7V266e Series 2

[Silvabod]

Have boot disk, downloaded BIOS rev 1010 (my chip is Athlon 1800+) and
AFLASH.EXE, also printed out the procedure and screenshots.

PROBLEM - AFLASH "procedure" screenshots are NOT what's on my screen. Saved
the "old" BIOS to floppy, but option 2 (per Asus Aflash procedure) SHOULD
read Update BIOS with Boot Block and ESCD.
My screen option 2 reads Update BIOS WITHOUT Boot block and ESCD - the
complete opposite. (and the procedure text makes no mention of "without")

PC runs fine (on BIOS rev 1006) except for one thing - it will NOT operate a
USB2 card at USB2, only at USB1.1. It's been suggested that I need a later
BIOS to get USB2 to work.

QUESTIONS
1/ - Update BIOS with/without boot block/ESCD - yes or no?
2/ - Will updated BIOS give USB2 support?

Apprecaite any help.
Silvabod

 

[Egil Solberg]

Have boot disk, downloaded BIOS rev 1010 (my chip is Athlon 1800+) and
AFLASH.EXE, also printed out the procedure and screenshots.

PROBLEM - AFLASH "procedure" screenshots are NOT what's on my screen.
Saved the "old" BIOS to floppy, but option 2 (per Asus Aflash
procedure) SHOULD read Update BIOS with Boot Block and ESCD.
My screen option 2 reads Update BIOS WITHOUT Boot block and ESCD - the
complete opposite. (and the procedure text makes no mention of
"without")
PC runs fine (on BIOS rev 1006) except for one thing - it will NOT
operate a USB2 card at USB2, only at USB1.1. It's been suggested
that I need a later BIOS to get USB2 to work.

QUESTIONS
1/ - Update BIOS with/without boot block/ESCD - yes or no?
2/ - Will updated BIOS give USB2 support?

1: If given the option to update boot block/escd or not. Do NOT update. If
flash fails, boot block will still be intact if you haven't tried to update
it. In that case a BIOS recovery is possible.
2: hard to tell. Asus does not say. Latest BIOS for the A7V266-E is 1015beta
002. I would flash that one. If it was bad, Asus would have pulled it, and
it is 2 years old now.

 

[Nitehawk]

Latest BIOS is 1015 beta 3.
Real E-Mail address is midniter at optonline dot net

 

[Egil Solberg]

Latest BIOS is 1015 beta 3.
Real E-Mail address is midniter at optonline dot net

Where can you find that one? Not at download.asus.com, not at ftp.asuscom.de
and not on ftp.asus.com.tw.
Only 1015beta 2 there.

 

[Silvabod]

Egil, Nitehawk, thanks for the feedback.

As a novice, I'm wary ,,, do not understand why a written and
"screen-shotted" manufacturer procedure should be different to reality (and
my AFLASH.exe was downloaded just yesterday from Asus, so, current). Egil,
to be clear - my Aflash screen option to flash withOUT boot block and ESCD -
there's no offer to flash WITH.

I'm wary, too, about updating to 1015 Beta when the only apparent reason is
added support for a chip I don't have - as stated, my problem and ONLY
reason for BIOS update is to (hopefully) get support for USB2 (the board
only has USB1) - and I don't understand the meaning or implication of Boot
Block or ESCD.

Where can I get this information, please, esp about USB2 support?

 

[Egil Solberg]

Egil, Nitehawk, thanks for the feedback.

As a novice, I'm wary ,,, do not understand why a written and
"screen-shotted" manufacturer procedure should be different to
reality (and my AFLASH.exe was downloaded just yesterday from Asus,
so, current). Egil, to be clear - my Aflash screen option to flash
withOUT boot block and ESCD - there's no offer to flash WITH.

OK. I guess you can force update of boot block ( a small bit of code that
can get the computer up and running with a minimum set of functionality,
allowing a reflash of BIOS from a floppy in case of BIOS corruption. No
AGP-support, f.ex) if you add some switches to the aflash command. You do
not want to do that.
If you choose to upgrade the BIOS, the option aflash gives you is a wise and
correct one.l

I'm wary, too, about updating to 1015 Beta when the only apparent
reason is added support for a chip I don't have - as stated, my
problem and ONLY reason for BIOS update is to (hopefully) get support
for USB2 (the board only has USB1) - and I don't understand the
meaning or implication of Boot Block or ESCD.

Where can I get this information, please, esp about USB2 support?

You will most ceratinly not get this info from Asus. I guess you already
have searched Google for this info. Even if Asus only lists support for new
cpus, it is possible that they have made other bugfixes as well. Where did
you get the advice that said that a bios flash could fix the problem? From
someone who had had the same problem?

For us to help you further you will need to tell us OS, brand of USB-card
and driver version that you use, list other PCI-cards.
It is very important that you have an OS with USB2.0 support and that you
have (for windows xp) installed latest servicepack.
Most probably, I would say, is that you have a driver or configuration
problem.

 

[Nitehawk]

It's been quite a while and I can't remember where I got it. Maybe I
tried LiveUpdate and just downloaded the update.
Real E-Mail address is midniter at optonline dot net

 

[Silvabod]

The USB2 problem is almost a year old - I'd actually given up on it, opting
instead to use USB1 speeds (no real hardship, on the USB2 devices I have).

HOWEVER - just had major critical problems, the causes of which proved to be
a degrading PSU (won't bore you with detail, but it "blew" two floppy
drives, amongst other things). Having fixed current problems, including the
floppy drive (new PSU, new drive) it JUST TODAY occurred to me that the old
USB2 problem was also a power error, so re-installed the USB2 card to check.
It now works, so original problem cause was clearly the PSU and not the BIOS
or drivers.
So - I don't now need to flash the BIOS, I'll stick with what I have!
(Incidentally, PSU also "blew" 2 USB2 hubs ...checked on another (USB2) pc,
neither will now work except at USB1).
To answer your question re BIOS update to solve - read it a year ago in a ng
(but couldn't action it then, as I already had the "floppy" problem - and
Asus clearly state, cannot flash except from A:\ drive)

Appreciate your tiome and explanations. Thanks