procedure for updating BIOS P4P800

[Tim Lansberry]

Just built a system with the P4P800, win Xp Pro, and I want to update the
BIOS from the 08.00.09 (11/06/03) to the latest 08.10.15 It says to not use
the EZflash utility unless the current BIOS is the 1014, otherwise create a
DOS boot disk. But my XP is NTFS so there is no DOS to boot to? How do I
update the BIOS then?

 

[billh]

Just built a system with the P4P800, win Xp Pro, and I want to update the
BIOS from the 08.00.09 (11/06/03) to the latest 08.10.15 It says to not use
the EZflash utility unless the current BIOS is the 1014, otherwise create a
DOS boot disk. But my XP is NTFS so there is no DOS to boot to? How do I
update the BIOS then?

If you have a w98 machine you can create a startup disk and delete some
unneeded progs if you need extra room for your flashing stuff. You can go to
www.bootdisk.com and download a bootdisk. Be sure to send in a few dollars
if it works for you; this guy is providing a good service.

Billh

 

[Navid]

Just built a system with the P4P800, win Xp Pro, and I want to update the
BIOS from the 08.00.09 (11/06/03) to the latest 08.10.15 It says to not use
the EZflash utility unless the current BIOS is the 1014, otherwise create a
DOS boot disk. But my XP is NTFS so there is no DOS to boot to? How do I
update the BIOS then?

You can create a startup floppy and use it to boot to DOS
regardless of whether you have NTFS or FAT or whatever.
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/pfdocs/2001022709560139

 

[Tim]

Tim

Under XP you can create a floppy boot disc using My Computer - shove the
floppy in the drive, right click on a: and select format and then tick the
option at the bottom: Create an MS Dos startup disk.

HTH
- Tim

 

[Tim Lansberry]

Thanks, I did that but I'm not sure there is enough room on the floppy to
put the extra apps to load the bios on the floppy since the C; drive is not
available (NTFS). There seems to be 2 or 3 different methods to update the
bios on this board depending on the current bios version and OS - a tad
confusing. I'll look again to see if there's a combination that works.

 

[GMAN]

Thanks, I did that but I'm not sure there is enough room on the floppy to
put the extra apps to load the bios on the floppy since the C; drive is not
available (NTFS). There seems to be 2 or 3 different methods to update the
bios on this board depending on the current bios version and OS - a tad
confusing. I'll look again to see if there's a combination that works.

If you are using XP, just go to where you format a floppy and tell it to
create DOS startup disk. It is a little different than with ME or 98 etc where
it put all the ide and scsi drivers etc on the disk. It will just create a
bootable floppy that will boot you to a dos prompt. There is plenty room on
the floppy for the bios file and the flash program.

 

[Tim]

Tim

Once you have the boot floppy you then need to have at hand only the bios
update files - IE the flash program (name changes often), the bios and
usually thats it. Nothing to do with C drive or any of the other utilities
that are mentioned - the bios update runs from DOS using a program written
for DOS that usually fits nicely onto a boot floppy - if not get another
blank floppy and put the bios update program and new bios file on there.

Take a look at the documentation - it is more complete.

- Tim