At 06:34 PM 3/11/2000 , Donald E. Gulmire, Jr. wrote:
>I want to flash my BIOS with the latest upgrade. I went to
>the download site and I found eight upgrades, from the
>original BIOS (which I am currently using), on up. Is it
>necessary to load them all, from the oldest to the latest?
Hi Don
You only need to flash the BIOS once. Since fixes are
cumulative, if you flash to the latest BIOS you should get
all the fixes from all the earlier BIOS revisions. Each BIOS
file that you download is a complete and functional BIOS.
You want to be sure you have a BIOS file that is specifically
meant for your motherboard. If there are different revisions
of your motherboard (for example, 1.04, 1.05, etc., or maybe
revision 1, revision 2,...) they might require different BIOS
files. Conversely, the file that you download might only be
good for certain versions of your motherboard. (A wrong
version might still install but give you problems sometime.)
There might also be different BIOS files if your motherboard
comes in versions with built in sound, video, SCSI, or LAN
controllers.
Be careful that the BIOS that you download is a final release
and not a beta (test) version.
Be sure you have the correct flash program. (The flash
program is a different file from the actual BIOS file.)
The manufacturer might have updated the flash program with
release of an updated version of the motherboard. (The BIOS
chips might be different on different versions of the board.)
Be sure to follow the instructions that come with the BIOS
file, or that are in your motherboard manual, or that are
posted at the manufacturer's website.
Be sure you do the flash after booting to MS-DOS (either
from a bootable floppy or by booting to Command Prompt Mode)
and *not* from within Windows or when any memory management
software is loaded.
If the flash program will let you, save the old BIOS just
in case the new version causes problems.
Don't reboot the computer until you are absolutely sure
that the flash "took"...that is, when the flash program
tells you that all went well. (If there was a problem, you
might have to run the flash again but you can't do that if
you try to reboot and the computer won't work anymore.)
Flashing a BIOS is not without risk. One reason I am writing
this is because I had a BIOS flash fail three months ago and
the motherboard and video card were shot. (I had to buy new
ones.) I did follow all the directions exactly.
Don't forget to save all entries in your BIOS before the
flash, either on paper or by using a utility program. Then
reset the BIOS to the manufacturer's "default" settings
and let the BIOS save the changes. Reboot and do the flash,
and then *be sure* to set the BIOS settings back to the
defaults after the flash. Save these default settings.
Directly after a flash, settings may be in an uncertain
state.) Finally, re-enter your original settings and have
the BIOS save them. Since you might forget to change some
obscure setting, it really is important that you restore
everything to default before re-entering your own settings.
If you don't have a real reason to upgrade the BIOS, consider
not doing so. Reasons to flash the BIOS might be to allow
use of a larger hard drive, or to fix a Y2K problem, to
fix a power management bug in the motherboard, or to fix a
problem you are having with another piece of hardware (like
perhaps a special floppy)...in the case where the problem is
documented by the manufacturer as being fixed by the new BIOS.
Don't flash the BIOS just to be "up to date".
Regards,
Bill
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