At 07:52 PM 01/09/2000 , you wrote:
>I need to flash the Award BIOS on a Tyan S1590S AT motherboard.
>1. How important is it to completely clear the BIOS first? On one page
>    at the Tyan site they claim it's vital, but the page of flash
>    instructions does not even mention it.
>2. How important is it that the setup defaults *ALL* be used?  In particular,
>    if the setup default boot sequence is C,A,SCSI is it OK to change just
>    that one to A,C,SCSI in order to use a DOS boot floppy?  The machine
>    does not have any DOS on it at all, and it would be a bit unpleasant
>    to install it just for this one-time flash.
>
>    Phil Parker


The only thing I have ever seen that might be an issue in the Bios is the
CPU cache settings, L1 and L2.  I nearly always disable both caches
when performing a Flash upgrade, (if the options are available).  Other
than that...  the only other issue that is usually critical is that the computer
be connected to a UPS, in case of power failure during the write process
which would leave the Bios unable to boot the system.

Using either a floppy to flash the Bios or right off the hard drive should not
be an issue...  remembering if there is an issue with the IDE controller, the
odds are very good that it will also effect the floppy controller...  hence,
I usually just flash the Bios right from the C drive, (remembering that this is
not recommended...  just a method I use and yet to have a problem).

     Bob Wright
The NOSPIN Group

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