BIOS Update Procedure
BIOS Update Procedure
All latest Motherboards today, 486/ Pentium / Pentium Pro, etc., ensure that upgrades are easily obtained by incorporating the system BIOS in a FLASH Memory component. With FLASH BIOS, there is no need to replace an EPROM component. Once downloaded, the upgrade utility fits on a floppy disc allowing the user to save, verify and update the system BIOS. A hard drive or a network drive can also be used to run the newer upgrade utilities. However, memory managers can not be installed while upgrading.
Most pre-Pentium motherboards do not have a Flash BIOS. The following instructions, therefore, do not apply to these boards. If your motherboard does not have a Flash BIOS (EEPROM) you will need to use an EPROM programmer to re-program the BIOS chip. See your dealer for more information about this.
Please read the following instructions in full before starting a Flash BIOS upgrade:
A. Create a Bootable Floppy (in DOS)
•With a non-formatted disk, type the following:
format a:/s
•If using a formatted disk, type:
sys, a:
This procedure will ensure a clean boot when you are flashing the new BIOS.
B. Download the BIOS file
•Download the correct BIOS file by clicking on the file name of the BIOS file you wish to download.
•Save the BIOS file and the Flash Utility file in the boot disk you have created. Unzip the BIOS file and the flash utility file. If you don’t have an “unzip” utility, download the WinZip for Windows 95 shareware/ evaluation copy for that one-time use from _www.winzip.com or _www.pkware.com. Most CD ROMs found in computer magazines have a shareware version of WinZip on them.
•You should have extracted two files:
Flash BIOS utility eg: flash7265.exe (for example)
BIOS eg: 6152J900.bin (example)
Use the latest flash utility available unless otherwise specified (either on the BIOS update page or in the archive file). This information is usually provided.
C. Upgrade the System BIOS
During boot up, write down the old BIOS version because you will need to use it for the BIOS backup file name.
Place the bootable floppy disk containing the BIOS file and the Flash Utility in drive a, and reboot the system in MS-DOS, preferably Version 6.22
•At the A:> prompt, type the corresponding Flash BIOS utility and the BIOS file with its extension.
For example:
flash625 615j900.bin
•From the Flash Memory Writer menu, select “Y” to “Do you want to save BIOS?” if you want to save (back up) your current BIOS (strongly recommended), then type the name of your current BIOS and its extension after FILE NAME TO SAVE: eg: a:\613J900.bin
Alternatively, select “N” if you don’t want to save your current BIOS. Beware, though, that you won’t be able to recover from a possible failure.
•Select “Y” to “Are you sure to program?”
•Wait until it displays “Message: Power Off or Reset the system”
Once the BIOS has been successfully loaded, remove the floppy disk and reboot the system. If you write to BIOS but cannot complete the procedure, do not switch it off, because the computer will not be able to boo, and you will not be given another chance to flash. In this case leave your system on until you resolve the problem (flashing BIOS with an old file is a possible solution, provided you’ve made a backup before)
Make sure the new BIOS version has been loaded properly by taking note of the BIOS identifier as the system is rebooting.
For AMI BIOS
Once the BIOS has been successfully loaded, remove the floppy disk and reboot the system holding the “END” key prior to power on until you enter the CMOS setup. If you do not do this the first time booting up after upgrading the BIOS, the system will hang.
BIOS Update Tips
note:
1. Make sure never to turn off or reset your computer during the flash process. This will corrupt the BIOS data. We also recommend that you make a copy of your current BIOS on the bootable floppy so you can reflash it if you need to. (This option is not available when flashing an AMI BIOS). BIOS Update Procedure
2. If you have problems installing your new BIOS please check the following:
Have you done a clean boot?
In other words, did you follow the above procedure for making a bootable floppy? This ensures that when booting from “A” there are no device drivers on the diskette. Failing to do a clean boot is the most common cause for getting a “Memory Insufficient” error message when attempting to flash a BIOS.
If you have not used a bootable floppy, insure a clean boot either by
a) pressing F5 during bootup
b) by removing all device drivers on the CONFIG.SYS including the HIMEM.SYS. Do this by using the EDIT command.
Have you booted up under DOS?
Booting in Windows is another common cause for getting a “Memory Insufficient” error message when attempting to flash a BIOS. Make sure to boot up to DOS with a minimum set of drivers. Important: Booting in DOS does not mean selecting “Restart the computer in MS-DOS Mode” from Windows98/95 shutdown menu or going to Prompt mode in WindowsNT, but rather following the above procedure (format a: /s and rebooting from a:\).
Have you entered the full file name of the flash utility and the BIOS plus its extension?
Do not forget that often you will need to add a drive letter (a:\) before flashing the BIOS. For example: when asked for the file name of the new BIOS file which is on your floppy disk, in case you’re working from c:\ your will need to type a:\615j900.bin, rather than 615j900.bin only.
UPDATE STEPS
1. First, run a scandisk or checkdisk. Let Windows fix any errors.
2. Run a disk cleanup utility…this will flush your temporary internet folder, trash can, temp system files, etc.
3. Delete any garbage files or data…if possible, run a Duplicate File Finder program.
4. Run Defrag on all partitions (NOTE: run this after you have deleted all trash and excess files!)
5. Run a registry cleaner utility and delete or get rid of any orphaned entries in that registry.
6. Check your existing swap file for its size and location (*will explain location later in the post). If you have a lot of rams (i.e. 1 gig and over) set this swap file to something small, like 250 MB. The reason is that this will force Windows to load more into memory, resulting in faster performance (note: some games and applications actually require a certain sized swap file so check your application’s performance after making a size adjustment for any error messages.)
7. Under XP, you can tell Windows to use Classic Style on your desktop, – this will remove the neat single click and internet-style desktop but for lower-end systems, this will improve performance in other areas, such as gaming and multi-tasking.
8. Run MSConfig and under startup and only keep the programs that are essential to load in the tray icon (and hence stay resident in memory). Uncheck anything else non-essential, like an ATI or Nvidia control panel, Quicktime utility, Real Audio, etc.
9. Upgrade drivers! Check for the latest BIOS, video, motherboard, sound, etc drivers from the manufacturers. A lot of my friends had chipsets on their motherboard that had advanced disk management capabilities or AGP port settings but the drivers weren’t loaded for them so they were never being used. A simple upgrade realized a noticeable difference. For instance, they didn’t have the latest driver for their AGP port so it was set to 1x, instead of being used at 4x!
10. (OK, so this won’t speed up your PC but it could save you a lot of time and trouble later on!) After making all these improvements, make a working backup! I use Ghost, but for XP users you can also use System Restore…
-FOR ADVANCED USERS-
1. Take a look under the hood (for IDE owners). How are your IDE devices configured? If you have more than 1 hard drive, put the master hard drive on the primary IDE channel and the secondary hard drive on the secondary IDE channel (most motherboards have two IDE channels).
2. Place all CDROM drives, DVD readers, etc. on the secondary IDE channel (or SCSI bus, etc). This will reduce I/O contention with your master hard drive which should have your OS and apps installed…
3. Remember when I mentioned the location of the swap file? OK, if you have 2 hard drives and you have one on the primary IDE channel and the other on the secondary IDE channel, move the swap file to a partition ON THE SECOND hard drive (on the secondary IDE channel). This will greatly improve system performance as the PC can write to the swap file while loading and running OS and system commands without I/O contention on the primary IDE channel!
4. Take a look under the hood (for SCSI owners) What kind of SCSI do you have? If it’s the newer Ultra 160/320 etc cards then guess what? Any devices placed on the same bus will automatically default to the slowest drive on the chain…this means that if you have say, an Ultra 160 SCSI card, and it has an Ultra 160 drive (capable of transferring 160 mb/sec) on the same chain as a SCSI CD-ROM drive (capable of only 40 MB/sec) then the whole bus slows down to the 40 mb/sec speed…use different chains for the slower devices and maximize those hard drives!
5. Run a utility like WCPUID and check the settings…is your CPU/front speed bus/AGP port running as fast as it should be? If not, check your drivers and BIOS configuration options. Also, are all of your chipset features enabled? If not, then enable them! (usually done in your BIOS!)
6. Dig into the BIOS…check settings like boot order, for example…is it checking the floppy first? Change this! Select your order to reflect the hard drive first, then CD, then floppy for a noticeable boot time improvement. Also, disable any non-used onboard peripherals…for instance, – does your motherboard come with an on-board NIC card? Guess what, if you don’t use that NIC card and it is enabled it will eat up valuable CPU cycles and can be detrimental to your systems’ performance.
DISABLE THAT MUTHA! Also, see if you can play with memory timing and CPU clock frequencies (NOTE! This is for expert users only!) Set these timings to “Aggressive” and see what happens in your games and apps…Also, check to see what your video aperature is set to. If you have a video card with 128 megs of onboard memory, your aperture should be set to this amount too. Read the BIOS owner manual for further non-general performance tricks or improvements! Do you have the latest BIOS firmware version?
7. Under hardware properties, check to see that everything is working properly, and fix any hardware contention issues. You’ll see the dreaded yellow exclamation point (!) beside any hardware component that is not working correctly.
8. Evaluate the potential for system/hardware upgrades…usually, the best bang for the buck is adding memory so buy all that you can afford (don’t go much above 512 megs for Win 98 or ME). If you have a motherboard with an 8x – capable AGP port but you are using an older 4x video card, consider upgrading to an 8x card. You get the idea here…
9. Quit using software pigs like Norton system utilities, etc. These place files everywhere and can be a real system resource hog on lower end PCs.
10. Did I mention to make a good backup? Do it now! Also, while you’re at it, run a good virus program with the latest definitions.
There are more options to make your system faster, such as overclocking, etc. but (just about) everything I’ve mentioned in this tech post costs you nothing and will result in faster system performance! Good luck and if you have any questions on how to do anything mentioned here, ask a knowledgeable friend or consult a book, – don’t mess up something trying to do something you are not sure of!
Good luck and I’d like to dedicate this post to all of WorldWarez which has given me so much! You’re all great, peeps!
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