Bios flash and Windows XP

[meson2000]

Hey everyone,
I am thinking of flashing my bios for my ASUS A7V133 from 1005A to 1008A or 1009 in the hopes that
it will improve my overclocking a bit. Will windows XP be able to handle the bios flash or will everything
get screwed up and I will have to reinstall windows?
I flashed the bios once on my old AOPEN 440BX motherboard and Windows 98 got TOTALY freaked
out and wouldn't work at all. I had to reinstall from scratch to have it run smooth again. Will I encounter
the same problems with Win XP? or will this OS be able to handle it? Thanks for the input!

 

[dbal]

I ve done it twice with ASUS Live Update utility under XP and worked like a charm....Go on!

 

[Buz2b]

The ASUS Live update is inconsistant at best. You would be better off creating a boot disk with the flash utility and bios file on it and doing it that way. If you had problems before and had to reload it wasn't because of the BIOS flash; it would have been because something went wrong or the BIOS wasn't stable; not the flashing itself. Either way you should always back everything up before proceding. BIOS flash's are just "too fun" not to be ready for the worst. I always print out the entire instructions for this and go step-by-step; even though I've done it dozens of times on various boards for myself and others.

 

[Garet Jax]

meson2000,

The good news is that I just had a Flash hang halfway through the reprogramming phase on that exact board. BadFlash was able to write me a new BIOS chip that worked like a charm. It cost $23.50. That way you know even if something goes wrong, you have an option to repair the problem at a relatively low cost.

I totally agree with Buz2b. You should never do a BIOS flash from within an OS. It should always be done from a boot disk. I have never done a BIOS flash from anything other than a Boot disk (even the one that failed). In my opinion, there are just too many things that can go wrong when the overhead of an OS is involved.

 

[dbal]

Originally posted by: Buz2b
it would have been because something went wrong or the BIOS wasn't stable; not the flashing itself.

Now that we are talking about it, within the OS or with the classic way, what are the possible reasons of a bios update failure except the well known power failure? Which of them can be reversible and which fatal? What about socketed and surface mounted bios chips?
It would be nice to summarize it here....

 

[Buz2b]

I don't know if I am qualified to give you an entire rundown but the "quick and dirty" is that there are a few things that can go wrong. The BIOS file could be corrupted during download and you wouldn't know it until you flashed. The BiOS chip could be faulty and not write properly. The process of writing to the chip could "fail" or not completely write over the previous info (many recommend flashing twice when you are doing this just to "make sure"). In other words, nothing is perfect and problems can arise. As was mentioned earlier, getting a replacement chip from someone like BadFlash.com is a quick, relatively easy fix. That will "cure" any bad or corrupt flashes. However, if you are able to flash again after a "bad" flash, most of the time you can recover. It's only when your system is rendered inoperable and you cannot reflash that you need a new chip. I hope that helps a little. As to the socketed or otherwise chips, I'm not sure I know what you want to know.

 

[MangoX]

*bump*

 

[dbal]

It's just that Sandra reports for my P4T-E, that my bios chip "is not socketed but surface mounted so an unsuccesful flash might be fatal"
Does it mean that even if I reorder a bios chip after an unsuccessful flash I want be able to replace the old one and the whole mobo will be dead????:Q