BIOS update without a floppy drive?

[Entropism]

Here's the problem, maybe someone can help me out:

I have a dragon+ board, and I want to update to the latest BIOS, but I have no floppy drive. Is there any way I can burn the BIOS and boot disk files to a CD and boot into DOS from a CD? The main reason I ask is because I want to upgrade to a Ti4200, but my BIOS only has options for 1x or 2x AGP. Will it add an option for 4x when I get a video card that can handle it, or will I be stuck using the Geforce 4 in 2x? And no, the 4x option isn't there at all, it's not greyed out.

Specs are:

WinXP Pro
Athlon XP1800
Dragon Plus
512 Mushkin 2100 2-2-2
Abit TNT2 Ultra
TDK 32x12x40
Pioneer 16x DVD
Maxtor 740 80gig 7200rpm
Maxtor 30 gig 7200 rpm

 

[Evadman]

I do not believe that is possable. The CD boot is too far along in the boot process to be recognized.

 

[spanky]

if ur motherboard supports it, u can boot to a zip drive. or burn the flash util and bios onto a cdr and boot off a cd. only prob with that is u will not be able to backup ur old bios. i use nero to make bootable cd's.

 

[Entropism]

Spanky, how do you go about using Nero to make a bootable CD?

 

[flawedexistence]

Well.........this may seem a bit simple, but why not just go out and buy a floppy drive? They cost about $10.00. IMHO that pays for itself after one good BIOS flash.

 

[PING]

If you have an old hard drive ( 5Gig - 10Gig ), you can use that instead of the unreliable floppies.

 

[Buz2b]

I could be wrong but I think the point is being missed;

The main reason I ask is because I want to upgrade to a Ti4200, but my BIOS only has options for 1x or 2x AGP. Will it add an option for 4x

that he wants to do a BIOS flash that he hopes will give him 4X AGP. That's not going to happen. Certainly you can boot to a CD as long as your MB has that option to set but I don't believe that a BIOS flash can give a board something like that as an option. However, your board is supposed to support 4X anyway according to a quick look at some reviews I found for "Dragon Plus". It shouldn't matter what bios you have loaded.

 

[tcsenter]

Hey, neat. I just made a bootable CD-R in Nero and included in the boot image the flash program, BIOS file, and AUTOEXEC.BAT containing the following command line:

awdflash biosfile.bin /py/sn/cc

Went into BIOS and set boot sequence to CD-ROM, then restarted the computer. It immediately booted from the CD and flashed the BIOS automatically. Its much faster than a floppy!

All files contained in the boot image:

COMMAND.COM
IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
AUTOEXEC.BAT
FLASH PROGRAM
BIOS ROM FILE

I'll try to make an image file of the floppy disk that contains the appropriate files for the Soyo Dragon Plus that he can use to burn a bootable CD.

 

[Entropism]

Yeah, I tried making that bootable CD (Basically the same files) last night, and when it went through the boot process, it said:

"Do you want to boot from CD? __"

Of course I hit yes, and it booted right into XP Pro. Odd....

 

[tcsenter]

I'll try to make an image file of the floppy disk that contains the appropriate files for the Soyo Dragon Plus that he can use to burn a bootable CD.

Well, ok I just got back and am leaving the house again. I thought I'd have some time today, but it didn't work out that way. I'll try to get back to this tonight.

 

[tcsenter]

Ok, I made an ISO image in Nero that when burned to CD should do the trick. Just for verification, this image file contains the latest public release (non-BETA) BIOS file for the Soyo Dragon Plus: kvxa2ba3.bin Please check that this is the correct BIOS file for your motherboard.

Download image.zip from the link. It's a Geocities server so if clicking on the link doesn't start the download, just copy/paste the URL into a browser or download manager. This is an uncompressed zip wrapper that I used just for the CRC checking.

Unzip image.nrg to any temp directory. Fire-up Nero and cancel out of the Wizard or New Compilation Window (if applicable). Select File Menu > Burn Image and open image.nrg when prompted for the image file.

In the write dialogue, just select whatever write speed and finalize the CD, then burn that sucker.

That's it other than to disable any BIOS write protection and changing the boot sequence to CD-ROM in BIOS. Shutdown and cold boot, it should boot from the CD and update the BIOS automatically without any user input. When the update is finished, choose exit then restart your computer.

Enter BIOS setup and load SETUP or OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS. Then you can restore/modify your BIOS settings to their previous values manually. Save and exit.

Don't forget to check that boot sequence isn't set to CD-ROM or you'll flash the BIOS again. Good luck!

 

[Buz2b]

Just a post to compliment you tcsenter, on the nice "favor" you are doing (did) for this guy. Good job; I'm sure he will appreciate it.

 

[Entropism]

I'm going to try it now, and even if it DOESN'T work, I do appreciate it. You're a class act, all of you. =)

 

[Entropism]

Well, it worked. Thanks a million TC, and thanks for the suggestions from the rest of you. Oddly, it STILL doesn't show an option for 4x AGP, blacked out or otherwise, so I'm guessing it isn't supported by my TNT2 Ultra, and it'll appear when I put in my Ti4200. Now to get the bugs worked out of XP SP1, and I'm set.

 

[Buz2b]

Now to get the bugs worked out of XP SP1, and I'm set.

Now then, were we bad children and loaded a "pre-release" version of the SP?? Naughty, naughty.

Or,......has it been released and I've been asleep? Wouldn't be the first time.

 

[Entropism]

Nah, this would be a leaked final that I'm evaluating..... I'll uninstall it and reinstall the "official" one on 9/9 when it gets released to the public. =) Or something to that effect.

 

[Buz2b]

Or something to that effect.

I hear ya!

 

[tcsenter]

Well, it worked. Thanks a million TC, and thanks for the suggestions from the rest of you. Oddly, it STILL doesn't show an option for 4x AGP, blacked out or otherwise, so I'm guessing it isn't supported by my TNT2 Ultra

Cool, glad it worked. I haven't seen a BIOS where the 4x AGP options will only appear if a 4x AGP card is detected, but that doesn't mean a whole lot since I've never used a Soyo board.

Funny, though, my old Jaton 32MB TNT2 M64 is AGP 4x, seems like the Ultra should be, too.