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Swylen

Member
Feb 6, 2004
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I'm not sure. You would need to boot from CD in the bios and since you can't save a bios change your kinda screwed. You need to find a way to make a floppy with dr.dos and put your bios and awdflash on it. Can you load windows with your checksum error? Then make a floppy with your new PC.

Have you run all the chipset setup disks yet. Run all the motherboard hardware files that you get on the setup disks and then go into the bios and try to save after you've updated everything and rebooted a bunch of times.
 

261great

Junior Member
Sep 7, 2004
22
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Heh well I ran to Kinkos and downloaded the BIOS update onto a floppy... The problem is.. it's not a start up floppy.. argh! so now I have the BIOS update but can't get the info into the mb.

This is nuts.. How is a person who doesn't own any previous windows OS to start a new computer? I mean shouldn't it be a one disk/step process?

I wil go about trying to run cd's but I don't think I can get the CD/DVD/Floppy to read anything without having the checksum error fixed first..
 

Swylen

Member
Feb 6, 2004
65
0
0
yep you still need dr.dos. Its an exe file found at www.bootdisk.com. DL and run. It will format a boot disk that will run on any pc. Add your bios stuff and your set. I've never tried booting from a SATA drive. You could be in for more fun. Good Luck
 

261great

Junior Member
Sep 7, 2004
22
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well alot has happened in the small space of a few hours...

Somehow I managed to get the computer to boot from the Windows XP disc. I then partitioned and installed the OS.

restart

reset CMOS
restart

ok am in! Now I insert the floppy disc and save the BIOS update to the My Documents folder.

Then, I reformat the floppy as a start up disk...

restart

reset CMOS
restart again

now this time when i get a screen menu it says:
The following file is missing or corrupted: C: COMMAND.COM (or somthing very close to that, the window scrolled up and I can't see it now)

So I am at A>

now what?

Do I need to reformat the startup disc again? The FLASH BIOS notes say do not flash from a floppy!! in very big scary letters. I was thinking if I could boot from floppy I might be able to get to the update file in the MY Documents folder and flash the BIOS from there.

Ideas?

I should also say that if the floppy is not in, I get back to the windows menu on the monitor just like everything is normal (but we know it's not hehe)
 

261great

Junior Member
Sep 7, 2004
22
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Hmm:

Verifying DMI Pool Data........
Starting....

The following file is missing or corrupted: COMMAND.COM
Type the name of the Command Interpreter (e.g., C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)
A>




so that's where I am now...

I have the BIOS update .exe in a folder on the C drive named test waiting for me to get to it.

Yeahhhhhhhhh, I've been following those instructions to the letter. But for some reason I can't get the startup disc to let me access C:
 

261great

Junior Member
Sep 7, 2004
22
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Good god I am so confused. Tell me if this logic is correcct..

I save the BIOS update .exe and associated files to a folder named test on drive C:

I create a boot disc using Windows XP assistant.

I turn off computer and restart with boot disc in drive A:

I get to A> prompt and should be able to switch it to C> correct?

I mean all I am really trying to do is run a file located on the HD in drive C: while booted from the removable boot disc


So when the system tells me to enter a command interpreter... I know not what this means. I can see, when not in boot disc mode that the file COMMAND.COM is on the boot disc..
 

261great

Junior Member
Sep 7, 2004
22
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Here is where I get confused:

One one page at MSI I read this:

Stability Problems - How to update your motherboard BIOS
?
Download the latest BIOS for your motherboard from the MSI website.
?
Extract the BIOS files to a blank formatted floppy disk
?
Boot the system with a bootable floppy disk l
?
A Windows 98 or ME startup disk can be used, or you can create an MS-DOS startup disk under Windows XP.
?
To create an MS-DOS startup disk under Windows XP, right click on the 3.5? floppy drive icon under my computer and select format. On the format dialog box check the box next to ?Create MS-DOS startup disk?
?
Replace the boot disk with the floppy disk containing the BIOS files <----------- NOTE THIS
?
At the A:\ prompt, you will type in the following command
A:\FLASHUTILITY BIOSFILE.VER
?
The flash utility will be the .EXE file included in the BIOS download
Example: ADSFI712.EXE =BIOS FLASH UTILITY
?
The BIOS file will end with the version number   
Example: A6728ims.210 = BIOS file version 2.1
?
To update the BIOS using the example above you would type the following command
A:\ADSF712 A6728ims.210
Follow the onscreen prompts to update the BIOS
?
Reboot the system once the BIOS update has been completed
?
DO NOT TURN OFF THE POWER or RESET/REBOOT the SYSTEM before the BIOS update is completed, stopping the BIOS UPDATE before it is completed will cause the system to become non-functional


________________________________________________________________________________
THEN on another page I read this:

Award Flash BIOS Procedure
1.
Check your BIOS for BIOS FLASH Protection &amp; DISABLED it, some boards have this function.
For Example:
K7N420 Pro (MS-6373) - BIOS setup/Integrated Peripherals/BIOS Protect/Disabled

2.
Know Your model number
a. Open your case and look for the MS-XXXX number on the motherboard between the PCI slots, also check the version number that is written there as well. (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number)
b. Boot up your system &amp; take a look at the top left screen during POST, you should see something like "W6373MS v2.1 122101" This means the board is MS-6373 with BIOS version 2.1
Hint : Many systems are clearing this message very fast, the bios version is then unreadable, you can either press "PAUSE" or disable the "Quick Boot" in the BIOS setup.

3.
Download the BIOS that matches your motherboard AND version number (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number).

4.
Extract the BIOS-archive that you have downloaded by double clicking to c:\test

5.
Boot your system from a Win98 or WinME boot-floppy.
How to make boot floppy in case your don't have it ready:
For Win9X, You can type [C:\ format a:/s] from the DOS prompt.
For WinMe, You can make a boot floppy from control panel--> add/remove program-->make boot floppy. Remove autoexec.bat &amp; config.sys file if there's any.
For Win2000, there's no way to make boot floppy, so you have to either use Win9X or WinME boot floppy.
For WinXP, you can make a DOS boot disk. Go to Your Computer, right click drive A:, select Format, select copy system files.
6.
When you get the A:\ prompt, type the following sequence:
C: <enter>
cd\test <enter>
C:\test> awdfl783m w6330vms.320 <enter>
(w6330vms.320 refers to BIOS file, this will depend on the board model)
(to save or not to save old BIOS is the user's decision)
7.
Reboot your system when prompted
.
P.S. If your system doesn't boot after you flashed, please refer to the BIOS recovery method as described


Any ideas? I tried calling tech but they aren't in on Saturdays.
 

261great

Junior Member
Sep 7, 2004
22
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I decided to go with what I read on page one.

The results:

________
AwardBIOS Flash Utility V8.33D MSI

For MS-7025-6A61CM4DC-00 DATE: 07/02/2004
Flash Type -

File name to Program: w7025nms.120

BIOS Image file checksum error

!!You can't update this image file!!

Check to see if FDD &amp; HDD error occurred

Please download again yourt source file

BIOS Image File is for nForce Chipset only!
 

261great

Junior Member
Sep 7, 2004
22
0
0
ok,

I diddled around a bit more. I created a WIN XP boot disc (fresh)
I created a FLASH BIOS disc (fresh) for version 110 (note that is not the most up to date BIOS)

loaded boot disc - started. go in, flashed BIOS successfully, saved quit.

restart - I still get checksum error

Created a FLASH BIOS disc (fresh) for version 120 (most up to date)

loaded boot disc - started. go in, flashed BIOS got message:
BIOS Image file checksum error

!!You can't update this image file!!

Check to see if FDD &amp; HDD error occurred

Please download again yourt source file

BIOS Image File is for nForce Chipset only!


Guess I try over and over till it works...
 

261great

Junior Member
Sep 7, 2004
22
0
0
SUCESS!

Well I thank you all for the support. I managed to get everything done today and we are up and running.

For reference:

I had to download the older version of FLASH BIOS, then install that and then download the newer version of FLASH BIOS and install that. Then I had to go in a manually set the overclocking options in the SETUP menu in BIOS. Save and EXIT.

System restarted on it's own finally!

Truned it off and restarted... everything worked fine...

Now off to update drivers etc for the next few hours. Then I am going to try my hand at getting the RAID SATA setup done.

I'll check back in later.

Cheers,
Great
 

Swylen

Member
Feb 6, 2004
65
0
0
Congrats, you should now have one of the fastest systems out there.

Huh, you had to update to an older Bios first? The most recent revision usually contains all of the previous fixes as well as the new ones.