Chaintech nForce2 flash utility?

[rogue1979]

I found the latest bios for the Chaintech 7NJL1. Where can I get a flash utility? There wasn't anything at the Chaintech website.

 

[mechBgon]

It may be on your mobo CD, you could browse for it there. Or here it is for download: Chaintech 7NJL1 Apogee flash utility page.

 

[rogue1979]

Thank you!

 

[mechBgon]

Any time

 

[MatthewF01]

any clue what all of the really new Chaintech BIOSes are doing for us?


I have a 7NJS, and when I flashed to the first BIOS which gave us FSB support past 200mhz I had to reinstall Windows I HATE doing that..

but i guess it was worth it as im now running at 217fsb...


any clue anyone?

 

[rogue1979]

Mine doesn't get here until Wednesday, but I have the floppy with the latest bios and flash utility ready!

 

[rogue1979]

Well, the boards run great with the stock bios. I have the latest version and flash utility ready, but I was too dumb to figure out the correct flash command.

 

[MatthewF01]

well i dont know if you know how yet, but for reference:

boot from floppy.
type DIR in the command prompt
look at the filenames of your flash utility and the BIOS file.

Then type (minus quotes): "awdflash.exe 7njsb029.bin"
or whatever the name of the files are.

Then it loads up the flasher.

Im really interested to see what the new BIOSes are giving, but the last time I did a BIOS update (the first one to add the coveted 200+fsb settings) I had to do a reinstall. No fun.


..i think i already said that above

 

[rogue1979]

Thanks for the info, but I have flashed many motherboards and video cards. The problem with this one is the flash utility is called tools-Af823j.

awdflash.exe, update, Af823.exe, tool-Af823j.exe or any other combination of weird commands followed by the bin file name isn't recognized.
I couldn't find any other flash utility anywhere.

 

[rogue1979]

I'm not one to give up easily. I downloaded the flash utility from a different place. Af823J.exe was what it was called this time, no tools- included. I knew what to do. It worked perfectly. Strangely enough when I rebooted into windows my computer found several new devices and reloaded them. I had to reinstall the nvidia driver package and the USB 2.0 driver. Luckily my OS is still running fine, I haven't ever had this issue flashing any other motherboard. I can understand why MathewF01 had to reinstall.

 

[MatthewF01]

yea certain bios flashes tend to trigger the OS detecting 'new' devices...

not sure why, but who cares as long as the OS install is INTACT!


congrats on the upgrade though, any clue as to the changes theyve made?

 

[rogue1979]

It didn't seem to change anything that i could see. I like the Chaintech board alot, but the cpu temps are way out of line. I also just set up two Epox 8RDA boards. With the same case, same heatsink, same cpu speed, same cpu voltage, and same fsb speeds the Chaintech consistently reads 20C higher than the Epox. I even switched cpu's and got the same results. I have a thermal probe setting right next to the cpu core. I figure adding 10C to the reading will roughly represent the true core temps. This matches up with the Epox motherboard readings, so I'm gonna guess the Chaintech is way off base. Both my Chaintech boards give the very high cpu temp readings.

 

[MatthewF01]

i know that the boards epox was making right before they started Nforce2, they were still using a thermal diode in the bottom of the socket to monitor temperatures because the higher readings from the AMD internal diode were scaring people...


are they using the internal temp monitoring yet?

 

[rogue1979]

When I was installing the cpu I looked inside the socket, no thermistor sensor there, so I guess it has to be internal diode temp readings.

 

[CaptEd]

Can you share what you did to flash your Zenith with the new BIOS and not have to re-install Windows? I used the ALT+F2 method, re-configured my new BIOS settings (I now have 200MHz FSB) and disabled the HDD re-install utility, but Windows will not boot even to SAFE mode. I put in a DOS Quick Boot diskette, and can boot to DOS, but no C:\ recognized. My next step is to boot to CDROM with Windows CD and try to repair. Just how did you accomplish this BIOS upgrade without a re-install of Windows?

 

[MatthewF01]

to begin with CaptEd, you might want to use the file awdflash.exe and the .bin BIOS file on a floppy instead of the integrated flasher util.

 

[CaptEd]

Big Problem!! I used the Award flash utility provided by CT/tw and re-flashed the BIOS successfully, but still no Windows boot. I can, however, run DOS. I used the Installation CD to attempt a repair to no avail, and I find that I can't even get WinXP to re-install. I continue to come up to an error screen saying I have to uninstall latest hardware/software or damage may occur to system. This is ridiculous! The 7NJS was sold under the guarantee that it would run the AMD/Barton core 2500+. It did with the old BIOS, but only recognized 166MHz. Now at 200MHz it stops in its tracks! What do you think? Should I scrap this mobo for some other? If WinXP ran stable under the old BIOS, and no other changes were made except to update the BIOS, what could be the problem?

 

[MatthewF01]

well..

1) DONT DITCH THE BOARD
2)you can flash back to the old BIOS, and see if it runs alright with the 2500+, and just sacrifice 'OFFICIAL' support...
3)if anything sucks in this instance its probably Windows. It freaks out sometimes with BIOS flashes... I wonder how an existing Linux partition would behave in this situation....