Could Flashing BIOS render the motherboard useless.

[Mohan]

Could flashing of BIOS render the motherboard useless. This is what I read Zdnet.com discussions.

I am looking for a valid guide-line from your experience because I was just about to go ahead with the upgrading the BIOS of my CUSL2 motherboard (from BIOS version 1001.a to the latest BIOS 1003.a).

The reason for me to upgrade as above is because the Hardware Monitor on the mobo is showing unacceptable variation in two of the leads - +12v to +10.6
-12v to -8.90 although on checking with voltmeter the leads show correct voltage output.

Every time I boot the PC, I have to press F1 to continue.

Shall be grateful for your input.

 

[rhinox99]

There's a possibility that it'll kill your board but only if something goes wrong or if something happens unexpectantly. Just make sure you follow the instructions to the letter and pray that the power doesn't go out in the middle of the flash. It's really not a big deal nor could it be considered risky but like all things there's always a slight chance

 

[borealiss]

yes it very well can. like rhinox said, just follow the instructions on the manufacturers website for flashing to the letter, and hope to god a power outtage doesn't occur. how do you know your bios will fix this btw. those readings could very well be accurate. before you do that, i would try another power supply in your system and see what that yields.

 

[MADCAP]

It happened to me. So I am very leary of flashing needlessly. It took some big balls to try it again, when I needed to. But it went well.

Just be careful, and cross your fingers.

 

[Mohan]

Borealiss, thanks for your comments.

In reply to your query, I may clarify that the following two checks
did not show any problem atleast with the output without load.

1. I did check by connecting the mobo to another brand
of SMPS. No significant variation was noted.

2. The Cabinet SMPS leads output checked with voltmeter
showed very normal output (without load).

I have read in another forum that Asus motherboard are known to sometimes
show incorrect voltage reading.

The BIOS of my CUSL2 mobo is the older version 1001.a and ASUS have now BIOS 1003.a. IN FACT, IN REPLY TO MY EMAIL TO ASUS.COM, THEY HAVE ASKED ME TO UPDATE THE BIOS but they have given no WARNING whatsoever.

MOST IMPORTANT - My worry is due to many places I have read in many
places that Flashing the BIOS could kill the mobo.

 

[borealiss]

hmm. the best advice i could give you if you are going to flash your board is this. if the flash goes bad and the flashing program halts, do not reboot at all, for the love of god. your computer can still run because your bios is loaded into system memory while the new one was being written to the chip. since the new flash on the chip failed, when you reboot, nothing will load into memory. if the flash goes bad, just reflash your bios with your older version once your at a command prompt again. be sure before you flash your computer that you do save the old one on the same floppy as the new one. i would also give the new and old bios easy names to remember, like new.bin and old.bin which is easier then those crazy alpha numerics. that way if you do need to revert back to your old bios because the new one failed to flash, it's really easy to remember. good luck.

 

[AndyHui]

ASUS's site says this:

Notice:
If you are going to upgrade BIOS from BIOS version 1001.A (and earlier) for CUSL2 or 1002.A
(and earlier) for CUSL2-M, please make sure the following item in the BIOS setup menu is set
at [PCI/AGP] before updating the BIOS.

Advanced -> PCI Configuration -> VGA BIOS Sequence

In case the system is unable to start up properly after performing BIOS upgrade, please
remove all the add-on VGA adapters from the system and start up the system with the onboard
AGP graphics controller or clear CMOS. The add-on VGA adapters then can be installed after loading the
setup default from the BIOS setup menu.

 

[Jhhnn]

Not useless, rather temporarily inoperable if the board has a socketed bios chip.

Even if the flash fails, pre-flashed chips can be obtained from several sources, Badflash.com for one. They may also be available directly from Asus.

If anyone is really nervous about flashing, just buy a pre-flashed chip and change it out, save the original as a spare.

Bios chips can also be hot-flashed if you have another machine that uses the same chip or if you have a spare chip to flash.

HERE