Flashing Firmware/BIOS

[i845G]

I have noticed sth after I flashed my CD Writer... before I had 2048K Buffer.... n now 64K is missing... left only 1984K... Izzit that re-flashing the firmware will consume my buffer??? How about re-flashing the BIOS? Actually... I dunno abt this thing untill I flashed my CD Writer... I saw the motherboards's specifications having a word or two stating 4Mbit Flash ROM... Does it mean that once we use up the flash memory, let's say 4MBit Flash Memory... We can't flash the BIOS anymore?

 

[techfuzz]

Most BIOS usually have up to 512K of flash memory dedicated to them. It is NVRAM which can be rewritten numerous times. The CMOS battery helps the NVRAM remember the BIOS code in case of power failure. The buffer on a CDR is like regular RAM and it's very unlikely that the firmware is part of that RAM buffer.

techfuzz

 

[Krye]

Izzit that re-flashing the firmware will consume my buffer???

No, when you flash it uses up your EPROM, not your write buffer. I'd say that the new BIOS was changed so it only uses 1984K for a buffer, but of course that's just a guess.

Does it mean that once we use up the flash memory, let's say 4MBit Flash Memory... We can't flash the BIOS anymore?

No, just stated above, your BIOS resides on a EPROM chip, in this case it appears that it is a 4MBit chip. So everytime you flash, it completely overwrites what you currently have on there. So the only way you wouldn't have enough room would be if you downloaded a BIOS that was bigger than what the EPROM chip could hold.