Help with updating Bios

[firewind75]

yesterday i built my first pc , we used a ESC K7VTA3 kt333 Ver5.x MoBo. http://www.ecsusa.com/products/k7vta3_5.html The CPU is a AMD XP-2400. I also used a stick of 256 ddr333 [pc2700] w/ a 60gig maxtor HD. I am Running Win XP.
Video card is a Geforce 5200 agp.
I put everything together without much prob, and even loaded the OS on with no trouble. But when i tried to update my BIOS i keep getting a Error saying "Flash ROM was Write-protected" . Now from what i have read on the internet , i either have a jumper or a option in my bios setup that disables this. But i can find no such jumper on the board unless ECS has a
print error in their manual .(which i also have heard and read) If it is wrong in the manual then what jumper is it?
My CPU is a 2400 but the system setup only reads it as a xp-1800.
Honestly, i am very new and almost dumb when it comes to building and programing PC's. But even more stupid when it comes to Bios flashing. I know nothing. I used Winflash to flash the bios before. not sure if i just need to use something else or what. the Bios i used was v5.0g. It should be the latest version.
Do i needto start with the Bios 5.0a and install everyone one at a time until i get them all or what?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

NIck

 

[mechBgon]

First of all, make sure your BIOS is set to run the CPU's bus speed at 133MHz. If it defaults to 100MHz, this might be why your CPU is being seen as an 1800+ instead of a 2400+. If that's not the problem, then would you please post again and say so I'll see what I can find out from ECS's site and get a copy of the manual just in case.

 

[mechBgon]

By the way, I went to ECS's site to get the manual, and I see they've got about four different circuit-board revisions, each with their own manual :Q I got the most recent version to check it out, and I see that there are jumpers near the middle-right edge of the motherboard which control the CPU frontside-bus speed. In the BIOS, on the Advanced Chipset Setup menu, there is the BIOS Write Protect option that is apparently keeping you from updating your BIOS using Winflash. Hope that helps, and welcome to the Forums

 

[firewind75]

When I set up the board the first time and loaded the OS on to the HD i DID have it set on 100mhz on the jumper. But when i realized this and tried to set the jumpers to a diffrent setting,[133mhz] , my tower would power-up but the moniter would never come on. It would only come back on when i changed it back to 100mhz setting. ???

As for the Bios setting for the Write protect, I have checked it and rechecked it and i even switched it to "enabled" thinking mabe it might be a proggy error and nothing worked. Thats why i thought i might have a "writeprotect jumper" , but i cant find anything at all .

 

[lucky9]

There is almost always a jumper to enable flashing the BIOS. Check the manual for 'recovery' in the index or BIOS recovery.

 

[mechBgon]

Ooops, when I read your post the first time, I missed that your board is the rev. 5.x I'm getting the manual for that revision to see if anything jumps out at me.

Your 2400+ may be one of the Thornton-core AthlonXPs, which have a more pronounced rectangle shape to the core. That would explain why the mobo can't "figure it out" when it's set to 133MHz bus speed, and a BIOS revision should indeed help. You don't need to apply each BIOS revision in succession, by the way, you can just update straight to whatever version you want to.

BIOSes from ECS are usually in a Zip file. If you didn't unzip the file and extract the BIOS itself, that could be what's throwing your BIOS flash for a loop too, although a write-protect jumper would also do it.

Ahhh, download complete, lessee here...

*read, read...*

Ding ding ding, lucky9 is teh winnAR! There is a jumper called "JP2" which is located as shown here. So give that a whirl and see if the BIOS update 1) works, and 2) solves the problem of the system not working at 133MHz. If the BIOS update works but the system still won't run at proper speed, post back with the symptoms Good luck!

 

[firewind75]

I actually have a jp2 , but there is no jumper there. just the print and three spots where it could be added .

 

[mechBgon]

Hmm, well that is interesting. They could hardly be shipping boards that are flash-proof...



How about trying the "traditional" method, which is to make a bootable floppy diskette, put the flashing utility onto it along with the new BIOS, and then booting up with the floppy and using the command-line technique? What operating system(s) do you have there, for starters, so I can help with the creation of a bootable floppy diskette?

 

[firewind75]

I had Xp installed . But i have no clue how to make a boot disc in xp. So i just , [in the last 30 mins] , installed 98se.
You might still let me know how to just to make sure I'm not doing something wrong. Thx for the help so far , BTW.

 

[mechBgon]

Here's ECS's instructions for using the flashing utility, which includes Win98 boot-disk-creation instructions: ECS flash instructions

And you already have the BIOS, sounds like, but it is here and it looks like it's in a self-extracting .exe file, so that is easy enough. I see that the second-to-bottom one is the first that includes Thornton support, which lends some evidence to my theory about why it can't run at 133MHz (yet).

So it looks like you're almost there. Good luck with the command-line flash, I sure hope that works where the Windows-based one was flunking

 

[firewind75]

do i need to unzip the updated bios onto the floppy with the boot files or just unzip it to the HD somewhere?

 

[mechBgon]

Either unzip location will be fine, as long as you end up with the .BIN file on the bootable floppy that's got the flash utility on it.

 

[firewind75]

ok! that updated the bios version. now on start up it says ver. 5.0g instead of 5.0a. but it still lists the cpu as a xp1800. i DO still have the jumpers set at 100mhz. All i have to so is turn it off and connect the jumpes for 133mhz, correct? Thanks for the help so far . You are a God Send

 

[firewind75]

I just finished switching the jumpers to the 133mhz position and we got 2.0 gigs!!! Whoooo!!
Thanks alot MechBgon. You were a great help.

 

[lucky9]

Yes, change to 133. He's right. You're about home.

 

[mechBgon]

awesome

 

[DarkNephree]

i'm stoked for you firewind

 

[firewind75]

thx alot everyone that helped