K7S5A mobo. Anyone have it and flashed it? plz help.

[RSI]

I literally killed multiple FIC VA-503+ 1MB mobos with flashes. I am now thoroughly paranoid of flashing the BIOS. I currently have an ECS K7S5A which I got about a month ago. How can I tell what rev. it is, and is it relevant to the flashing? What flash utility should I use and what precautionary measures (in detail please) should I use? Which BIOS update do you recommend? Did they solve problems for you?

-RSI

 

[BubbleHead]

OCworkbench has a very good FAQ

 

[nortexoid]

the mboo supports boot block...meaning, even if u kill the bios, the AMI boot block allows u to insert a floppy w/ a working bios and recover..i had to do it, and it wokred!!!

i was scared at first - thoght i'd hav eto RMA or buy a new one...but all is good w/ the boot block...as long as u have a floppy and a workably bios.

 

[RSI]

When I try to run the amiflash utility it says that the "Chipset/Flash part isn't available. The function will be invalid."

What can I do?

-RSI

 

[Mitzi]

Which BIOS are you trying to use?

I think you have to use different flashing programmes, depending on the BIOS you are trying to install. Someone should be able to offer more advice on this though. Check the mobo forum - loads of threads on the K7S5A.

GL.

 

[ThatDumbGuy]

with that, you need to put the name of the rom file after the program for example:

aminf326.exe 011016l.rom

i highly suggest you read the ocworkbench faq listed above before you do it though.

 

[Jiggz]

The linky on the first response is outstanding for ECS. But you need to do your homework before you jumped on the bandwagon. Find out what version is your board by looking into the board itself and look for tiny sticker with a number on it located just rear of the 5th PCI slot. The number on the sticker is the board revision number. Second, find out who is your current bios maker is it Award or AMI. You should see this during boot up or go into the bios itself and see it on the very top of the screen. Third, what bios version are you on now. To find out you need to take a look at the date of the bios during boot up. The date is the version of the bios, e.g. the latest version right now is Oct 16, 2001, which equates to 011016 (2001 Oct 16). And the last thing is to find out if you have a built in Lan on your board or not. Read the FAQ and you'll get all the answers you need. As for the bootblock capability? Don't rely on it. Always make sure your flashing is done right the first time. The bootblock is nice though just in case but should never be counted on as a back up but rather a last resort.

 

[RSI]

I downloaded the BIOS file from the TW site and also the proper BIOS flash utility which I didn't have.

Running the BIOS flash utility gives me the same error!

-RSI

 

[Floydian]

did you follow all the steps in the FAQ at ocworkbench? You can't do it wrong if you follow the directions they give you

 

[RSI]

How about you do this.

Type aminf329. Tell me what happens? I bet it doesn't say "Chipset/Flash part isn't available. The function will be invalid." ?

-RSI :|

 

[idgaf13]

If you can burn a cd
visit ocworkbench go to the FAQ for this board and download the iso file
it includes the flash utility and an assortment of BIOS revisions.
this enables flashing the bios in 2000 and no messing around with floppies.

 

[RSI]

<< did you follow all the steps in the FAQ at ocworkbench? You can't do it wrong if you follow the directions they give you >>

It's not a matter of doing it wrong. Anyhow, I have my friend's AGP card now, so my sound (overloaded PCI bus with video + sblive + nic + modem all on pci bus) works fine now, since video isn't hogging all the pci resources... but i still have a gripe - the card sucks. I'm thinking i might install the agp vxd things from the cd, or the latest ones from the ecs site? I haven't installed any, and I AM using an AGP CArd now.. think it will help at all? gotta wait till I get home and try it out ... then i won't have to worry about any BIOS crap.

-RSI