Update Bios - Should I or Shouldn't I

[justalink]

Hello all,

I'm considering updating "flashing" my bios, and I'm not sure if it's worth the risk. I'm experiencing no problems that I can notice, but given that it seems to be a commonly done thing, I am wondering if I should do it?

My mobo is an Epox 8KHA+. (Hopefully, my rig information will show up in my signature. I just added it to my profile but I have not seen it yet.)

Thanks in advance.

 

[powerMarkymark]

I'm of the school of thought "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Why mess with a good thing.

HTH

Mark

 

[justalink]

Thanks for the reply....

I'm of the same mind generally speaking. I just want my system to be operating in "peak" form. Whatever that might mean, right???

Sometimes ya just gotta mess with stuff to feel better.

 

[SteelCityFan]

Check to see what the bios upgrade fixes or adds support for... then decide.

 

[Mem]

Actually flashing the BIOS on the Epox 8KHA+ board is very easy,you can make a floppy boot disk from within WinXP ( in Windows Explorer right click on floppy drive icon to make MS DOS disk))then you just download and extract the bios file to the bootdisk,reboot and type "update" at A: (floppy drive) ,and it will autoflash.

Done it about 4 times myself with the Epox 8KHA+ board.

I say go for it.

The Boot Disk Method

1. Create a bootable floppy disk in accordance with the instructions laid out in the manual of your particular operating system. This bootable floppy needs to be able to boot to a DOS console capable of executing normal MS-DOS batch and executable files.

2. Download and extract the xxxxxxxx.EXE file corresponding to your model from the EPoX website to the floppy. It will self extract into the above listed files.

3. Boot using your DOS floppy disk to the ?A:\>? command prompt. At the DOS command prompt type: UPDATE

4. The BIOS will automatically flash.

5. Reboot the machine.

6. After this, press DEL to enter the BIOS setup and select to "LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS". After doing this select to "SAVE & EXIT."

Note: During the use of UPDATE a backup of your original BIOS date/code will be saved in the same directory as the UPDATE file. It will be called ?OLD.BIN? and can be used with the restore instructions below in case you need to revert back to the original BIOS date/code.

You can also do it this way,

The ALT+F2 Method

1. Download the required BIOS image file from the EPoX website.

2. Copy or extract the BIOS image file (named xxxxxxxx.bin) to a blank floppy disk with no bad sectors on it.

3. Restart the machine with the floppy disk in the floppy drive. When prompted at machine initialization, press ALT+F2 to begin performing the flashing of the BIOS.

4. The BIOS will automatically flash and reboot the machine.

5. After this, press DEL to enter the BIOS setup and select to "LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS". After doing this select to "SAVE & EXIT."

6. Please note that this does not create a backup of the BIOS binary file.

7. This does not require you to have a bootable floppy disk.

 

[justalink]

I've already got the files on a disk....and ready to go.

Will it. or could it, actually improve performance? Or is it just good to be "up to date". I read the fixes and am not personally experiencing any of the noted problems.

I'm still riding the fence....

Thanks very much for the input.

 

[Mem]

BIOS updates do fix certain problems so in that way it`s good to update your bios,I also did not have any problems before I updated my Epox 8KHA+ bios,if you do or don`t is really down to you,some people do some people don`t,so only you can answer that one 😉.

🙂

 

[HOMIcidaL]

I'm of the school of thought "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

I believe what you are saying is correct, but somehow I cant get myself to follow this rule.
Everytime a new bios or driver comes out, im there. guess having a backup chip for the bios
and a ghost image for the os also helps 🙂

 

[KF]

Originally posted by: justalink
I've already got the files on a disk....and ready to go.

Will it. or could it, actually improve performance? Or is it just good to be "up to date". I read the fixes and am not personally experiencing any of the noted problems.

I'm still riding the fence....

Thanks very much for the input.

I always update, but not necessarily within the first month the BIOS comes out. It is not that unusual for a new BIOS to have "issues" and be withdrawn.

It is not too likely to increase speed unless the mobo is very recent. But they often have silent fixes of instablility or incompatibilty problems. Although they describe a problem one way, it may actually fix other things too. I keep the BIOSs around just in case. I also keep the old ones just in case. When they quit manufacturing the mobo is when you start worrying. Make sure you get the LAST BIOS. The later BIOS's of some of my mobos had support for HDs over 32G. It is now hard to find drives under 40G, so I was lucky with that. There is some problem with drives over 137G at this point, but I don't know if a BIOS can do anything about it. In a couple of years 137G wiil be small.

 

[wfbberzerker]

im always a fan of upgrading bios because they can add new features or fix compatibility problems. although, when i first upgraded the bios on my epox 8k7a, it got rid of that cool screen that showed up when my comptuer turned on 🙁