Updating BIOS for ECS KS75A

[DarkNephree]

Wondering if could get a little input on how to update the bios on my ecs k7s5a. Never done this before.

 

[o1die]

I don't recommend it, unless you are having specific problems. I had problems updating the bios to the cheepoman version using windows 2000. The ecs flash program doesn't work with windows 2k. I had to use the ami827 flash program. I was able to run at 143/143 after flashing, but didn't notice any real performance improvement. If your system is stable, I would skip the bios flash.

 

[DieHardware]

If you do try it, flash off your HDD (if you have a FAT partition that is).

 

[buckmasterson]

ECS tells you how to do this on their site. Print and follow the instructions. However the Cheepoman BIOS that o1die pointed out gave me some problems also. It wouldn't detect my PCI bridge. I ended up flashing it back to the ECS bios. I do see posts from people who have flashed with Cheepoman and had no problems, but in my case I got lucky it took the old flash back.

If you decide to do this, be sure you know what version number the k7s5a is. If you don't know, don't flash, unless you have another board sitting around.

 

[Peter]

You just need to know whether it's a Pro (v5.x) or not (v3.x, v1.x).

 

[DarkNephree]

Board is not a 'Pro', I've had this board for well over a year.
...Well, I'll take your advice and leave the BIOS as is, seems that there are no problems so no REAL reason to change. As for a new system I'm doing, would anyone recommend the ECS K7vta3? I like those combo deals at Fry's for these, that's why I ask.

 

[Peter]

Make sure you get a recent K7VTA3; this board has started with the KT266A chipset and then gradually moved up through VIA's chipset iterations. Current production is v6.x and v8.x - same feature set, just using two different versions of the same KT333 chipset. (Note: Versions, not revisions. v8.x uses the KT333CF, which is pin compatible to the KT400.)

 

[UMfanatic]

if you go to where you can download the bios updates it will give you specific instructions on how to do it. basically you download the bios updater, the updated version of the bios, boot from your floppy on start up and follow the instructions that you should read before you update

 

[DarkNephree]

What is the KT400?