Upgrading BIOS on K7S5A

[Jerethi]

Hey everyone... sorry if this question is horribly off topic but I can't think of a better place to turn for advice. I'm looking to upgrade the BIOS on my ECS K7S5A running Windows XP Professional, but the instructions to do so are pretty hard to siff through. Supposedly, I have to create a bootable floppy disk to flash the bios, but I am unclear where exactly I am to do this. I created a boot disk, but when my system started up it read from the disk and then Windows XP just booted up.

Does anyone have specific instructions on how to approrpriately update the bios?

Also... since I'm on the subject... I might as well ask, does anyone have issues reading DVD's with Windows XP? XP seems to have very sporadic success with reading CD's and DVD's but I can't seem to find any mention of it in knowledge base articles, so I'm assuming it is either a DVD-Rom drive problem (which is supposedly full compatible with XP, so I'm ruling that out) or it is possibly a motherboard issue (hence the bios upgrade) But since it does seem to work fairly regularly, I'm assuming it could also be an OS issue.

Thanks for anyhelp you guys can give me.

 

[bozo1]

You need a -bootable- DOS diskette which XP can not create. If you have an old Win95 or Win98 startup disk you can use that or better yet, grab the DR-DOS bootdisk from here.

Run the program once you download it and it will create a bootable floppy for you. Copy your new BIOS file and the flash program to that disk. Boot off the disk. (Make sure your BIOS is set to boot from your floppy.) Follow ECS's BIOS flashing instructions to the letter at that point.

 

[MisterNi]

Before you make a bootdisk with your K7S5A using XP, keep in mind earlier bios revisions had a problem with data corruption with floppy drives while using an O/S that uses NTFS (windows 2000/xp). If your bios is dated before 9/26/2001 then DO NOT make a bootdisk using your current system. Make a bootdisk using a different motherboard then flash your bios according to ECS' website which can be found here.

 

[CoDerEd]

<<You need a -bootable- DOS diskette which XP can not create.>>
Not true, XP can do it. go to my computer, right click on the
Floppy, Format, and there is a choice in there. Create an MS-DOS Startup Disk

after you done it than unzip the bios file you download into the floppy.
go to the bios and make sure the floppy will bootup instead of IDE-0
or whatever there is.

good luck

 

[Buz2b]

Jerethi:
It sounds like the main problem you are having is that you don't have the boot options set correctly. Go to the "Advanced Setup" page in the BIOS. For the First Boot Device, select the floppy. Then Save your settings and Exit with the boot disk in the drive. It will then boot to that floppy, unless it is not a proper boot disk. Once you get that straightened out and you can get it to boot to the floppy, you should do a couple of things. First print out the BIOS Update instructions from the ECS site. Then go to this page of the OC workbench K7S5A BIOS FAQ's. Print out the instructions there also. Read them both carefully, then attempt your flash. This is overkill in the preparation department, but it provides a little assurance when you are unsure of what you are doing. Been there done that once upon a time.

 

[Jerethi]

Thanks for the help everyone!

BIOS succcessfully flashed...

Although I am still experiencing that odd DVD performance during playback... can anyone offer any suggestions about this? Does it likely sound like an XP issue? (This is what I am guessing)

 

[Buz2b]

<< I am still experiencing that odd DVD performance during playback >>

Are you using onboard sound? Sometimes that can be problematic in these instances. Also, did you run the SIS IDE program from this page? Not that it does a whole lot though.
In searching the OC Workbench ECS Forum, there were no specific problems listed with DVD playback. A few hints on similar troubles listed 1) Getting a better Power Supply 2)Changing the BIOS to an older version 3)Adding a chipset fan to the passive heatsink on the chipset. I would also suspect a driver issue, but XP should not have that problem. Since you mentioned the DVD AND the CD in your first post as being problematic, maybe your trouble can be traced to the physical setup of the drives. Are they on the same IDE? Are both recognized in the BIOS? Have you checked and/or replaced the IDE cable? Have you rechecked the jumpers on both? Which is master and which is slave on your setup. I know that some CDRW's and/or DVD's will be problematic if not the master.
You might also want to consider posting at the site mentioned above. They have a large database of knowledge, specifically on this board.

 

[Peter]

Windows XP is more restrictive as to which drives it runs in DMA. E.g. non-UDMA drives are always run in PIO mode unless you explicitly set to DMA.

And XP never runs any kind of DMA mode unless you have ACPI enabled in BIOS before _installing_ the operating system.

regards, Peter

 

[Buz2b]

Another excellent point, Peter.

 

[Jerethi]

What exactly does SISIDE do? Do you need to run it everytime you start windows?

Actually it's funny that you should mention that stuff about UDMA.. because I know for a fact that this drive is UDMA capabl, but I cannot seem to get Windows to recognize it (although at one point it did... I'm trying to figure out why it suddenly went to PIO mode...)

 

[Peter]

So did you have ACPI enabled in BIOS at the time you installed Windows XP? Do you now?

 

[NICKel]

Sorry to revive an old thread but I am trying to upgrade a 8/27/01 bios to a current level for my new XP 1700 cpu and I am having a super bitch of a time .......

I currently have XP and have not been able to make a bootable DR.DOS floppy I finally fired up an 98 PC and did it in a sec I suspect it is a NTFS issue..... anyways now I am constantly getting an ERROR 2 which says it can't find (I am guessing the rom file?)

PLEASE ANY HELP ?

Thanks

 

[NICKel]

CORRECTION :

THE ERROR READS:


ERROR 2 -- FILE DOES NOT EXIST




I have read the instructions from ECS several times.... Does this board have a BIOS protection jumper, or firmware write protect?

I am utterly stumped...

I am using ROM 020429L and AMibios Flash AMINF332.EXE ....

 

[Peter]

No, this just means you didn't read the instructions often enough.

You need to tell the flash program which file to use - did you really expect it to guess on that?

regards, Peter

 

[Dunjon]

Are you using the SIS IDE drivers or Windows drives. I had dvd problems with my Via board till I got Via drivers. XP seems stingy with DMA mode.

 

[NICKel]

You need to tell the flash program which file to use - did you really expect it to guess on that?

I launch the EXE file and it never asks for a file like it should.
The sample directions show a dialog box in the instructions......

 

[Peter]

... and it never came to your mind to give the file name right on the command line? Like

aminf332 020429L.ROM

That's how it works. That's how practially every single command line utility works that needs an input file.

And btw that's exactly how Elitegroup's instructions have it (4th screenshot from the top, with a big red circle around the relevant part):

http://www.ecs.com.tw/download/aminote.htm

regards, Peter

 

[Moonbeam]

I have an early K7S5A with the original bios. Wonder if I should update it. I don't seem to be having problems and haven't even lost all my settings for several months.

 

[bambam]

I was about to upgrade the bios to my 1 day old machine from them downloaded from my other machine and found out my Flopply Drive isn't working right . I checked the cable ( was OK ) so I my fingers are crosed that the drive itself is bad vs the motherboard . ugh

 

[Peter]

Moonbeam, the rule of thumb is, if your system isn't having any problems and you don't need any features added in later BIOS releases, then leave it alone.

regards, Peter

 

[NICKel]

Thanks for the advice and the LINK ... I hadn't seen that instuction page with screen shots....
Well I finally flashed the bios as per your help........................


However, after checking and re-checking I forgot I needed a "L" version of my BIOS since I have the Lan version...... My PC is now dead. Yeah yeah I know it's all my fault..... Is this a lost cause or can I get the BIOS restored to the previous state?

Is this board shot now?

signed NICKel NEWBIE

 

[DieHardware]

Try these instructions(taken from MSI site so Ctrl-Home might not be needed)...Rename the desired AMI BIOS file to AMIBOOT.ROM and save it on a floppy disk. e.g. Rename 020429L.ROM to AMIBOOT.ROM

Insert this floppy disk in the floppy drive. Turn On the system and press and hold Ctrl-Home to force update. It will read the AMIBOOT.ROM file and recover the BIOS from the A drive.

When 4 beeps are heard you may remove the floppy disk and restart the computer. Link to OCwb K7S5A bios page. Goodluck.

 

[NICKel]

Argh! Didn't work I and getting a repeating 4 beeps.... It sounds like its trying to read from floppy but no dice... Wonder how the customer service is for ECS?

 

[DieHardware]

Don't use the same disk you used before, download the bios again, extract it, place a copy on a different floppy, rename the file...then try again.

 

[NICKel]

Will try thanks!!! Hope it works!