winflash?

[poncherelli2]

I have a chaintech vnf4 i need to flash to the latest (or one of the latest) bios versions and am wondering if this program is relaible for flashing in windows or if i should go the traditional route with a floppy or cd (i dont really want to install a floppy drive).

 

[Aenslead]

I've had no experience with Chaintec, but if their mechanism works like ABIT's, which it should, you should be perfectly fine.

The safest way to flash is using a FAT partition to host your files...
The next safest is to flash it using windows; worked great for me.
And the least safe is using a floppy disk.

Good luck.

 

[BW86]

I have the Chaintech vnf3 and I have flashed to update my bios many times and all of them were a success.

 

[the cobbler]

You should ALWAYS use WinFlash. If the bios is wrong or your otherwise run into problems, WinFlash won't allow a bad flash. The Award Flash utility on the other hand will definitely allow a bad flash.

I would highly recommend flashing to v4.0 Bios and NOT the v5.0 if this is an existing build you are flashing. There have been problems with flashing to the newest bios on systems with single CPUs requiring everything from Windows repair installs to (me actually) having to call India to have Windows reactivated. That being said, few single-CPU users have flashed to this version and therefore nobody really knows how it OCs.

v4.0 includes all essential bug fixes and v5.0 will not offer any additional useful settings, etc. for a single-CPU machine.

By far the best place for info concerning Chaintech boards can be found at PCPerspective's Chaintech Forum

 

[DJMiX]

PLAIN DOS FLASHER, Trust ME
UNLESS YOU HAVE SECOND BOARD IN CASE OF BAD FLASH...

BTW ASUS WINFLASH SUCKS
99% my orders are from asus boards ...

 

[poncherelli2]

hmm, still seeing mixed reviews

 

[kirbymixmasta]

Originally posted by: the cobbler
You should ALWAYS use WinFlash. If the bios is wrong or your otherwise run into problems, WinFlash won't allow a bad flash. The Award Flash utility on the other hand will definitely allow a bad flash.

I would highly recommend flashing to v4.0 Bios and NOT the v5.0 if this is an existing build you are flashing. There have been problems with flashing to the newest bios on systems with single CPUs requiring everything from Windows repair installs to (me actually) having to call India to have Windows reactivated. That being said, few single-CPU users have flashed to this version and therefore nobody really knows how it OCs.

v4.0 includes all essential bug fixes and v5.0 will not offer any additional useful settings, etc. for a single-CPU machine.

By far the best place for info concerning Chaintech boards can be found at PCPerspective's Chaintech Forum

 

[GadgetBuilder]

It is possible to have a bad flash with any flash program if you happen to have a power failure (or if the phase of the moon is wrong). Or if you don't set things up prior to flashing.

Sometimes you need to poke around in BIOS a bit - turn off overclocking, disable BIOS caching, disable BIOS flash protection, etc.

Using Winflash, you should turn off all non-essential programs prior to flashing so they don't affect the timing of flashing.

I've flashed my VNF4 a couple of times with WinFlash and it worked fine - next time, who knows. There is a very slight gamble every time you flash BIOS unless you have a PROM burner, but WinFlash seems to be as good as it gets for flashing on NF2/NF3/NF4 based systems.

Some notes from my investigation of flashing: http://www.gadgetbuilder.com/Computer/FlashBios.html

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: BW86
I have the Chaintech vnf3 and I have flashed to update my bios many times and all of them were a success.

same here, never a problem with Winflash.

 

[Sylvanas]

I've only used WinFlash once and it was excellent, quick, simple and no problems at all.

 

[almach1]

quick question.
i'm doing the winflash and i have to select certain blocks to update.
they are

boot block

escd block

dmi block

main block

should i select all of them to update?

 

[wpshooter]

Originally posted by: DJMiX
PLAIN DOS FLASHER, Trust ME
UNLESS YOU HAVE SECOND BOARD IN CASE OF BAD FLASH...

BTW ASUS WINFLASH SUCKS
99% my orders are from asus boards ...

I agree.