Bios upgrade in Windows XP pro (is it possible?)

pop80_uk · 10-11-2006, 12:38

Hi Guys and Gals!
I know im asking quite a few questions at the moment but I have another.
Basically I upgraded my PC a few weeks ago, new motherboard, CPU and RAM, and im very happy other than one thing. The lights for the mouse and keyboard stay on after shut down and the USB ports stay powered after shut down as well. Now after playing with every setting in the BIOS and all the XP settings and having no luck I sent an e-mail to gigabyte who make my board. They told me this was a feature! To enable things to charge and remain working whilst the PC is off and the only way for me to disasable it is to flash the BIOS with a new version they had released.
Fine...so I tried both of the windows based flash programs they had to offer and neither worked with my board, so Im offered the DOS flash option.....However this helpfully details that you can not use it with windows XP or XP Pro as you can not create a boot disk in these programs.

So.....I have the upgrade files for the MB.....but how do I get them to flash? I have windows XP Pro.

Also ive been told by alot of people, dont flash the board put up with the fault as everything can go wrong and get broken and never work again. How true is this?

Thanks again people!

bonzoe · 10-11-2006, 12:44

Flash using a Windows based utility at your peril!! Completely stuffed an old laptop of mine.

The DOS flash utilities usually create a bootable floppy and are safer to use, although they can fail.

Why not just switch off at the mains?

Paul K · 10-11-2006, 12:46

If the flashing process goes wrong or is interrupted then you can have a very serious issue getting the mobo working again. You should be able to boot to a prompt via a bootCD but to be honest I prefer to have live USB ports so I can recharge my XDA, how much is it annoying you for them to stay lit?

Stuart · 10-11-2006, 12:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by pop80_uk

Hi Guys and Gals!
I know im asking quite a few questions at the moment but I have another.

NP

Quote:

Basically I upgraded my PC a few weeks ago, new motherboard, CPU and RAM, and im very happy other than one thing. The lights for the mouse and keyboard stay on after shut down and the USB ports stay powered after shut down as well. Now after playing with every setting in the BIOS and all the XP settings and having no luck I sent an e-mail to gigabyte who make my board. They told me this was a feature! To enable things to charge and remain working whilst the PC is off and the only way for me to disasable it is to flash the BIOS with a new version they had released.
Fine...so I tried both of the windows based flash programs they had to offer and neither worked with my board, so Im offered the DOS flash option.....However this helpfully details that you can not use it with windows XP or XP Pro as you can not create a boot disk in these programs.

So.....I have the upgrade files for the MB.....but how do I get them to flash? I have windows XP Pro.

Have a look at http://www.bootdisk.com/ for a DOS bootdisk. They have several you can download and write to floppy, USB stick or CD. Download one, and copy the flash program and bios file to it.

Quote:

Also ive been told by alot of people, dont flash the board put up with the fault as everything can go wrong and get broken and never work again. How true is this?

Thanks again people!

You can wreck your motherboard if the flashing fails or is done incorrectly. Some newer motherboards offer a recovery procedure, but you'll have to check with gigabyte if your motherboard supports that, and how to do it.

Having said that, I've flashed many motherboards over the years and never had one fail.

---------- Post added at 11:48 ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 ----------

Actually, on reflection, if live USB ports is the only problem, why not just turn the PC off at the wall?

pop80_uk · 10-11-2006, 12:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

But to be honest I prefer to have live USB ports so I can recharge my XDA, how much is it annoying you for them to stay lit?

A few people have said this to me actually, why not just leave them live or turn them off at the mains. I have a few reasons:
1) My previous motherboard did not do this, it shut the lot down and I kinda felt happier when it did this
2) It uses power and is a fire risk in my opinion
3) (One of the main reasons) My microsoft mouse is wireless and its a bit dim, it uses normal batteries and if the base unit LED is still lit then th mouse stays active and on and does not auto shut off. This means my batteries drain very quickly.
4) My PC is pressed flush against the wall so getting to the power switch is a bit of a pain

I know these reasons may seem a bit lame.

So basically I get a DOS boot floppy from one of thoose sites, select boot pattern in dos to start at a:\ and then I will get and a: promt, do I need to search on the floppy for the files? then just find the .exe one?
Im a bit of a novice at this BIOS flashing and dont want to ruin my new motherboard.

DaggaDagga · 10-11-2006, 13:23

Many PCs have dual bios these days. The updater runs in Windows, fills the unused half of memory and instructs it to use this next time it boots. Then, on reboot, if the new version doesn't work it will switch back to the old one.

No messing about with boot disks etc. I've updated loads of Dells using their updater under Windows and have never had a problem.

ZrByte · 10-11-2006, 13:41

Im pretty sure a BIOS update wont fix your problem anyway. Infact in my experience this has always been down to the PSU connected rather than the motherboard. And if you really think its a fire hazzard as it is, it still will be even if all those items are switched off but the device is turned on at the wall. So if its really that much of a problem either move the computer so its not flush against the wall or invest in one of those remote controlled plug sockets (Only about ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£10 if I remember correctly).

Smilie · 10-11-2006, 14:39

what motherboard are u using??
as newer gigabyte has dual bios (as DaggaDagga said)
and theres a bios screen that lets u update the BIOS from a floppy (new BIOS saved on floppy and load from it)
and not needing to use a bootdisk

updated mine in Feb (when i just got this PC)
and it was a very easy process

Doofy · 10-11-2006, 14:43

I had the very same issue witn an an8 board doubt if flashing the bios is going to help, i know it is setting in the bios cant remember where though.

Jon T · 10-11-2006, 15:20

Just picking up on a couple of things, firstly due to to the nature of an ATX PC power supply, even if the USB and keyboard/mouse lights are off, your PSU and your motherboard will still have power going through it, that's the ATX standard i'm afraid.

The other thing I noticed was you said your PC was flush against the wall, not good at all, by doing this your preventing air from circulation through you tower, and heat buildup =component failure/overheating is possibly a fire hazard in itself.

Hope this helps,

Jon

opelfruitcase · 10-11-2006, 15:28

AFAIK, you can't gain direct write access to any hardware under NT-based Windows kernels (including direct access to the BIOS) so can't see how any utility like this would work.

However, I can suggest that XP does indeed allow you to create an MS-DOS boot disk under XP - simply go to format the floppy from Windows Explorer context menu in the normal way, and there should be an option there to create an MS-DOS start up disk.

pop80_uk · 10-11-2006, 15:35

Thanks guys and gals.
Its a kind of split down the middle view point, I take everyones views on board. The reason the PC is flush agist the wall as it has front exhaust points and sides, but I take your point.

I think maybe this is one little light I may have to get used to.

opelfruitcase · 10-11-2006, 15:41

The reason as well that usb and ps2 devices remain active is mainly to do with power management - if the computer is powered down, it means your able to power the system up using the power button on the keyboard if you have one (as far as I'm aware anyway).

Jon T · 10-11-2006, 15:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by opelfruitcase

AFAIK, you can't gain direct write access to any hardware under NT-based Windows kernels (including direct access to the BIOS) so can't see how any utility like this would work.

However, I can suggest that XP does indeed allow you to create an MS-DOS boot disk under XP - simply go to format the floppy from Windows Explorer context menu in the normal way, and there should be an option there to create an MS-DOS start up disk.

Direct BIOS access is perfectly possible, It's one of the reasons CTRL-ALT-DELETE is reasonably secure, as this particular key combination is handled by the BIOS and not the operating sytem, that way it's harder for Viri/Worms etc to mimic it.

Don't know about other manufactures, but my ABIT NF7-S has been flashed through Windows several times.

Lord Nikon · 10-11-2006, 16:44

Check the manual for the motherboard, there may be a jumper option to disable power to usb when the system is off. Failing which, if you think bios flash is the way to go, bootdisk.com does a bios flash floppy image (site linked above) which works, or you could build a bootable CD from nero and drop the bios flash software onto the CD