Hi Pual

Thanks for the comprehensive reply; very helpful.

I only thought about flashing the board as I have noticed that my
Volcano HSF is running almost full tilt to keep my processor cool.

I have tried repositioning fans and reseating the HSF with ArticSilver
goo.

I thought the new BIOS may reduce the CPU temp a bit, as I have heard
of that happenning before (a BIOS reducing temps...that is).

FYI- I am running a Duron 1.3 and the CPU diode reports 64C, CPU
Socket 38C and the MB at 24C
Under load the CPU diode gets up to 67C and the Socket tops 40C

Maybe I am worrying about nothing?

Obviously any further help/advice would be most appreciated.

cheers

Harry


On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 12:10:20 -0400, (Paul) wrote:

In article , Harry wrote:

Hi all

Has anyone flashed/tested this BIOS yet?

More to the point is it going to stuff my MB ? Not that I dont trust
ASUS, but history has show that occasionally they do get it wrong.....

cheers

Harry

Normally, you would look at:

http://www.a7vtroubleshooting.com/info/bios/index.htm

but the A7V333-X isn't listed yet. As you can see on that page,
some of the A7V series have had issues with updating the flash,
but the -X I think, is a newer board.

If you go to the Asus download page and click the BIOS button, you'll
find a "BIOS History" button, and there are no dire warnings in the
history. Clicking the beta button reveals the latest beta BIOS is
1004.003 (May9/2003). As per usual, what has changed in the latest
beta is not listed in detail. Here is the history so far, copied
from the BIOS History link -

********
A7V333-X BIOS 1004
Support new CPUs. Please refer to our website at:
http://www.asus.com.tw/support/cpusu...pusupport.aspx
Because A7V333-X does not support 400FSB CPUs, if inserting a
400MHZ FSB CPU on A7V333-X, BIOS will automatically set up FSB
as 333MHz.

A7V333-X BIOS 1003
Support new CPUs. Please refer to our website at:
http://www.asus.com.tw/support/cpusu...pusupport.aspx
Fix that system sometimes hangs when ATI VGA card is installed.
Fix that system hangs when resets system right after system is
turned on. Fix that system hangs when system is turned on with
all the onboard devices disabled. Support Asynchronous mode
(DRAM 266MHz/FSB 333MHz).

A7V333-X BIOS 1002
Revise coding to fully support DDR400.
Revise BIOS shows error message [APIC Error] while installing
Solaris 8.0
Hide memory hole item.
Support D Version Speech IC.
Support new Winbond flash ROM.
Support new Athlon XP 2600+(FSB333) CPU.
Modify BIOS that Slave cant be detected if ASUS DVD-16XH is
configured as Master.
Revise BIOS that Ricoh MP7163 initial fail with CD in it

A7V333-X BIOS 1001
First release
********

My personal preference is to use a boot floppy and a MSDOS
based flash program like Aflash or whatever came on the CD
with the motherboard. The other options like Ezflash or
a Windows based update are inherently riskier. When flashing,
your system should be configured in its most stable operating
mode (no bleeding edge overclock that might cause a crash
while flashing). Make sure to archive the current flash image
onto the floppy as your first step, and if while flashing
the new image, the flash program complains about checksums
or bad flashes and the like, reburn the old image to the BIOS
chip before rebooting. (After reboot, don't forget to "Setup
Defaults" or whatever in the BIOS.)

And the question I gotta ask, is something broken on your board ?
Cause if it isn't, why take a chance by flashing. If on the
other hand, the board is flaky, then it is worth the risk.

If you check here, I can see that later versions of BIOS are
required to run newer processors on the -X. So, if upgrading
the processor on your board, you could flash up to the newest
BIOS and then change processors. Make sure your board revision
is correct before buying a new processor:

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/cpusu...pusupport.aspx

HTH,
Paul