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BIOS flash question



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 21st 03, 02:50 PM
Arno Nuehm
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default BIOS flash question

Hi!

I have a quick question regarding BIOS flashing on an Abit KT7A board. If this
is in a FAQ somewhere, kindly point me in the right direction, but I could not
find anything regarding the question on the web/googlegroups.

Here goes: Abit suggests booting from a DOS floppy disk and executing the
Flasher prog from that location. As I am living without a Floppy for almost 3
years now and don't feel like installing one just for the flash process I was
wondering why it requires a clean boot. I suppose this is due to issues that
might arise when flashing from Windows (locking up OS and screwing the flash
process etc.)

Question: Is it possible to just boot from a CD (Win2k install i.e.), drop to
command prompt from there and execute the flasher from a hard disk drive? Any
issues/problems that might arise from such a setup? Methinks it's possible and
should work fine, but what do I know...

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Bye!

--

-[ICQ 158390656]--[100% recycled electrons-environmentally safe post]-
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -
forever... And remember that it is forever. [Orwell]

  #2  
Old October 21st 03, 03:58 PM
Skid
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Arno Nuehm" wrote in message
...
Hi!

I have a quick question regarding BIOS flashing on an Abit KT7A board. If

this
is in a FAQ somewhere, kindly point me in the right direction, but I could

not
find anything regarding the question on the web/googlegroups.

Here goes: Abit suggests booting from a DOS floppy disk and executing the
Flasher prog from that location. As I am living without a Floppy for

almost 3
years now and don't feel like installing one just for the flash process I

was
wondering why it requires a clean boot. I suppose this is due to issues

that
might arise when flashing from Windows (locking up OS and screwing the

flash
process etc.)

Question: Is it possible to just boot from a CD (Win2k install i.e.), drop

to
command prompt from there and execute the flasher from a hard disk drive?

Any
issues/problems that might arise from such a setup? Methinks it's possible

and
should work fine, but what do I know...


Abit's new Windows-based FlashMenu utility supports the KT7A Rev. 1.3.
(Unsure if it will work on older revs.)

I haven't tried it, but see no reason why you couldn't use a boot CD, as
long as it is pure DOS with no memory managers.

As an experiment, you could download the DrDOS 7.x from www.bootdisk.com and
extract the files with WinZip. Burn them on a CD, along with AWDFLASH.

Boot from the CD and follow the flashing directions from
http://www.sudhian.com/showfaqs.cfm?fid=2

You should be able to navigate to the .bin file on your hard drive.

If there's a simpler way, I'm sure someone will point it out.


  #3  
Old October 22nd 03, 12:06 AM
minus200
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

although I have never done it - there is a way to flash from windows. I suggest
trying a site like www.amdmb.com or www.sharkeyextreme.com and search the forums
there or ask. A bootable CD should work but I have never done that either.

Arno Nuehm wrote:

Hi!

I have a quick question regarding BIOS flashing on an Abit KT7A board. If this
is in a FAQ somewhere, kindly point me in the right direction, but I could not
find anything regarding the question on the web/googlegroups.

Here goes: Abit suggests booting from a DOS floppy disk and executing the
Flasher prog from that location. As I am living without a Floppy for almost 3
years now and don't feel like installing one just for the flash process I was
wondering why it requires a clean boot. I suppose this is due to issues that
might arise when flashing from Windows (locking up OS and screwing the flash
process etc.)

Question: Is it possible to just boot from a CD (Win2k install i.e.), drop to
command prompt from there and execute the flasher from a hard disk drive? Any
issues/problems that might arise from such a setup? Methinks it's possible and
should work fine, but what do I know...

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Bye!

--

-[ICQ 158390656]--[100% recycled electrons-environmentally safe post]-
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -
forever... And remember that it is forever. [Orwell]


  #4  
Old October 23rd 03, 12:10 AM
Arno Nuehm
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Skid ] diktierte dem Sekretariat folgendes:

Question: Is it possible to just boot from a CD (Win2k install
i.e.), drop to command prompt from there and execute the flasher
from a hard disk drive? Any issues/problems that might arise from
such a setup? Methinks it's possible and should work fine, but what
do I know...

Abit's new Windows-based FlashMenu utility supports the KT7A Rev. 1.3.
(Unsure if it will work on older revs.)


Been there, downloaded that, screamed when it told me that my KT7A is v1.3 and
will not work as it is not supported in the Flashmenu...Not even "local
flashing" (pointing Flashmenu to a locally stored correct KT7A BIOS bin) would
be of any help...


As an experiment, you could download the DrDOS 7.x from
www.bootdisk.com and extract the files with WinZip. Burn them on a
CD, along with AWDFLASH.
Boot from the CD and follow the flashing directions from
http://www.sudhian.com/showfaqs.cfm?fid=2


Thanks for the links, I'll check that out next.

You should be able to navigate to the .bin file on your hard drive.
If there's a simpler way, I'm sure someone will point it out.


Well, that is kind of the problem... I suppose I will put the bin on the bootCD
as well because the drives are formatted i NTFS and simple DOS disks usually
wont be able to access NTFS file systems. If it was still FAT I would be able to
boot wth a Win98 install disk and drop to DOS from there, that would work out
fine as I can see it.

I was considering using the Windows 2000 safe mode with command prompt, but that
thing is running a memory manager as well, so it would probably fail.

Right now I am not even sure if a BIOS update is going to solve my problem. The
system runs fine and stable as a rock. The only thing giving me problems is
gaming, mostly Battlefield as this is one of the few things I tried as of now. I
run Nvidia GeForce 2 MX 200 with 32MB. Not a great card, but it gives me a
fluent FPS even on 1024x768x16... BUT... there are sporadical gfx ****ups. Every
few seconds certain areas of the screen appear white. I consider this some kind
of texture or lightmap problem. Even after going back to normal MHz on the
processor and setting all speed related settings (Northbridge, RAM, CPU, PCI
etc) to most conservative the problem stays. I have the newest Detonator drivers
(also tried some older ones), I have the newest VIA 4in1 drivers. No matter how
I setup my DirectX, my BF, my BIOS etc it keeps screwing me.

Well, maybe the update will do the trick.

Thanks for your help anywa.

Bye!

--

-[ICQ 158390656]--[100% recycled electrons-environmentally safe post]-
Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make
them all yourself.

  #5  
Old October 23rd 03, 03:28 PM
Skid
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Arno Nuehm" wrote in message
...
Skid ] diktierte dem Sekretariat folgendes:

Question: Is it possible to just boot from a CD (Win2k install
i.e.), drop to command prompt from there and execute the flasher
from a hard disk drive? Any issues/problems that might arise from
such a setup? Methinks it's possible and should work fine, but what
do I know...

Abit's new Windows-based FlashMenu utility supports the KT7A Rev. 1.3.
(Unsure if it will work on older revs.)


Been there, downloaded that, screamed when it told me that my KT7A is

v1.3 and
will not work as it is not supported in the Flashmenu...Not even "local
flashing" (pointing Flashmenu to a locally stored correct KT7A BIOS bin)

would
be of any help...


As an experiment, you could download the DrDOS 7.x from
www.bootdisk.com and extract the files with WinZip. Burn them on a
CD, along with AWDFLASH.
Boot from the CD and follow the flashing directions from
http://www.sudhian.com/showfaqs.cfm?fid=2


Thanks for the links, I'll check that out next.

You should be able to navigate to the .bin file on your hard drive.
If there's a simpler way, I'm sure someone will point it out.


Well, that is kind of the problem... I suppose I will put the bin on the

bootCD
as well because the drives are formatted i NTFS and simple DOS disks

usually
wont be able to access NTFS file systems. If it was still FAT I would be

able to
boot wth a Win98 install disk and drop to DOS from there, that would work

out
fine as I can see it.

I was considering using the Windows 2000 safe mode with command prompt,

but that
thing is running a memory manager as well, so it would probably fail.

Right now I am not even sure if a BIOS update is going to solve my

problem. The
system runs fine and stable as a rock. The only thing giving me problems

is
gaming, mostly Battlefield as this is one of the few things I tried as of

now. I
run Nvidia GeForce 2 MX 200 with 32MB. Not a great card, but it gives me a
fluent FPS even on 1024x768x16... BUT... there are sporadical gfx ****ups.

Every
few seconds certain areas of the screen appear white. I consider this some

kind
of texture or lightmap problem. Even after going back to normal MHz on the
processor and setting all speed related settings (Northbridge, RAM, CPU,

PCI
etc) to most conservative the problem stays. I have the newest Detonator

drivers
(also tried some older ones), I have the newest VIA 4in1 drivers. No

matter how
I setup my DirectX, my BF, my BIOS etc it keeps screwing me.

Well, maybe the update will do the trick.


The GF2 MX and the VIA chipset on the KT7A are a fickle combination. Some
people can't even install Windows without swapping video cards. There's a
decent set of troubleshooting suggestions in the KT7A FAQ if you haven't
been through them already.

On the other hand, it sounds like you have card or driver-specific problems
in that game. Maybe someone in the Nivida groups or BF forums could help.


 




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