Flashing the BIOS

JackKelly

Ok im thinking of flashing my bios.I have a A7n8X board with revision 1003, and by the looks of things, i could be on 1010 at this stage ). So i was thinking of flashing it. thing is, ive heard some bad stuff about flashing the BIOS and how dangerious it can be if you do it wrong, so i decided to turn to boards.ie where everything is answered! So 1) how dangerous is flashing the BIOS and 2) Will there be any real benefit with the new one.

Thanks

Jammer

if ur system is running ok, theres no point.

theres no physical damage possible afaik, just the possibility of needing a new bios chip! I wouldn't say they're easy to come by!

JackKelly

yea i suppose.
1003 seems quite far behind 1010 though!
i think,as long as i back up my original, i can revert if it doesnt work out

TacT

Everything you need will be detailed at nforcershq.com -- you can revert to the old one and one of the links below will explain how you can save a bad bios flash also

here's my favourites list which has helped me get the most out of my A7N8X-X with min. hassle so far:
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15104
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15505
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16364
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48640
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8892&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
http://www3.telus.net/agentsmith/articles/article1.html
http://www.frazpc.pl/artykuly_wyswietl/212_en
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1930497

Are you overclocking at all?

JackKelly

yep, 2500+ oc'd to a 3200+ (agressive settings)
and my 9600 pro is OC'd to about 500 Core 340 Mem

Ill be sure to swap the jumpers and clear the CMOS before i flash anything though.

Im just wondering is it worth it, i want the BEST out of my setup at the mo.
(no money coming in for a while...leaving cert!)

TacT

try the different versions of uber bios for a possible better overclock so
If your system is stable and you're getting good overclocks already and don't need the extra voltage options etc. well then no it's not really worth it. If you want a few more voltage options etc. then it is.

you know you can use asus update utility to flash those boards from within windows? Works a treat for me and I've fiddled around with every bios available for my board until I got the best out of it with the 1007 uber bios. It will back up your original bios for you from within windows also

JackKelly

um, that sounds easier, mite give it a try
thanks!

Capt'n Midnight

Jammer wrote:

if ur system is running ok, theres no point.

theres no physical damage possible afaik, just the possibility of needing a new bios chip! I wouldn't say they're easy to come by!

Don't forget that most BIOS chips are soldered to the motherboard

And some BIOS update programs are very aggressive, I've seen a Toshiba BIOS boot disk render a Dell brain dead without asking.

I've also had a BIOS upgrade that kept crashing the PC unless the cache was disabled worked ok when flashed down again - so ALWAYS backup the old BIOS first.

If you are not having problems leave well enough alone. Read the notes and make sure any changes are relevant to your system no point in taking risks if there are no rewards.

unkel

TimAy wrote:

Ok im thinking of flashing my bios.I have a A7n8X board with revision 1003, and by the looks of things, i could be on 1010 at this stage

iirc I had 1008 and I sold my board last year

We can spend hours debating the risk versus merit of flashing. If you don't want to take a risk, don't flash. If you're a flasher, you just can't help yourself