Can nobody help me with my little problem posted 16th July. I know it's probably a simple little problem, but hopefully somebody can spare me 5 minutes….! (If you're embarassed to help such a numbskull as me, I promise not to tell!)
Thanks
Hi Openacres,
Will you give us the website from which you obtained the information about flashing your BIOS?
And the model or identifying information to navigate to your specific download and associated instructions.
I ask because your transcribing of the instructions does not appear to be complete. At least not to me.
I'd like to read it directly before venturing a recommendation.
Used to be that BIOS flashing was a nightmare procedure.
In these "modern times" it's relatively straight forward and even recoverable.
But it's still something to approach with precision.
best regards
thanks for your quick response to my plaintive plea for help ……….!
I attach here the bulk of my previous post on the subject. At the base of it all is the fact that I've bought a new wide screen monitor, the native resolution of which is not supported by my aged motherboard. There is a saga and a half on this mother board (see my previous posts on that!). Although I'm probably convinced by "Paws" in that thread to buy new kit. I'd still like to get this current one to behave itself. All their instructions and downloads links were sent to me via email
So herewith:
Another (possibly) simple question from (probably) simple ageing wannabee geek -
For reasons explained in my earlier thread re motherboards and graphics card, I have to install new BIOS and a BIOS utility program. These have been downloaded, un-zipped and saved from the manufacturer of my current motherboard.
They then say to
Make a DOS boot diskette. (See example: Windows 98 O.S.)
Beware: Windows 2000/Me are not allowed to make a DOS boot diskette.
a. With an available floppy disk in the floppy drive. Please leave the diskette "UN-write protected" type. Double
click the "My Computer" icon from Desktop, then click "3.5 diskette (A)" and right click to select "Format (M)".
b. Select the Quick (erase) for Format Type, and pick both "Display summary when finished" and "Copy
system files", after that press "Start". That will format the floppy and transfer the needed system files to it
It didn't happen quite like that. It just re-formatted the disk, so I clicked "create MS-DOS disk" instead. Produced a diskette with the following files on it:
Only KEYB and MODE have an icon attached. I assume this is the correct procedure since they used Windows 98 as an example. (is there somebody out there who is even more behind the times than me?!!).
Anyway, next instruction is
(1) Make sure the system will boot from the floppy disk. After the system boot from floppy disk, type "A:\> dir" and press "Enter" to check the entire files in floppy A. Then type the "BIOS flash utility" and "BIOS file" after A:\>. In this case you have to type "A:\> aminf330 020429.rom " and then press "Enter".Now comes the simple question: just how do I "make sure the system will boot from the floppy disk"?
(mind you, the next instruction is 2) Now screen appears the following Flash Utility screen. Please check whether new BIOS tag is correct. Right after that, press [Enter] to start BIOS flash procedure or press [Esc] to abort.
Beware: Please do not turn off the system while you are upgrading BIOS. It will render your BIOS corrupted
and system totally inoperative.
and that scares the hell out of me, but we'll reach that when we come to it!)
……………………………………………………………………..
………
Forget about looking for any "icons" or clickable items in this disk. This disks purpose in life is to bootstrap you to a command line interface and enough operating system to make your keyboard, display, and some low level functionality on your computer.
You boot into it, thats why its a boot disk.
I am not sure what you were expecting to happen when you created it?
But what begs the question here is that you are missing a bunch of steps in creating the usual bios flash routine.
Some makers of boards have a routine you can do from within Windows to update a bios,
Some makers of boards have a routine you have to do manually. You make a boot disk and have to add a .rom or a .bin file. Then you add a utility program to it. Then you have to start the process by booting into the disk, then run the utility after the prompt.
Some makers of a board give you a program that will kick off a creation of a boot disk (usually a program called "make boot") and add the .bin or .rom file to it. usually a utility as well.
Some makers of a board give you a choice on how you want to do it. Manual or automatic. From within Windows or from a boot disk.
Like Doug said, more information is needed…The version of the bios you are currently running, model, make, version of the board you are going flash.
Curious to know if the manufacture provided information that by flashing the bios would up the native resolution of the video adapter? Usually flash is done to firmware to increase functionality, ie add the ability to use a specifice device like usb's or to correct a fault in software/hardware interfacing that has been discovered.
This whole process may not give you what you are after and risk making a boat anchor out of your computer.
Regards and Good luck
Kaz.
✨ Ask AI
AI can make mistakes. Check the cited posts. Archived advice can be out-of-date
Don't include personal information. Questions and selected public posts go to OpenAI. About Ask AI
