Art of BIOS flashing | ROM. CHAPTER ONE. Dedicated for those lazy to read and those who just want to get it done A. S. A. P. NOTE: if you're interested in this article, you're supposed to have some background in things like: what is BIOS, what is it intended for and what types of BIOS- es exist? DOS command- line interface and how to use it? At least, you should be able to find the required/missing information in the Net — this article won't help you with it. So, instead of starting from basics, let's do just the opposite and start with clearing up the most typical myths and confusions. Myths. Myth #1: One has to (should) reprogram the FLASH memory chip (which contains the BIOS) using only the flashing software supplied by the BIOS manufacturer (for example, use Awd. Flash with Award. BIOS, or AMIFlash with AMIBIOS). Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive for Hiren's Boot CD - diagnostic and recovery tool-set - ERD Commander replacement. Recover data, fix a damaged PC etc. Flash memory is an electronic (solid-state) non-volatile computer storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. Toshiba developed flash memory from. How to Update Your Computer's BIOS. A computer's Basic Input-Output System (BIOS) is embedded software on a motherboard. It is the first software your PC loads so. That's wrong, but many people believe in this myth — particularly because there are so many misleading warnings on manufacturers' websites (especially for people for whom English is a foreign language!). You could ask: "Why is it wrong?". If you want to know the answer – don't be lazy to read this part of the article and the next one! Myth #2: One has to (should) use the so- called Hot Swap method only with a motherboard of exactly the same type (same chipset, same manufacturer, etc.)That's wrong, and it's the second most common mistake. It comes from the lack of knowledge about how different flash chips work, and this difference actually may cause some limitations on the type of motherboards that can be used to (re)program a specific flash memory chip. Anyway, if you need to reprogram the flash chip of a (dead) motherboard, and you have a working motherboard of exactly the same type — this would be an advantage. Flashers and their usage. A flasher is a piece of software for flash memory chips (re)programming (process also commonly known as (re)flasing). The most popular "universal" flashers are Awd. Flash, AMIFlash and Uni. Flash; other flashers are mostly special ones for specific brands, like a. Flash for ASUS motherboards or special flashers for Intel boards (note that universal flashers may not work with these boards). In this article we'll concentrate only on the mentioned three "universal" flashers. As most DOS programs, flashers can be controlled by command line switches. As there is plenty of information about them in the Net, so only the essential ones will be described here. In this guide, we're going to show you how to update the CPU microcode in an AMI BIOS.![]() Awd. Flash. The most popular flasher - but not the best one. Should be used with the following switches: AWDFLASH bios_file /py/sn/f/r/cd/cp. These switches will cause Awd. Flash to do the following: /py — reprogram the flash memory with the contents of bios_file without asking for confirmations (here p means Program, y means Yes); /sn — do not save the old BIOS (Save=No); /f — do not check if the BIOS in the bios_file file is intended for this particular motherboard and if this is a BIOS file at all (Force reprogramming); /r — reboot the computer after flashing is complete (Reboot). If you don't need this — just don't use this switch; /cd and /cp — clear some setup data. It is highly recommended to use these switches (Clear DMI data, Clear PNP data). It is also recommended to add one more switch — /cc, to automatically Clear CMOS. AMIFlash. Not so popular as Awd. Flash, but actually the best one (despite even the problems with some versions when being executed without any switches — see the warning above). It should be used with the following switches: AMIFLASH bios_file /b /n /- o /- c /- d /- r /v /- i /- k /- e /- g. To backup your current BIOS, run AMIFlash as follows (NOTE: there is no SPACE character after the /s switch): AMIFLASH /b /n /- o /- c /- d /- r /v /- i /- k /- e /- g /sbackup_file. If you're going to reprogram a flash chip(s) more than twice — don't be lazy and prepare a . BAT file on your DOS system disk(ette), with a string like this: A: \UTILS\AMIFLASH. EXE %1 /b /n /- o /- c /- d /- r /v /- i /- k /- e /- g. Uni. Flash. Uni. Flash is a much more advanced flasher (compared to Awd. Flash and AMIFlash) and requires some major knowledge/experience from the user, so it will not be described in this article. Some details about flashing BIOS- es of ASUS motherboards"Regular" flashers shouldn't be used for reprogramming flash chips on ASUS motherboards, because vast majority of ASUS BIOSes (starting from ancient Pentium. For these motherboards, ASUS' own branded utilities must be used. For the oldest boards it would be PFlash, and for the newer ones it would be AFlash (in many cases AFLASH will work with older boards as well). For the modern boards you will need to use Windows- based flashing utilities. It should be mentioned, that the statement "you will need to" in the preceding paragraph doesn't mean that ASUS' own flashing utilities are troublesome. Quite the contrary: they are very comfortable to use, easy to understand, quite universal, don't ask hundreds of questions and successfully flash "everything on their way". In addition, AMIFlash is still usable, despite the error at the end of the flashing process (it is actually caused by DOS4. GW rather then by AMIFLASH). In any case, all happy owners of ASUS motherboards should be extra careful while flashing their boards, as the resurrection process in case of the BIOS corruption may be difficult. And even if you think you are an advanced user with a great experience - once more: be careful! ASUS engineers use very complex and sometimes weird BIOS protection techniques in their masterpieces, and this “other side of the medal” can make the process of repairing a motherboard with corrupted BIOS very complicated. Your motherboard may seem to be dead ("0. POST card), as well as the flash memory chip (e. ASUS), but actually both of them are in good, absolutely operational condition - the "dead" chip will work well if put into another, exactly similar, but working board, and/or the "dead" board will return to live with the flash chip from that working board. If you're dealing with problems like these - you can read the chapter about the LPC interface (ASUS uses this interface long ago compared to other companies who have started using it later). Windows Vista Home Premium Da Inglese Italiano Vocabolario . P. S. Similar problems (necessity to use branded flashers) may appear with some (usually - well known) other brands, for example - a couple of Abit motherboards have "fine points" in the flashing procedure.Uni. Flash will warn you that it "does not like" this brand.Common issues and their solutions.BIOS image file's size does not match the flash memory chip capacity.It's a rather common problem, most likely caused by the fact that manufacturers sometimes use flash memory chips of different capacity in different motherboard revisions. The MS- 6. 11. 7 motherboard (made by MSI) may serve as an example: look at its BIOS list and you'll see that all AMI BIOS releases are for a 1. Mbit flash chip, as well as AWARD BIOS releases 1. AWARD BIOS release 3. Mbit flash chip. Rarely, you may run on a board with a flash chip of some specific capacity, while the manufacturer claims that the board is/was produсed only with flash chips of different capacity. That may just mean that your board is after repair, but it may also mean that you have a "fake" motherboard (i. A flasher refuses to accept the given BIOS image file, producing error messages like that the given file is not a BIOS image at all, or it's a BIOS for a motherboard of different model. It's an even more common issue, but if you're 1. A flasher cannot recognize the used flash memory chip and thus cannot (re)program it. This issue is also a common one, and there could be a few reasons for that: the flash memory write protection is turned on (that's what most flashers would ask you to check in this case). Old boards hase a jumper that enables/disables flash chip protection, while newer ones have it as an option in BIOS Setup (something like BIOS FLASH PROTECTION = ENABLE/DISABLE); the particular version of the flasher that you're using doesn't know the particular type of a flash memory chip. It's a rare occasion, but it happens, usually when you are trying to flash some stone- age flash chip by a newer version flasher, or vise versa. FWH/LPC; the flash memory chip is inserted in the wrong way.
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