Updating/Flashing Bios

Well, I know how to update/flash by using something called a floopy. What's a floopy?

Its probably a typo for floppy disk, something not all computers even get drives for anymore.

Doh! It is a typo. Aside from not using it, I can't spell it.

I don't think it will work. There are so many horror stories about failed BIOS flashes (I could tell you a couple myself). If I were you, I'd contact the mobo manufacturer and just order an updated bios chip. They're easy to replace...just shutdown your computer and pop it out with a small screwdriver. Pop the new one in and voila...all better.

I never had problems with flashing BIOSes for years. But I never had anything else than Asus boards to flash... And I always flashed from floppy. Nowadays it is even possible to use a Live-Update program within windows and it works (done that the last time).

My first horror story involves an Asus board. MSI has a pretty good system for flashing 'em. It's still more reliable to just order a new BIOS chip though. The one for my MSI board was only about $15 as I recall.

I have an IWILL K7S3 mobo with AMD Atlon XP 2600+ chip. How do I flash from a CD or do/find a Live-Update?

As you can see, I don't know much about the Bios. Why would one need and want to flash it in the frist place? I want to do so because I want to be "up-to-date" and get as much out of my PC.

The only real reason to update your BIOS is if the update fixes some
critical bug that affects you. There's a new version for my mobo, for example. Since it only affects lan cards or some such (and I don't use one), I'm not going to bother messing around with it.

I never had problems with flashing BIOSes for years. But I never had anything else than Asus boards to flash... And I always flashed from floppy.

Same here. Asus makes rock solid boards and I don't think I'd ever build a system without a FDD.

Does updating the Bios increase proformance/speed ie. bootup?

PC is slow to bootup XP, hanging at the XP splash screen for 5-10 secs after it loads before the logon screen loads. I've clean my registry, scan for spyware/viruses etc. No results.

Can't find any documentations for the upaded bios. I should look more carefully.

duff, if you have mapped network drives, other client software, or if you use Roxio's Go Back, that will significantly slow down your windows start up. you also might just need more memory, regardless of your processor's power. also, i've found XP to be 'bitchy' with AMD processors.. my home machine i built from scratch; now and then XP hangs during bootup. my work machine is a package from HP, and even this hangs sometimes on bootup.

i've updated my AMD bios from a downloadable file from AMD, just running it. at least.. i think thats what i did.. ..my machine also doesn't have a floppy. you should be able to flash by just running the file from your OS, but you can also do this from a CD.

a cd is no different from a floppy ('cept under most circumstances you can't write to it). in most cases however, a computer automatically looks to the floppy drive for alternative bootup info. heresay, you simply have to tell your bios to look to your CD drive, instead, for bootup info, and it should check a cd while booting up, see the flash info, and do it. i havn't done this before myself but its worth a shot.

boot up your machine and go into the bios.. i'm too lazy to reboot right now and look at what options my own bios has, so you'll have to poke around in the menus till you find 'drive boot order' or something similar to that. make your cd rom the first in bootup order, your OS drive second. save, drop the cd in, then reboot. let me know what happens.

worst case, you could call amd and ask

ps ...

..duff, if you arn't sure what exactly you're flashing it with, or if you don't know what your result is going to be by using any old flash file you found, DO NOT USE IT. rarely does anyone need to update their bios, and if you've got a newer AMD processor its likely your problem is not related to an outdated bios. furthermore, i can't even begin to describe the damage you would case if a patch rated for a different kind of processor actually took hold and attempted to update yours.

also -

you said you built your system yourself... AMD's are notorious for running hot.. make sure your heatsink and fan are rated for your processor type and speed.. your bios should tell you how hot you are running.. an athlon xp runs alright at 130farenheit but around 150 it could be dangerous. the hotter it is, the slower it runs. the best performing athlon systems are liquid cooled with something resembling Mr. Freeze's bio suit comming out of the Cpu.

(as i was building my home system, i was so jumpy that i had finally received my processor, i dropped it in without a heatsink or fan for a quick 'test' bootup to make sure my hardware worked. it overheated in 15 seconds, destroying itself and damaging my mainboard). i guess i deserved that

Here's the specs:
Processor-AMD Athlon XP (Model 8)
Mobo-IWill K7S3
Internal Clock-1999.92 MHz
System Bus-266.66 MHz
System Clock-133.33 MHz
DDR Ram-512MB
Video Card-Invidia GeForce FX 5200 (128Mb Ram)
CPU/System Temp-between 30F to 50F

I have 6 fans totoal. 1 on the heatsink of the processor, 1 on the videocard, and 4 others on the case. Temperature isn't the problem. I've set the boot order CD first, then OS, and tried to flash it from the CD, but it wouldn't boot from the CD. Before I tried to do anything else, I'll email Mobo company and see.

Thanks for the help, I'll get back here if/when I get a reply from them.

Doh! (looking at typos) Wish there was an edit button. Is there one?

Doh! (looking at typos) Wish there was an edit button. Is there one?

If you are level 3 or 4 at least there is a edit button, but only for the first 15 minutes after making the post.

hmm.. well your problem isn't your equipment or your bios. have you altered windows using any of the stardock bootup/login screens? if you use or have ever used something altering your boot or login, the only way to perfectly fix it may be to reinstall windows. but i'll let a stardock wiz tell whether its their program or not.

It's neither....

I do use both bootup/login softwares, but the lag still remain before/after they are removed. It could be my registry or memory itself. However, I still would like to (if possible) flash my bios to fix any problems I've over looked. Still waiting for the company's reply.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664 You can try running BootVis by MS. It's no longer available from MS but it is available at this link. It won't speed up your bootup to XP, but it may give you some ideas as to what is slowing down your bootup.