PC help

[Donutz]

Anyone know how to flash BIOS? I'm running AMIBIOS, but ELITEGROUP motherboard. From CMOS menu I don't have the option to back up my existing BIOS. Further, I can find the correct BIOS upgrade for my machine. I've never flashed my BIOS before, so I'm not sure if I even have enough info to start. Any advice or guidance is appreciated.

Meant to post this in the general lounge section. Mods, please feel free to move this post to the correct section

Thanks,
Jason.

[bunchi]

to flash your BIOS, you have to find the exact BIOS for your motherboard. go to your motherboard manufacturer's website and download that BIOS file, and also download an .exe file that will flash your bios. It should come with a readme file to let you know the correct syntax. Now you have to find a way to boot up in MS-DOS mode, or any DOS versions. Usually you'll do that by creating a floppy boot disk or a cd that you can set up to boot in DOS. I prefer floppy because it's good to have less drivers loaded as possible. Copy the 2 files to your media, floppy or cd, and boot up using that media. after it boots up, execute the flasher file using the correct syntax to refer to the new BIOS file. Do not interrupt it while your BIOS is flashed. when it's done you'll have to restart the computer.

unless you really have to, flashing the bios should be the last thing you want to do to fix a problem. if you're not sure about the new bios you're going to use, don't do it.

[Shawn]

http://www.ecs.com.tw/extra/productinfo/MB.htm
Seems pretty straight forward. They seem to offer self creating disk or from a windows gui interface. Go with the floppy if you can.
You need to ID the MB and make sure you are downloading the correct BIOS update.

Why do you need an update?

[x_o_k_x]

to flash your BIOS, you have to find the exact BIOS for your motherboard. go to your motherboard manufacturer's website and download that BIOS file, and also download an .exe file that will flash your bios. It should come with a readme file to let you know the correct syntax. Now you have to find a way to boot up in MS-DOS mode, or any DOS versions. Usually you'll do that by creating a floppy boot disk or a cd that you can set up to boot in DOS. I prefer floppy because it's good to have less drivers loaded as possible. Copy the 2 files to your media, floppy or cd, and boot up using that media. after it boots up, execute the flasher file using the correct syntax to refer to the new BIOS file. Do not interrupt it while your BIOS is flashed. when it's done you'll have to restart the computer.

unless you really have to, flashing the bios should be the last thing you want to do to fix a problem. if you're not sure about the new bios you're going to use, don't do it.

yeah what he said lol.. i have done it couple of times myself. very important to follow steps and not interrupt..

[Donutz]

http://www.ecs.com.tw/extra/productinfo/MB.htm

Why do you need an update?

My pc keeps crashing when I have too many windows open, and particularly when I'm running video's on Youtube. When I report it using Error Reporting, I'm told I might need to upgrade the BIOS.

I'm still unclear if I need to download the BIOS from Elitegroup or AMI. I'll take a look at the link. I think I'm clear on the process of how do flash the BIOS, I'm just unclear as to what BIOS I need to download. The search continues...

Thanks for everyone's feedback so far!

*EDIT* I've looked at that link a couple of times. Last night, before I posted this thread, I had my tower open. I got the model name, I can't find the version on the board anywhere, and I have the serial number from the parallel port. When I boot the machine, there is no indication of what BIOS version is running. I ran a tool from AMI which provided the following results:

SMBIOS info:
Manufacturer : ECS
Product Name : P4VXASD2+
Version : 1.0
Serial Number: 00000000

I assume this is sufficient enough for me to find the BIOS flash, but I must be retarded :chuckle because I still can't find the new BIOS on the manufacturers website! I'll look again today as I'm not as tired as I was last night. If you don't hear from me until Monday the BIOS flash didn't go well!

[SilentJay]

The BIOS update will normally come from the motherboard maker, in your case from Elitegroup. PC crashing with multiple windows may not be a BIOS issue - actually, that's the last place i'd look. Have you looked into:

- Updated video card drivers
- Isolating sticks of RAM, see if the machine crashes anymore with one or the other stick inserted (this is a pretty big one for a lot of cases)
- A chkdsk with the appropriate fix switches
- Trying to pinpoint whether there is a specific application that causes issues? You mentioned YouTube as a regular culprit - Bad flash?
- Reloading your OS if all else fails

Unless there is a specific fix which identifies and addresses an issue in the BIOS update, it usually won't do much for your problem. Elitegroup mobo's tend to be lower in terms of cost, so i'll assume it's using an on-board graphics processor?

[EvilEric]

The BIOS update will normally come from the motherboard maker, in your case from Elitegroup. PC crashing with multiple windows may not be a BIOS issue - actually, that's the last place i'd look. Have you looked into:

- Updated video card drivers
- Isolating sticks of RAM, see if the machine crashes anymore with one or the other stick inserted (this is a pretty big one for a lot of cases)
- A chkdsk with the appropriate fix switches
- Trying to pinpoint whether there is a specific application that causes issues? You mentioned YouTube as a regular culprit - Bad flash?
- Reloading your OS if all else fails

Unless there is a specific fix which identifies and addresses an issue in the BIOS update, it usually won't do much for your problem. Elitegroup mobo's tend to be lower in terms of cost, so i'll assume it's using an on-board graphics processor?

YouTube thing probably means specific application such as the Adobe flash (mentioned above) or you might have a virus/corrupted file somewhere.

Have you tried to download Firefox or something else to test?

[ds2chan]

I'm surprised that you were told to update your bios too.. how long have you been using your computer without it crashing?? if it has been a long time then all of a sudden it started crashing then it's probably something you installed.. well, I suppose these days some software you didn't choose to install but gets installed when you surf on certain sites..

the ram issue that SilentJay pointed out popped in my head too because if one of the sticks of ram is partially dead or completely dead then when the computer tries to use the memory available then the computer probably would crash..

usually when stuff starts crashing like this I normally go with a fresh install.. but that was back in the win 98 days.. these days on xp and vista I don't have constant crashes.. maybe once in a blue moon..

[Donutz]

It's been crashing for a long time. I upgrade the graphics card way back, but I think it was crashing before then. I also added extra RAM (I think it was the day I bought it). As someone suggested above, I'm going to do some testing with the RAM. If that doesn't work, I'll put the old graphics card in and see what happens.

I noted above that it crashes when I'm running youtube, but it happens at other times too. I'm running corporate edition Symantec AV and that crashes my machine, or the AV crashes. Frequently browsers crash or just disappear. The odd time the pc beeps at me then reboots. POS.

If the testing with the RAM and graphics card doesn't work I'm going to throw it off of the top stairs of our townhouse, then run it over with my mz3! It'll be like a scene out of office space!

[yearoftherat]

I had an Elite MB on my desktop sometime ago and it kept rebooting for some damn reason...soooo
I checked RAM, VDO card, even flashed the BIOS..did a fresh install...nothing worked. I had it checked out by a tech and found out that the MB had died.
Replaced the MB and no prbs since.