Hi all! I hope this is the right place to post this thread, if it's not then I'm sorry and I ask the admin who reads it to please move it to the right place. I have a laptop with a Phoenix bios and due to several reasons I'm eager to upgrade it. I have found the BIOS upgrade I need and made 99% (lol) sure that it's the right one for me. In the FAQs page of the manufacturer where the question is "How to flash my bios?" the answer is "Boot your computer to a floppy disk that contains Phlash.exe utility, a .BIN and .ROM files provided by manufacturer, and type phlash /B=xxxxxx.bin xxxxxx.rom /X at the command prompt. Restart system after completing this process." Well I bought this laptop PC in June 2008 so of course it does NOT have a floppy drive. So I have a few questions: 1) Is it the same if I boot from a cd-rom, dvd-rom or a usb flash drive? I would boot with DOS 6.0 and run the utility to flash the BIOS. I know I can boot the system with a usb flash drive so that's ok. I formatted my usb flash drive with a floppy image so I only have 355kb free (remember it has DOS), which is not enough to save the files I need to perform the BIOS upgrade. Which way should I go? Make it bootable without the floppy image? Or...? 2) In the update zip I downloaded, I have the pflash16.exe file, a rom file, 2 txt files, a bat file and a wph file. I did some research and found that the flash files are the rom and wph. But according to the instructions I read I need a BIN file, so...? Maybe they didn't taylor the answer to all the systems they sell? Should I ask them for help? 3) What do you recommend to fully backup my current BIOS? Thanks a lot in advance. Greetings!
Hi! Thanks for replying! 1) That's the tool I used to make the usb key bootable, but I selected the option to use a floppy image. But the one I used I downloaded it from HP website and was a 45mb file. I will use your link now instead. 2) It is not a branded laptop like Dell, HP, Lenovo, Vaio, etc. It's a Compal (the ODM for some of the ones I mentioned before) laptop model IFT01. I checked in their website for the specs of my PC and they match (I wanted to check it just to be sure), and contacted them so they gave me the address to download the BIOS update and other drivers. And I said I'm 99% sure because I'm a little afraid lol, that's all. I checked the txt file that came with the files to upgrade and it has a description for every upgrade that was released and the one that matches the version number I currently have also matches the exact date, I just wanted to make sure they're the same). I'm sorry, I did not understand your question "how does the original BIOS updates", what are you referring to? The process to update? And no, I have never done it before. 3) In some threads that I read about flashing the BIOS some ppl said it's a good idea to backup your current BIOS before performing the upgrade, that's why I asked. Thanks a lot! Greetings
What, you have laptop for almost 2 years and never updated BIOS? Well, it is probably how most normal folks behaves anyway... Do the original BIOS update, then do the moded one, so you will know how the process works sebus
No I have not. And you are right, most people who do not deal with PC other than just browsing the internet or using a word processor don't update drivers or bios or whatsoever lol So what I wanted to do is the normal update, that's why I started this thread. I'm not sure it's in the right place. I still have the doubts #1 and #2 I wrote before, that why I was asking. I don't want to bother readers if it's not the right place to ask, so do you know where I could check info for that? I did google it but I'm not sure about that BIN file that I do not have. Thanks a lot, greetings
Hi, thanks for replying I got the original BIOS from the manufacturer's website, and those are the instructions, the ones I posted That's why I'm worried about the BIN file, because there's no BIN file. There's a ROM and a WPH. And there's no software or program to update "directly" that they provide, just the phlash.exe file, that according to their instructions it has to be run from DOS with a floppy, that's why I was asking if it would be the same to use a cd dvd or usb key maybe Sorry for the hassle and thx again :/ Rgds