EDIT: Just because something *can* be done does not make it a good idea, especially for the general public... Do you want to help everyone recover their BIOS that bricks their system since they flashed in Windows? Too many things can easily go wrong... [/QUOTE] if i can i will . the same things that can go wrong in dos can go wrong in windows and visa versa i have flashed xbox/iphone,touch/dvd rw all in window never killed a thing
How could it have been bad to start with?? It was booting the PC just fine before... His problem lies in the fact that he did something incorrectly. Either he flashed with the wrong rom, or he did it from Windows, or there was any number of random errors that could have happened. Flashing a BIOS is risky, but it is way less risky to do it from DOS. Period. *Some* of the same things *can* go wrong in Windows and in DOS...but problems are very much less likely to happen in DOS as there is a LOT less going on in the background... Know the facts man, this is nothing new, or unknown. Just because you have success does not mean thousands of others will have no problems. Consider others before you make blanket statements...
Exactly. And MY point is that you can vastly improve that luck (of having a good flash) by flashing from DOS with a bootdisk... That is all. If I were flashing my BIOS, I would do everything possible to ensure a good, successful flash.
if i can i will . the same things that can go wrong in dos can go wrong in windows and visa versa i have flashed xbox/iphone,touch/dvd rw all in window never killed a thing[/QUOTE] NOT TRUE !! Remember, flashing your BIOS is one of the most dangerous things you can do to your system What is the most dangerous thing Flash bios in Windows ?? Programs Running In Background ( Anti-virus etc, etc,) ###arrows###
*sigh* you still do not see the difference here. Where you are talking about yourself and discussing *your* past success, I am speaking with the general public (everyone that reads this forum and thread) in mind. While your practice of flashing in Windows may work for you specifically, many *others* have problems doing this, and it is evident throughout the forum (people complaining here and there because of a bad flash due to flashing from within Windows). You are giving the impression that it is okay for everyone to flash their PC in Windows, since nothing will go wrong...and while that may be true for *you*, that is a false statement when figuring the general population of thousands and thousands of users into the mix... You are giving novice users (possibly) harmful information that can hurt their system, or at the very least greatly increase the odds of a bad flash (when doing it in Windows)... See my point?
So... Back to the first post from JohnnyFeet. If someone can help ? /tips / suggestions .. ###arrows###
Think we all agree that flashing your BIOS is risky to begin with.But there are things you can do to reduce the chances of something bad going wrong. And if you have never flashed a bios before you should not try and stick to using a Lo*der.
i see you point to a point . here and there. so that means to me that it don't come up that often ie 100 to 1 plus just becouse thay say that thay did it in windows dose not mean that was the couse the verying factors in flashing from dos or windows are just a much risk everway also novice run before thay can walk so the moral to this is to read than read than read some more ask for help make shure that you have all the facts and are willing to lose you mb if it all go's pete tong. plus he shoud pull the batt and reset cmos see if that works before lobing the MB
Am I the only one who has dos formatted and boot enabled an old 2gig flash drive that was laying around and uses it for all my bios updates/hacks? Please, tell me there are more people around here that do that! I've flashed many machines, including laptops with that crappy phoenix bios that just loves to brick itself, and never had any issues that way. Seriously, it takes less than 5 minutes to prepare some old small flash drive you have laying around and do this the safe way! I am not a bios master and yet doing that I have never had any issues. And those of you that bricked your boards and bought another one, if the bios flash chip is removable, you can do a hot flash and get that board up and running again. But then again, if your too lazy to make a dos boot diskette, cd or flash drive, then maybe you shouldn't try a hot flash. You'll probably end up shorting out something or killing your ram or processor.
I did the same thing but my DFI mobo has a jumper that is made to reset the bios. Tried it, back in business.
Your P5B was, and still is 100% recoverable. I've "bricked" my M3N78-VM two or three times now. Asus boards have CrashFree BIOS, which when the main bios gets corrupted or the flash fails it will automatically search for a BIOS rom on any connected devices (USB, Floppy, CD) and automatically reflash with the recovery ROM on that device. Typically the file has to be named either as it is when downloaded from the ASUS site, or has to be MOTHERBOARDMODEL.ROM I've recovered my M3N78-VM using this method, and ASUS boards at the very least have supported this for a while, I can't speak as to other manufacturers as I have only uses ASUS boards for the last 10 years or so. From the ASUS website:
Most modern boards provide a recovery procedure. Your ECS board hopefully provides that, too. This post from another board explains it well:
I'll take a look at my motherboard tomorrow and see if there is a jumper that resets the BIOS to default. I'm hoping there is. If not, I will probably buy another motherboard. This motherboard is old and cheap... not worth getting the chip reflashed. In regards to flashing the BIOS, I either didn't properly create the modified BIOS with the AMI tool or was dumb enough to attempt to flash from Windows. Or a combination of the both! Thanks for everybody's thoughtful words! I really appreciate it!
I have two questions regarding failed flashes: 1. In case of Asus motherboard that have CrashFree BIOS 3, is it possible that this recovery program can still fail during unsuccessful flashing because the CrashFree BIOS is inside the BIOS itself? 2. How about Gigabyte motherboards that have two physical DualBIOS? Are they invulnerable to unsuccessful flashing because the backup BIOS can always recover the main? Please enlighten, thanks.