Help Flashing BIOS for IPIBL-LB Motherboard (HP m9360f)

Hi,

I'm completely new to BIOS mods, but I've spent several days reading a lot of the threads on this forum to familiarize myself with the process.

I have a HP desktop, m9360f, Windows Vista 64-bit, with IPIBL-LB motherboard (Benicia) and AMI BIOS v5.35. I see there is no BIOS mod for this version currently, but I am looking to upgrade to a more recent BIOS first.

Before I do so, I have a few questions specific to my computer... I would greatly appreciate if someone could answer them!

1) I looked extensively and it seems the latest original BIOS version for IPIBL-LB is 5.39. However, the only way to flash it to this version seems to be from a user-posted ROM file, no official manufacturer method.

Has anyone here tried to upgrade to the original BIOS 5.39 version posted at forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/7500-All-Slics-2.1-(Modded-Bios-List)-Note-For-requests-use-Bios-Mod-Requests-section?p=196364#post196364 on a HP m93xx computer? Will it work for all IPIBL-LB-based computers? Is it safe to upgrade from 5.35 to 5.39 directly, without going through 5.37?

2) With respect to BIOS v5.37 for IPIBL-LB, I saw a link to the official HP site (h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=12454&prodSeriesId=3658372&swItem=vc-68959-1&prodNameId=3658376&swEnvOID=1093&swLang=13&taskId=135&mode=5), but that page doesn't say Windows Vista x64 is supported (only 32bit), and doesn't reference IPIBL-LB at all. Is it still safe to update the BIOS to this version? It seems to be easy to upgrade to that version since it is Windows-based flash utility, and there is a Bios Mod available here for that version (5.37).

3) It seems the only way to flash a modded AMI BIOS is through a USB stick (no floppy on my computer), but usually HP BIOS updates are done just through Windows without any usb. Is there a way to flash the BIOS from Windows directly instead of a USB (and without following all the steps at forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/8909-Make-A-bootable-USb-drive-For-Flashing-From-DOS? It seems less scary to update the BIOS via Windows instead of dealing with "beeps" and DOS.

4) It seems the BIOS recovery procedures are all based on floppy drives. So I am worried that if something goes wrong, using the USB method, will I be in deep trouble?

Thanks in advance for any answers

 

I think I can answer my own question #3, it seems I can use AFUWIN to flash from Windows. However, is there any downside to using AFUWIN compared to the DOS/USB method?

 

Thanks NoJuan999. After flashing to a modded BIOS, is it possible to flash to an original unmodded BIOS in future? I read that you need to update to the original BIOS first before flashing to a modded BIOS of the same version, but what happens when you want to update a modded BIOS? Can you only update to another modded BIOS?

Also, can you clarify if 5.39 posted at forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/7500-All-Slics-2.1-(Modded-Bios-List)-Note-For-requests-use-Bios-Mod-Requests-section?p=196364#post196364 is indeed for my system (IPIBL-LB)?