MSI motherboards safer to flash BIOS?

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by yagami_kira, Dec 4, 2009.

  1. yagami_kira

    yagami_kira MDL Novice

    Jul 25, 2009
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    #1 yagami_kira, Dec 4, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2009
  2. Michel

    Michel MDL Expert

    Jul 29, 2009
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    Flashing a bios is always a risk, however some boards have a backup bios incase you fail to flash. The backup bios will reflash the first bios and your back from where you started.
     
  3. yagami_kira

    yagami_kira MDL Novice

    Jul 25, 2009
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    Gigabyte motherboards have Dual BIOS (2 physical BIOS rom)

    Do you mean that despite having 2 physical BIOS, and supposed of a failed flash, it is still possible that the Backup BIOS won't think that the main bios is corrupted, therefore won't be able to start?
     
  4. yagami_kira

    yagami_kira MDL Novice

    Jul 25, 2009
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    Are you saying that Gigabyte Dual Bios will recover "all types of wrong flashing"?

    I was actually going to buy a motherboard next week and flash the BIOS file for Windows 7 SLIC, and I was thinking whether to buy Gigabyte or MSI.

    So do you recommend to buy Gigabyte DUal Bios than MSI's M-Flash?
     
  5. burfadel

    burfadel MDL EXE>MSP/CAB

    Aug 19, 2009
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    #6 burfadel, Dec 4, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2009
    Bios backup recovery is quite common these days. The problem with recovery is how it knows the bios is corrupt in the first place? If it checks the checksum of the file against the checksum it is supposd to be, then it will not work for your intended purpose! When modding a bios, a new checksum based on the modifications you made is written, and as such it will assume that everything is fine even if its not...

    I think the dual bios/bios recovery methods only recover from failed flashes (that is, say the power goes off or for some reason it freezes when flashing), or from corruption that occurs when using the computer (I don't know how that could happen)...

    Its not intended for modified, non manufacturer approved bioses. If you returned a motherboard for warranty and they find a failed modified bios, say goodbye to your warranty!...
     
  6. Siliwangi

    Siliwangi MDL Member

    Aug 11, 2009
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    I recommended to you to buy Gigabyte DUAL BIOS motherboard, I think this more safer if you fail in bios update. but all choice is up to you... :)
     
  7. Everilda

    Everilda MDL Senior Member

    Jun 28, 2009
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    I have a dual bios Gigabyte board. When I first updated to Slic v2.1 I used Andy's Award tool to modify the latest bios. The tool said the mod was sucessful and wrote out the modified bios, but when I flashed the board with this new bios, at the reboot I got the message 'Bad checksum' and the bios would be automatically overwritten by the backup bios.
    I solved the problem by using a slightly older version of the bios which worked.
    I have since flashed the latest version of the bios again by using a much improved version of Andy's Award tool.
    Thanks to Andy for producing such superb tools.
     
  8. jradomsk

    jradomsk MDL Junior Member

    Oct 22, 2009
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    no, if the boot portion of the flash is screwed mflash wount help you.. keep the onboard bios UNMODIFIED, put the modified bios on the usb stick and set the bios to boot the usb bios, what it does is first start the onboard bios, loads the bios off the usb stick then boots that bios.. if the USB stick is crashed you can still get to the main bios which remains untouched..

    MBIOS also allows you to flashthe main bios (as long as you can get into the bios) from an image on the usb stick..
     
  9. 911medic

    911medic MDL Guru

    Aug 13, 2008
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    There have been instances where members have had to short the board to make the bios corrupt enough to be recovered by the dual bios..gigabyte specific in this instance..
     
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  10. Nubio

    Nubio MDL Novice

    Oct 21, 2009
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    while there is some risk when flashing your BIOS, i think the paranoia about doing it is overblown....you may not want to sit around repeatedly flashing your BIOS just for kicks, but assuming you're fairly confident the modded (or unmodded) BIOS you are going to flash has been confirmed to "work", i'd say go for it :cool:

    just make sure to accurately follow the recommended BIOS flashing procedure
     
  11. Michel

    Michel MDL Expert

    Jul 29, 2009
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    I would go for a Gigabyte personally also a Asus board is good. I would never buy a MSI board because i have bad experience with their hardware.

    Msi mobo + nvidia card from msi had conflicts all the time.
     
  12. jradomsk

    jradomsk MDL Junior Member

    Oct 22, 2009
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    I usually use ATI cards and found the MSI boards I have used over the years to be rock solid (once dirver issues were resolved with nvidia components).. their newest MBs have some great features.. even their mobos with onboard ATI video can crossfire with a card in the pci-e slot..

    the one thing I am glad about is that MSI has reduced the usage of nvidia chipsets on their athlon mobos... This is a great step as the nvidia chipsset had their issues that one had to work around..


    I really like the quality of the 790fx-gd70, its one of the nices boards I have seen in a while.. I had nothing but bad luck with gigabyte boards failng in a year or two... pretty good luck with ASUS..
     
  13. Michel

    Michel MDL Expert

    Jul 29, 2009
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    I am using ati for quit long time now (june 2008), before i used always Nvidia Geforce (6800 and 8800) but when i swapped to ATI i needed a board that supported crossfire (if i wanted to use crossfire). I looked at a MSI board but have read very bad reviews about it (with chipset x48). After a bit of reading i came to Gigabyte or Asus. Because i always used asus boards i wanted to try a Gigabyte board. I am very happy with it and i will stick with Gigabyte for a long time. My older Asus board (Asus Crosshair) had problems with sleep mode, when i woke the pc up my pc freezed up and couldnt do anything then pressing the reset button.
     
  14. yagami_kira

    yagami_kira MDL Novice

    Jul 25, 2009
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    How do you short the main BIOS? Do you physically destroy that BIOS chip? In that case, if the boot block of the main BIOS get damaged, even the Dual BIOS won't work, right, because there is only one boot block even on Dual BIOS?
     
  15. bla

    bla MDL Member

    Mar 10, 2008
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    Asus not what used to be

    Asus mobos used to be good , not anymore , just read reviews all over the net . I was a loyal Asus user but lately I've had some isues with them . So Gigabyte would be a better choice .
     
  16. Brainsuck

    Brainsuck MDL Addicted

    Oct 9, 2009
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    #17 Brainsuck, Dec 5, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2009
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  17. JaguarXJ12

    JaguarXJ12 Guest

    #18 JaguarXJ12, Nov 15, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 15, 2010
  18. Reign_Of_Freedom

    Reign_Of_Freedom MDL Expert

    Aug 1, 2009
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    That's why you make sure your flashing with the right BIOS. With that being said, it's always a risk flashing but if you use the right BIOS and have a backup recovery solution available *incase* something goes wrong. But 9 out of 10 times it's a smooth process.
     
  19. JaguarXJ12

    JaguarXJ12 Guest

    I'm really sorry I actually thought I had the correct one because sometimes I'm word blind (if that's a term) and of course I thought P43-C51 was my motherboard.

    It wasn't until after diggin out the box for the motherboard I noticed something, there was this T after P43.

    Usually all my other past flash bios experiences have gone very well with 100% success rate, this is an exception, probably because the two motherboards almost have the same name but as I said earlier I'm never gonna touch this business again.

    For this motherboard a backup recovery function is something that would have been welcomed, at least to my experience your literally F'd if something goes wrong with it and spending another 60$ was really sour.

    A friend of mine at work have an Gigabyte mobo for his rig, the best thing that he says is that it has 2 physical bioses, in case something goes wrong you can easily restore it, and that's really brilliant.

    Maybe for my next rig I'll buy a Gigabyte mobo instead.