Do I need new BIOS?

[fiik]

I have a laptop with a faulty hdd. Not recognized in cmos. I am trying to use the laptop in linux from a usb drive:- 16 GB with LinuxMint Debian Edition tested and working on 4 other computers.

I am using the laptop to type this - booted up from a live installation usb drive.

I have the boot order usb rmd-fdd, cd rom. There are 5 different usb choices, but only one works with the installation stick.

When I try to boot up with the LMDE stick, the computer checks ram correctly id's the cd drive and then freezes - before listing the bios version.

The present bios is AMI 1.02y ami version 1.03. ID string is 63-2000-009999-00101111-040201-VIA_K7_1ABNG000-

I can't find a bios update specific to this string and am uncertain about using a generic. TINY, who made the laptop went bust so there is no manufacturer site.

Any advice would be good. Thanks

[edwin]

This one:
http://download.gericom.com/NOTEBOOK/Hu ... ce-755CA0/

before updating the bios, first try a memtest CD to see if the memory isn't faulty. That laptop is quite old already, many of them suffer from duff memory modules...