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No floppy drive - how can I flash BIOS?

Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2003 2:50 am
by ceefer
Sorry if this is a subject that has been answered before. I did several searches but came up with nothing.

The floppy drive controller on my motherboard (Abit BD7II) has failed. I would like to install the most recent BIOS because the current BIOS is a beta version from April 2002 (mobo bought used from Ebay).

I would like to know what is the safest way to flash BIOS on my motherboard. I've looked at some options but never having done them before I'm wary of trying without advice:

a) make a bootable CD with flash utility and BIOS update on it. Is this easy to do?

b) boot into pure DOS from the hard drive and run the flash utility direct from there. Can you really get into pure DOS without booting from floppy?

c) Install an add-in PCI floppy card. I can't find one of these in the UK. Anyone know where I could get one?

Any suggestions would be most gratefully received.

No floppy drive-how can I flash bios

Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2003 3:52 am
by blaster
I would offer this suggestion to you or anyone else who does not feel comfortable flashing bios--learn, or do a trial flash with an electronic gizmo called" Bios Savior"--it's a $20 to$25 investment--flash your "new" program to it--if anything goes bad, you still have your original bios program to fall back on. It's sold worldwide, and there are reviews on the internet. You might use another computer to flash a bios program--all thats required is that the bios chip is socketed, and is the same configuration as yours. Bios Savior comes in 2 dip versions, and 2 plcc versions.

Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2003 5:00 am
by soupy
Option b, if you're running Win 9x.

Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2003 10:08 pm
by ceefer
Blaster - thanks, I looked at this on their website and it is just what I need. Excellent advice, thank you.

Soupy - yes, I'll go with option 'b' AFTER getting my BIOS Saviour chip. Thanks.