BIOS Flash Procedure 1.

Check your BIOS for BIOS FLASH PROTECTION and make sure it's DISABLED, s ome motherboards have this function. For Example: K7N420 Pro (MS-6373) BIOS setup/Integrated Peripherals/BIOS Protect/Disabled 2. Find the exact model motherboard you have. a. First check inside the motherboard bios, some motherboards, like the MS-7030, show the bios version in the bios, under Standard CMOS Features. b. Open your case and look for the MS-XXXX number on the motherboar d, using located between the PCI slots, also check the version number as well. ( Some motherboards like the MS-6390 have different versions, in which each versio n uses a different bios) c. Boot up your system & take a look at the top left screen during POST, you should see something like W6390VMS v2.6 092903 This means the board is M S-6390 with BIOS version 2.6 Hint: Many systems run to fast, that you will not be able to see this li ne, you can either press PAUSE key or you can disable the Quick Boot & Full Screen Lo go options in the BIOS. 3. Download the BIOS that match your motherboard model and version number. BIOS's can be found at this link, which are separated by CPU socket type (socket 775, socket 478, socket 754, socket A, and archives) 4. Extract the BIOS that you have downloaded by double click it and extract it to a blank formatted floppy disk. 5. Boot the system with a bootable floppy disk a. A Windows 98/ME startup disk can be used b. Or you can create an MS-DOS startup disk under Windows XP, to cr eate an MS-DOS startup disk under Windows XP, right click on the 3 floppy drive icon under my computer and select format. On the format dialog box, check the bo x next to Create MS-DOS startup disk and then click the start button to make a MSDOS startup disk. 6 Once you boot off of the bootable floppy disk, replace the bootable flop py disk with the floppy disk containing the bios files. 7. At the A:\ prompt, you will type in the following command a. A:\FLASHUTILITY BIOSFILE.VER b. The flash utility will be the .EXE file included in the BIOS you downloaded. For example: ADSFI712.EXE = BIOS FLASH UTILITY c. The BIOS file will end with the version number you downloaded. F or example: A6728ims.210 = BIOS file version 2.10 8. To update the BIOS using the example above you would type the following command. a. A:\ADSFI712 A6728ims.210, then push the enter key. b. Follow the onscreen prompts to update the BIOS. 9. DO NOT TURN OFF THE POWER or RESET/REBOOT the SYSTEM before the BIOS upd ate is completed, stopping the BIOS UPATE before it is completed will cause the system to become non-functional. 10. Reboot the system once the bios update has been completed. BIOS Recovery Feature For Award BIOS 1. Make a bootable floopy disk 2. Copy the Award flash utility & BIOS file to the said floppy disk. 3. Create an autoexec.bat with "awdfl535 biosfilename" in the content e.g. awadfl535 a619mj21.bin 4. Boot up system with the said floppy (it will take less than 2 minutes be fore screen comes out) 5. Re-flash the BIOS & reboot.

Thought it could be useful to list the known switches and what they stand for. For example: AWDFLASH xxxx.BIN /py/sn/cc Would run the flashing utility and tell the utility to perform the flash (/py), do not save the current BIOS into a backup file (/sn), and clear the CMOS after performing the flash (/cc). /? - Help. Before you start working with Award Flash Memory Writer, it is advisa ble to use this key and to study carefully all the opportunities of this softwar e. /Py or /Pn - stands for answering "yes" (Y) or "no" (N) to the request concernin g the BIOS reflashing. By means of /Pn you can ban FlashROM reprogramming. This option enables you to save the current version of the BIOS or to get its checksu m without updating your BIOS. A backup copy will help you to restore the previou s version of the BIOS. By default /Py mode is set. /Sy or /Sn - stands for answering "yes" (Y) or "no" (N) to the request about sav ing the previous version of the BIOS. By default /Py mode is set again. In this case before reprogramming the FlashROM microchip you'll need to confirm saving b y this request: Do You Want To Save BIOS (Y/N) /Sn is recommended to use for *.bat-files in case of automatic BIOS reflashing i n systems without a display. /CC - to clear CMOS after reflashing. This option comes in handy when there is a risk that the data arrays created by new BIOS version in CMOS may differ from t hose former ones. If so, then you are likely to have troubles with the mainboard startup. Clearing CMOS will let you avoid searching for Clear CMOS jumper on th e board, which is really helpful if it isn't accompanied with a proper manual or is simply hard to access. /CP - stands for clearing PnP (ESCD) Data matrix after BIOS reflashing. The info rmation about PnP devices is stored in ESCD. The key /CP is an equivalent to Res et Configuration Data in PnP/PCI Configuration CMOS Setup. It makes sense to use /CP if you skip several versions of BIOS or if you have installed new PnP cards . If you don not update the ESCD, your board may suffer some startup problems. /CD - stands for clearing DMI Data pool after reprogramming. Literally, DMI is a data base, containing all the information on the system as a whole. Clearing it may be fruitful in the above mentioned situations with /CP and /CCkeys, as well as if some of the system components have been changed. /SB - stands for no BootBlock reflashing. The BootBlock is the first unit to be addressed by startup and it is hardly ever changed. If the board manufacturer gi ves no other recommendations, there is no need to reflash BootBlock. In particul ar, if the BIOS reflashing fails, it may become impossible to restore the BIOS v ia software. On some mainboards there is a BootBlock Protection jumper. If prote ction is set, either you won't be able to reflash the BIOS without /SB at all or the system will face verification errors. This setting has NOT been confirmed to work. It may or may not work on your moth erboard. Use with caution. Thanks for the input Tmod. /SD - stands for saving the data of DMI pool in a file. Part of DMI can be saved to be used by the software in future. Even though this key stands in the list, which is shown by /?, using it will bring no result. This key simply doesn't wor

k. /R - stands for the system reset after reflashing. It lets you have your compute r restarted automatically as soon as you finish updating FlashROM. The option is useful for working through a *.bat-file. /Tiny - stands for using less RAM. Without the /Tiny key, AwardFlash utility tri es to put the entire BIOS file, which is intended for further reflashing, into R AM. Still, if have taken all the precautions but anyway you see a message saying "Insufficient Memory" during the BIOS reflashing procedure, then the key /Tiny should be used. It will make the data from the BIOS file loaded and reflashed in portions. /E - stands for returning to DOS after BIOS reflashing. For instance, you may ne ed it to make sure that the previous version of the BIOS is saved. /F - stands for reprogramming by means of the system BIOS. Most contemporary BIO S's feature the procedure of FlashROM reprogramming. The key /F enables AwardFla sh to reprogram FlashROM with the algorithms of the current BIOS version. If a m ainboard peculiarities do not allow applying AwardFlash Writer algorithms, you s hould use the key /F. /LD- stands for clearing CMOS after reflashing and not showing the message "Pres s F1 to continue or DEL to setup". Unlike /CC, this key lets you avoid this mess age by the following startup after clearing CMOS, provided you have set the prop erties by default. /CKS - stands for showing the checksum of XXXXh file. The checksum is shown in h exadecimal representation. This option is advised to be used with the verificati on key. /CKSxxxx - stands for comparing the checksum of the file with XXXXh. If the chec ksums are different, you'll see the message "The program file's part number does not match with your system!". As a rule, XXXXh for each BIOS update file is usu ally available on the mainboard manufacturer's site /WB - Updates the BIOS Boot Block. This switch does not have to be used. The BIO S Boot Block will get updated with the flashing of the BIOS. /CC = clear cmos data after programming /CD = clear dmi data after programming /CP = clear PnP (ESCD) data after programming /R= reset system after programming /PY = program flash memory /? = show help menu /SY = backup original BIOS to disk /SB = skip bootblock programming /TINY = occupy lesser memory /E = return to DOS when programming is done

/F = use flash routines in original BIOS for flash programming /LD = destroy cmos checksum and no system halt for first reboot after programmin g /CKSxxxx = compare binfile checksum with xxxx /CKS = show update binfile checksum /PN = no flash programming /SN = no original BIOS backup /SD = save dmi data to file /WB = flashes the BIOS Boot Block I recommend creating a DOS boot disk: * make a DOS boot disk with format a: /q /u /s * copy awdflash.exe and the bios file to the floppy * create autoexec.bat: open up Notepad and copy this => a:\awdflash a:\bios. bin /PY /SN /CC /CD /CP /R <= Paste it into Notepad. Then choose File/Save As fr om the drop down menu and type autoexec.bat in the save as box. Choose to save i t to your Floppy drive from the drop down menu at the top. Doesnt hurt to have a disk with a stable bios in case something goes wrong. Simply put this disk in, turn the computer on, and it will flash the bios again, and reboot for you. beerman