Computer Assembly - How To Assemble A PC
BIOS Flash Update
A BIOS flash update is optional. It's very likely that the version of the BIOS on the motherboard you purchased is at least six months old, and perhaps much older. Mine was six months old and I consider that quite good. A good motherboard manufacturer will rollout new versions of the BIOS fairly frequently to keep up as best as possible with changing technology. At six months old, the BIOS version I received was three versions out of date.
Even so, there may be no urgency at all to do a flash BIOS update. I suggest looking into the version history of the BIOS and see if it is at all worthwhile or necessary. The version history should be available at the manufacturer's web-site or through their technical support. There was no compelling reason for me to do a flash update, but I decided to do it anyway since it's the best time to do one. That is, before the computer is being counted on for something important and therefore before any downtime that might occur due to something going wrong being a big issue.
Updating the BIOS is particularly nerve-wracking since a failed BIOS update can render your PC inoperable. Any interruption to power during the actual flashing of the new BIOS would be disastrous. So it should obviously not be done during a thunderstorm or any under condition when power integrity is not at its peak. And if you don't have a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for any other reason then you should have one for the occasion of updating the BIOS. A UPS is a required component anyway of any useful PC since power loss during hard drive access can have dreadful consequences.
And unlike updating software drivers, GoBack's disk/file recovery capabilities offers no safety net for a BIOS update since the BIOS is in the flash memory, not on the hard drive. Maybe someday motherboards will come with two BIOS chips - a primary and a backup with a jumper controlling which one is in use - or at least a spare. Actually, I have seen a motherboard that did this since I first suggested it, so maybe someone is reading this site. It may be some level of comfort to know that the BIOS chip is not soldered onto the motherboard, so it is replaceable if it comes to that.
The EPoX 8RDA+ comes with a utility called Magic Flash, spelled incorrectly as Magic Flah in the documentation, that makes a flash update of the EPoX 8RDA+ much easier than other BIOS flash updates I have done. You can access the most recent version of Magic Flash from the EPoX home page. Even though the utility is very handy and the documentation is legible (it's written in very broken English), you may benefit from knowing the full set of steps and precautions I took. If you have a motherboard other than one made by EPoX then you might find the ABIT KR7A Motherboard BIOS Flash Update Procedure that I have done before helpful.
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Download and install the latest version of Magic Flash from EPoX.
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Download your current BIOS version and maybe one or two other versions from EPoX. As it turned out, I did not need these, but I felt better having them around. Maybe they would have come in handy if something had gone wrong.
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Run the diagnostic, speed and stress tests I mention on the pages near the end of these assembly instructions to ensure all is well before any changes were made.
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Uninstall GoBack. This is just a precaution, but a wise one since GoBack inserts itself into the low level of the computer to do its work. Note that this means the GoBack history for disk/file recovery is lost. Although it's possible to disable GoBack, this may not be sufficient to avoid trouble. Since the history is lost whether it's uninstalled or disabled, it's better to make sure it's out of the way by doing an uninstall.
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Re-boot the computer, enter the BIOS and copy down all of the BIOS settings. That's easy for me to say, but that can be quite a job. If your settings are like or similar to mine then you can print out my BIOS Settings page and then note the differences.
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Load the BIOS with the fail-safe defaults and re-boot the computer.
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Start Magic Flash and reference the Magic Flash documentation that comes with the EPoX 8RDA+ motherboard. Magic Flash identified my BIOS like this after it came up. The last line is the same thing that shows at the bottom of the BIOS header screen when My Super PC is booted.
BIOS INFORMATION
6A61BPAA
12/10/2002 For nForce2-ST Chipset
12/10/2002-nVidia-nForce-6A61BPAAC-00
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Magic Flash provides options to retrieve the latest BIOS version and to actually to the flash update. Pretty sweet. Since a failed BIOS flash update can leave your computer unbootable and unusable, you need to take every precaution to ensure power integrity is maintained during the crucial few moments when the flash update is actually being performed. If you don't have a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for any other reason - and you really should since a sudden loss of power can have a catastrophic effect on your computer - then you should have one for doing a BIOS flash update.
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After selecting the Magic Flash option to do the flash update, I was prompted with "Clean CMOS?", to which I answered "Yes".
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Magic Flash performs the update. It only takes seconds. Allow it to restart the computer when it is finished.
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When the computer re-boots, enter the BIOS. Cursor over to the option "Load Fail-Safe Defaults" and hit enter. Then use F10 to Save and Exit the BIOS. The computer performs a restart on exiting the BIOS.
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On this second re-boot, a message will appear briefly indicating the BIOS is being updated. Again enter the BIOSs and select the "Load Fail-Safe Defaults" option. Again use F10 to Save and Exit the BIOS. The computer should boot "normally", meaning without the message indicating the BIOS is being updated.
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The update is complete and now you just need to re-enter your old BIOS values. There may be new BIOS parameters now that you have a different version of the BIOS installed. If you're not sure what value to set for a new parameter, leave it as default. The information I have on the BIOS Settings page for My Super PC may help, including links to BIOS references. And a strange thing happened to me - after restoring my BIOS values and then hitting F10 to save and exit, I again saw the brief message in a red box saying something like "Flash update in progress - do not power off the PC". I don't know why this would happen a second time, but there it is.
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The bottom of the BIOS header screen that appears when the computer begins to boot now shows this after the flash update:
04/02/2003--nVidia-nForce-6A61BPAAC-00
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Re-run the diagnostic, speed and stress tests as before to ensure everything checks out ok.
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© 2001-2010, Rob Williams, all rights reserved.
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