midol wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a S2932 mainboard and need to do a BIOS upgrade to accommodate
> quad
> core cpus. The User's manual and the online instructions say to use a
> Windows
> 95 or Windows 98 boot diskette. The more recent of these is eleven
> years old
> and I haven't seen either for quite a while and certainly don't own a
> computer like that. Can anyone suggest an alternative?
>
> Dave
bootdisk.com may have some MSDOS boot versions.
You can also find various sources of FreeDOS, a
replacement. For example, the downloadable Seagate Seatools
for floppy diskette, may have a copy of FreeDOS on it.
The HP USB Flash formatter tool may include FreeDOS as well.
So there are sources like that, of a DOS environment.
I got my boot floppy, from a machine running Win98, so
I could do that without the services of bootdisk.com . I've
been using copies of that original floppy, for years and
years.
You can also try a boot CD, but then you'd probably
want at least one FAT32 hard drive around, to hold
the flashing tools and BIOS files. Don't forget
to make an archival copy of the current BIOS image.
If anything goes wrong with the flash update, you
need access to your backup copy, so you can attempt
to flash it back.
http://www.infocellar.com/cd/boot-cd.htm
If all else fails, you can go to a site like badflash.com and
order a replacement BIOS chip. It really depends on the
motherboard, as to how practical that is. Older motherboards
use Dual Inline Packaging or DIP packages. Those are
easy to install. After that came the PLCC square package,
which is a bit of trouble to get out of the square socket.
Some are soldered in place, making replacement unnecessarily
difficult.
The most modern motherboards now, use EEPROM chips with serial
interfaces. The chip in that case, may be 8 pin and soldered to
the motherboard. They don't tend to be installed in a socket.
And that means, if you make a mistake flashing, you're going
to need some help to recover. The motherboard manufacturer
can reprogram the chip (there is usually a pin header intended
to allow a programmer to be connected). I doubt that badflash.com
would be selling those kinds of chips.
Good luck,
Paul
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