Bill wrote:
> Barry,
>
> I appreciate what you are saying. But I know I have read in more than one
> place not to skip over too many BIOS versions at a time. I'm not sure of
> the reason why; maybe it only applies to older hardware--or maybe you are
> right and I am wrong about this. I'll try to locate a reference.
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
The possible reason could be due to boot block updating, and how it is done.
Occasionally, I've seen BIOS updates offered, where for a certain number
of releases, the manufacturer gives warnings about how to do the update.
And suddenly they stop. The BIOS flash tool may offer options to flash
just the main BIOS code, the boot block code, or both. Some BIOS downloads
include a wrapper, that passes the necessary command line options to flash
both. Later BIOS may not come with the wrapper, or with a special version of
flasher, and then the boot block may not get flashed. It is unclear
to me, why there should be any dependencies between the two pieces of code,
because like any software, the two blocks of codes should leave hardware
in a known state (i.e. designed to a spec). So most of the time, I would
not be too concerned about jumping versions. But if the web page with the
BIOS updates has a lot of warnings and mumbo-jumbo about only using the
flashing tool that comes with the BIOS, I'd at least Google or ask around,
to see what the history and approach of the product is. For the manufacturers
who don't have robot exclusion on their websites, you can also use web.archive.org
to examine earlier snapshots of the BIOS download page, and see what the
issues might have been.
Why is flashing the boot block scary ? If the manufacturers would only leave
the boot block alone, it would mean you could reliably recover from a flashing
failure on the main BIOS code. But if a particular release attempts to flash
both sections, and the BIOS flashing tool erases the whole chip before it
begins flashing, then there is no code present to allow recovery, and the
product is thus bricked.
Any sin can be corrected by a trip to badflash.com , so you're never more
than $25 away from a solution. The only time that won't work, is when the
manufacturer solders the flash chip directly to the motherboard. I recommend
visually examining your motherboard, before you flash, to see if the BIOS
is socketed (PLCC square socket). As long as the BIOS is socketed, you can
pull the old chip, and install a $25 replacement, flashed and delivered
by badflash.com or one of the many similar suppliers. In some countries,
the motherboard manufacturer may even offer a similar service, at about
the same prices.
Some motherboard manufacturers have gone to great lengths, to putz with
the simplicity of how the BIOS and BIOS updates work. And occasionally,
they leave their customers up the creek without a paddle. One poor
bugger, for example, had a BIOS that was trying to reflash itself, and
apparently the recovery code was looking for a BIOS image that had been
stored on the hard drive. By using another hard drive, there was no
longer a hidden partition with the BIOS in it. And while the manual suggested
the BIOS would eventually look elsewhere for a replacement copy, the recovery
code seemed to get stuck at the stage of looking at his hard drive.
Schemes like that are pretty scary, and obviously are only as good as
the "rocket scientists" who dreams them up. Three cheers for QA and
testing :-)
Paul
>
>
> "Barry Watzman" <> wrote in message
> news:46300fea$0$1413$...
>> You don't understand how a bios update works. The new bios TOTALLY
>> replaces the old bios. 100.0% All at once. Lock, stock and Barrel.
>> Period. Thus, your question about upgrading in "steps" makes no sense.
>> Once you install F9 [or any other bios, later or even earlier], what had
>> been present previously becomes totally irrelevant.
>>
>> [and, actually, the latest bios is F10, I think]
>>
>>
>>
>> Bill wrote:
>>> "Barry Watzman" <> wrote in message
>>> news:462eded2$0$27111$...
>>>> Yes, the bios' are all compatible, I'm running F9 on a version 1 board.
>>>> You really should update, there were SERIOUS problems with the early
>>>> BIOS' for these boards. In fact, many, many people with pre-F5 BIOS'
>>>> had to return them due to memory incompatibility issues.
>>> Thank you for your help! Of course, I was one of the people who read
>>> the MB manual before I bought anything and bought 1.8v memory for fear
>>> that I would not have been able to boot otherwise. Do you think it's
>>> safe to go straight from F4 to F9, or is taking "smaller steps" still
>>> good advise to follow? I am guessing that any bios change could
>>> potentially cause an OS-hardware compatibility problem, since drivers
>>> rely on the bios. Is this line of thinking correct? Thank you also for
>>> letting me know about HECI (in your other post)!
>>>
>>> -Bill
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Bill wrote:
>>>>> I have a version 1 board, and I am running the F4 BIOS. Can the
>>>>> newer bios's be used with the version 1 board, and do you think there
>>>>> is any advantage is upgrading the bios For the next few weeks I can't
>>>>> afford to take the risk of a system failure, so I'm going to wait
>>>>> (until school is out) to upgrade.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you,
>>>>> Bill
>
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