Flash Forwarding the BIOS
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The BIOS is a tiny chip on your motherboard, which provides the basic instructions for operating your hardware. Updating your BIOS can eliminate niggling problems due to bugs and add new features that give your motherboard a new lease of life.
The process of flashing (updating) involves rewriting the EEPROM of your BIOS chip with newer instructions and patches. This will take a maximum of 1 minute or even less. The process explained here is applicable to the more popular Award BIOS. Before you begin, make sure you have a windows 9x bootable floppy disk handy.
Step 1: Identify your motherboard and the current BIOS version. Press the Pause key about one second after you start the system boots. Note down the signature of your BIOS. The name of the BIOS manufacturer shows up at the top left corner of the screen while your system does a memory check. The BIOS ID is a long string displayed at the bottom left corner of the screen. In the third part of the screen, the sixth and seventh characters denote the motherboard manufacturer. For example: in ‘i815-w83627-6a69rd4dc-00’, ‘d4’ in the third part of the string denotes the motherboard ID. If your motherboard uses an Award BIOS, check for the manufacturer at www.abios.com/award.html. If it uses an AMI BIOS, check www.abios.com/ami.html.
Step 2: Depending on the type of your BIOS, download the latest flash utility and the necessary update file from your motherboard manufacturer’s website. Unzip the files. There should be 3 files: an EXE file, a BIN file (the update) and a TXT file. Copy the EXE and BIN files to a bootable floppy disk.
Step 3: Boot your PC in DOS mode using your bootable floppy. Make sure that no memory management programs or emulators are running.
Step 4: To run the flash utility, type the name of the EXE file, followed by the BIN file.
Step 5: Most flash updating utilities have an option of backing up old settings. Make sure you backup the current BIOS to a file using the same utility.
Step 6: Check the path of the BIN file and press Enter. Then press Y to continue. The software will automatically update your BIOS. During this update, there should be no power surges or electrical disturbances, else your BIOS can get corrupted and you would have to replace it (if the BIOS is socketed) or buy a new motherboard (if its hardwired).
Step 7: Now exit the flash utility and restart the computer. Press Delete and select Load BIOS Defaults and save and exit the setup. Now, your BIOS ID at the bottom left corner should show the new date (the date on which you flashed your BIOS).
You’re done! Your PC will run smooth and steady with the newer instructions written into your BIOS.
WARNING: Flashing your BIOS can be fatal for your motherboard, if there is a power failure or a surge during the flashing process. If your system is working fine and you don't have any problems, DO NOT UPGRADE your BIOS. If you decide to flash your BIOS, make sure to get some assistance from an engineer or a person who is well versed in computer hardware.
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