Guest Martin@Home Posted June 28, 2003 Report Posted June 28, 2003 Guys, i wish to flash my bios to the latest version so have downloaded a file from driverguide.com called CTFLASHC.exe. From what I can make out, I'm supposed to stick this file on a floppy and run on boot up in dos mode to flash the bios. Is driverguide.com a reputable site does anyone know ? How badly am I likely to balls up my PC if it all goes pete tong ? My main reason for doing this is as a last resort to get my graphics card running properly and have tried everything else. Any help or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated :) ;)
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted June 28, 2003 Report Posted June 28, 2003 Your best bet is to get the latest BIOS version from your motherboard manufacturers website. That way you know it's up to date and hasn't been fiddled with. Their site should provide flashing instructions too. It usually involved copying a floppy image to a disk and booting from it, it then will do the rest pretty much automatically. In general updating your BIOS is a painless and simple process, bear in mind though that if something does go wrong (dodgy floppy disk, power cut, etc) it will render your motherboard as good as dead :/
Guest JabbaTheSlut Posted June 28, 2003 Report Posted June 28, 2003 not really dead, you'd just need to buy a new eprom which is a pain in the arse to find Jabba
Guest Mr_Protozoa Posted July 2, 2003 Report Posted July 2, 2003 This is why I fear upgrading my BIOS! But then I'll quite happily fiddle around with my RAID array. funny that.
Guest Matt Whitfield Posted July 2, 2003 Report Posted July 2, 2003 Heh, I've been putting off re-flashing my Scan SC2000 DVD player to support VCDs just incase I stuff it up and end up with a dead DVD player... :shock:
Guest Mr_Protozoa Posted July 2, 2003 Report Posted July 2, 2003 If it's an official flash and it killed the DVD player, can't you claim for a replacement from scan since it was their flash that broke it? Mind you, scan are bitches when I comes to replacements, when my HDD died it took 2 weeks to get a replacement.
Guest spacemonkey Posted July 2, 2003 Report Posted July 2, 2003 Not quite such an issue for devices like DVD players tho. The problem is if you root the bios on the motherboard you won't be able to boot to reflash it, where as if you root the bios in your DVD, the PC will still be 100% useable so you can just get a different bios and flash that onto the DVD until it starts working again. Most bios flashing stuff will let you backup the current bios as well as load a new one and for things like DVDs this is a good way to cover your arse. I have personally flashed a number of DVDs to get them region free with "hacked" bioses... the MPAA will be after me now :)
Guest Matt Whitfield Posted July 2, 2003 Report Posted July 2, 2003 Heh, well I don't think Scan really encourage to reflash your DVD player!... I got the s/w and instructions from a forum dedicated to the internals that Scan OEMs - apparently the SC2000 internals have been used in all sorts of players. I doubt Scan would be too impressed if I informed them I'd killed my DVD player by reflashing it incorrectly and by the way can I please have another one to try it on? Te he. In theory it should be fine however - you just have to make 100% sure that you've got the right updgrade version for your particular firmware or else it's toasty DVD player time. Oh, and you've also gotta hope the CD you had to burn works properly too...
Guest ajb3000 Posted July 2, 2003 Report Posted July 2, 2003 i flashed my DVD player with a firmware I got from a site covered in porn ads :. wanted my drive to be RPC-1 :)
Guest Big Ron - No Longer a Mem Posted July 2, 2003 Report Posted July 2, 2003 We had a similar post not so long back. People get VERY excited about ROM flashing, usually because they imagine any errors will result in a dead system. Usually, this ain't so; it's an old wive's tale. If you've got access to a plain-vanilla ISA VGA card (and your PC has an ISA slot!) Then bad flashes are usually recoverable. Just disconnect everything from the MoBo except the floppy, the ISA card, the RAM and the keyboard (no HDD, CD's, ZIP drives, network or modem cards) and boot. As if by magic, your previously blank screen WILL come to life (usually!) and since most ROM Flashes begin by backing up the OLD BIOS, then ask you which file you want to use to flash.... you can put the "old" data back and heave a sigh of relief: You're back where you started. (Which is better than buying a new MoBo and/or case) "Getting the flash file from the manufacturer" isn't always safe - I flashed a Viglen a few months back, using a Viglen-supplied file and "killed" it. So, then I removed weverything except the (etc.,) slotted in my trusty spare ISA VGA card, and breathed it back to life.
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