The fastest way to find the upgrade is to paste your BIOS ID String (example shown in Figure 1) into something like google to find an upgrade. If that dosen’t work…
The first thing you need before you begin is the FLASH upgrade software for your motherboard. An upgrade is not found at AWARD Bios, AMI Bios or Phoenix Bios’ web site. They are in the business of selling to motherboard manufacturer’s and not the general public. The Flash Upgrade for your motherboard is always supplied by the motherboard manufacturer. You can nearly always download these upgrades from their web or FTP site. If you computer was built by a company such as Micron, Gateway, IBM, Packard Bell ect. go to their site for the utility.
Simply write down the version number of your Bios, this can be read above the memory test during the beginning of the POST process when you start your computer.
As shown here in this example. Press the PAUSE button on your keyboard (pause button is above the Home,page,down, page up ect section of keys beside print screen and scroll lock) to freeze the screen so you can write it down.
Figure 1
Also, determine the model of the motherboard you are using.
Figure 2
In the case of this picture the mother board is an IRM-P6L40A4 Version 1.02 you can just google that and it should point you to the manufacturer.
These two items are all you will need to find the upgrade for your motherboard on the manufacturer’s web site. On the site you should typically be looking for Drivers & downloads section if you can’t find it use google by typing the motherboard’s name (eg in this case IRM-P6L40A4 Version 1.02).
The FLASH UTILITY is nearly always included in the Flash upgrade file you will download. So, download it first and examine the contents of this file before you begin searching for a Flash Utility file.
Once you have found and downloaded the update:
READ the instructions file and follow it in detail. I have seen a couple of people take for granted they know how to flash a BIOS only to find a new requirement and they are stuck with a mess. READ the INSTRUCTIONS.
Typically, you will need two floppy disks. One disk is your Boot disk with an operating system and the other contains your Flash Utility and the Upgrade file. You might be able to put all this on one floppy, but I recommend against it. When you Flash upgrade your BIOS, one option is to make a backup copy of your existing BIOS code. You will want to do this and need room for the Flash Utility file to store your old Bios code.
To make the MS-DOS boot disk:
Go to My Computer and right-click on the Floppy Drive and select “format” check off “Create MS-DOS startup Disk” and click start.
When the format is complete unzip the BIOS updating files into the disk.
Reset your computer with the floppy disk inside the drive and wait for MS-DOS to load up. If it dosen’t you must reset your computer and press DEL(F2, F8 ect depending on what model of BIOS you have) to enter the setup, there you must go through the options to find “boot seqence” make sure you have A listed before C, for example my computer is set “A, C, SCSI” as you can see in the image below.
Figure 3
After you see the DOS prompt (the famous A:\>), enter the BIOS programmer name followed by the BIOS file name. In our case the command was:
Awdflash 485_v10c.bin
REPLACE 485_v10c.bin with your bin file’s name. if you do not know the name type “dir” you will get a list of what is on your floppy and write down the name of the bin file (Or if the instructions from the manufacturer differ from what is in this guide use this only as a guideline).
Then you will be in the utility asking you to specify the bios upgrade file (the .bin file) in my case it was already Identified with the second part in the Awdflash command “Awdflash 485_v10c.bin”
Figure 4
In my case following the instructions I press Y to save the BIOS afterwards you will be asked to create a backup name the backup something like “bios_backup” and keep following the instructions until you are finished upgrading.
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