Upgrading BIOS

[Boo Radley]

Some time ago, I added a 256MB stick of RAM to my Aopen AX63 m/board. Unfortunately the m/board only sees it as 128MB, regardless of slot.

It now appears (I overlooked it at the time) that the next BIOS up from mine may address this problem. My current BIOS is R1.23 (dated 15/2/2000).

R1.24 (released 18/4/2000) fixes the following: (from here (http://english.aopen.com.tw/tech/download/mbbios/ax63.htm)

Fixes incorrect size detection of some SDRAM at DIMM slot #3 (eg. Apacer 128MB single side, chip: WINBOND )
Changes ACPI vversion from 1.00 to 1.00B to install Win98 SE and Win2000 in ACPI mode by default.
Updates CPU microcodes.
Supports ZIP 250 devices.
Supports Wake_On_Mouse for 4 frame PS2 mouse

The 256MB stick is in DIMM 3 on my machine. The remaining 2 DIMMs contain 2 x64Mb.

CPU is a Celeron 500, 10GB HDD.. This (http://english.aopen.com.tw/products/mb/ax63.htm) is the m/board

After doing some reading, is this the way in which to 'flash' the BIOS?

1. D/l the correct file (have done).
2. Create a bootable floppy and remove autoexec.bat & config.sys, replacing them with the 2 files .bin & .exe in the d/load.
3. Note down any existing changes to BIOS
4. Reboot with floppy & install BIOS
5. Switch PC off & on again.
6. Enter BIOS & reset default.

Have I missed anything?



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Zed's dead baby. Zed's dead!

[mjc]

Looks about right...just make sure that you have a good clean power source, probably a good idea would be to use an uniterruptable power supply.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Boo Radley]

Just to report back that all went well with the BIOS flash, and I now have my system recognising 384Mb RAM.

But sheesh... if the BIOS flash process wasn't the most nerve racking and hairiest 2 minutes of my 18 months using PCs, I'll eat my hat.... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Cheers



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Zed's dead baby. Zed's dead!

[mjc]

Pssssst....so was may first one http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif (and my last one, I forgot to reload the defaults and nothing wanted to work!)

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[BigBlue66]

Hey,

Been there and done that already. My kid wanted to flash his BIOS, so I drove up there to lend a hand, 'cause he had never done it before. I asked him if he was double-damn sure he had the right BIOS for his motherboard. He assured me he did.

Guess what? He didn't. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif The feeling you get when that computer won't boot after a BIOS flash, is just about the worst feeling in the world.

All was not lost however. I just happened to have a spare motherboard and processor that I wasn't using. Whew!

Cheers,

Big Blue 66

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Life = Karma, or is it, Karma = Life?