How to update 2nd BIOS chip on P5Q Deluxe

IAmATeaf · 16 Nov 2009 at 20:49

PC threw a wobbly today and refused to post, so after removing everything and still no go decided to swap over the BIOS chips, the PC then booted.

So I'm now running off the 2nd BIOS chip but how do I check and update the BIOS chip that's now in the 2nd socket?

I thought that EZ Flash would let me do this but it only offer me the option to update the current running BIOS.

What I'd like to do is flash the now 2nd chip to 0803 and then put 1406 on the now running chip.

IAmATeaf · 17 Nov 2009 at 09:21

Blimey, seems like you can't do anything with the 2nd BIOS chip unless you move it into the first socket as googling around there are no suggestions at all on what can be done.

I've posted on the Asus forums so will await their answer.

focus130 · 17 Nov 2009 at 10:02

The only thing I can offer is that my Gigabyte updated the 2nd BIOS when it got a number of releases behind the current BIOS version.

IAmATeaf · 17 Nov 2009 at 13:57

focus130 said:
The only thing I can offer is that my Gigabyte updated the 2nd BIOS when it got a number of releases behind the current BIOS version.

Yes, when I used to have a Gigabyte P965-DS3P, the onboard BIOS flashing util allowed you to write the BIOS file to the main and backup which is why I'm surprised that Asus doesn't offer the same.

focus130 · 17 Nov 2009 at 14:01

What I meant was mine did it automatically after a reboot when I had just flashed the latest BIOS. I got a message about writing new BIOS to backup or something similar, the other times I had flashed the BIOS that didn't happen.

IAmATeaf · 17 Nov 2009 at 21:33

Well it looks like doing a hot flash is the only way but I've discovered what actually caused the problem.

Yesterday after all the faffing around I got the PC to boot but today same problem as yesterday, power comes on and the mobo won't post. I also noticed that the lights on the 2 switches on the mobo would continuously flash when it wouldn't post. I had an old PS/2 keyboard which look very old so on Sunday I swapped it out for exactly the same make and model but new PS/2 keyboard.

With the new keyboard plugged in the 2 lights on the buttons on the mobo would repeatedly flash and the PC wouldn't boot. Plug the old keyboard in an all is fine.

So I opened up both keyboards and noticed that the keyboard controllers were different so I swapped over the controller from the old together with the old cable and now the PC boots up fine.

It seems that the Asus mobo does a post keyboard check as the lights on the keyboard flash when you hit the power button, with the new keyboard before I butchered it the lights wouldn't flash.

Reason for the ramblings is that hopefully my findings may help others.