NEVER USE WINFLASH TO FLASH YOUR BIOS

$h@d0w · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:13

A warning to everyone - never ever attempt to flash your BIOS in Windows.

I went for it because I couldn't be bothered getting a floppy out of the cupboard and got a blue screen at 74%.

Sod's law something like that would happen.

Pilky01 · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:14

I have never used winflash. I can flash with a memory stick.

Dano · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:19

Used it plenty of times with no issues.

csmager · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:24

I've done the same thing using Asus's Windows utlity. Considering the board's meant to be incapable of being knackered due to having a backup bios that will read and flash off a disc at bootup, it's now in the bin. Won't be doing that again in a hurry.

Menta · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:33

I've never had a problem flashing my bios in windows either. If you have any problems like that blue screen for example, just reset your bios. You have both pin and battery to reset with.

The Halk · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:44

Menta said:
I've never had a problem flashing my bios in windows either. If you have any problems like that blue screen for example, just reset your bios. You have both pin and battery to reset with.

That doesn't reset the BIOS. It resets the SETTINGS of the BIOS.

The Halk · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:44

csmager said:
I've done the same thing using Asus's Windows utlity. Considering the board's meant to be incapable of being knackered due to having a backup bios that will read and flash off a disc at bootup, it's now in the bin. Won't be doing that again in a hurry.

Is that the Crashfree BIOS thing that came with the board that I got through the post today?

I had high hopes it was worth it. The idea is if all goes wrong you stick a CD or a floppy in (the notes on the latest BIOS updates indicate a flash drive might work too) and it'll reflash from the disk.

reflux · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:46

Flashing in Windows is a bad idea. You shouldn't leave something so low-level to Windows to do (and f'up).

OP, what board do you have? Some of them can auto-repair a corrupted BIOS, or you could replace the BIOS chip yourself....there are some places on the internet that sell them.

Defcon5 · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:52

Dano said:
Used it plenty of times with no issues.

slowrunner · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:53

I've only ever flashed a bios once, used a 1GB usb stick with the Gigabyte q-flash and it all went smoothly.

$h@d0w · 15 Dec 2008 at 17:53

Luckily my Shuttle has a recovery routine that searches for an A: floppy drive, so I did manage to fix it by plugging one in (not USB). It booted DOS and I was able to flash the proper way.

J.B · 15 Dec 2008 at 18:45

Well yeah...its the BIOS flashing utility of a mad man!

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Nothing as low level as a BIOS update should be done in something as high level and a modern OS!

We really need a sticky, not that anyone would read it.

csmager · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:07

Menta said:
I've never had a problem flashing my bios in windows either. If you have any problems like that blue screen for example, just reset your bios. You have both pin and battery to reset with.

As said, that won't help if you have no bios to reset after a failed flash.

The Halk said:
Is that the Crashfree BIOS thing that came with the board that I got through the post today?

I had high hopes it was worth it. The idea is if all goes wrong you stick a CD or a floppy in (the notes on the latest BIOS updates indicate a flash drive might work too) and it'll reflash from the disk.

It may work, but the PC was needed back asap, so I didn't have time to mess about. I burnt the bios to disc and booted it - nothing happened. I had a spare board, so I swapped it. The dead one's still in a cupboard.

Dano · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:24

J.B said:
Well yeah...its the BIOS flashing utility of a mad man!

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Nothing as low level as a BIOS update should be done in something as high level and a modern OS!

We really need a sticky, not that anyone would read it.

If your OS is that unstable you have bigger issues.

Energize · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:49

Always do things at the lowest possible level, eliminate any possible causes of problems, eg the os. I would never flash in windows, you never know when it's going to bsod due to bad programming.

EsaT · 15 Dec 2008 at 20:09

$h@d0w said:
I went for it because I couldn't be bothered getting a floppy out of the cupboard

IIRC most motherboards have today BIOS flashing utility built into BIOS:
You just save new BIOS file to say USB memory, go to BIOS and then update so there's no excuse for not doing that instead of putting god knows how many layers of buggy software between flashing utility and hardware and then hoping there aren't any critical bugs in those software layers.

ShakenNstirred · 15 Dec 2008 at 22:46

$h@d0w said:
A warning to everyone - never ever attempt to flash your BIOS in Windows.

I went for it because I couldn't be bothered getting a floppy out of the cupboard and got a blue screen at 74%.

Sod's law something like that would happen.

was it overclocked etc?

have updated the bios on my HP laptop about 6 times
in winXP and now vista 64 bit without probs
you don't get an option to do it another way

misterPK · 16 Dec 2008 at 09:29

The other top tip is not to use old and worn out floppy discs either, scared me a lot when it just froze, luckily there was no damage and I was more sucessful with a different disc!

PK!

Von Luck · 16 Dec 2008 at 09:35

z0mbi3 · 16 Dec 2008 at 09:43

Dano said:
If your OS is that unstable you have bigger issues.

It's common knowledge and sense not to flash from Windows. People like the OP make the mistake and post about it so that other people don't have to make the same costly mistake. If you'd rather ignore the OP's advice and make the mistake for yourself then that's fine, just don't go confusing the issue for others by blaming the stability of the OP's OS.