When your motherboard needs to be upgraded with new features or to fix some compatibility
problems of the BIOS, you will need to use this BIOS flash utility. This utility is
provided by Award Software, and it's easy to flash by yourself. But you have to read all
the information within this section before flashing. Before you can flash the BIOS you
need to first go into the pure DOS environment by rebooting your system and going directly
into DOS. Do not forget to read the relative readme file for correct operation. You can
verify the new BIOS by looking at the bottom left of the screen as the memory is being
counted. The very last two digits after the hyphen are the BIOS identifier and correspond
to the last two digits of the BIOS file prior to the .BIN extension. Please make sure that
your machine boots normally before flashing the BIOS. Otherwise conflicts could cause
flash upgrade failure.
If you have any questions beyond the readme file, please contact our Field Application
Engineer (FAE) Dept. at Techsupport
Read Me :
How do I update the Award BIOS?
- In order to flash update the BIOS, you will need 2 files:
1) the BIOS binary file,
2) the AWDFLASH.EXE utility file.
- Create a directory or folder in the C drive: and name it
BIOS
- Download the BIOS file you need i.e. BH6GY.EXE, and download
the AWDFLASH.EXE into the new BIOS directory. (the latest revision always covers the
updates from previous revisions so you don't need to "step-upgrade!")
- Execute the BIOS file, then it will automatically
self-decompress into a binary file, i.e. BH6_GY.BIN. You can execute the file by double
clicking it inside Windows Explorer, or run it under DOS.
- Take a piece of paper and write down AWDFLASH.EXE and the
name of the BIOS binary file.
- Shut down your computer properly, then turn it off.
- Restart the computer, press down Ctrl + F5, just before
Windows booting up, for a clean boot, you will get the message "Windows is bypassing
all your startup files" and you end up at the DOS prompt. (Please be aware !
Flashing can not be completed under a Windows95/98 or Windows NT environment, you must be
in a pure DOS environment) When executing AWDFLASH.EXE, do not run HIMEM.SYS and
EMM386.EXE in the CONFIG.SYS. You can check to see if you are running any memory
management programs by typing MEM /c or MEM /d under the command line.
- Type in "cd BIOS" to go into your newly created
directory.
- Type AWDFLASH newbios.bin /py /cc /sn /cd,
where newbios.bin is the file name for the BIOS binary file you want your BIOS to upgrade
to.
- For example, updating BH6 (bh6_gy.bin), you would type: AWDFLASH bh6_gy.bin /py /cc /sn /cd
- After the flash update is completed, reboot your system,
then go into the BIOS settings. Once you are in the BIOS settings, please:
1. Load the Setup Default (in addition to settings for HDD, FDD, and
Date.... please do not forget to also LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS)
2. Go into CPU Soft MenuTM
to adjust your CPU speed and voltage
3. Save and Exit.
- Please make sure that you are in an a DOS only mode with no
memory management programs running.
Note: You should check which .bin file is to be used
with your motherboard, don¡¦t
flash with the wrong .bin file. Otherwise, you may cause system malfunctions. Even the
same model¡¦s BIOS, according
its release date and according to which problems are fixed, can also have different .bin
names. Please read the BIOS file description before you download it.
Example 1: To update the BIOS and create a
backup of the current system BIOS execute this command:
AWDFLASH NEWBIOS /PY SAVEBIOS /SY
Example 2: To update the BIOS, create a
backup of current system BIOS, and clear the CMOS, execute this command:
AWDFLASH NEWBIOS SAVEBIOS /CC
Example 3: To update the BIOS and
clear PnP settings execute this command:
AWDFLASH NEWBIOS /SN /CP
Example 4: To make a backup of the current
system BIOS execute the following command:
AWDFLASH NEWBIOS /PN SAVEBIOS
Note:
"NEWBIOS" indicates the file name for the new BIOS which can be downloaded from
our web site at http://www.abit.com.tw (the user can
choose a different file name in place of NEWBIOS). ¡§SAVEBIOS¡¨ indicates
the filename of the old system BIOS (the user can choose a different file name in place of
SAVEBIOS).
Remarks:
1. When executing AWDFLASH.EXE, do not run
HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE in the CONFIG.SYS. You can check to see if you are running any
memory management programs by typing MEM /c or MEM /d under the command line.
2. Please take the following actions to solve problems caused by power
shortage or other non-preventable malfunctions during BIOS updating that lead to update
failure. First, it is strongly suggested that you format a disk that can boot your
computer before you update your BIOS. If the above mentioned problem occurs during BIOS
update you will be able to use this disk to automatically execute a BIOS updating. The
content of the disk should be the following:
(1) Startup system files (COMMAND.COM, MSDOS.SYS,
IO.SYS ...)
(2) AWDFLSH.EXE
(3) The NEWBIOS file which can be download from
ABIT web site.
(4) AUTOEXEC.BAT, which has the following content:
A:\AWDFLASH
NEWBIOS /PY /SN /CC /CD
For example, to update the BH6 BIOS version to GY
(BH6_GY.BIN), you need to type:
A:\AWDFLASH
BH6_GY.BIN /PY /SN /CC /CD
3. If you try to flash a version of BIOS that
is for the incorrect motherboard model the following message will appear:
"The
program file's part number does not match with your system!"
Explanation of parameter names:
/CC: Clears CMOS data
/CP: Clears PnP data
/CD: Clears DMI data
You may also directly download from these ftp-servers:
ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub
Mirror in Taiwan:
1. ftp://ftp.cis.nctu.edu.tw/Vendors/ABIT
Mirrors in Europe:
1. ftp://ftp.univ-lille1.fr/pub/abit/
2. ftp://ftp.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/pub/mirror/abit/
3. ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/general/devices/abit/
Mirror in Australia:
1. ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/abit
|
|
