When is the best time to flash the bios?

[PRS4LIFE]

before a clean install of xp, after a clean install of xp. or when xp has been installed for a while and theres a bunch crap on the computer? [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[da BaSsTaRd!]

doesn't matter. but you probably wouldn't need to flash unless you upgrade your cpu and the mobo doesn't recognize it

[Captain_Pants]

yeah, usually the best time to flash the bios is never, cause you can REALLY mess things up if you do it wrong, so be careful if you do indeed choose to do this. I did mine only because there was a definite need for a performance boost. But, it was the first time in 10 years of comptuers Ive needed to do this.

=-Ben

[QuikDraw]

I agree completely with the above posts.

Additionally, if you choose to flash the BIOS:

1) NEVER erase the current bios until you have saved it to disk! Sometimes the new BIOS is corrupted. If you've saved the original working BIOS to disk at least you can get back to where you were before.

2) NEVER flash the BIOS unless you are connected to an uninterruptable power supply (UPS). If you loose power between the time that you erase the BIOS and the new BIOS is fully written you will loose the ability to boot the PC at all. A properly functioning UPS will have enough power to allow you to complete the flash in case of a power failure.

Of course, if you don't mind the downtime of waiting for a new BIOS chip to arrive in the mail, and the cost (usually about $25) of replacing it, you can ignore the above two rules.

Mike

[Phil O'Keefe]

I've found that the best time to flash the BIOS is around 3 AM, but that's just me. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Seriously, your OS should not have any bearing on it at all - BIOS is "lower level" than the operating system. I'd agree with the UPS recommendations - DON'T do it durring a thunderstorm or any time you might experience a power outage. And only do it if you've been having problems with something on your system that is supposedly addressed / fixed by the new BIOS version. And keep the OLD BIOS, just in case it works better than the new one.

[vocalvoodoo]

Additionally, if you have a newer ASUS mobo. It's auto update program downloads and updates the BIOS while Windows is running. No floppy, no problems. Pretty slick operation. I guess other mobo companies probably have this capability.

[Captain_Pants]

and finally, sometimes if you do screw up, a lot of new boards have a BIOS reset jumper that will reset your bios to the last installed version.

=-CP.

[Kiwi Bruce]

But be afraid be very afraid. I have just upgraded without checking the warnings on previous upgrades and now have a lot of downtime as my BIOS get rewritten for me. Neat trick eh. Never assume that you know what the puhtooty you are doing. (Unless you really do in which case ignore me completly) [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[Chris Cavell]

gigabyte has a tool to update the bios as you wish, no running in background screwing you up. Finds it from the web and does it for you.

[Scoobster]

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Bios upgrade stuffups are the hardest to come back from.