BIOS Flash

foznikjj · #1 12-13-2005, 09:42 PM

How do you flash a BIOS? I have an old computer that has Windows XP Professional on it and when I installed 512MB of memory, computer will not boot to operating system. I get a blue screen stating that BIOS is not ACPI compliant. It has a Phoenix BIOS and I have found a newer BIOS at HP for computer. The old puter had 64MB of ram, it was very slow, and after booting sometimes mouse cursor would not move, it might have to be booted 3 or 4 times to get it to work. I added 256MB for a total of 320MB and it worked better, but still had same problem but not as bad. When I removed the 64MB and installed the second module of 256MB for total of 512MB, I got the blue screen about non compliant BIOS. I removed the 2nd 256 module and re-installed the 64MB and it boots again, but still have the mouse cursor problem on some boots.

My next question is, If I flash the BIOS will my operating system have to be re-installed?

The computer is a HP Pavilion XE736, with a Trigem Congac motherboard, Intel 810 chipset, 10.5 MB harddrive. I have not been able to find very good information on Google about this motherboard.

Thanks for any advice, Foz

ANZAC_ELITE · #2 12-13-2005, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foznikjj

How do you flash a BIOS?

Usually by d/loading the bios file to a bootable floppy and flashing from there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by foznikjj

My next question is, If I flash the BIOS will my operating system have to be re-installed?

No the bios is strictly m/board interactive and has nothing to do with the operating system

As to your ram problem I'm guessing that your current bios- m/board does not recognise that amount of ram

foznikjj · #3 12-21-2005, 09:34 AM

Flashing BIOS, how will I know when it is done. I've done several things on computers that when it is finished it does not advise finished. Part of the instructions from HP on flashing are as follows:

At the A: prompt type biosupdt and enter, Once the installation is finished, remove the boot disk from A: drive and reboot.

Then it explains about entering BIOS setup to reset to defaults.

Thanks Foz

ANZAC_ELITE · #4 12-21-2005, 02:08 PM

Once the flash is completed there should be a bios flash completed type message or the cursor will just sit there flashing.

foznikjj · #5 12-21-2005, 05:03 PM

I tried to flash BIOS, floppy booted computer to the A: but after typing prompt biosupdt as instructed at this HP link:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...reitem=pv161en
I got message, invalid command?
Removed floppy and rebooted with old BIOS, all still ok. I was reading the readme that was in BIOS d/l and the command was BIOSupdt. Would the caps make a difference? Thanks Foz