Motherboard BIOS flashing?

Siyico · May 23, 2017

Hi guys,

I'm having a problem with a motherboard I purchased for an arcade build.

It struggles to install windows 7 and the only time I got it to install, upon first boot it looked like it corrupted.
Apparently there is a known problem which requires the bios to be updated...

The only problem is the only thing I can find in the BIOS settings is to update it with a floppy.

I've looked around the internet and it says that you can use Biostar Utility Flasher which I cannot find at all, and a USB.

It's supposed to appear at post by pressing 'F12' yet these are the only settings I can find:

F1 - Continue with the boot
F8 - Configure you rboot
F9 - Boot Device after POST
del - BIOS Settings

It's becoming increasingly frustrating and I am totally out of ideas.

If anyone could provide some help in laymans terms that would be very appreciated.

Seanie280672 · May 23, 2017

Siyico :

Which motherboard ? model number please.

Put the bios file on a USB stick, USB stick musty be FAT32, not NTFS, enter the bios itself and then press F12 see if that launches a flashing app, if not get back to me and i'll tell you another way to do it.

Siyico · May 23, 2017

Seanie280672 :

Siyico :

Which motherboard ? model number please.

Put the bios file on a USB stick, USB stick musty be FAT32, not NTFS, enter the bios itself and then press F12 see if that launches a flashing app, if not get back to me and i'll tell you another way to do it.

Hi mate, ive tried your suggestion and nothing happens. Managed to boot into freedos from USB but it seems to fail after ive gone to dir. problems with reading C:\

Mobo is mcp6pb m2+

Seanie280672 · May 23, 2017

Siyico :

Seanie280672 :

Hi mate, ive tried your suggestion and nothing happens. Managed to boot into freedos from USB but it seems to fail after ive gone to dir. problems with reading C:\

Mobo is mcp6pb m2+

Your USB stick wont be C:\, it will be something like A: so you'll need to cd to that drive.

Ive just been looking at the manual for your board, I see what you mean, it gives you 2 options, 1 to update the bios in Windows which I wouldnt recommend, or 2 to press F12 during post, not very helpful, they dont offer any dos based flashing utilities.

Is your bios Award or AMI ?

Siyico · May 23, 2017

Seanie280672 :

Siyico :

Your USB stick wont be C:\, it will be something like A: so you'll need to cd to that drive.

Ive just been looking at the manual for your board, I see what you mean, it gives you 2 options, 1 to update the bios in Windows which I wouldnt recommend, or 2 to press F12 during post, not very helpful, they dont offer any dos based flashing utilities.

Is your bios Award or AMI ?

I believe it's Award. And yeah it's very annoying, I was following this as a tutorial but changed the floppy part for USB - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVT_nj2JHAU

The error I received when I got to the directory was 'File allocation table bad'

Siyico · May 24, 2017

Would it be easier to do from a CD? what would I need to put on it if so?

Seanie280672 · May 24, 2017

I'm just wondering if it's possible if you download the award flash exe and your bios file, make your USB bootable using rufus, then boot to dos and flash with a command.

As it's not mentioned in any documentation for your board though, I don't know if it would work or even mess your board up.

Siyico · May 24, 2017

Seanie280672 :

This is what I attempted to do but was giving me errors such as ''File allocation table bad'' and not being able to find items on C:\

Siyico · May 24, 2017

Seanie280672 :

Shall I try it from a CD? also do I have to use a specific version of award flasher, and any ideas where I can find what code I have to enter in when it loads up?

(This would be so much easier if I could just do it from the OS haha)

Thanks a lot

Seanie280672 · May 24, 2017

Siyico :

You possibly can to be honest, I wouldnt normally recommend flashing from windows, but I guess if you just download and install Windows 8.1 as a trial, and then flash the bios before installing anything, it may be ok.

The instructions showed a way of doing it from inside windows.

Siyico · May 24, 2017

Seanie280672 :

Siyico :

You possibly can to be honest, I wouldnt normally recommend flashing from windows, but I guess if you just download and install Windows 8.1 as a trial, and then flash the bios before installing anything, it may be ok.

The instructions showed a way of doing it from inside windows.

I actually didn't think of that at all, I could boot into a trial version from a disk and then flash the bios from inside an OS?

hmmm

Seanie280672 · May 24, 2017

Siyico :

Seanie280672 :

I actually didn't think of that at all, I could boot into a trial version from a disk and then flash the bios from inside an OS?

hmmm

Yup, worth a shot, you can get all OS's from the microsoft site and install any of them on a fully functional 30 day trial, you only need it for 5 mins.

Siyico · May 24, 2017

Seanie280672 :

Siyico :

Yup, worth a shot, you can get all OS's from the microsoft site and install any of them on a fully functional 30 day trial, you only need it for 5 mins.

Does 8.1 boot from disc like unbuntu does? I can't install a copy of windows to the HDD because it just errors due to not having the bios upgrade. If I can't do it from a windows disk could I do it from unbuntu?

Thanks for all your help btw.

Seanie280672 · May 24, 2017

Siyico :

Seanie280672 :

Does 8.1 boot from disc like unbuntu does? I can't install a copy of windows to the HDD because it just errors due to not having the bios upgrade. If I can't do it from a windows disk could I do it from unbuntu?

Thanks for all your help btw.

http://teslatechnologies.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/boot-windows-without-hard-disk-windows.html

Siyico · May 25, 2017

Seanie280672 :

Siyico :

Seanie280672 :

Does 8.1 boot from disc like unbuntu does? I can't install a copy of windows to the HDD because it just errors due to not having the bios upgrade. If I can't do it from a windows disk could I do it from unbuntu?

Thanks for all your help btw.

http://teslatechnologies.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/boot-windows-without-hard-disk-windows.html

Attempted but having problems again. I shall try it again though, Can you flash BIOS from Ubuntu? if all else fails the seller has offered to send me a floppy drive and a floppy with the software on.

Seanie280672 · May 25, 2017

One thing I don't quite understand is why you are struggling so much to get any version of windows on it? The bios wouldn't really have that effect. Maybe on Windows 8 or 10.due to the uefi and partition layouts, but not windows 7 etc.

Siyico · May 25, 2017

Seanie280672 :

Apparently it's a common problem, the BIOS update is for fixing this weird boot problem it has. I've tried installing Windows 7/ 8 and XP on different hard drives both SATA and IDE.

I get right to the end of the installation of win7, when it reboots and loads for the first time it throws up an error which is essentially 'Cannot complete installation. Please restart installation.' and you can't get past it, even with a reboot.

Seanie280672 · May 25, 2017

Siyico :

Seanie280672 :

Apparently it's a common problem, the BIOS update is for fixing this weird boot problem it has. I've tried installing Windows 7/ 8 and XP on different hard drives both SATA and IDE.

I get right to the end of the installation of win7, when it reboots and loads for the first time it throws up an error which is essentially 'Cannot complete installation. Please restart installation.' and you can't get past it, even with a reboot.

I dont think that tool will work in ubuntu, as its a windows based tool, but you can try it.

Siyico · May 25, 2017

Seanie280672 :

Siyico :

I dont think that tool will work in ubuntu, as its a windows based tool, but you can try it.

I'm thinking my only option is to do it from floppy at the moment. This has been a royal ball ache lol.

Motherboard BIOS flashing?

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