Windows cannot open BIOS update file

newnerd

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Hello all:

I built a new PC with an Intel G965WH motherboard and after installing Windows Ultimate 64 bit on two 500 GB hard drives in RAID 0 everything was running great. All the programs I loaded worked fine and the pc booted up much faster than my 32 Bit Vista pc. The problem is, I wanted to change the processor to a Q6600 quad-core cpu and that required a bios version 1699 or higher. Well...........I downloaded the latest Intel bios for my board and after turning off AVG anti-virus, Window Defender, Windows Firewall and any other running programs I started the bios update and it flashed the update and ended with a message not to turn off or power down the pc for the next 3 minutes and the screen went black as it usually does for a bios flash. After that the pc never re-started and I only get a black screen when I turn it on. At this point I thot I would use a recovery bios and re-flash the board with that. Big problem! I downloaded several bios recovery bios on two different machines and when I click to install them to floppy or cd a message pops up saying Windows cannot open this file.....please choose what software to use to open the file. This is on an XP pc and on a Vista Home Premium pc. I have made recovery disks before flashing my pcs several times and never this message. What the heck is going on? Did Window update install something causing this or is it a problem with Intel's downloads? I doubt it's Intel because I tried the most recent and 4 other versions of bios recovery and they all display the same message? I'm lost now......I have a great new pc that worked fine until the bios update and now it's useless? Anyone have a suggest on how to re-flash the bios when they won't even open on my pcs to make a floppy or cd? I looked into making an ISO cd but my social security will run out before I am smart enought to make a bootable ISO cd. Help LOL
 
Well first off there are several ways to get a bios....

Sometimes its an
EXE file - Windows runs this and extracts the file to a floppy disc
ZIP or RAR file - you extract it your self and place it on a CD or floppy
BIN file - Windows does not know how to open this file(unless you have certain software installed). With a .bin file all you do is copy that file to a floppy disk(or CD)
There are other extensions ass well(F1,F2,F3,F4 ect for gigabyte, Intel has there own name system). Windows does not open bios files. Only software to flash them does.

So lets get this right....you flashed in windows and now it does not work anymore? how are you going to recover? bios on disk and cross your fingers when it boots? That works on some boards but not all....always worth a shot....

for future reference always flash from DOS(get ultimate boot CD if you need it[full of good stuff]....freeDOS works too). Put the bios and the flasher on the a floppy and flash it with the command flasher bios.bin (replace flasher with whatever they give you. and bios.bin with the name of your bios.)

EDIT

Well according to intel your best bet is to get the bios file ending in a .BIO place it on a floppy or CD(burn it as a closed session to be safe....so NO multi session). Now place the CD or floppy in the drive and power up and wait for a while. if you are lucky the recovery will begin and the computer will flash and self reboot with the fixed bios. After this flash to the latest one with the ISO method.

ISO method

Open nero(hope you have this), cancel any messages. Click on the "Recorder" menu and then "Burn Image" then just hit Finalize CD(the checkbox that is). Now hit burn(i hope you placed a blank CD-r or CD-rw in by this time)

If not there is other software to burn ISO images too.....

Its late...i am off to bed.....fingers crossed
 

newnerd

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hello nukemaster:
I appreciate the time & effort you made to assist me. I will respond in line with your comments:

"EDIT

Well according to intel your best bet is to get the bios file ending in a .BIO place it on a floppy or CD(burn it as a closed session to be safe....so NO multi session). Now place the CD or floppy in the drive and power up and wait for a while. if you are lucky the recovery will begin and the computer will flash and self reboot with the fixed bios. After this flash to the latest one with the ISO method."
I have downloaded the recovery bios and as I mentioned in the original post cannot place it on a floppy or cd. When you click on the download it is supposed to say: "insert floppy and click next" and then it copies the files to the floppy. My problem is that when you click on the download windows says it cannot open the file. Doesn't matter I guess.......I found a recovery floppy I had already made for the same model motherboard in another of my pcs and tried it and it didn't recover the bios anyway so I guess the problem of making a recovery floppy is moot.

"ISO method


Open nero(hope you have this), cancel any messages. Click on the "Recorder" menu and then "Burn Image" then just hit Finalize CD(the checkbox that is). Now hit burn(i hope you placed a blank CD-r or CD-rw in by this time)


If not there is other software to burn ISO images too....."

I don't have Nero anymore. I now have Roxio Easy Creator 9 instead.
There is a feature in it that says "make a bootable cd". The Intel instructions say: "Using software capable of uncompressing and writing an ISO image to a CD, burn the data to a blank
CD. Note: Copying the ISO image file to CD will not work; the completed CD should contain multiple
files and a directory." When I click make a bootable cd in Roxio it offers a choice of emulating an existing floppy or selecting the source image. Well......there I am stuck. The ISO file is a zipped file and when I unzip it there are several more zipped files and when I unzip them there are more zipped files and it all gets confusing. I would guess that somehow all this should be able to be done with a couple of clicks but don't know what I am doing LOL.

At this point I guess I'll wait til Monday and contact Intel support but I'm guessing they will just say send the motherboard back for replacement rather than paying a tech rep to help me update the m-board. I wouldn't mind that but the new board won't have the latest Bios allowing me to use a quadcore pc either and will need to be updated and here I go again with the same problem LOL!

Thanks again for your time and effort.

newnerd
 
For Roxio have a look here

http://kb.roxio.com/content/kb/Creator/EE7000012?set-locale=en

there is some info on burning a ISO file

you may also try this

http://www.imgburn.com/

supposed to burn iso files as well

Now onto the recovery

The files intel gives out(or at least what they give out now) are .BIO files. windows will never know how to open this file nor does it auto copy to a disk. This .BIO file is the recovery file. just copy it to a disk or burn it to a CD as is.....That is how it would for this file at least

biofilezx8.gif

as you see its not windows fault. its that fact that a .BIO file is not an application....nor is there any program that open it

biofilesendaa7.gif

try this and then go try to boot....

Last of can you please tell me what is on your other recovery disk? it should only have one file(the .BIO). if it has any file ending in .INF then its not a restore disk but instead its a driver disk(most likely a SATA/RAID disk, those are ones that do tell you to insert a disk)

Also is your board a

G965WH or a DG965WH?

Here is the bios page for the DG965WH

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&Inst=Yes&ProductID=2375&DwnldID=14656&strOSs=38&OSFullName=OS%20Independent&lang=eng

I do not see a G965WH anywhere....

EDIT

Step by step instructions from Intel

http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-023360.htm
 

newnerd

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hi again nukemaster:
Thanks a lot for all your time and effort. You're right, I left the D off my DG965WH motherboard name. Here are the files I downloaded to update my diabled 64 bit Vista Ultimate PC:

I used this first to update the bios from within Vista:
Express BIOS Update [MQ96510J.86A.1709.EB.EXE].........
.......this flashed the bios but resulted in a blackscreen afterward.

This is the file I had trouble putting on the floppy but did finally using your instructions to "send to floppy".
Recovery BIOS Update [MQ1709P.BIO]
However, it did not work for flashing the recovery bios. The floppy drive never did start up. Installed 2 other floppy drives in case the floppy drive was bad. Black screen.

This is the ISO file I want to burn to a cd so I can update the bios prior to the O.S. installation(if needed)on the replacement motherboard Intel will probably send me:
ISO Image BIOS Update [MQ1709P.ISO] -
I am concerned though, that using the ROXIO instructions you located won't do what Intel asks for, I.E.:
"Using software >capable of UNCOMPRESSING and writing an ISO image to CD<, burn the data
to a blank CD. Note: Copying the ISO image file to CD will not work; the completed CD
should contain multiple files and a directory."

I'm going to try your ROXIO suggestion to make an ISO cd now and see if it works. I can't screw up the motherboard anymore than I already have I guess!

Thanks again!
 

newnerd

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ISO cd I made in ROXIO didn't boot the pc up. Don't know if I made the CD wrong or if the bios is just too messed up already. Thanks again. Guess I'll wait and see if Intel will be any help or replace the board and I'll just give up on updating the bios for a quad-core.
 
OK....

the bios recovery is just a shot in the dark anyway. There was a 50% chance that it would not work anyway, but it was worth a shot...

The problem with flashing the bios is that your bios is what starts the machine and tells it what it is. Now when you flash it, you erase this and try to put a new one on. If anything goes wrong you get this. That is the reason most vender's recommend flashing from a disk or CD in dos. There is less chance of something going wrong that way. Asus and gigabyte now have the ability to flash the bios from an application built into the computer itself(and accessed from the bios). This offers the safest way yet. Also NEVER flash during a thunder storm(unless you have a ups) as a power out will kill your bios update

Intel should give you an RMA number so you can send the board back and get a new(or they will replace the bios chip[if the boards chip is socketed]...maybe even a refurb..its hard to say) one. Or the place of purchase may be faster if they offer a long enough warranty

Don't toss that CD just yet, it may well be burned right. The CD was not for recovery but to flash the bios on a working board(Its an update CD). ROXIO does know how to uncompress the image file. so the chances are good that when you get a new board if it has an older bios you will be able to use the CD to flash it.

EDIT
--------
I took a look at the ISO file and there is no reason it can not be used for recovery(but as said above, the bios is too messed for recovery or at least it seems that way)

If you want to see if the cd burned right, check the cd on another machine
inteloembioswq7.gif

ioslinux [folder] - This contains a copy of FREEDOS and allows the other files to be used
iflash.exe - This is the Intel flash utility
mq1709p.bio - The bios file itself
autorun.bat - a dos(works in freedos) file(batch file) telling the computer to flash the bios with the command
"iflash mq1709p.bio" (remember when i said earlier flasher bios.bin...yeah thats it :) )
 

newnerd

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I'm amazed at the extent of your knowledge and also jealous! Your last post explains very well what the ISO cd should contain. I should be able to check it and see if it's set up right to update the bios on the next board so I can finally go to a quad-core cpu. I originally planned on getting the P35 series intel board but I felt that there would be a lot of bugs requiring frequent bios updates as is usual on a new platform..........and as you see, bios updates aren't my favorite activity. I shouldn't have believed they could be as simple as they said "use the express update to update the bios from within your operating system". HA! In the end I guess my problems are mostly my fault because Intel often says "we don't recommend updating yours bios unless absolutely necessary". On the other hand, the DG965WH board I just bought came with a yellow sheet of paper and the first thing that it said was: "Intel recommends that you download and keep your system updated with to the latest drivers and BIOS revisions", Then it directs you to the bios download site where it recommends using the Express bios update that I used! I would complain to Intel about their update system but they would just say "didn't you see the warning "intended for use by trained technicians" LOL! Thanks for all your help........pretty soon I will be a trained technician with experience in how not to do anything.
 

newnerd

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Another quick question if you're still watching this thread. I checked the ISO cd I made and it contains the same files as your illustration above. My question is........as soon as I re-install the replacement motherboard should I or could I use the ISO cd to update to the latest bios before re-connecting the 2 RAID0 hard drives? Obviously, I don't want to update from within Vista again and wasn't sure when to update the bios. I won't be ordering the quad-core cpu until my next soc.sec. check and am unsure if just putting in the quad-core chip to replace the Pentium D would require re-installing the O.S. or if the new bios would automatically configure the system to use a different processor. The reason I thot about installing the ISO bios update without the hard drives connected is because there is a known problem with Intel's RAID driver (iastor?) and the final version of Vista which causes the pcs to experience a "iastor time-out" and I am concerned that after installing the ISO bios update with the o.s. drives connected that the pc will still have a problem booting up due to the "iastor time-out" problem and result in a black screen again. I have another Vista 32-bit pc and in the event log it shows 9 errors in the last week due to "iastor time-out". That pc has different brand hard drives (maxtor) drives which are known to have this problem. So..........can the ISO update be flashed successfully without the hard drives connected or connected without an o.s. installed as a safety measure to prevent the black screen after the flash is completed?
 

Zorg

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I just scanned this thread so forgive me if I missed something. You can update the BIOS anytime you want, with or without HDDs etc. Check the BIOS revision on the board, when you get it, and check the Intel website to determine if there is a later one. If so, then determine if there are any fixes/additional features that would be useful for what you are doing. If not don't update, if so be very very careful, like you haven't figured that out already. If you need a really good ISO burner try ISO Recorder v 2, It doesn't get any simpler. Install it and then right click on the ISO image and select "Copy image to CD". It works flawlessly.

As you already found out, never ever ever update through Windows or web based updates. Always use a floppy, thumb drive or CD.
 

newnerd

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Hello Zorg:
This is the second time I've messed up a motherboard bios using the express updates in windows. After the first ruined motherboard I should have known better than to try it again! However, I could not figure out how to make an ISO cd to install a bios update. Thanks to nukemaster's post above I think I have a properly set up ISO cd so I can update the bios on the replacement board I'm hoping Intel will send me. They should! I followed their instructions to a "T" and they didn't work LOL! At my age it's doubtful that I will need to flash the bios again. I'm hoping a quad-core pc will be able to do anything I need for the rest of my life LOL! Thanks for the tip about ISO Recorder v2. I have saved the site in my favorites list for future reference.

 
If your lucky the new board will come with a quad ready bios pre-flashed.

If not then yes the CD will work(so long as it has the files shown).

The only thing you will have to keep an eye out for is that you get a cpu with a FSB of 1066(266 x 4). The board was not designed for FSB 1333(333 x 4)

so a q6600 will work and a qx6850 may not work right as it will be overclocking the chipset. a general rule is that a XX50 chip runs at FSB 1333 and will not be officially supported by the board.

Many board makers have made bios updates for 965/975 boards to run 1333 but I personally tried(with a 975, another 1066 chipset from Intel) one and it was not 100% stable(much less so). So my recommendation is to stick with FSB 1066 for your quad upgrade.
 

newnerd

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hi nukemaster:
I went with the older DG965WH board for more stability even though the P35 series was the same price and could use the 1333 bus speed and possibly even utilize the upcoming 45 nanometer cpus. I had an early DG965 board and had to update the bios 11 times before it became stable and didn't want to go thru that with the new P35 board since I've had trouble with bios updates lately. I have my eye on a Q6600 with the GO stepping because I've heard it runs a little cooler than the early Q6600 cpus. I've been sticking with all Intel boards because they have good online tech support and have treated me right so far when I ran into trouble.....plus, all 5 pcs I've built have been Intel and I feel more comfortable working with stuff I'm familiar with. You know.......it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks LOL! I think I know why the bios update went wrong. All the previous boards I updated the bios on were not in RAID and the updates worked everytime. Both bios update failures were on boards with RAID O.S. I think the bios updates return the settings to default which is not RAID and thus the bios update can't complete? Thanks for the additional info.
 
I flashed in windows ONCE with raid and it went(thank god). I was just too lazy....raid does not effect the bios....The only thing you have to do is make sure your raid settings are back to what you use....I think it was just bad luck. maybe vista does not allow access to the bios and blocked it after it was erased.... could be anything....

As for the Q6600 G0, its a perfect fit for the board.
 

newnerd

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Well, I heard back from Intel today. They told me that this board does not support bios recovery updates with a floppy! He told me to "copy the same recovery file to a cd flash the bios using that." So, I pulled the battery for an hour to clear the CMOS just in case, then put it back and removed the bios jumper pin and put in the cd and re-booted the pc. Just like before nothing happened.....the lights on the floppy and cd drive blinked a couple times and then nothing happened. Seems like I'm spinning my wheels lol. Does just copying the recovery files to a cd make it bootable? Or does the bios recovery automatically just flash itself? When I try to "explore" the recovery cd all it shows is an icon saying "1709P". It's a good thing I only own 100 shares of Intel or I would be all over them for shipping a version of the board that supports a quad-core pcu without the bios to enable it LOL!
 
Nice of them to say on there website that the board can recover from a Floppy OR CD...
recoverkh5.gif


Just burn the MQ1709P.BIO file to CD by itself with nothing else. Thats how they say to do the recovery.....if that does not work(i am beginning to have my doubts that there is enough bios left for a recovery to work.) they should send you a new board. its there software the messed up in the first place.
 

newnerd

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Surprise Surprise.......the recovery file copied and pasted to the cd didn't do a thing either. Why am I not surprised. I've e-mailed Intel back with the bad news and asked if they have any further advice. I imagine they will tell me to send the board back. Last time this happened, they told me to send it back after one e-mail about the same problem. That tech probably knew I'd toasted the bios already. I asked if they had a recovery cd and ISO update cd available so I could use them if I needed to update any other motherboard, but I imagine they will say they don't offer that service. If they don't send a board with updated bios that accomodate a quad-core or a cd to update the bios without this kind of headache, I'll just give up on a quad-core and buy an E6700 dual core which is faster for most things anyway and about the same price.
 
Well do not fear the bios update. You are right, unless an app is designed for quad(or even dual for that matter) core, the e6700 will be faster(slightly), but I thought it was still more(cost) then the Q6600?

I have flashed many times. at least 5 times per board. flashed several times on my DVD drives. Flashed my video cards too....just always in DOS(with the exception to that one time in windows)
 

Zorg

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In my opinion you should use that mobo as a frisbee, and get a Gigabyte P35. They have a thing called Q-flash that uses just the file on a floppy or CD. I have never had a problem with it and I have done 2 updades to 3 boards. I did use a floppy except one time I read it off a second drive that had a partition that was formatted as FAT32. The P35 also gives a "free" OC to 3G/1333Mhz FSB.

Of course, If they will fix it for free then go the cheap way.

Well, at least keep that in mind if that Intel board gives you any more lip.

You might try setting up the floppy boot disk. There is a chance that the CD portion of the BIOS is damaged but the floppy still works. It also rules out any confusion about whether you have the CD burned properly.

 
This thread is why I keep my old Sony floppy drive: I *always* do Bios flashing from a bootable disc and good old fashioned C prompt. Some new boards do allow boot/updates from a flash drive, tho... So nice.


If you're going to flash from CD - Know that you have to burn the new bios to the CD as a program. Simply copying files doesn't work. So if you just copied, then you should try again.

S
 

olmecoid

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I think if you check www.biosman.com you can get a solution for about $30. If you can take out the bios chip, you can send it to them to reprogram it or buy a new one. For now you have a bios chip with nothing programed on it, and thus, your machine will be unable to do anything since you can not acces to any peripheral, floppy, cd or else.
Never, never attempt to falsh your bios from windows, the proper way is using a floppy system disk with the flash utility and the proper bios file on it or these files in a cd rom. I recommend to go to bootdisk.com there you can get an exe file to create a perfect bootable floppy for free!!!. download the win 98/se exe, follow the instructions and you con boot with cd rom support. You wont be able to see your ntfs partitions, but you can acces to the flash utility and the bios file from the cd.

Saludos

Olmecoid
 

Zorg

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That of course assumes he has a removable EEPROM. I'll stick to my advice to use the old mobo as a frisbee and get a P35.
 

Zorg

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I just built two Q6600/P35 systems from the ground up. They both had floppy drives, and it was nonnegotiable.
 

newnerd

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Hi all:
Thanks for the input. Zorg....what would a 70 y.o. do with a Frisbee LOL! Instead, Intel is replacing the motherboard and my only cost is about $8-$10 UPS. Without question, it would have been better if flashing the bios from within Windows would have worked in the first place, but at least they are standing behind their board. Surprisingly, their last e-mail tells me that if I need to update the bios on my other two pc's with the same motherboard to use the same express bios update from within windows. I may not be the sharpest tack in the box, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I ever flash a bios from within Windows after 2 consecutive failed motherboards doing it LOL!
 

Zorg

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70 is not to old to fly a frisbee, and there's nothing like whipping an aggravating piece of hardware into the air. :bounce:
Happy to hear that they are standing behind a fouled update. I don't know whether that is normal or extraordinary, but I like it.
You are not the first to have a bad update in Windows and you certainly won't be the last. To be honest the floppy update always makes me a little paranoid as well. Floppies aren't really known for their reliability, but it's better than Windows. One thing to be sure you do before you start, is to run a full format on the same drive as the update drive before loading the data onto the disk from that drive. Use the same drive all the way through the process.

Good luck