Bios cpu mobo compatability

[originalmcblood]

Hello,
I have been trailing the web for 2 days solid; spoken to packard bell support and Asus but still I do not have an answer! Help me obiwan you are my only hope.

Unit: ISTART 1360
Mobo: Boston (Asus M2NS-NVM) Bios: Boston BIOS Update 0203 WinXP 29-01-2007
O.S: XP home

Question: Will this Bios support AMD Athlon 64x2 6000+ CPU?

On the packard bell website bios update 206 (for Vista therefore not compatible with my OS) would seem to indicate that it will support this processor but did not recognise the chip, prior to this upgrade.
so 2 questions :
1) as above Will this Bios support AMD Athlon 64x2 6000+ CPU?
2) if not can I flash my bios with the 206 update even though it is not designed for my OS?

just to pre-empt any other advice about speeding up my system I have already maxed the ram and added a top endish GPU and increased the wattage of the PSU to accomodate all the other bits I have added. upgrading the CPU is the final step for prolonging the life of this PC.

Thanks in advance. Any info would be greatley appreciated and save any hair I have not already torn out.

 

[dunklegend]

Isn't the BIOS operating system independent?

 

[originalmcblood]

This is conjecture so no one take this as reliable information please; but I thought that Bios should be and was OS independant because it is there to control attached hardware. It does however communicate with the OS suppllying info about the hardware.

The thing that makes me query the OS independance of a BIOS update is the fact that the OS is often specified with a BIOS update.

I just do not want to take a chance of flashing the BIOS and rendering the PC essentially useless beyond my ability to repair.

If I do not upgrade the CPU this computers days are numbered and I do not want to put it out to pasture just yet.

 

[evongugg]

The Vista bios update contains information that Vista reads in order to determine it is licensed.
It should not affect another operating system to my knowledge.

 

[originalmcblood]

thanks i'll try it but back up the bios config i have now just incase.