How do I update SATA and RAID BIOS?

[Quve50]

Hi!

I have an old K8V-X motherboard with the VIA V8T800 chipset. South bridge is VIA VT8237 and RAID is VT6410. I want to upgrade with a special SATA BIOS file but afudos.exe does not accept the ROM-file and I cannot find any built in EZ flash utility. What do I do? Do I have to learn about the different sectios of AMI-bios ( Boot, Embedded Controllers etc)?

My Samsung Spinpoint 250 GB is recognized as an external disk on an USB adapter and it is jumpered for SATA 150.

Every discussion about this issue seem to omit the step where you update BIOS. They all focus on the drivers and how to get them into Windows.

Please help me or I will probably screw up my BIOS in attempts to use the drive internally as a SATA drive.

 

[GhislainG]

A hard disk connected via USB is an external device. It doesn't matter if you change the BIOS, it will always be an external disk.

 

[Quve50]

A hard disk connected via USB is an external device. It doesn't matter if you change the BIOS, it will always be an external disk.

Sorry, I must have expressed myself badly:

The disk is an ordinary disk, intented for internal use. Due to problems with the motherboard ( and for testing resons) I have put it on a SATA to USB bridge so far. Now I want to use it as it is intended - on an internal SATA port. BIOS seems to need upgrading however. The latest "ordinary" AMI-bios is not enough it seems.

I have a special SATA-bios file but the ordionary flash utilities does not accept the files. Can't find a solution anywhere.

I am very "rusty" ( long time since I did "serios" hardware work) so I am afraid of screwing things up.

Otherwise the Uniflash utility I have downloaded from Rainbow software seems to recognize the SATA controller OK. Maybe it is intelligent enough to flash the right chip automatically. I just don't like to trust in this if I don't have to. I would rather KNOW before I try.

(I apologize for my english - I come from Sweden.)

Regards

Quve50

 

[GhislainG]

If it works when connected to the SATA to USB adaptor, it should also work when connected directly to the SATA port, unless it's too large. What happens when the drive is connected to a SATA port?

 

[Quve50]

If it works when connected to the SATA to USB adaptor, it should also work when connected directly to the SATA port, unless it's too large. What happens when the drive is connected to a SATA port?

I must express myself very badly ( I gave information to explain that the drive is working and set to SATA150 and so there should be no problem with the drive) : MY PROBLEM IS THAT I HAVE A BIOS FILE THAT IS NOT RECOGNIZED BY THE FLASH UTILITIES PROVIDED BY AMI AND ASUS. Uniflash recognizes the SATA chip and I would like to flash using that one.

However ordinary BIOS is 512k. This file is only 58k. I am not used to flashing BIOS whith other files than full upgrades. Will this utility automatically chose the right chip to flash or will I overwrite the existing BIOs if I just flash ( without any parameters). Anyway what is the difference between flashing the bootblck the vram or the whole BIOS ( options provided by the fordinary upgrades).



Thanks anyway.

Quve50

 

[GhislainG]

The disk is an ordinary disk, intented for internal use. Due to problems with the motherboard ( and for testing resons) I have put it on a SATA to USB bridge so far. Now I want to use it as it is intended - on an internal SATA port. BIOS seems to need upgrading however. The latest "ordinary" AMI-bios is not enough it seems.

I must express myself very badly ( I gave information to explain that the drive is working and set to SATA150 and so there should be no problem with the drive)

It is confusing because you wrote that you had to connect it to a USB port through a SATA to USB bridge and then you write that it works when connected directly to a SATA port on the motherboard. It still doesn't explain why you want to use a special BIOS file or why Asus didn't include it in a BIOS update.

I read the info about Uniflash and nowhere did I see that it can flash a specific part of the BIOS or only the SATA controller. Since your motherboard isn't on the list, you certainly risk ending up with a non-functional motherboard. You should contact whoever created that special BIOS file and ask how you flash it to your motherboard's SATA controller. Such upgrades normally are taken care of by a new BIOS file released by Asus.

 

[roonj]

You can only flash with files written for your motherboard/bios, normally these come from asus. There are some alternatives but doubt they will help with your specific issue. The onboard Sata controller will only accept info written specifically for it, so there doesn't seem to be any need to flash it if your using the latest file from asus. However it is possible to use a software driver for the sata chipset which is not asus's such as from Via technologies. This you would install in device manager on the sata controller. It must be written for your specific chipset or windows won't recognize it. I didn't look up the driver you want to install but I wonder if they aren't refering to an .inf file for windows and a driverl.