Should I update Maximus III Formula BIOS?

[cromedome]

I recently upgraded my PC (see sig) and am running an i5 750 @ 3.5GHz (1.150 vcore). I ran prime 95 (large FFT's) for 5+ hours and had no problems. The CPU temps only once touched 60° C on core #1. However after playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 for about an hour and a half the PC crashed. My GTX480 (@ stock clocks) never goes over 85° C, usually about 78-80.

I have had this happen twice over the last week and I am assuming it has something to do with the overclocking since when I reboot, just after post, I get a message saying "overclocking failed!". Then I restart and once in the OS (Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit), I get a message saying that I got BSOD. However, there was no blue screen when the pc crashed.

My BIOS version is 0501 (very old). Should I update BIOS to 2104 and overclock again? Is it safe to update the BIOS?

 

[rolli59]

If you are having issues then BIOS upgrade is in order, it is relatively safe to upgrade BIOS but it can go bad as well. Follow the instructions and you should be fine.

 

[cromedome]

Thanks for quick reply. Should I follow this: http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20070215223109668&board_id=1&model=P5B+Deluxe%2FWiFi-AP&SLanguage=en-us&page=1 ?

 

[rolli59]

Yes that is the best way of doing it!

 

[cromedome]

Great. What would happen if the power went off during the flashing process? Although it is extremely unlikely, it could still happen.

 

[rolli59]

In the unlikely event you would end up with a bad board. Some boards have dual BIOS crash free BIOS and so on not sure about yours.

 

[cromedome]

One more question. Should my flash drive be FAT or FAT32? I'm assuming FAT32.

 

[cromedome]

the board is no dual bios but Asus was smart enough to finally make the board with removable bios chips so no more rma's if you brick the baord with a bad flash.

So what if I can remove the BIOS chip? What would I do with it to ensure getting my board back up and running?

 

[rolli59]

FAT32

the board is no dual bios but Asus was smart enough to finally make the board with removable bios chips so no more rma's if you brick the baord with a bad flash.

So what if I can remove the BIOS chip? What would I do with it to ensure getting my board back up and running?

It basically means that you can get a new chip from ASUS instead of sending in the board.

 

[cromedome]

Ah okay, thanks a lot. I will be back here soon to post results.

 

[cromedome]

Best answer selected by cromedome.

 

[cromedome]

BIOS update was successful, currently running version 2104. *My heart almost stopped when the PC screen went blank after flashing process, then stayed blank blank after reboot for about 30 seconds. It then posted and finally booted into Windows and CPU-Z says BIOS version 2104!

Thanks for the help rolli59.