Hi guys,
I registered here to ask you a few questions.My motherboard is Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2.I'am running Win 7(64-bit) on a Q8300 CPU.Graphic card is NVidia GeForce 9500.I bought 2 x2 GB of Kingston 800Mhz RAM,but i realized that without flashing BIOS I can boot with only with 2GB of RAM.I downloaded BIOS image from the german site,and burned it per instructions(on one CD).It boots as a Floppy.My current BIOS is 1.20.I never flashed BIOS before so I have to ask you some (stupid) questions.
1.Can I flash directly from 1.20 to 2.20a ?
2.What is your experience with 2.20a?Can it harm my system?
3.Is my hardware compatabile with 2.20a?
Yes, you can flash any version of the BIOS that is designed for your specific motherboard. You can go down or up in version.
If this is your first time flashing, I strongly suggest you review all the command line switches for the flashing program. It is a good idea NOT to flash the boot blocks. You should:
-first dump a copy of your own BIOS (think you can do it with CPUz, if not then create a backup with the flash program).
-create a batch file that flashes the
current working BIOS that you just dumped
-create a batch file that flashes the new version
-place each onto a separate floppy boot device (I prefer pen drives since you can boot and then work on them, such as run the flash program with -? to check the switches, dump the BIOS, etc.)
-make sure the boot device boots reliably, and that autoexec.bat will call the flash program that you placed on it
-flash the new bios by booting with the new bios
-if disaster strikes, boot again (CTRL-ALT-DEL)without turning off the machine, switch the boot device, and run the batch file that restores your old bios (you will be staring at a black screen for a while, don't panic)
gotta run...late
ETA: Up to you to make darn sure you are only using a BIOS designed for your motherboard. pc-treiber BIOSes are fine, if you select one for your machine.
ETA: Man, it's late but at each re-read I fear for you again. I believe the method I describe above really only works with an actual floppy, because you are only working with the boot blocks, which go direct to hardware to find their way. Hey, it's worth it; once saved me from a borked video card flash.