Please help a frightened newbie with general motherboard flashing question

[WarLocke]

I've had a great deal of system lock-ups in 3D games, and two different software companies have told me, after several troubleshooting attempts, that the problem is with my motherboard BIOS. This is the first attempt I've ever made at motherboard flashing, and I realize how serious making a mistake can be. So I have some quick questions I'm hoping you guys would be willing to answer:

1) Do I need to write down any of my current settings before flashing the motherboard?

2) Micron's webpage had this quote: "Whenever upgrading your BIOS, make sure to boot your system completely clean. TSR's can interfere with the upgrade process, causing it to fail. " Could someone advise on how you boot a completely TSR-free system? Do they mean boot into safe-mode?

3) Any other suggestions, warnings,steps, cautions, etc would be appreciated.

Micron Pentium 3-866
Via 133A Tazer Tyan s1854 MB
128mb sdram
Geforce2 GTS
IBM HD 7200rpm
SB Live!

 

[dirtboy]

When booting, hit F8 to bring up the menu (when your computer says "Starting Windows 9x...". Be sure to choose Safe Mode Command Prompt Only and that will give you a clean, TSR free boot.

 

[Henry Kuo]

Well, if you really want it to be safe, you can do this (which is what I do usually).

In windows, put in a floppy. Open up a dos prompt, and type:

format a: /s

that will give you an abolutely clean boot floppy. then you put whatever BIOS flashing tools and the new BIOS on the floppy, reboot the machine using the boot disk you just made, and you should be good to go.

Generally, you will copy down the settings inside the BIOS if you are not familiar with it (don't understand some settings, etc...). After you flashed the BIOS, I would go into the BIOS, select "default settings" (or equivalent), so that the new BIOS is really in action. Then I will start going to each category and change the settings inside. If you have copied down your old settings, just make the changes accordingly.

 

[Klosters]

Mr Kuo writes the truth. The best walk-through for flashing Bios I've seen is at www.lostcircuits.com/advice Just scroll down to "How Do I flash the BIOS?"

 

[osage]

Here is a link if you need it. How to flash bios.
Good luck

 

[urbantechie]

Holding down shift has the same effect.