How to upgrade your BIOS
1. Prepare an empty bootable disk. In order to do this, format a disk using the format a: /s command (use b: or other drive letter if appropriate). Make sure that there is nothing on the disk except for boot files. (The reason for doing this is that AWDFLASH, the utility used to upgrade the BIOS, does not allow ANY other program to be running in the background. A clean boot from floppy will reassure this is the case)
2. Now copy AWDFLASH.EXE and the appropriate BIOS file onto the disk.
Click the name of the BIOS file for your board with your right mouse button. Now choose 'save target as..' in the menu that appears. After this choice a drive and directory menu pops up, choose drive a: (or other drive number as appropriate) and click OK. Now the BIOS file will be saved to disk. Do the same for AWDFLASH.EXE (ver 6.31). If you have problem during update BIOS, please use this previous version of flash utility AF55.EXE (ver 5.5) to try again.
3. Next, start your computer using this disk and run AWDFLASH.EXE.
Insert the disk in drive A: (or whatever drive you can boot from) and boot up the computer. At the prompt, type 'awdflash.exe'. Now you will get the awdflash.exe start-up screen.
4. Specify your new BIOS's file name and save your old BIOS.
Type in the exact name of the BIOS upgrade file "xxx.bin" that you have saved. For this purpose it's advisable to make a note of the filename as you save it to disk. AWDFLASH may give you an error message at this point, stating that the file specified does not match your system. If you are sure that you have the correct file for your board (read this to find out what board you own) you can safely ignore this error message, because it is due to a bug in the AWDFLASH program. Now type <y> to save your old BIOS to disk. If AWDFLASH tells you that the "file size does not match" then you have downloaded a BIOS file of the wrong size, please see the note below.
5. Upgrade your BIOS. When AWDFLASH ask you whether or not to start programming, type <y>, the system will now start to upgrade your BIOS. Do not turn the system off while it is upgrading your BIOS, in all the upgrading process should take about one minute.
6. Restart your system. After AWDFLASH has finished upgrading your BIOS, you should restart the system in order for the new BIOS revision to take effect. You can do this by resetting the system, or by switching it off and on. After restarting the system you have to load the BIOS defaults. To do this, press <Delete> during the first screen to enter BIOS setup. Choose 'Load SETUP Defaults' and press <Enter>. Now press <Esc> to leave BIOS setup again, save the settings and your system is ready for use with the new BIOS.
NOTES:
Please note that for some boards there are 1Mb and 2Mb versions of the BIOS upgrade files. AWDFLASH will tell you when the file size of the BIOS file that you have downloaded does not match the size of your BIOS IC by giving you the following message: "file size does not match". This will happen when you use a 1Mb file to upgrade a 2Mb BIOS IC or a 2Mb BIOS file to upgrade a 1Mb BIOS IC.
A way to verify the size of your BIOS IC is to remove the award sticker from the IC. If the partnumber has a 010 or 100 near the end, then you have a 1Mb IC, if it has 020 or 200 near the end you have a 2Mb IC. Only BIOS files of the right size can be used to upgrade your BIOS.
If your system has an Intel flash ROM, you may see an error message while you update your BIOS. This is not serious, it is due to the special architecture of Intel flash ROMs. Intel Flash ROMs have a bootblock protection that can not be disabled through software. With other words, AWDFLASH is unable to program the bootblock and will give an error message. However, the bootblock does need not to be upgraded (it is a basic routine that does not change), so after the rest of the BIOS is upgraded you can restart your system and the upgrade will be complete, please ignore the error message.
