Upgrading the Bios, Recovering the Bios

Creating the BIOS Upgrade Diskette

The BIOS upgrade file is a compressed self-extracting archive that contains the files you need to upgrade the BIOS.

1.Insert the bootable diskette into the diskette drive.

2.Extract the contents of the BIOS.EXE file onto the bootable diskette. To do so, simply type the file name (with or without the extension) at the a:\ prompt, for example “BIOS.EXE.”

3.You will be prompted to confirm a folder in which to store the extracted files. The BIOS upgrade image is extracted in the specified folder.

Upgrading the BIOS

1.Place the bootable diskette containing the BIOS update files into the diskette drive of your system. Boot the system with the diskette in the drive.

2.At this point you have a choice of two options. Press 1 and <Enter> to automatically update the system BIOS. This will update the system BIOS and reset the system. Press 2 and <Enter> to update the User Binary and reset the system.

3.Wait while the BIOS files are updated. Do not power down the system during the BIOS update process! The system will reset automatically when the BIOS update process is completed. Remove the diskette from the diskette drive.

4.Check to make sure the BIOS version displayed during POST is the new version as the system reboots.

5.Enter Setup by pressing the F2 key during boot. Once in Setup, press the F9 and <Enter> to set the parameters back to default values.

6.Re-enter the values you wrote down at the beginning of this process. Press F10 and <Enter> to exit BIOS Setup and Save Changes.

7.If you do not set the CMOS values back to defaults using the F9 key, the system may function erratically.

✏NOTE

You may encounter a CMOS Checksum error or other problem after reboot. Try shutting down the system and booting up again. CMOS checksum errors require that you enter Setup, check your settings, save your settings, and exit Setup.

Recovering the BIOS

It is unlikely that anything will interrupt the BIOS upgrade; however, if an interruption occurs, the BIOS could be damaged. The following steps explain how to recover the BIOS if an upgrade fails.

✏NOTE

Because of the small amount of code available in the non-erasable boot block area, there is no video support. You will not see anything on the screen during the procedure. Monitor the procedure by listening to the speaker.

You must boot to DOS. The BIOS recovery diskette will not be created correctly under the DOS window of a Windows operating system.

Configuration Software and Utilities