BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

[VorLonUK]

Just so you know it is free, and works fine after 40 days. It just reminds you to buy is all (Spam) I guess.

Actually it's not free, Winrar is a shareware product that has a 40 day free trial. Yes after 40 days it displays a Nag screen, yet continues to work.

It looks like the author has decided not to cripple the software after the trial period, probably having faith people will purchase it. Often for many other shareware/commercial software applications they just cease to work after the trial period.

WinRAR download and support. WinRAR is a powerful Windows tool to compress and decompress zip, rar and many other formats: WinRAR

WinRAR is shareware, meaning you have the chance to thoroughly test it. The program can be used absolutely free of charge for 40 days!

I would buy Winrar, but I purchased Winzip back on Version 6 and then more recently on Version 11.

Alternatively 7 Zip is "free" (and very good) and will unpack RAR files:-
7-Zip

But sticking to the Winrar SFX supplied by Gigabyte is the safest way to go. At least you will know that the self extractor is fully compatable with the archive it is "attached" to and as far as I know that should show a CRC error and halt the operation if the archive is corrupt - very important if it's a bios image.

[Lsdmeasap]

Updated, some....

Now I think it looks improperly worded! And the 5 image per post limit really ruins the whole idea of posting a tutorial! May just have to speak with Cameron about that

I will likely edit it some more this weekend, or before. I just need to redo it all on my desktop I guess. Took me a while the first time to make it look how I wanted it to, now with the changes edited in it just makes me think I need to re-write it again

No worries, Ill get there.

Thanks for all your input guys, and please if anything else needs to be added or changed as always let me know

My to do list >>>

Do the guide over again, mainly post #1

[jbrucegraham]

I think it was Mark Twain who said "A good impromptu 20 minute after dinner speech only take 3 weeks to write". I'm sure the BIOS flashing guide is like that - a lot harder to write than it looks.

[Lsdmeasap]

Sooo true

Yea, it actually is. I actually wrote it up twice on my desktop, and then posted it hidden for a day or two to make some edits and do some formatting to it. Then after 2 days of editing, thinking over, and re-writing I made it visible to everyone.

I still saw things I needed to edit/change as people also made suggestions.

So I hope to get more done with it as soon as I can, and also hope finalized or not people can get much needed knowledge from it either way.

But yeap, a week more maybe and We might be close

[auroa]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to try the bootable floppy disk method. But one thing I noticed is that when I created a msdos startup disk, it created a bunch of files (keyboard.sys/ega.cpi...), which made it so there's not enough space to fit the bios file. I'm not sure if I should be using a bigger floppy disk, but I think this is all I have lying around.

[Lsdmeasap]

Ahh, Yes. Sorry about that, I forgot to add that you will need an additional second disk to put the 3 BIOS files on. You would insert this disk after DOS is loaded before you enter the command.

I will edit that in tonight!

Since you do have a floppy though, it is just as easy to put Only the BIOS .Fxx file onto a formatted floppy (No Bootable files or anything else is necessary), leave the disk in and reboot to Qflash (END Key or F8 from MAIN BIOS page) and just use Qflash with the floppy to flash.

*EDIT*

Floppy DOS Flash method added to second post

[VorLonUK]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to try the bootable floppy disk method. But one thing I noticed is that when I created a msdos startup disk, it created a bunch of files (keyboard.sys/ega.cpi...), which made it so there's not enough space to fit the bios file. I'm not sure if I should be using a bigger floppy disk, but I think this is all I have lying around.

Yes the room is limited on a floppy disk if you get say windows to copy system files, so you can make a bootable disk.

However most of the files windows copies over are Not neccessary for the task you wish to carry out - ie flashing the bios.
I create the bootable floppy disk, then delete the uneccessary files and then copy over the new autoexec.bat, bios image and flash utility to the disk.

Also remember whilst creating the bootable floppy to do a full format, Not a quick format. A full format will check that all the disk is basically usable (or not).

If you want to know the files to be left on the floppy and those that can be safely deleted, let me know and I'll dig out my last flash disk and list the files for you.

[efilah]

i'm confused now. when extract the bios rar file,u will get autoexec, bios.fxx, and flashspi right? which one should i really put into my bootable USB? and it is safer to use flash895.sfx.exe?

[Lsdmeasap]

Put The BIOS file only if you plan to use Qflash, all files + DOS System files for a bootable Floppy.

Either flash will work, The Flash895 just has more user interaction then the other

[efilah]

Put The BIOS file only if you plan to use Qflash, all files + DOS System files for a bootable Floppy.

Either flash will work, The Flash895 just has more user interaction then the other

yes,i plan to use Qflash using bootable USB flash drive (created it by using your guide at 1st page). so,that means i just have to put the one BIOS file only into my USB bootable? no need other file?