Am looking to updating the bios since i want to upgrade to the 5600+. Believe it or not I have never upgraded a bios before so this is gonna be new to me. I do know all the perls that could happen if the update should fail. That is why I am posting here to make sure I am gonna do this correctly. I have several questions:

1. I do know its very important to get the exact bios file that matches my mobo, but is the revision of the mobo as equally as important when a person wants to update the bios?

2. How safe is it to use a utility to update the bios in windows then it is through dos? anyone have any experiences with this???

3. If update should fail restoring back to the original bios file fails is there any other action a person can take?

Thanks for any info!

1. yes, a BIOS for one revision may not work for another revision board.

2. I've only done it once through windows and it worked. I've done it many times with DOS and occasionally through BIOS itself.

3 order a new BIOS chip, they're socketed. I have recovered after a self modified BIOS that didn't work once so I think that there is some self install mode that is built into most MBs now.

It's not as difficult as it's cracked up to be but fecal matter occurs on occasion.

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic75555.html

If there aint nothing wrong with your bios, then i recommend keeping it as it is.

Regards Jase

I just updated mine today, i have an ABIT MB, and succedded flashing it in Vista! I did corrupt it one time with a modded BIOS and ABIT sent me a new one for about 9$, 4+5 shipping.

Easy enough to update the BIOS from the manufacturer's site, following the instructions exactly. No hassel. No problems. Use only what is intended for your board, so you don't have to get lucky.

I wanna purchase the 5600+ but to use it I gotta update my bios (I'm pretty sure). Current bios version for my M2N-SLI Deluxe is only a 0404. Is there a site that lists current bios versions and what processors they are able to detect?

For the Asus AM2 socket M2N-SLI Deluxe motherboard all revisions are capable of supporting the Athlon X2 5600+. You will need to upgrade to at least BIOS version 0609 and might as well go to the latest which is version 1102.

Goto http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
For this BIOS

Asus provides step by step instructions on how to upgrade the BIOS at http://support.asus.com/technicaldocuments/technicaldocuments.aspx?root=198&SLanguage=en-us


I have flashed BIOS on several mother boards through Ezflash or WinFlash type programs operating in Windows and on older boards you do need a bootable DOS floppy disk with the Aflash program and the BIOS on the floppy. Some more recent motherboards also allow you to use a small BIOS install program built into the BIOS ROM by pressing the correct key when the board starts to boot up.

Trust this is of help

the guide clearly states this. Updating BIOS is slow and methodical. Impatience will result in a dead board.