Award BIOS Flash Procedure
1. Know your model number
a. Open your case and look for the MS-XXXX number on the motherboard between the PCI slots, also check the version number that is written there as well. (Some motherboards are named like K8N Diamond; make sure you have the right version number)
b. Boot up your system & take a look at the top left screen during POST, you should see something like "W7100NMS V1.1 021705" This means the board is MS-7100 with BIOS version 1.1
Hint: Many systems are clearing this message very fast, the bios version is then unreadable, and you can either press "PAUSE" or disable the "Quick Boot" in the BIOS setup.
2. Download the BIOS that matches your motherboard AND version number (some motherboards are named like K8N Diamond; make sure you have the right version number). BIOS can be found according to the CPU type of your board like if your CPU is AMD 939 type then look here
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_list.php?kind=1&CHIP=68&NAME=Socket%20939%20(AMD%20K8)
if you cannot find the BIOS that matches your board, try here
http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/more.php3. Extract the BIOS-archive that you have downloaded by double clicking to c:\test
4. Boot your system from a Win98 or WinME boot-floppy.
How to make boot floppy in case your don't have it ready:
For Win9X, You can type [C:\ format a:/s] from the DOS prompt.
For WinME, You can make a boot floppy from control panel--> add/remove program-->make boot floppy. Remove autoexec.bat & config.sys file if there's any.
For Win2000, there's no way to make boot floppy, so you have to either use Win9X or WinME boot floppy.
For WinXP, you can make a DOS boot disk. Go to Your Computer, right click drive A:, select Format, select copy system files.
5. When you get the A:\ prompt, type the following sequence:
C: <enter>
cd\test <enter>
C:\test> awdfl865 BIOS file
(To save or not to save old BIOS is the user's decision)
6. Reboot your system when prompted
AMI BIOS Flash Procedure
1. Know your model number
a. Open your case and look for the MS-XXXX number on the motherboard between the PCI slots, also check the version number that is written there as well. (some motherboards are named like 945G Neo2, make sure you have the right version number)
b. Boot up your system & take a look at the top left screen during POST, you should see something like "MSI 945P/G Neo 2 A7176IMS V3.3 Date: 04/26/06" This means the board is MS-7176 with BIOS version 3.3
Hint: Many systems are clearing this message very fast, the bios version is then unreadable, you can either press "PAUSE" or disable the "Quick Boot" in the BIOS setup.
2. Download the BIOS that matches your motherboard AND version number (some motherboards are named like 945G Neo2, make sure you have the right version number). BIOS can be found according to the CPU type of your board like if your CPU is Intel 775 type then look here
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_list.php?kind=1&CHIP=67&NAME=Socket%20775%20(Intel%20P4)
if you cannot find the BIOS that matches your board, try here
http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/more.php3. Extract the BIOS-archive that you have downloaded by double clicking to c:\test
4. Boot your system from a Win98 or WinME boot-floppy.
How to make boot floppy in case your don't have it ready:
For Win9X, You can type [C:\ format a:/s] from the DOS prompt.
For WinME, You can make a boot floppy from control panel--> add/remove program-->make boot floppy. Remove autoexec.bat & config.sys file if there's any.
For Win2000, there's no way to make boot floppy, so you have to either use Win9X or WinME boot floppy.
For WinXP, you can make a DOS boot disk. Go to Your Computer, right click drive A:, select Format, select copy system files.
5. When you get the A:\ prompt, type the following sequence:
C: <enter>
cd\test <enter>
C:\test> adsfi719 BIOS file
(to save or not to save old BIOS is the user's decision)
6. Reboot your system when prompted
Flashing the BIOS for Non-FAT file system
1. Know your model number
a. Open your case and look for the MS-XXXX number on the motherboard between the PCI slots, also check the version number that is written there as well. (some motherboards are named like K8N Diamond, make sure you have the right version number)
b. Boot up your system & take a look at the top left screen during POST, you should see something like "W7100NMS V1.1 021705" This means the board is MS-7100 with BIOS version 1.1
Hint: Many systems are clearing this message very fast, the bios version is then unreadable, and you can either press "PAUSE" or disable the "Quick Boot" in the BIOS setup.
3. Download the BIOS that matches your motherboard AND version number (some motherboards are named like K8N Diamond; make sure you have the right version number). BIOS can be found according to the CPU type of your board like if your CPU is AMD 939 type then look here
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_list.php?kind=1&CHIP=68&NAME=Socket%20939%20(AMD%20K8)
if you cannot find the BIOS that matches your board, try here <
http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/more.php> 4. Extract the file you have downloaded to a floppy (not the win ME/98 startup floppy) by double clocking the file in windows mode and supplying the path a:\
5. Boot the computer using windows ME or windows 98 startup disk. It must be one of these! A plain boot disk will not be good enough.
If you do not have Windows ME or 98 to create the floppy you can make one on a friend's computer.
6. When boot is done there will be a message on the screen showing:"Diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive" followed by a single letter.
This letter is the letter assigned to the RAMDRIVE. This RAMDRIVE is a virtual drive in the system memory and can be accessed and controlled like any other drive with DOS commands such as:
MD - Make Directory
Copy - copy a file
Delete - Delete a file
There is one important difference which is that being in the system memory this drive is wiped once the computer is restarted or shut down.
7. Replace the startup floppy with the one containing the flash utility and bios ROM files previously extracted in windows.
8. Copy the 2 files to the RAMDRIVE by using the DOS command copy.
Here is an example, in this example the flash utility is AWFL865.EXE ,the ROM file is W7100NMS.110 and the RAMDRIVE letter assignment is D
copy awfl865.exe d:\
copy w7100nms.110 d:\
9. Change the current working directory to the RAMDRIVE root directory, with the example case of the RAMDRIVE being drive D this is done by simply done with the command d:
10. Execute the flash utility with the ROM file as a command line argument, with this example:
awfl865 w7100nms.110
If you wish to save the current bios you must specify the full path a:\filename. Specifying only a file name will save the bios to the RAMDRIVE which will be wiped after restarting the computer and the file will not be saved.
a:\bios.old is an example of the correct way to save the bios.
11. Reboot your system when prompted
12. If your system doesn't boot after you flashed, please refer to the BIOS recovery method as described
