[captain_Y]

Hi, I'm running bios version 1.005 on my Asus P4P800 deluxe board. I've found out through Asus updater that bios 1.008 is out. My question is, do I need to update my bios, and if i do, what's the best way to update it? since Asus Update gives you a bunch of options as to how to obtain the update.

Thanks

 

[Jonnyquong]

Hi captain_Y,


"My question is, do I need to update my bios..."

If you are presently having no problems with your system, you don't NEED to flash your BIOS, as it is not without some risk.
In your case though, it ain't rocket science...

"Do not use Aflash.exe / EZflash /Afudos.exe to update BIOSV1008
Extract all the files into the floppy disk,and simply run P4P81008.exe under DOS mode,the BIOS update will execute automatically.Please refer to the readme file included in the zipped file for the details of BIOS update procedure. "

If you click on the 'More' button after the description on the download page (ASUS), you can see what the upgrade will get you.

Overall, I would say if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

 

[captain_Y]

Hi, I downloaded the 1.008 bios for my P4P800, and step 4 and 5 says the following:

4.Boot the system into DOS prompt.
5.Simply execute "P4P81008.exe" file to update BIOS.

I'm not too good with dos, so how to do I boot the system into DOS prompt, and how to I "simply execute" the P4P81008.exe file?

The reason I'm updating the bios is because I'm still have stablity problems, and the people at Kingston told me to update the bios before messing around with bios setting with the ram. Also supposedly memtest86 will work better with 1.008.

 

[PenDragoN]

I'm not too good with dos, so how to do I boot the system into DOS prompt, and how to I "simply execute" the P4P81008.exe file?

Okay, no problem...a few steps only...

1) create a bootable floppy disk: open windows explorer (9x/me/XP) , select drive a: , rightclick and choose "format".
When format window appears, set the tick to "create MS-DOS boot disk" and format floppy disk.

2) set system bios boot up sequence to "floppy(a),CDROM,HDD0" rsp set floppy disk drive to first boot device.
### when already in bios, set all bios settings to default values to avoid bios flash problems ###

3) simply let the PC run - when step 1 and 2 completed correctly, it will automatically boot from floppy disk.

4) when booted from floppy , "a:\" and the standard cursor will appear. now put the disk with the "P4P81008.exe" on it into the drive and type "4p81008" into the command line and press enter .

5) follow the instructions ( if there are any )

6) reboot pc

7) enter BIOS again and reset / clear cmos

8) reboot again

9) configure your bios as you would like it to be.

10) be happy - your bios is flashed

Greetz
Pen

 

[SPEEDO]

One thing I would change to the above would be the initial boot disk.

Go here and download the fifth one down, DrDOS 7.X it is a great disk for doing just this sort of thing.

After you download it just stick a freshly formatted floppy into the drive and click on the downloaded program and it will create a nice boot disk for you without any of the added stuff that's not needed...........:winkgrin:

 

[PenDragoN]

One thing I would change to the above would be the initial boot disk.

Go here and download the fifth one down, DrDOS 7.X it is a great disk for doing just this sort of thing.

After you download it just stick a freshly formatted floppy into the drive and click on the downloaded program and it will create a nice boot disk for you without any of the added stuff that's not needed...........:winkgrin:

...okay..that's also a way to create a bootdisk

 

[SPEEDO]

Yeah it doesn't give you all that unnecessary crap it just gets you to the A:> prompt............

 

[PenDragoN]

yess - caldera drdos is really fine stuff...and it works!
I just forgot , when telling him to create a bootdisk...drdos is the better way (...to live )

Greetz
Pen

 

[captain_Y]

Okay, no problem...a few steps only...

7) enter BIOS again and reset / clear cmos

Ok, i just got the Drdos program that Speedo told me about, now what's this about reset/clearing the cmos, is that automatic or do i have to do it myself?

and thanks for all the help so far

 

[SPEEDO]

Are you sure you want to do this?

If the answer is yes then when your machine boots up press the delete key when prompted. Go to the screen that says load default settings or something like that and click and save the default settings.

Boot to the Dr.DOS disk that you created and at the A:> prompt insert the floppy with the bios.exe file on into the drive and then follow the instructions posetd in one of the above posts.

 

[captain_Y]

Ok, so right after I updated my bios and restarted my machine, I hit delete to go into the bios settings, and I was greeted with a beep and a message saying something about "CMOS checksum bad, overclocking failed" and it gave me an option to go into setup or continue normally. This was the second time I had seen this message, and I don't know why it occurs because I don't overclock anything. The only thing I changed in the bios set up when I went in was set the performance mode from Auto to Standard, then I saved my settings and exited, and windows booted up ok. I guess my question is, why did get a CMOS checksum error, and why did an overclocking message come up?

 

[SPEEDO]

What are you using for a CPU on this board? Does it use Hyperthreading Technology?

Try the following. Set up the default settings in the bios on the exit menu.

On restart do the following.

 

[captain_Y]

What are you using for a CPU on this board? Does it use Hyperthreading Technology?

Try the following. Set up the default settings in the bios on the exit menu.

On restart do the following.

My CPU is a P4 2.8 ghz processor, it uses hyperthreading and supports 800 mhz FSB. About that picture, what exactly should I do with that? Change the jumper settings to reset? Anyway i've had explorer crash in the last hour to the point where it would display an error message each time it was opened, and the system it self has restarted 3 times in the past half hour, so any more help would be great

oh, and the ram i'm using is KINGSTON KVR400X64C3AK2/512 512MB Kit (2x 256MB) DDR400 PC3200 CL3

 

[sanature]

"CMOS checksum bad, overclocking failed"

I was reading that the board is set up to do that automatically to get you to look into the BIOS.
It will go away after you play with your BIOS. : )

I flashed to v1009 and everything is running smooth.

I also used the MS-DOS created through WinXP and it worked fine. Appeared quick and clean.

captain y, what kind of Power Supply are you running? Does it have ATX power?

Good luck.

David

P2.4C
P4C800-E
2 x 512 Kingston
V9560VS
Samsung 191T Monitor
SATA HD setup

 

[captain_Y]

I have an Antec 400W ATX power supply, so it should be pretty reliable. and I thought that 1.008 was the latest version of bios out for the P4P800 series? But anyways, the only conclusion that I came up with after tons of fiddling around with stuff is that my system is stable with one stick of 256 ram, but if I run 2 in dual channel, it will restart and cause application errors.

 

[tyee]

This is the first message I am sending with my P4P800 and am wondering if I can use the ASUS update program (that runs in windows) to update my BIOS. The program seems to recognize the bios file P4P800.ROM properly, but I didn't execute it because of what was said in this post. What do you guys think?

Also, EZFlash does not appear on my computer during POST when I press Alt-F2. Can anyone get it to appear?

I have another funny problem. Upon boot I do not get a login screen at all, it just boots into winxp as the new username I gave during install. This name does have admin priveledges but there is a problem here. I want to import all my cookies but they are all named starting with "administrator", which is not the new name I'm using. So I must somehow login as administrator. Any hints what's preventing the login screen from showing up?

tyee

 

[PenDragoN]

@captain_y:

I have an Antec 400W ATX power supply, so it should be pretty reliable. and I thought that 1.008 was the latest version of bios out for the P4P800 series? But anyways, the only conclusion that I came up with after tons of fiddling around with stuff is that my system is stable with one stick of 256 ram, but if I run 2 in dual channel, it will restart and cause application errors.

What brand of Ram do you have , and is it full DUALRam capable? I had the issue, that my Corsair cmx 400 didn't work properly together (though described as "DUAL Channel ready!") and almost made me mad! I changed CDRoms, HDDs , VGACard , even CPU several times, but as i forgot to insert the second Ram when checking the Rams , the system worked smooth. Try and check out your ram - if you bought the separately, try to chnage both rams to TwinPairs . TwinPairs (or TWINX , what it's called by corsair ) are tested bundles of ram modules which work perfectly together.No risk - no problems. Only the price is roundabout 20-45 € higher than it would be for two single ram modules...

@tyee:

This is the first message I am sending with my P4P800 and am wondering if I can use the ASUS update program (that runs in windows) to update my BIOS. The program seems to recognize the bios file P4P800.ROM properly, but I didn't execute it because of what was said in this post. What do you guys think?

??? what i sthe matter...? flash it baby,flash it!

Also, EZFlash does not appear on my computer during POST when I press Alt-F2. Can anyone get it to appear?

Good question - I also tried this method and it's vicious: on some boards this flash option is functionally, on some other it ain't . That really drives me crazy! If anyone knows if there is a hidden button which activates or disactivates the ezflash function - PLEEEEZE TELL US !!

I have another funny problem. Upon boot I do not get a login screen at all, it just boots into winxp as the new username I gave during install. This name does have admin priveledges but there is a problem here. I want to import all my cookies but they are all named starting with "administrator", which is not the new name I'm using. So I must somehow login as administrator. Any hints what's preventing the login screen from showing up?

Simply got into your control panel, and check within users and passwords if you have a password for your account - if not: that's the problem - you have two administrative accounts and none is locked by password enter a password, then the login screen will appear... Tell us when there are further problems

Greetz
Pen