Updating BIOS

[trevgit]

I have a Biostar M5ALA version 1.1 mobo and i have never updated the bios. I have been skeptical about doing because i cannot afford to be without it but recently i tried to o/c my k6-2 333 to 380 and it posted at 366. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to update my bios successfully. I have the proper files to do it i just don't know how.
Thanks

[Ed_S]

First read the manufacturer's info to see if this will help with your problem. They always list what the changes are. Don't flash it if not needed. Newer is not always better for bios updates.

Now, if you've determined it's needed, print out the instructions from the manufacturer & follow it TO THE LETTER!!!
Use only the flash utility they recommend!!

Don't do it when there's chances of power failure.

A failed bios flash will most likely render the board unusable.
Don't mean to scare you...well...yeah, I do! You said you can't be w/o it & don't know how this is done, bad combination!! You need to know the consequences before starting. Usually it works well & takes about 2 minutes, but it CAN go wrong.

[clough]

The mobo manufactorer might even have a flash program.

[ocynic]

If you have a flash bios from Biostar go to the user guide section on Sysopt homepage.Great stuff in there about bios. Print them and use them for reference, lots of good stuff. I learned about 75% of what I know about bios from these guides. Good Luck!

[Rookie]

Please post the results if you decided to flash it. I have a Biostar 8500 TAC that I thought was useless and flashing the bios gave me an (almost) new machine. Now I can boot to the cd rom, dont need ezbios, disable pci video irq...and a slew of improvements.
The only thing is: I was supposed to see a screen asking me if I wanted to save my old bios to put it back if flashing made it worse.
I never saw that screen, good thing the flash was sucessful.
Also note that I already bought a new mobo and bought a third machine so I could afford to take chances- it didnt work before so I had nothing to lose.
Rookie

[trevgit]

I have had sucess flashing my bios. It was a little nerve racking because i must have downloaded a corrupt version of Award's flashing utility. It would back up my bios then say check sum error.
I got version 708 and did not have any problems completing the flash.
Thanks for everyone's help!!!