Before I flash my BIOS, need confirmation

[French jurist]

I want to flash my BIOS to see if my PC gets more stable.
I ran a small identification utility that gives :

AMIBIOS Motherboard Manufacturer Identification
Version 1.4 (01/12/2004) Copyright 2003 American Megatrends, Inc.

This file has recorded information useful in identifying the manufacturer
of this motherboard. The information is listed below:

An AMIBIOS ID String Was Detected:
63-0100-001131-00101111-042706-P4M800+
- ---- ------ ------
| | | |
| | | Chipset/BIOS Info
| | BIOS Build Date
| Manufacturer ID
BIOS ROM Information
AMIBIOS ROM Size: 512 KB
BIOS Build Date: Apr 27 2006
Motherboard Manufacturer Code Detected: 1131 - ELITGROUP
Please Consults ELITGROUP for support

AMIBIOS Build Tag: P23G
AMIBIOS Project ID: P23G Not listed in TAG.DAT file

For more information on upgrading your BIOS go to http://www.ami.com/support/bios.cfm?refer=mbid
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SMBIOS info:
Manufacturer : PCCHIPS
Product Name : P23G
Version : 1.0
Serial Number: 00000000

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMIDIAG Suite tests and diagnoses every hardware subsystem on your PC!
A professional tool for developers, manufacturers and technicians.
Go to www.amidiag.com for more information on AMIDiag.




I found a V3.0 version of the P23G motherboard on the pcchips site.
Is my identification correct in order to do the bios flashing ?

I just want to be sure, thanks

 

[YohoYoho]

Just from looking over the information on your post and not going to the manufacture sites, it looks correct.

What stability problems are you having that you think a BIOS upgrade would fix, just curious?

 

[French jurist]

Thanks YohoYoho.
Well my P4 3.0 Mhz has stability issues (random freezes), and it might be a temperature issue.
It all started with a failing power supply (of course a cheap one, never buy a cheap PS !) that burned my videocard.
After that, I checked many things, including removing the processor and reinstalling it (with thermal paste and so on).

Now that's 24 hours it randomly freezes (every hour or so) so I need to reboot everytime.
I will check again the temperatures in my bios though (anyway, my safety settings if it overheats are supposed to make it reboot : that's what happened before when I definitely had temperature issues).

Flashing the BIOS is indeed risky but well, I am very close to buying a core 2 duo so I don't mind so much taking this risk.

Thanks for the confirmation

PS : nothing appears in the event viewer (because it freezes so I need to make a hard reboot each time).
Might be too a software conflict issue with some remains of an old antivirus conflicting with the new one.

 

[davonz]

Who manufactured the PC. If its an OEM (HP/Lenovo/Dell) go to there website and download the latest bios.
If its a Non OEM motherboard (gigabite/asus/abit etc) go to the motherboard manufactures site and download the latest version.

What it looks to me from the above post is that you are going to download an AMI bios. AMI make bios for PC's and mother board manufacturers, but each manufacturer adds bits to the bios depending on whats on the motherboard (support for hard disk controllers, video, networking etc). So if you flash with the wrong bios you could brick you motherboard/pc.

From what you have posted elite group (i have never heard of them) looks like manufacturer - is that the name of the pc band or motherbaord ? If so go to their website and look for you bios file.

 

[davonz]

One thing to try is reset your bios back to default setting.. Maybe you have changed something by mistake and this is causing stability problems.
Also alot of problems will be add-in hardware related issues. Could be a faulty RAM module, or video card, or network card. So try swapping out, or changing slots they are in.

 

[French jurist]

Indeed, in-between AMI, Elitegroup and Pcchips I have been hesitating, but for sure my MB is a P23G (written on it as well) and only Pcchips make it. But the bios itself (near the battery) shows Amibios on it.

So I guess it's a Pcchips MB with an AMI bios.
In the helpfile of the Pcchips flashing utility, there are screenshots showing the name of Amibios so that's why I priviledged Pcchips.

Well, I'll take a big breath and do it, anyway no big deal if it gets bricked up, I'll finally buy myself a core 2 duo.

 

[French jurist]

One thing to try is reset your bios back to default setting.. Maybe you have changed something by mistake and this is causing stability problems.
Also alot of problems will be add-in hardware related issues. Could be a faulty RAM module, or video card, or network card. So try swapping out, or changing slots they are in.

Thanks, yes I've been running Memtest for the RAM (I have Kingston btw) and they are fine, no more videocard since it burned.

Oh well, I'll do the flashing anyway 'cause I'm hard headed !

Thanks everybody

 

[YohoYoho]

My best guess from the info you provided is that it is board problem not a BIOS one. That if it is happening every hour or so the board is heating causing a cross in the internal bits (highly technical term there).

I would go with what davonz said and double check it with the manufacture for a BIOS upgrade. Just to be safe. How I read your information was that you were upgrading the BIOS with your chip set, PCCHIPS. Which if they have a BIOS update would be the correct one.

However, if you are planning on buying another board you have nothing to lose.

Side question: What operating system and antivirus are and were you using?

 

[davonz]

AMI bios is the bios maker.
PCCHIPS - sounds ok to me. Usually if its the wrong BIOS it will say it cant flash the bios because its not correct.

Just do it.. what you got to lose ???? And if it f**ks up blame me, i dont mind..

 

[French jurist]

My best guess from the info you provided is that it is board problem not a BIOS one. That if it is happening every hour or so the board is heating causing a cross in the internal bits (highly technical term there).

I would go with what davonz said and double check it with the manufacture for a BIOS upgrade. Just to be safe. How I read your information was that you were upgrading the BIOS with your chip set, PCCHIPS. Which if they have a BIOS update would be the correct one.

However, if you are planning on buying another board you have nothing to lose.

Side question: What operating system and antivirus are and were you using?

Thanks, yes it could rather be a temp issue, I'll check it anyway.

I'm using XP Pro SP3.
I had installed AVG antivirus but finally uninstalled it to run Avast instead (I had this pendrive USB virus modifying the autorun each time I was plugging the pendrive. Avast detected it better than AVG hence the change. To clean everything I used Combofix -very powerful tool btw- and managed to clean the pendrive by using dos commands).

In msconfig/services I still had some AVG remains after I desinstalled it though. I have removed them now and that's one hour it didn't freeze so this might be the explanation as well.