FAQ on flashing ABIT BX6 BIOS

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FAQ on flashing ABIT BX6 BIOS
by Overclocker (1/8/98)

New features of BIOS version EG of ABIT BX6

	Supports some kinds of display cards with the chipset of Mpact 2.
	Allows insertion of more than one display card on the mainboard & add s an "Init Display First" option in the BIOS for user to choose the primary display card.
	Supports the Celeron 300 & 333 CPUs with built-in cache.

Flashing latest version of BIOS (EG)

	Create a bootable disk by booting Win95/98 into DOS mode. Format a blank disk with format a:/S
	Download the latest version of BX6 BIOS from here (filename is BX6EG.EXE)

Download the AWDFLASH.EXE version 5.4 (filename is AWDFLASH.EXE)

	Copy both AWDFLASH.EXE and BX6EG.EXE into diskette on drive A
	Execute BX6EG.EXE, it will auto extract to a file BX6_EG.BIN

	Restart machine and let machine boot from Drive A. (NB : Make sure the boot disk don't load any config.sys or device drivers etc, it must be a clean DOS bootup).
	To flash the EG version of the BX6 BIOS, execute AWDFLASH.EXE by typing AWDFLASH at the command prompt.
	The program will ask you a series of questions.
	It will ask you whether you want to save a copy of your current BIOS. Supply a name to save it to your drive A.
	Supply the filename of the new BIOS. Some warning instruction will be shown.
	Hit Enter to Flash it in. Remember not to shut down your machine unless told to.

	If you have a bad flash, e.g. the system can't start at all, try and get hold of a old VGA card and boot up with the diskette you created.
	Re-flash the old BIOS into your BIOS.
	Once you're done, remove your computer casing and look for jumper CCMOS (CMOS Discharge Jumper) . It's very near to the battery (on the left hand lower corner of your BX6 motherboard.
	Discharge the CMOS by (initial position is 1-2) and putting it on (position 2-3). Please refer to page 2-10 of your manual.
	You will not be able to turn on your machine at this time.
	Put the jumper back to normal position (1-2) and reboot your machine. It should now show the latest BIOS string at the bottom of the screen.
	This version of BIOS is dated 10/7/98 version EG.

Observations :

My personal experience is that after I flash the BIOS, the CPU default voltage changed to 3.5v, I switched it back immediately to 2.0v knowing that Celeron might get burnt at such high voltages. The reason behind this is because I rebooted the machine and forgot to Clear CMOS. That's why your have a CPU Default voltage of 3.5v.

Now the new BIOS detects the kind of RAM I have, as I am using PC-66 SDRAM, it showed me a message saying that my SDRAM does not support SPD. but nothing changes, the system boots up with no problems.

As I am running my ABIT BX6 at 112Mhz x 4. It show 448Mhz when booting up instead of 450Mhz which it used to be. This is strange, they should probably display 450Mhz as per normal (a rounded number looks nicer, all processors are like 350, 400Mhz).

New setting is there to set whether your machine will use PCI or your AGP graphics card to be the primary display card in a Win98 environment (as such OS supports multiple display).

ACPI does not seem to work, it hangs if I force my machine to recognise the ACPI PnP BIOS in System Devices (Control Panel).

That's all I have to share with you guys. Do feedback to me what other interesting things is in store in this new BIOS.

Disclaimer : I will not be responsible if you have a bad flash or your system malfunction after following the above instructions. The instructions above is meant to be for information only. Do it at your own risk.

13 September 1998 11:35 AM SGT