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ok so i have been told that i should update my bios and motherboard drivers since i recently reinstalled windows myself. i have looked into this 'flashing my BIOS' and it sounds really bad. i have been warned against it at every site as it may render my computer useless until it is repaired by the pro's. can anyone give me one good reason why i should attempt this? and also, is flashing my bios the same as updating my motherboard, or are the drivers for my motherboard like normal drivers where i download them and they are self install? i think i have managed to locate drivers for my motherboard but maybe someone in here could tell me if i have the exact one i need. i have an AMD K6-2 400mHz, Epox motherboard with a VIA MVP3 chipset. the driver that i downloaded but have not installed yet is for labled EP-MVP3C. I read through the documentation and i am almost 100% sure that this is the right one, however to be sure i would like some outside help if possible. also, on this topic, what happens if i install the wrong motherboard drivers? after i installed windows, the only drivers that were installed be me or automatically by windows were for sound, video, monitor, keyboard, mouse, network card, and i think that's it. so like all the rest of the stuff is really running on i guess generic drivers hence my asking my next question...

my other question has to do with the chipset, IDE bus, and USB. how do i go about updating all of those things, or are those things inclusive in something else? if not how do i even find out the specs on those things that i have?

one more thing to ask..i bought a new video card after i lost it completely-which caused all of this to begin with-my advice don't use ati--anyway, i now have a decent but not great nvidia geforce 4 mx420 card and during boot after the bios, like on the windows 98 screen my monitor shuts on and then comes on again. it also has once or twice shut off at the desktop and then when i manually turn it back on it gives me the "no signal" message. i just bought the card so i know i have the latest drivers, and i know its not a power manage thing cuz they are all set to never shut off in display settings. thanks for all of your help

Welcome...I dont have much time right now but here are quick answers.

Updating the bios is easy and 99% fool proof. For a basic bios update all you need is a win98 boot disk, or a boot disk of any sort, and your new bios extracted onto another floppy. Let the boot disk boot to dos, then do the update, if they were nice enough to make it self excuting Great, otherwise read how they sugest to do it. but usually all you do is type awdflash (providing it is an award bios. That brings you into there little program. then type in the name of the new bios file xxx.bin. it asks if you want to save the old one, I always say no. let it do its thing, exit the program and restart the pc. then go into the bios and set it to defalt, then restart again and set the bios to how you want it.

if it is a via chipset you dont really have anythign to worry about getting the right drivers, just use these: http://downloads.viaarena.com/drivers/4 ... 1_443v.zip they are the Latest out there.

as for drivers, the newest ones Dont come in the box and on the CD. here are the latest detonator ones (they are bata but work just fine) for 2k and XP: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=winxp-2k_40.72 and for 95, 98, and me: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=win9x_40.72

As for that monitor stuff, hopefully after you do all this that wont be a prob anymore.

As for ATI being bad, back in the days of the rage 128 and older stuff there drivers some didnt like, now adays they are pretty much on par with nvidia in there Radeon line of cards.

hope this helps.

Peace

Greg

welcome to PCA!

the bios contols a lot of settings on the motherboard - memory settings, cpu speed, etc.

the motherboard drivers are software programs that enable certain motherboard harware and software functions - each company does it a little differently so you need to check with whoever made your motherboard for those -


let us know your mobo, cpu, what kind of memory, hdd, opertating system, etc. you have, that will make answering your questions easier

Motherboard DRIVERS and motherboard BIOS are two different things.

While it's a good idea to have the latest BIOS, you probably don't need it unless there's a specific issue your motherboard has that the BIOS update addresses, or you're installing a CPU that is not supported by the current BIOS.

BIOS installs can be a bit spooky if you've never done it before, and yes if it goes wrong you'll have a non-functional motherboard until you can send it in to have the BIOS chip replaced (this is, however, not a problem with the newer "Dual-Bios" motherboards).

If the idea makes you nervous and there's no specific reason you must upgrade the BIOS, then you can let it slide.

What is important is that you have the latest motherboard drivers installed. You can get the drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's website, or just download the latest VIA 4-in one drivers as Nexus suggested.

^ one thing i hadn't seen mentioned is if u do decide to upgrade it, the main thing to remember is:

<b><i>Don't Let the Computer Lose power</i></b>
aka make sure the power cable is plugged in good, and that it will get the required juice. (don't plug 30 million things into power strip, or a power strip into a power strip, etc etc) and definately don't do it during an electrical storm

most of this is overkill, so u understand how serious it <b>can be</b>. like these guys said, its pretty non-hassle, but theres always the one time.

like FP said tho, if its working fine, and supports the cpu, i wouldn't worry about upgrading the BIOS.

thanks for all the help, and so quickly i might add

please don't laugh at me when i tell you what pc im running. in a very short time i will be giving this one to my parents and getting a new one to actually go off to college to design video games, so i have to bide my time.
anyway:

epox slot7 atx motherboard- via apollo chipset
amd K6-2 400mHz
128 mg sdram
10gb hd
nvidia geforce 4 mx 420, 64mg ram agp video card
sound blaster live value pci sound card
windows 98se

thats about it for the specs. before i install the latest drivers for the video card, should i uninstall the old one? i think i ran into some problems with that before so just wanted to ask before hand, thanks again for the help.

Download the latest OFFICIAL Detonator drivers from NVidia for the Video card here: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=drivers

You don't have to uninstall the vid drivers - the installer handles that automatically nowadays.

the bios update might help with that monitor prob though...so I would sugest it.

Greg

how goes the updating ?

i have updated the video drivers and so the monitor is not flashing anymore. tghats good. i have decided against doing the bios to err on the side of caution. i have the motherboard drivers that i am 95% sure are the right ones but i have yet to do them because i have this feeling that something bad will happen if i install the one i have. i think i am just being chicken shit. i know i should just do it. here's a question... if i install the new drivers and by chance it is the wrong ones what will happen and will i be able to fix it myself? or will i have to reinstall windows again, or take it somewhere? those are my concerns.

thanks for all the help

What version of Windows? If it's ME or XP (doubt you're running XP on that thing) you can make a restore point before installing the driver, and go back to if if it goes badly.

If it's 95 or 98 the best thing to do - if you have a copy of it and a spare drive or CD burner - is to make an image backup using Norton Ghost. I backup my boot partition before making ANY major changes.

You have a VIA mobo though so it shouldn't be any problem. Just download the latest VIA 4-in-1 driver and it'll automatically install the drivers you need.

Just to be sure you might want to copy the CAB files off of the Windows CD to your harddrive. I remember way too many times doing motherboard driver updates and being asked for the CD when the CD isn't found because the IDE controller wasn't loaded. Should be in the win98 directory on the CD (I saw you are using 98SE)

i have the motherboard drivers that i am 95% sure are the right ones but i have yet to do them because i have this feeling that something bad will happen if i install the one i have. i think i am just being chicken shit.

If you get the current 4-in-1 driver pack from VIA (the current is 4.43v), you'll be all set. The 4-in-1 supports all VIa chipsets, so there's no "wrong" one