User manual ASUS A7V400-MX

[. . . ] A7V400-MX User Guide Motherboard E1817 Checklist Revised Edition V2 October 2004 Copyright © 2004 ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. No part of this manual, including the products and software described in it, may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any means, except documentation kept by the purchaser for backup purposes, without the express written permission of ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Product warranty or service will not be extended if: (1) the product is repaired, modified or altered, unless such repair, modification of alteration is authorized in writing by ASUS; or (2) the serial number of the product is defaced or missing. ASUS PROVIDES THIS MANUAL "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. [. . . ] Insert a new 1. 44 MB floppy disk in the floppy disk drive. From the Windows desktop, click Start > My Computer. In the My Computer window, click the 3 1/2 Floppy icon. From the Menu bar, click File > Format. Select "Create an MS-DOS Startup Disk" in the Format Options field, then click Start. Copy the original (or the latest) motherboard BIOS to the bootable floppy disk. 2. 1. 2 Using the AwardBIOS Flash Utility You may update the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) using the built-in Award BIOS Flash utility or using a bootable floppy disk with the executable Award BIOS Flash utility (AWDFLASH. EXE). Follow these instructions to update the BIOS using this utility. Download the latest BIOS file from the website provided by the system builder. Rename the file to *. BIN, then save it to the bootable floppy disk you created earlier. Insert the disk that contains the new BIOS file to the floppy drive. 2-2 Chapter 2: BIOS information Save only the updated BIOS file in the floppy disk to avoid loading a wrong BIOS file. 3. Press <Alt> + <F2> during POST to display the following screen. AWDFLASH checks the new BIOS file on the floppy disk. 5. After verification, AWDFLASH flashes the new BIOS file. Do not shut down the computer during the flash process. The computer returns to POST after the new BIOS file is copied. Updating the BIOS using a bootable floppy disk 1. At the "A:\" prompt, type "C:\" and then press <Enter>. At the "C:\" prompt, type "AWDFLASH BIOSFILENAME" and then <Enter>. For example: "AWDFLASH aw0702. bin" The AWDFLASH screen appears. Follow steps 4 to 5 of the previous section. ASUS A7V400-MX motherboard user guide 2-3 2. 1. 3 CrashFree BIOS feature The CrashFree BIOS feature allows you to boot the computer from a floppy disk and update the BIOS in case the original BIOS fails or gets corrupted. · · · You must have a bootable floppy disk ready before updating the BIOS. The bootable floppy disk could be the one that you created following the procedure in section 2. 1. 1, and should contain the AWDFLASH. EXE utility. A message appears during POST to indicate that the BIOS fails (ROM data or codes are corrupted). To update the BIOS: 1. When prompted, place the bootable floppy disk to the floppy drive. [. . . ] The CMOS RAM is sustained by an onboard backup battery and stays on even when the PC is turned off. When you select this option, a confirmation window appears. Select [Yes] to save changes and exit. Exit Without Saving Select this option only if you do not want to save the changes that you made to the Setup program. If you made changes to fields other than system date, system time, and password, the BIOS asks for a confirmation before exiting. Load Optimized Defaults This option allows you to load the optimized values for each of the parameters on the Setup menus. [. . . ]