[sewildman50]

Apologies if this post is misplaced.

I am currently attempting to update my BIOS.

My specs are as follows:

Mobo: Abit AV8-3rd Eye
Chipset: K8T800 Pro/VT8237
RAM: 1 GB Buffalo DDR 400
O/S: Windows XP Pro

At this point I could spill out more but I am not exactly sure what would be relevant at this point.

I am attempting to upgrade to AV8-3rd Eye BIOS v. 2.7 from 1.9 (downloaded from the ABIT product page for my mobo).

I don't currently have a 3.5 floppy drive installed, but had heard that I could do the same using a CD-ROM Bootdisk.

I created a bootable CD-ROM with Nero 6 and was able to boot to DOS.

I switched over to my CD-ROM drive (where the BIOS update files were located) and entered "runme", as instructed by the walkthrough on the website.

The Update utility started, but before updating the BIOS a message appeared that said "insufficient memory" or "insufficient memory to flash BIOS" (something like that).

I am wondering what the possible reason would be for this message and how I might remedy the issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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the two things that come to mind right off are...

1) the bios chip itself isn't large enough to hold the new bios... don't know how likely this is I know some use larger bios chips now.... considering you downloaded the file for your board then I wouldn't think this is the issue unless there are different version numbers for your board.

2) the other possibility is some of the flash updates expect to be able to save a backup of the old bios to the disk you boot from and can't because it's a cd rom. you could test this by hooking up a floppy ( even temporarily )

Also as an after thought it might be that since you have so MUCH ram that the dos based program does't recognize it correctly.... I had a program that would have trouble ( until patched ) with computers that had more than 32 mb of ram... it would give a similiar error... "not enough memory "

[shard92]

the two things that come to mind right off are...

1) the bios chip itself isn't large enough to hold the new bios... don't know how likely this is I know some use larger bios chips now.... considering you downloaded the file for your board then I wouldn't think this is the issue unless there are different version numbers for your board.

2) the other possibility is some of the flash updates expect to be able to save a backup of the old bios to the disk you boot from and can't because it's a cd rom. you could test this by hooking up a floppy ( even temporarily )

Also as an after thought it might be that since you have so MUCH ram that the dos based program does't recognize it correctly.... I had a program that would have trouble ( until patched ) with computers that had more than 32 mb of ram... it would give a similiar error... "not enough memory "

[sewildman50]

Hmmm, interesting ideas.

I was already heading down the route of trying out a 3.5 floppy. I got to the point last night of hooking up my old floppy drive but for some reason it wasn't listed as an available drive in My Computer, even though it was recognized by Device Manager.

I guess I just may have to bust open the wallet and pay the 15 bucks CDN for a new floppy drive.

I'll probably try the floppy drive solution.

If that doesn't work though...for your third possibility you mentioned that the system incorrectly identified how much RAM you had and that the issue continued until you patched. What was it that you patched in order to correct the situation. Perhaps I'll try that before I spring for a new floppy drive.

Thanks for your response.

[shard92]

that was actually an example won't help here as it was a patch for a particular dos-based program that i was running... Though it is possible there may be an updated flash program to run.... where did you get the flash program? did it come with the computer/motherboard or did you download it? as far as the floppy you might need to enter the bios and look for "report no floppy to windows". also double check that it is seen in the bios and is set up. double check your floppy cable.... is it backwards? if the light comes on and stays on then your cable needs to be turned around....

as another thought you said you booted to dos? what dos did it boot? maybe the dos version isn't recognizing the memory....

[sewildman50]

"double check your floppy cable.... is it backwards? if the light comes on and stays on then your cable needs to be turned around...."

Magic!!! Completely overlooked the cable issue. As a matter of fact, the light did come on and stay on. I'm switching that around when I get home. Then I'll try the whole thing over with the floppy.

Failing that, I will try the BIOS settings adjustments you recommended.

Failing that, I will buy a new floppy.

FYI, I was kind of thinking the same thing about needing to write something to disk in order to proceed with the update. I'm confident that a working floppy drive will solve the problem.

As for the BIOS update...I got it right from the product specs page for my mobo here:

http://www.abit-usa....p...1&model=201

Thanks a lot for your help, including the bonus floppy drive solution.

Confirming, once again, that this is the ONLY PC troubleshooting forum I need to access.

[sewildman50]

I'm almost too embarassed to post this but it may save others significant headaches so here goes...

I figured out that I don't need a CD-ROM or 3.5 floppy to update/flash my BIOS

Apparently ABIT has their own flash console that can be used in windows, allowing you to save your current BIOS, update to the most recent BIOS for your mobo, and clear your CMOS. All of this done in about two minutes. Here's the link to the tool. Abit's FlashMenu seems to run in a similar fashion to Winflash but, based on the information I read about the latter, is a lot simpler to use.

Here's the link

http://www.abit-usa....s/flashmenu.php

I'm guessing that similar utilities exist for other Motherboards as well so it's worth looking into for others who wish to update their BIOS as well.

I'll say again though...Thanks very much for your help Shard92.

[shard92]

No worries and your welcome. And thank you for posting what you found out. Like you said it may help others someday...