Upgrading the BIOS- help?

[raoul_1101]

Hello,

I'm looking to update the BIOS on my XFX nForce 680i LT board. I know, its a little old, and long overdue, but any help would be appreciated. After a lot of digging, I was able to find BIOS files in both the form of .iso and .bin. However, I'm not sure what to do with them. Normally, I would just burn the iso to a cd/dvd using a program such as imgburn. However, I don't have any optical media on me nor do I have access to any for a while. I was wondering if you guys could help me make a bootable flash drive that I could use to flash my BIOS?

I've looked around some, and tried a couple different methods, but I decided it would be best to come her to ask for some help, specifically.

Thank you!

 

[johnb35]

Unless you are having a specific issue that the updated bios will supposedly fix, I wouldn't risk the possibility of bricking your motherboard. Are you having any issues at this time?

 

[raoul_1101]

Are you having any issues at this time?

There are a few that I've had over the past few years, the biggest being:

• Some drives, when plugged in (USB), prevent the computer from getting past the BIOS splash screen (yet work normally once booted).
• Intermittent problems with keyboards not working until after boot (not going into BIOS or boot selection menus). Often fixed by simply powering off the machine completely and restarting.

I've done troubleshooting on the drives, making sure nothing else is plugged in (maybe pulling too much power off of the USB Bus?), but one of my external drives does it every time. I have a flash drive the freezes the computer if it is the BIOS/CMOS configuration page, also.

Keyboards, I've done the same. No other peripherals plugged in, tried different keyboards. I've even (not because of this) replaced the power supply, and am still having some issues sometimes. I assumed its because my BIOS was very outdated.

Recently, I had some problems with a SSD misbehaving and going unresponsive (ruled out OS). There were not firmware updates for the drive, so I assumed (after research) that either the drive was dying (most likely) or the BIOS is having trouble, maybe something to do with AHCI? I am replacing the drive under warranty, but I felt it might be a good idea to update the BIOS while I was at it, a lot of people have had to do that on older motherboards when facing SSD problems.

Your thoughts?

 

[tremmor]

Its being suggested also to look at the updates and seeing if they apply to you. If the updates will not help with your issues you might want to leave it alone. The updates might make the motherboard faster, help with your hardware or even security reasons.
Read about your updates first. Don't flash just because its there.

 

[raoul_1101]

Any chance you have an idea where I might find said documentation? It took me a long time to find the software in the first place, I haven't come across any. Assuming I can't find any documentation, is it better to just leave well enough alone and deal with the problem, or take the plunge and give it a shot?

Of course, there isn't really a single right answer, so I guess I might just let it be.

 

[johnb35]

I tried looking on the xfx website for bios updates but you have to have an account with a specific serial number to get updates for your product. Since I don't have it I can't tell what bios updates are available and what they supposedly fix.