Member Avatar for giantspider

Hi,
I,ve been trying to upgrade the BIOS - because my m/c keeps hanging, fail to start, even froze when reinstalling XP on to formatted drive.
I went to the m/b site and found the latest download for the bios. When I run it eventually I get a message "The program's file's part number does not match with your system". I exit the upgrade.
When checking the data the only difference I can find is that my current BIOS specifies a flash type WINBOND /5v wheras the download I believe offers a /3v file.
Even more detail: m/b Winfast K7NCR18D PRO.

I have the awdflash prog for dos and winflash for windows - but they are the same essentially.
Yet my bios chip is Phoenix Bios D686BIOS 1998.

Any advice gratefully received. Thanks.

Edited by giantspider because: PUSHED TAB KEY BT MISTAKE AND THERE IT WAS
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Member Avatar for Rik_

I doubt that your bios is the root cause of your problem. The first thing I would do is give the computer a good clean and check the condition of the thermal paste between the heatsink and the CPU!

Member Avatar for giantspider

I doubt that your bios is the root cause of your problem. The first thing I would do is give the computer a good clean and check the condition of the thermal paste between the heatsink and the CPU!

Thanks for response.
I've given mb a reasonable clean/hoover. Unfortunately the socketA processor can only be fully "cleaned" by removeing various components around. Unfortunately I don't have small. dainty paws!
I'm also pursuing the issue with Leadtek who made the m/b.
Assuming I fail to resolve the problem I'll look at removing the fan/heatsink and examining the thermal paste - although I'm not too sure that I'd recognise good or bad condition paste.
Why do you think it's not the bios? I tend to blame Microsoft but have failed to get any consistent pattern of cause and effect.

Member Avatar for Rik_

It's not common for the bios to cause problems! The only time I have seen a bios related issue was when a customer had overclocked his system too far and the bios had to be blanked in order to get the PC running again!

Member Avatar for giantspider

The m/b manufacturer has now provided a link to update the bios - which has now been completed. In that sense the thread has been answered - but as Rik indicated the problem of crashing was not resolved by the flashing.
However, I now have stable computer (but I don't know for how long) by reloading windows xp and leaving off the Creative S/B files.
I've also not loaded .NETframeworks, not anything above XP SP2. I'd rather have a stable m/c that doesn't crash than one that, with all the XP updates loaded was becoming impossible even to start.
Thanks for thoughts.

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