F3SV-B1 BIOS update - instruction help

Searching for the thread that has this procedure has proven to be much more time consuming than I thought. Please , could someone direct me to where I can find step by step instruction on how to upgrade the BIOS for the F3 .
My computer has 203 , and the Asus site shows 204, and 206. Do I need to upgrade to 204 first , then 206, or can I go right to 206 ?
Thank you in advance . Appreciate your help.

Laxpacman

 

If it's like every other Asus, download the most recent relevant BIOS, open the program "Winflash" under Asus Utilities in Start and direct it to the downloaded BIOS. Let us know how it turns out.

~ Brett

 

+1 for what he said ^^. and yes...its like every other asus system

 

If you have the Easy Flash option in your BIOS, here's an alternative:

How to upgrate: you don't need to "uninstall" anything, since the BIOS is just a chunk of flash memory 512KB in size on a special chip on the motherboard. This memory should get overwritten in the upgrade process; overwriting, once started, takes about 15 seconds. You need to download the BIOS file, i.e., the raw content of the new BIOS, 512KB in size. This is usually a ZIP file on the ASUS support page. Unzip it to get the BIOS file, which directly usable by the flash utility.

Flash utility: For many ASUS notebooks, there is an utility in the BIOS menu itself, accessible via pressing F2 during boot, and then navigating to "Start Flashing BIOS" or "Start Easy Flash Utility" or something like that. Otherwise, there is a DOS utility on the ASUS support site, and a Windows utility as well.

As always, I recommend that the upgrade be done with the BIOS utility if it is available, as it involves no Operating System (whether Windows or DOS) and therefore is much less prone to errors. And failure during BIOS writing means death for the computer (temporary death, since the chip can be removed and written anew by techsupport, but death anyway).

For the same reason, have a good amount of charge in your battery when starting the utility (more than 10 minutes worth of it). That way, you don't depend on the AC supply which might run out just in the critical few seconds.

Precise walkthrough for overwriting BIOS using the BIOS Flash utility:
1. Download BIOS.
2. Unzip into the root folder on a flash drive.
3. Insert flash drive.
4. Reboot, press F2 to go into BIOS, navigate to "Start Easy Flash Utility" or a similar name. Select this option.
5. At the ensuing explorer-like navigation screen, navigate to the flash drive and select the unzipped BIOS file.
6. Wait until BIOS is written. The computer will reboot itself.
7. Go into BIOS and select "Reset to Defaults"; either User or Manufacturer defaults.
8. Navigate around BIOS and select options the way you like them (boot device order etc.)

 

EBE,
Thank you , this is much more of what I was looking for. Could you elaborate some please , for the "computer challenged". First , there are two updates on ASUS site, do I need to do this for the earlier 204 version , and then the latest 206 , or can I go directly to the 206 ?

Also, to the novice , step 3 would seem to need to be done before step 2 , no ? Would you clarify ? Do I download the BIOS directly to the flash drive , or to the HDD and then move to the flash ? I seem to have a problem unzipping these files , when I open the file, doesn't that unzip it ? , sorry for these basic questions.
I am very anxious about changing the defaults(step 7 and 8), do most people change this from the manufacturers sequence ? Thank you again for your assistance. Appreciate the help.

Laxpacman

 

Go directly for the latest 206 version. Updates are not incremental, therefore they need not be made in sequence.

Yes, step 3 is before step 2 I don't know why I wrote it like that, probably because I imagined two separate components to the action sequence, one is downloading and copying to the flash stick (for which the flash stick has of course to be inserted), and the second is writing and starts at step 3 with the insertion of the flash in preparation for writing the BIOS.

Now in answer to your questions. It's irrelevant whether you download it to the HDD or flash. But you need to unzip the binary file. Here's how to do it. The BIOS is downloadable as a ZIP file from ASUS; that's an archive file. Double click the file in Windows Explorer, it will open the archive. Copy the single file in it, and paste it on the flash memory stick.

Usually, the User Defaults (or Optimized Defaults, in some BIOS-es) work well. If you're uncomfortable with changing settings in the BIOS, reset to user defaults and leave it at that.

I say again, you can only apply steps 4-6 of my procedure if your BIOS offers the EasyFlash option.

 

E. B. E. ,
Just thought I would close this thread with a big Thank you ! I was able to update the Bios with your instructions , did have easy flash option , so it really was easy . Only thing that did put a major scare in me was the computer did not automatically reboot after the flash update (weird?) so after about a minute , I manually restarted. All appears well.

Thank you again, I appreciate the help. It's a testament to the great community here .
Laxpacman

 

how do i cheack the bios version?

 

Laxpacman -- you're welcome.

Bera:

just reboot, enter BIOS using F2 at the asus splash screen, and look either on the header of the BIOS screens, or on some generic BIOS information page. You should be able to find the version easily.

Otherwise, you can download a software called Bios Agent that will tell you the version (and other stuff) from Windows.

 

Thanks very helpfull thread