Been having all kinds of problems with my ATI 9800 Pro. I have a new computer with an ASUS P4PE motherboard. I heard on posts (and was told) 3 or 4 times by different people to upgrade the BIOS but figured hey, it's only a couple mths old and what effect will the BIOS have anyway? Hmmmm, finally upgraded the BIOS tonight (only because ATI said they wouldn't talk to me anymore until I did) and OMG, problems gone, framerates up 20 or 30%, smoother, and just a lot better. Still have some stutters that I need to work on but I'll search the boards on that one. Funny feeling when you feel relief, joy, and stupid all at once....billg

Know the feeling :-)A couple of years ago I bought a new mobo and other bits and pieces to run FS2002 and the sim would not run. The dealer where I bought everything from told me that it was almost certainly a Windows problem as he considered Windows to be a crap OS.Well, I didn't think BIG BILL was all that bad so I posted a question here and a very kind lady called Katy Pluta suggested a flash BIOS upgrade which scared the hell out of me :-lol Anyway, I went ahead and did it and never looked back afterwards. Mind you, it was a bit scary as the instructions from the mobo manufacturer were in pidgin English :-lolDavid

I have a feeling my computer could benefit from this, but I'm not sure what kind of motherboard I have. Short of contacting the person who donated it to me (not as direct an option as this forum right now) what's an easy way to find out what kind of motherboard might be in my computer, and how to do a flash upgrade or whatever of the BIOS?- Caphollandhttp://caphollands.fsgateway.com

When the computer is booting (checking memory, detecting drives etc.), hit the Pause key. The motherboard model and/or current BIOS version should appear somewhere on the screen. If you only have the BIOS version, doing a Google search for the BIOS version string should help you identify the motherboard.You can also open the case and look at the actual motherboard. Usually, the model and manufacturer is printed somewhere on the board.

I'm pretty certain that SiSoftSandra will give you details of your motherboard- it's a free download for the unregistered version available here---http://www.sisoftware.net/To determine your present BIOS version ,open a DOS window and type in....debugd ff50:0q (hit "enter")The BIOS version will be shownDave

anyone else smell burning toast?

Panda234, I have the ASUS P4P800 motherboard , Always update the BIOS and the chipset driver from Asus. I use the latest pcprobe to check the bios version, cpu fan,chasiss fan, power fan , fan graphicaly monitoring, and all my system infomation, bios version, ram type clock speed, motherboard type and voltage,cpu type and speed, voltage etc. the latest asus utility to update easly the bios with only one click, always update the Bios and chipsetChipsetFileName inf5021003.zip Version 5.0.2.1003 Date 2003/10/20 Description Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility V5.02.1003. http://www.asus.com/support/download/selec...003.zip~zaqwedc ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

Duh ... you mean all that gibberish that pops up on my screen actually MEANS something? Ha! Well, discovered (thanks to actually "looking" at my boot-up screen rather than just "watching" it) that I have an Asus A7V motherboard, with APCI BIOS 1004. So from their website I managed to get ahold of the original user manual for this motherboard, as well as a flash upgrade file.Not sure if I have the courage to attempt the flash upgrade yet, but I did discover that I could upgrade my CPU, and almost double my current speed for less than $50. So I am looking into that option. In the meantime, I'll see if I can get one of my more technical-minded friends to do the BIOS update for me, so I can blame THEM if anything goes wrong ;)

Chris, thx, I learned the hard way, hehe. You're right, and I'll check out that utility, thx! Cap, if you have the P4PE all you need is a floppy disk. If you downloaded the manual just follow the instructions. Yeah, it's scary if it messes up, but it won't. If I can do it (I have the computer skills of a cow) I think you can do it. :-)billg

LOL, isn't that what friends are for? :-lolDefinately up the BIOS, especially if youre thinking of upgrading the processor, as it may be required! Most BIOS's are updated when newer processors come out, or other fixes are made for the chipset, USB, etc. It's all good,TomKONT

Cap, if you can double your CPU speed for $50 bucks do it. Everything I've heard, and it's true, is that FS9 is CPU intensive. Prolly the best upgrade you can do...billg

Hi.I update the BIOS as soon as a new one is released.Usually, nothing happens, neither with the motherboard, nor the performance. Sometimes , the new BIOS solves some hardware compatibility issues, and any marginal memory performance, but don

For some boards ( for instance this one - the ECS K7S5A V3.1) there are CD BIOS updates available on the internet- just download ,make a bootable CD,set PC to Boot from CDROM.and restart- it does it all for you - no need to type in the DOS commands.You'll have to search for the CD image files(if available) on the Internet for any particular board.Also - Microstar boards can have BIOS updated online (My wife had a MS board - it took about 20 seconds to do-worked perfectly every time I did it.Dave

Interesting...I have the P4PE...and after reading this thread I have decided to check to see which version I have and to get an update...well, I am running the P4PE1002 version...I decided to grab the 1007 version..well...I downloaded, copied to floppy...rebooted, alt-F2'ed...typed in P4PE1007.awd, it starts reading, finishes and then tell me that it doesn't match the "onboard version" or something like that, I thought, well, maybe I'll try updating by doing it in steps...1002 to 1005 to 1006 t0 1007...well, I go and download the 1005 version...same thing, I am unable to update at all! What gives? Thanks!Danny[a href=http://library.avsim.net/search.php?CatID=Root&SearchTerm=danny%2Bfritsche&Sort=Added&ScanMode=0&Go=Change+View" target="_blank]My Work.[/a]"Tuesday's coming, did you bring a coat?" - UnknownIntel P4 2.4GHzAsus P4PE MoboCrucial 512MB PC2700 DDR128MB Sapphire Radeon 9800 ProMaxtor 120GB and 30GB 7200Rpm HD

The probable cause is that you aren't typing in the command line for the flash exactly as required.I'm not familiar with your board and don't know if it is a AMI ,Award or Phoenix (or whatever ) BIOS.Whichever,the command line must be exact .....A:>xxxxxx yyyyyy.rom where xxxxxx is the flash utility name ( don't put .exe after it) ,then one space and then yyyyyy is the BIOS name followed by the .rom EG for my board I type....A:>aminf329 020206.romDave