bert
[Entry]
"I have resolved this, but nearly gave myself a minor coronary in the process. Here's what I did (do the same at your own risk, YMMV):
I formatted an old (64MB) Flash Drive with FAT-32.
I used the BIOS M-Flash to save a copy of the current BIOS to the flash drive (very cool).
I downloaded the 4.0 BIOS image from MSI's web site (the image is a file named M7576AMS.400).
I copied the BIOS image to my flash drive as M7576AMS.400. But when I booted, M-Flash could not see the file.
On a hunch, I copied the BIOS image to my flash drive as M7576AMS.160 and M-Flash now showed the file (in the BIOS update function).
I updated with the (phony) 1.6 BIOS that was actually 4.0.
[tense few minutes while we update and reboot after playing funny buggers with our brand new computer that we need functioning in order to work from home tomorrow - I never said I was being smart about this].
I crapped myself when the computer beeped numerous times during BIOS check and then finally said something like ""Your mainboard is damaged, rebooting to reload BIOS from USB"". When the bios loaded it showed only the M-Flash option. All other BIOS settings were suppressed.
I took the update option again, expecting to be able to restore the 1.4 version image I had so prudently created before attempting to update. To my great dismay it showed only the 4.0 file.
I figured I had just 2 options (a) run upstairs to the laptop, rename the 1.4 image to xxx.400 and use that to reflash the BIOS and try and fool the computer one more time, or (b) return to the store, MB in hand, hanging my head in shame and meekly try to cash in on the inexpensive 1 year replacement warranty I had purchased.
However, being the veteran computer programmer I am, I chose hidden option, © try flashing the same image again although all reason dictates the outcome can be no different. Which I promptly did, figuring I had little to loose.
Imagine my complete surprise when I was rewarded with the expected BIOS checksum failure and was subsequently presented with the full BIOS config menu intact, was able to reconfigure everything and finally boot into Windows normally with a functioning system.
There was one perceivable difference between the two flashings: On the first run it wrote the update in fits and starts, anywhere from 2% to 8% at a time, with varying pauses, while the second time through it smoothly reported 3%, 6%, 10%, ... 93%, 96%, 100% at regular intervals.
Oh, and after all that, the computer still does not resume from S3 sleep (I didn't try S1 or S4 because I need some myself right now... sleep that is).
Hope this is of benefit to someone else with an MSI mobo."
|
