Hi guys, I'm trying to upgrade my bios because this bios does not fully support my 180 gb hdd (only shows as 128 gb). I downloaded the latest flash bios from Asus and followed the manual for updating the bios, although i had to get a bit innovative in getting to use the flash software (awdflash). Anyway, I just tried to flash the bios and here's what's happening (this is all in dos): it first asks me to enter the filename of the new bios (on the floppy) then it asks if i want to backup the current bios... i did and it seems to have saved it. Now, after backing up the current bios, it gives me the following message: "The program file's BIOS-Lock String does not match with your system!" and it gives me a checksum. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't giving a checksum mean the operation was successful? What is the reason for the error? After I restarted, I found out that the bios was not updated. Any advice on this? Thanks!

my mistake... i was using the wrong version of the bios update. I tried it with the correct file and was able to successfully flash my bios. However, the problem still remains: Windows xp only shows my hdd as 128 gb. Is this a problem w/ xp? or has Asus yet to come up with a solution for this??

ahh... found the answer here: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=g*Rd6NBg&p_lva=&p_faqid=533&p_created=1031763968&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9ncmlkc29ydD0mcF9yb3dfY250PTIwNSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PWdpZ2FieXRlIGxpbWl0JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9NCZwX3Byb2RfbHZsMT1_YW55fiZwX3Byb2RfbHZsMj1_YW55fiZwX2NhdF9sdmwxPX5hbnl_JnBfc29ydF9ieT1kZmx0JnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li= seems like this question is a solo act!... :)

Hey man! Sorry I'm ruining your solo act. ;) But if I remember correctly, updating your BIOS won't do anything for the incorrect size of the h/d. What is probably happening is that you are having problems with your INT13 extensions (if you don't know what that is, no problem, not important). There is a limit to the size of a h/d that current BIOS's can handle (INT13) 180 gb is WAY over that! =) So basically you have two options: 1. Partition the h/d (make the Primary partition 120 GBs and the Extended partition for 60 GBs) 2. The other thing is that most h/ds that are over the INT13 barrier come with a special PCI card that enables the h/d to be seen as a 180 gb h/d, if you got the h/d used and it didn't come with the card then just partition, that is probably easier anyway. Hoped that helped! I will try and email you also since you might not check this anymore. Any further questions you can email me at GamersForChrist@msn.com TTYL!