I have been having a whole slew of problems since my upgrade to XP pro and the solution to all of them seems to be a bios upgrade. Problem is, i can't seem to find one... ok i did find one, but it was on a forein language page, so i have no idea what to do with it now that i downloaded it!! I'm running a Chaintech CT-6ata2 motherboard. I think the bios are award or something like that. I downloaded a .bin file that said it was an update, based on the motherboard, but i really have no idea what to do with it now, and what the effect will be on my comp if its not the right thing... Thanks for any help!!

What you need to do is make a boot disk (www.bootdisk.com) for your system. From that website make a bootdisk that contains no windows drivers, just a disk to get you in. Then copy your award software to that disk. Then copy your .bin file to that disk. Then through bios set your system to "first boot device" = "a:"......then reboot, insert the floppy disk, wait till you get to the dos prompt. Then type in award (i think it is). Disclaimer!: do this at your own risk!Flashing is risky. This process normally makes a backup of your bios on the same disk so you can always go back if it fails. Lots have more informative information that what i have just said. I suggest you look at a few websites to assist as they go through step by step. :-)

you might want to check the www.award.com and put in your BIOS info and see irf they have an update and info on the upgrade in English.

How can I update BIOS?

Who says a BIOS upgrade is the soloution to your problems ? Did you find specific information to that effect or have you just convinced yourself of it in desperation ? Frankly I would be surprised if your BIOS were responsible for a "whole slew" of problems. I would say it's more likely that they stem from doing an upgrade to XP not a clean install. What are your problems ? Be under no illusions about flashing your BIOS: If you attempt to do this and something goes wrong then it's entirely possible you could render your motherboard useless....you have been warned...!!!

Currently my problems are the following: The computer USED to randomly restart... so i got rid of that feature... now it just blue screne's out. I get an IRQL_not_less_or_equal error on the blue screen. My error veiwer gives me "AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address (0xcfc), which lies in the 0xcf8 - 0xcff protected address range. This could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance." That comes up about 5 times before the comp crashes. I just recently though... "oh, I'll upgrade the bios" so i called the company and they were going to charge me $70.... which is insane in my current financial situation (i.e. student). I just now went in and changed it to ignore errors and just give me an error message because another board recommended that... so we'll se... but I'd love more advice, especially if this sounds like another type of problem. I'm pretty sure my XP install is ok though. Thank you!!!

I agree with Kinel, highly unlikely the bios is the problem. I suggest a clean install. I am not a big fan of flashing the bios - to me it's a last resort and read up on what the flash actually does for you.