BIOS update -- Help

[escapee]

Hi,

I have a laptop that's advertised as a desktop replacement running XP Pro now but was born Win98SE. 512 Ram, 2 hard drives 60 and 10 G's. DVD CD burner, floppy drive.

I've been getting an error message and a warning message in my system viewer. The messages are: \Device\ACPIEC: The embedded controller (EC) hardware returned data when none was requested. This may indicate that the BIOS is incorectly trying to access the EC without syncronizing with the OS. The data is being ignored.

The error message is: The Venturi2 Client service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s).

I emailed Sager, the manufacturer of my laptop, and the tech sent the following message to me along with a new BIOS.

Here is the BIOS you can update it..
rename 856bv418.111 to 856bv418.exe before it can extract it.
YOU NEED MAKE A CLEAN BOOTABLE FLOPPY DISKETTE FROM WIN95 OR WIN98 WITHOUT HIMEM.SYS COMMAND ,
COPY THE BIOS FILE TO A BLANK FORMATTED FLOPPY. THEN BOOT UP WITH THE WIN BOOTDISK,AFTER THE A
PROMPT SHOWS, REMOVE THE WIN BOOT DISK AND PUT IN THE FLOPPY WITH THE BIOS FILE,
UNDER THE A PROMPT
TYPE IN
856bv418 -sager (lower case for sager, and leave a space between the bios file name and -sager )
BE SURE TO LEAVE A SPACE BEFORE THE DASH.

THEN YOU'LL SEE EXPANDING EACH FILE. WHEN IT STOPS TYPE IN AUTOEXEC.BAT AT THE A
PROMPT AND HIT ENTER, WHEN IT IS DONE, IT WILL SAY IT'S SAFE TO TURN OFF PC.
VERY IMPORTANT, REMOVE THE FLOPPY BEFORE TURNING OFF POWER.
AFTER UPDATE THE BIOS, NEED COLD BOOT THE NOTEBOOK, AND GO INTO THE BIOS, LOAD
THE DEFAULT SETTING.
**** WE DON'T TAKE RESPONSIBILITY IF BIOS IS DEAD OR THE SOFTWARE NOT WORKING RIGHT
AFTER YOU UPDATE THE BIOS BY YOURSELF.

Here are my questions: Where is the best place to get a clean bootable 98 diskette without HIMEM.SYS COMMAND. I don't know what himem.sys command is?

AFTER UPDATE THE BIOS, NEED COLD BOOT THE NOTEBOOK, AND GO INTO THE BIOS, LOAD
THE DEFAULT SETTING. What does that statement mean? What is cold boot? How do I load the default settings and what are they?

Should I attempt any of this by myself or just forget the whole thing. My computer runs okay, not great. By that I mean it sometimes gets really slow and almost stops responding. It's not a hang just seems to stop responding. I can always click on something and make it move again.

If I try to update the BIOS and fail, can I somehow go back to the previous BIOS?

Thanks for any information and enlightenment.

Hank

[glc]

http://bbscomp.com/george/95boot.exe

Download it, put a blank floppy in the drive, and run it. This is a self extracting image of a barebones Win95B bootdisk.

[escapee]

Thanks glc, I now have a bootable Win95 floppy. I guess you gave me a back door answer as to whether I should attempt the BIOS update by giving me the web site for the bootable disk. Now, will you or anyone else give me answers\information on my other two questions??
Thanks,
Hank

[mrmister1]

If there is a problem with the BIOS update you can always download the last BIOS update and revert back to it.

[Statica]

You may be able to revert the BIOS back. Sometimes there is a backup BIOS that will allow you to go back; sometimes you may have to send it to the manufacturer.

Cold boot: Start the system from a power off state, not from a reboot; or a standby. Means, turn off your laptop after the upgrade. Wait a couple of minutes and then start up.

As to should you do it? That can be answered only by your willingness to take the risk and how much of a risk you consider it to be. Honestly, most people here would do a BIOS upgrade really often. If you are unwilling or uncomfortable with the way the directions are laid out then you could take it in to a local PC guy and have them do it for you for a nominal charge. If you are willing to learn then the BIOS update is rather straightforward. Also remember, that most BIOS flash programs have built in checks that check to see if the BIOS is meant for your system; or if the new file itself is corrupted.

I would like to tell you that its pretty easy to do an upgrade but you should see it from the directions, as to whether I am telling the truth

[escapee]

Thanks guys, Great information!! I'm getting close to giving it a try. Still want to know how to load the default settings in the new BIOS. I think that will be self explanatory when I get to that point?? I don't suppose it would be possible to download the old BIOS (if necessary) from the internet. The only thing I know about the present BIOS is that it is a PhoenixBIOS. The reason I ask if I could d/l the BIOS from the internet is Sager tech support is not very good on follow up questions. I know what they would tell me if I ask for a copy of the BIOS I now have; "I ALREADY SEND BIOS" and that would be the last response!

If my present BIOS has a revert feature, I should be okay. Is there anyway to know if it does at this point? I am correct in thinking that if the disk is formatted the BIOS remains unchanged. In other words, formatting and reinstalling XP wouldn't put a BIOS back in my computer. That question shows how much I know about computers. (At least my wife thinks I'm a guru.)

Hank

[escapee]

I tried to extract the BIOS I received as an attachment in the email from Sager but I got a window telling me I didn't have appropriate permission to open the document. I emailed the tech at Sager and he told me to open the BIOS in DOS. I know I'll have to boot from my Win95 boot disk but how do I extract the file? If you can help, I'll need detailed instructions.

Thanks,

Hank