Re: Congratulate me. . !
A UPS is probably a very good thing to have, Carlos - a bit expensive it
used to be, but with the highest security. It's true, it is not every year
we have a power failure, so they are always particularly shocking to us when
they happen. I remember a short while after New York was out for 4 days,
some years ago, Sweden was hit by an explosion at a small transfer
installation (we buy lots of Swedish power from their Hydro-Powerplants),
this had nearly the complete Danish network go off-line for one day. On both
sides, nobody was aware of the consequences on the other side! Here where I
am, power came back after some six hours, but supply was very unpredictable.
That is a 'once-in-a-lifetime', event. Even the heavy hurricanes we expect
to keep us in the cold and dark for maybe an hour or so. When Katrina
stopped twisting, she payed us a visit, and layed down half the forrests all
across mid Scandinavia, some of the more isolated Swedes were left powerless
for two weeks, or more. Under normal conditions, anything beyond some
three - four hours of outage once in three years, is unheard-of. It's a
nice, safe place to be - no earthquakes, no poisonous snakes, no tsunamis -
hence our long vacations! Here, if we stay home and broadband is up, we die
of stupidity and boredom - not good for productivity.
One thing I particularly like about the Asus Updater, is that if I download
the *.BIN file, the Updater verifies it before flashing, this is very
comforting. What scares me about the whole process is that if something goes
wrong, that I should turn off the power myself as a spinal reaction. Having
saved the current BIOS data in it's own *.BIN file, as a safety measure,
apparently it should be possible to flash back the original as long as you
have your BIOS in memory. Well, I didn't have the occasion to test that yet,
but it sure sounds good.
Tony. . .
"Carlos" <Carlos@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BBFEF361-ECDE-4098-BE3A-ADBD5FCB4112@microsoft.com...
> Congratulations, Tony!
> One of the things I have done in order to ease the pain is to have an UPS
> permanently powering my PC.
> That ensures that no power outage will interrupt the flashing process.
> Power outages may not be common in Denmark, but down here in Argentina...
> Carlos
>
> "Tony Sperling" wrote:
>
>> It's a really strange thing.
>>
>> When the finger hovers over the enter key or the pointer on the OK
>> button, I
>> press it with almost absolute certainty of impending disaster while
>> mumbling
>> the magic incantation:"Don't turn off the power - don't turn off the
>> power -
>> don't turn off the power!".
>>
>> Well, so far, I've always been lucky. This is not my first Asus board,
>> but I
>> must confess - they have me impressed now. It took them a while to issue
>> the
>> first update but they've come trickling in a steady rate since and the
>> system software is extremely solid and mostly to my liking. I've had my
>> share of MSI boards too, and I've always liked the boards themselves, but
>> I
>> slowly tired of the various ALI and VIA chipsets, which was mostly junk
>> for
>> me. By far the most reliable board before this one was an Asrock (it
>> still
>> is!) with an SiS chipset - only thing was, it was my first 64bit machine
>> and
>> I didn't know what to ask for so they gave me a socket 939 which ended up
>> being depressing, since I'd expected to have dual-channel memory. Well,
>> it's
>> still an amazing machine and I no longer care! Except it's an AGP board
>> and
>> I must keep watch so I don't miss the last batch of cards without
>> noticing.
>>
>> It's like you say, RC. It really feels GOOD and you are left with the
>> impression that you know what you are doing - at least until the next
>> time,
>> heh?
>>
>>
>> Tony. . .
>>
>>
>> "R. C. White" <rc@grandecom.net> wrote in message
>> news:1EE9BF76-0F9E-4BEB-A409-44CE1BD5C68A@microsoft.com...
>> > Congratulations, Tony!
>> >
>> >> flashing was new, but this gives me the shakin' willies every single
>> >> time!
>> >
>> > I KNOW the feeling! And I always feel so good after a successful
>> > flash.
>> > ;<)
>> >
>> > Once a flash went bad and I had to order a new EEPROM from some guy
>> > online. Everything went OK, but I was nervous until it was done. My
>> > current mobo was bought in December 2006 (EPoX MF570sli AM2
>> > (http://www.epox.com/USA/product.asp?ID=EP-MF570SLI) w/Athlon 64 X2
>> > 5000+
>> > CPU); its BIOS was dated 08/01/2006 and no updates have been posted
>> > since
>> > then. I started with 2 GB PC6400 and added another 2 GB last November.
>> > It's still running rock-solid. ;<)
>> >
>> > RC
>> > --
>> > R. C. White, CPA
>> > San Marcos, TX
>> > rc@grandecom.net
>> > Microsoft Windows MVP
>> > (Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)
>> >
>> > "Tony Sperling" <tony.sperling@dbREMOVEmail.dk> wrote in message
>> > news:eVc6d7eaIHA.5976@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> >> I've just succesfully updated my BIOS (Asus M2N32) from version 903 to
>> >> 1603!
>> >>
>> >> Oh, I know it's a trivial thing, and I've been doing this, largely
>> >> since
>> >> flashing was new, but this gives me the shakin' willies every single
>> >> time!
>> >>
>> >> The system was stable, but they tweaked the memory timings a while
>> >> back
>> >> and this is the fourth or fifth update since, and I just had to try it
>> >> now - I don't remember precisely, but I think Sandra upped the memory
>> >> ratings and it makes me feel rather good right now. Anyway, when they
>> >> eventually crack the Phenom difficulties, I'll be ready!
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Have a nice - whatever it is that you're all doing - I'm off to say
>> >> 'Hello' to a bottle of Islay Malt!
>> >>
>> >> (. . .if I can find it?)
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Tony. . .
>> >
>>
>>
>>