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From: Jacob on 18 Oct 2007 14:50
I cannot get this version to update.

My current BIOS version is 1401.

I've tried Winflash 2.22 for Vista.
I've tried AsusUpdate 7.10.03

The 1404.BIN file is only 128K for one thing. This is way too small.

Anyone else have better luck?
From: Paul on 18 Oct 2007 18:42
Jacob wrote:
> I cannot get this version to update.
> My current BIOS version is 1401.
>
> I've tried Winflash 2.22 for Vista.
> I've tried AsusUpdate 7.10.03
>
> The 1404.BIN file is only 128K for one thing. This is way too small.
>
> Anyone else have better luck?

OK, I know those symptoms. Check carefully, the tool you are using
for decompressing the file. A small file means the decompressor
has decompressed the actual BIOS file itself. Inside a BIOS file
are modules that are compressed. Some are compressed with LHA.
I have used at least one unzipping program, which is too aggressive,
and the output is just a fraction of the BIOS file. You were
astute to notice the BIOS file was not the right size, and by not
using that fragment, you've avoided a non-working motherboard.

When I downloaded the 1404 file, it was big, as in 5MB or so. The
ZIP file consists of an EXE inside, and it appears to be a copy
of Asus Update, plus the BIOS file. I didn't actually execute
the EXE, because I didn't know what would happen if I did. Using
a hex editor, I think I can see Asus Update and also a BIOS file
(because I detected the -lh5- inside the BIOS file).

When you download the ZIP file for 1404, this is what you should get
when it is unzipped. A single file.

M2A-VM-HDMI-1404.exe 6,191,456 bytes

Paul
From: Jacob on 18 Oct 2007 22:58
"Paul" <nospam(a)needed.com> wrote in message :

> OK, I know those symptoms. Check carefully, the tool you are using
> for decompressing the file. A small file means the decompressor
> has decompressed the actual BIOS file itself. Inside a BIOS file
> are modules that are compressed. Some are compressed with LHA.
> I have used at least one unzipping program, which is too aggressive,
> and the output is just a fraction of the BIOS file. You were
> astute to notice the BIOS file was not the right size, and by not
> using that fragment, you've avoided a non-working motherboard.
>
> When I downloaded the 1404 file, it was big, as in 5MB or so. The
> ZIP file consists of an EXE inside, and it appears to be a copy
> of Asus Update, plus the BIOS file. I didn't actually execute
> the EXE, because I didn't know what would happen if I did. Using
> a hex editor, I think I can see Asus Update and also a BIOS file
> (because I detected the -lh5- inside the BIOS file).
>
> When you download the ZIP file for 1404, this is what you should get
> when it is unzipped. A single file.
>
> M2A-VM-HDMI-1404.exe 6,191,456 bytes
>
> Paul

I downloaded the ZIP file three different times, and none of the extracted
EXE files from these downloads did anything. Then I downloaded the ZIP file
once more tonight. This time it actually ran, but failed to finish
executing.

I'm running Vista, so I switched to XP SP2 compatibility mode and this time
it ran and updated the BIOS to version 1404!

In a nutshell, I got 3 bad downloads, and with the 4th, I had to change to
XP compatibility mode before things finally worked. Be nice if they told you
that you had to do this with Windows Vista... Oh well, I'm finally
happy...it worked.

Thanks for the feedback, Paul.

Jacob


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