BIOS downgrade wanted for A8N-SLI

[congo]

I have a vanilla Asus A8N-SLI mobo. I flashed an Asus A8N-SLI Premium bios onto it in the hope of getting better overclocking options, which was successful in itself, but the overclocking options were limited to chipset voltage (a choice of two values only) and HT voltage (another choice between two values).

The two additional voltage values seemed to be what I already had as default on my old bios, as they were preset when I flashed to the premium bios, and all my other settings were left exactly as they were from the previous bios, so I am assuming the A8N-SLI default boots at the higher voltage choices offered in the premium board's bios.

I'm also assuming that the lower voltage is not desirable for o/c use either.

Well, after a bit of testing the overclocks with the new premium board's bios, I haven't gained any advantage whatsoever from the new bios, so I went to flash the old BIOS back to the proper vanilla A8N-SLI version and niether the AWDFLASH util or the Asus update will downgrade the bios file back to a previous version.

Is there anything I can do to get the original BIOS file back on this board so it reports version information correctly again?

[NicksFXHouse]

I have a vanilla Asus A8N-SLI mobo. I flashed an Asus A8N-SLI Premium bios onto it in the hope of getting better overclocking options, which was successful in itself, but the overclocking options were limited to chipset voltage (a choice of two values only) and HT voltage (another choice between two values).

The two additional voltage values seemed to be what I already had as default on my old bios, as they were preset when I flashed to the premium bios, and all my other settings were left exactly as they were from the previous bios, so I am assuming the A8N-SLI default boots at the higher voltage choices offered in the premium board's bios.

I'm also assuming that the lower voltage is not desirable for o/c use either.

Well, after a bit of testing the overclocks with the new premium board's bios, I haven't gained any advantage whatsoever from the new bios, so I went to flash the old BIOS back to the proper vanilla A8N-SLI version and niether the AWDFLASH util or the Asus update will downgrade the bios file back to a previous version.

Is there anything I can do to get the original BIOS file back on this board so it reports version information correctly again?

I know this is a dumb question, especially for you since you are a wiz at such things... did you try the ALT-F2 method with the original BIOS placed on a floppy disk but the file RENAMED to the emergency flash file name printed in the manual?


I cant remember the exact name right off the top of my head.


EDIT:
There is also a FORCE switch that can be used for the DOS flasher.. again I dont have the manuals in front of me so cant remember the process.

[NicksFXHouse]

OK.. so what you have done is upgraded the BIOS to the SLI version with all the bells and whistles but want to downgrade.

I think what you may have done is overwrite the boot block which directs the system to refuse to install a BIOS not meant for the deluxe edition so here is a thought... fool the system into thinking it is getting the deluxe BIOS by naming the older BIOS: A8N32SLI.ROM and use the ALT-F2 method to emergency flash.

If that does not work you will need the AFLASH flasher program that allows command line switches. I dont think the Asus DOS flasher allows command line switches in the BIOS update but they may have changed it over the years. I have not used it in several years so i do not know for sure.

You will neet to create a BAT file which automatically incorporates the FORCE FLASH command with the old BIOS file name. The process is available on the net.


One of those two methods should work.

[congo]

Thanks Nick,

I thought about renaming the bios, and then I figured, naaah, too easy, and discounted it. I figured that because the error messages seemed to indicate it was checking the file version from within the file itself, not just the name.........  but I will give it a go, thanks.

[NicksFXHouse]

[quote]Thanks Nick,

I thought about renaming the bios, and then I figured, naaah, too easy, and discounted it. I figured that because the error messages seemed to indicate it was checking the file version from within the file itself, not just the name.........

[congo]

Thankyou Nick.

It turned out to be possible only by using the AWDFLASH utils "/QI" switch, which enables you to flash even though the "Part number does not match" error message appears, all you have to do is continue the flash by selecting "Y" after the error message.

The name of the bios file doesn't matter with this Award bios and bios update utility, so my command was

> awdflash /QI biosfilename.bin

....... where biosfilename is whatever you named the bios file.

So I'm back to my correct bios version for now, thankyou.

[NicksFXHouse]

Thankyou Nick.

It turned out to be possible only by using the AWDFLASH utils "/QI" switch, which enables you to flash even though the "Part number does not match" error message appears, all you have to do is continue the flash by selecting "Y" after the error message.

The name of the bios file doesn't matter with this Award bios and bios update utility, so my command was

> awdflash /QI biosfilename.bin

....... where biosfilename is whatever you named the bios file.

So I'm back to my correct bios version for now, thankyou.

Ahhhhh.. thats what it was

I knew plan B would work but have not seen the issue in so long I could not remember the exact flasher prog. AWDFLASH is a lifesaver because it can also be used as a blind BIOS recovery with a autoexe.bat in such cases too