Bios problem

Hi,
I have just used Sisoftware Sandra to try and find out how i can improve my system cause it has alot of crashes and lockups, from the tests it says that my smbios/dmi information may be inaccurate. my mother board is a msi ms-6741, and i'm trying to find and update for the bios does anyone know where i can find one and how to install it? i've tried google but i don't trust all the websites with updates for this sort of thing and don't know which to trust. please advise. thanks

Best place to get BIOS upgrades is from the manufacturers website where it should have all the info you need to install it. However, flashing the BIOS can be potentially disasterous if things go pear-shaped - you wont be able to boot your PC at all.

Was about to say what big10p said.

If you have an AMD CPU, the latest BIOS version is here.

Have a look around the site first to make sure its the right version - I take no responsibility for your PC going tits-up!

From the site:

ok, i really don't have a clue here, if it's not to much hassle could i put up a full spec of my system for you to look at cause i cannot tell what is and is not the right update for my system :s? thanks

Your best option is to look at the POST screen when you start your system up (the one with the Energystar logo or whatever in the top corner). It will tell you what BIOS and version you're using. That's going to get you going in the right direction far easier than anybody here could with second hand information.

If you don't really know what you're doing, I'd advise leaving it well alone. You can really stuff things up if you try to flash the wrong BIOS version.

What Gfk said. I'd be loathed to give advice on what to install etc. in case things go wrong. I don't want to take the blame for stuffing up someones system, TBH.

Are you sure that this isn't Sandra saying that ITS results might be inaccurate?

Good point.

SiSoft always says this!

ok thanks, does anyone have any advise though to solve computer crashes, hangs, random restarts, no partitions found or able to create, and the graphics card crashing on games? thanks

If you are getting random blue screens, reboots that come without warning, etc, the most likely cause by far is overheating. Go into BIOS _immediately_ following a crash/reboot and check your system and CPU temperatures. Based on your description, I am guessing you have an AMD CPU. AMD processors run notoriously hot and if even a tiny bit of thermal gel is missing between the processor and the fan, you will get exactly what you describe (except for the hard drive partitions - that's odd, unless your whole system is running extremely hot). Even if you do not have an AMD CPU, your symptoms sound a LOT like overheating.

As for BIOS, your motherboard is an MSI; MSI stands for Microstar International. The North American English site for Microstar is http://www.msicomputer.com Head over there and look for BIOS updates for your particular motherboard.

Edit: I just realized I didn't give a solution for overheating. Make sure the fan is working properly by checking in BIOS to see the fan's RPMs while the computer is on. Also check visually to see that the fan is really hauling ass (not scientific, but hey...) Assuming the fan is working, you'll need to remove the fan from the processor (while the computer is off, of course) and apply thermal compound (available at Frys, Best Buy, etc) to the surface of the CPU. Before applying, make sure the surface of the processor and the contact plate on the fan are clean, using pc-safe cleaning agents. Make sure you have applied enough compound that when the fan is attached to the CPU, the compound will spread out and cover the ENTIRE surface of the CPU. Then, attach the fan, lock it in place and fire up your computer.

If the fan is bogus, you'll need to do all of the above with a new fan instead of the old. Make sure you get a fan designed to fit your motherboard and CPU socket. Also make sure the fan moves a lot of cubic feet of air, don't skimp and try to get away with a cheap fan.

SpaceAce

Just the silver bit not the entire PCB!!

Heh, yes, I mean the exposed back of the unit; don't spread compound around to the pins or off the sides of the chip.

SpaceAce

lol, ok thanks, i checked the fan above the processor and it is working ok, but in bios it says the rpm is 0? i cleaned the heat sink that was above the processor as it was covered in dust. the processor at a cold start up is at about 34°, while system is running it is at 44°, is that normal temperatures? thanks

That's a pretty low temperature, no problems there. The bios probably cannot monitor the fan, so I wouldn't worry about the RPM showing zero as long as you can hear the fan spinning.

In the bios ensure that you have SYSTEM BIOS CACHEABLE set to DISABLED and anything which mentions shadowing ( VIDEO BIOS SHADOWING, SYSTEM BIOS SHADOWING ) also set to DISABLED. These are common causes of BSOD's in Windows 2K and XP ( quite probably in Vista too ) although people will frequently tell you that these settings can't cause problems. Trust me, I've seen the problems enabling any of those settings can cause, you don't want them enabled. They cannot do any good on modern PC's, they're legacy features from years ago. All they can do on any vaguely modern PC is harm.

Other than that, BSOD's are probably going to be caused by driver conflicts or bad hardware. I would probably suggest getting DriverCleaner and doing a really thorough test ( follow the instructions carefully, it won't help unless you do it exactly right ) and make sure you don't have two different versions of drivers hanging around. Two different versions of NV4DISP will cause you more headaches than you could imagine and they do have a habit of buring themselves in unlikely places.

If you're getting a BSOD, the exact BSOD message would be handy. Is it IRQ NOT EQUAL? Any driver mentioned?

Just had a thought... this is an AMD CPU with WindowsXP, right?

I only mention it because for about the last year and a half, my PC has suffered from random lock-ups, which are only fixable by reboot.

I have literally changed everything in my PC - even the motherboard. The only component that hasn't been changed is the CPU itself.

I still get crashes under XP to this day and I don't know why - Sisoft Sandra won't even work on my PC for some reason - complains that a database service can't start or something. Anyway, since I installed Vista (dual boot) on the same PC a while ago, the XP crashes still happen, but in Vista it's fine.

I'm beginning to wonder if something has changed during the many hundreds of WindowsXP updates, that simply doesn't like certain CPUs. Mine's an Athlon XP3000+.

Yea i thik it might be something like that actually cause my processor is an athlon 64 3400+. turned off those features in bios so should make the system just a little more stable. will try driver cleaner when i have the spare money to get it. just wandering if anyone here has ever used msi's live updater for bios? thanks

edit: last question is a general question and not to do with what the sandra software said, i just think it might boost the performance if i get it up to date. thanks

{refresh}

Stupid question, but did you actually install all of your device drivers? The only time I experienced bad instability in any of my computers was the time I didn't bother to install the IDE busmastering drivers for the onboard IDE controller (part of the motherboard driver disk)

I figured it wouldn't make much of a difference -- big mistake. After installing the IDE busmastering drivers, all instability problems went away immediately.

furthermore, If you have a power supply with one leg in the grave, you may also experience a lot of spontaneous reboots. (although probably not lockups or blue screens)

Finally: a couple of years ago many motherboard suppliers had problems with bad capacitors which would lead to chronic system stability issues, getting worse and worse until the entire system was unusable. At the office we've gone through some batches of Acer PC's (I know, I know) where on average the motherboard would last for 6-9 months before requiring a replacement. Which too would fail very quickly. Rinse and repeat.

If you suspect a motherboard issue, open your case and take a quick peek at the capacitors -- those little barrel-shaped thingamajigs that are mounted on the motherboard. They tend to be blue, black or grey, with a metallic top with an 'X' on them. If you see any of them bulging at the top partially opening the X, or see rust-colored crusts on them (similar to a leaking battery), then more than likely that's the culprit.

I've used it a couple of weeks ago on my new(ish) MSI P6N SLI motherboard, without any problems.

That said: a BIOS upgrade is a big deal, always carrying the potential for permanently ruining a machine. I've upgraded several bioses without problems over the years, but I've also turned an old Pentium 3 and a linksys router into a paperweight thanks to a failed BIOS update.

If you have the booklet for your motherboard, check to see if it has a bios rollback/restore option. some motherboards have those, which means that if your bios upgrade fails, there may be a way to restore the orginal image. On other systems, you're flat out of luck and it will never work again if it goes wrong. If yours does have a recovery mode, then it's pretty save to do... But as always, upgrade at your own risk. :-?

BIOS upgrades are typically: if it ain't broken, don't fix it. Now, in your case it sounds like things *are* broken, but still... Consider how ofter your machine crashes. Now consider what would happen it it crashed in the middle of a bios upgrade. Not something I would like to find out myself. :-?

Kain,
What are you using to check temperature outside of BIOS? I ask because your CPU is under almost no load when you're just using the BIOS options screens. Firing up an application or two, doing something mathematically intense, etc, can DRAMATICALLY increase your CPU temperature, which will drop again very quickly once the load is off.

SpaceAce

ok, the problem was that it didn't have half the drivers installed :S, trust tiny computers. I used the live update and there was no update for bios but alot of updates in the way of drivers, which has kinda gone wrong. SpaceAce i used a tool from the msi site to monitor the temperatures while the system is running fully, can't remember the name of it now due to the system not working lol. thanks for the help guys.

Tiny??? Oh my Lord!

lol yea i must have been mad, it was really annoying cause just as my pc start to mess up they went bankrupted, so couldn't get any support or a refund.

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