Asus K8n bios update

I was bummed to find out that there was no USB boot option on my K8N motherboard BIOS. Hoping that a BIOS update would give me that option, I started to figure out what to do.

I downloaded the latest BIOS version from the ASUS K8N pages. (download -> select your OS -> BIOS -> Bios version 1011). The version 1011 was released in 2006, so I figure that will be the last version they will release.

Then I got the Asus Update program for Win XP, from softpedia.

First, I saved the current BIOS for backup reasons. I selected "Save current BIOS to file" and clicked Next, chose a folder and saved it as "oldBIOS.rom".

Then I updated the BIOS with "Update BIOS from file". I chose the new BIOS rom file "1011.rom" I downloaded earlier.

 
The BIOS Flash window.

After a short while the BIOS flashing window appeared, with info on my current BIOS version and the one I was updating into. I figured it would be safer to clear the CMOS checksum to get the default settings, in case the old settings would be somehow incompatible with the new BIOS version.

I clicked flash and crossed my fingers.

Flashing complete.

Then to reboot the computer, hoping it would boot without problems... (If a BIOS update fails and you're left with a crippled BIOS, you can say goodbye to your mainboard unless you have 1337 skillz. So be warned!)

...and it worked! I was able to boot to USB from the boot menu (press F8 at boot time to get there). However, there is no option to set USB in the BIOS setup utility boot order settings. It seems I can only boot to USB by manually going to the boot options menu every time. But that's OK with me as long as I can boot from USB!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask in the comments!

Comments

  1. Álvaro GreyApril 14, 2012 at 10:37 PM

    Thanks for this info, worked great for me on my old computer that I'm trying to revive :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 26, 2012 at 1:51 AM

    Hi:

    Thanks for posting this info. I need to boot my K8N from USB also. I updated the BIOS to 1011, but I still don't have USB in the F8 boot options, and it seems that the USB device is listed as disabled in the BIOS configuration menu. It recognizes a USB storage device during POST, but it won't show up in the F8 menu. Actually there's a blank line, but it doesn't work. Can you give some more detail on how you did it?

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ZFSeptember 18, 2012 at 5:37 PM

      Hi,

      can you enable the USB boot option in BIOS configuration?

      For me, the USB stick shows up by different names depending on stick - maybe it's the partition name or so - for ex. "KINGSTON"

      Delete
  3. AnonymousDecember 8, 2012 at 12:46 PM

    Thanks for this tip ZF. Really helpfull for me too.

    ReplyDelete

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