Please read the information in this section very carefully and take your time with it. We strongly advice that you print these pages if possible, read it again and keep it close by while you are actually performing the update. If used correctly the information can help solve or prevent trouble but if used incorrectly it might cause you a lot more and even very serious trouble.

1. IDENTIFY YOUR BOARD TYPE and current BIOS:
   Before you download the BIOS, it is essential you identify the type of motherboard you are using, also the version. Flashing with an incorrect BIOS version can and very likely will result in damaging your board. (For example, you can't flash the Titanium IB BIOS on the Titanium IB+ motherboard, or 2.x version BIOS on 1.x version motherboard, etc.) There are various ways to identify the type of board and the version used:
   1. The model name is usually printed as white text or on a small label on the circuit board identification located on the edge of the board close to the ISA or PCI slots. For example you can find "P5I430TX TITANIUM I B+" besides the outer ISA slot. Or with more recent models there usually also is an 8-sided label on one of the big chips (the Southbridge) that is part of the mainboard chipset.
   2. Identify the BIOS version during system boot-up. (e.g. when you start up your computer, you can find 'P6I440BX BrillianX-1S/2K BIOS V1.3SLRC Jan.07,2000' appearing on your screen, the 'v1.3SLRC' is the BIOS version of your motherboard.)(see picture)
      
      
   3. With most of our models since 1999 the PCB version does not matter anymore for the BIOS updates but if you have an older model mainboard please be adviced of the following. Identify the PCB version from the motherboard markings. (e.g. if you identify a label that on the edge of the board stating v1.0(s1.3), then this is a v1.0 version motherboard too.)
      For this v1.0 version motherboard, you may upgrade to BIOS v1.x series. e.g. BIOS v1.1, v1.2 or etc. The PCB version matches the BIOS version of our products. If the PCB version does not matter it will be mentioned with the BIOS update description.

2. IMPORTANT: UPDATING THE BIOS OR NOT?
   If your system is in good working condition without encountering any conflicts, we strongly recommend you do not update the BIOS if there are no problems with the system. Only upgrade the BIOS when you are encountering difficulties, or the BIOS modified items are useful to you. Updating may resulting in incompatibility problems, we can't guarantee all the products on the market are compatible with the Award BIOS. However, incorrect operation of flash procedure may also result in damaging the board. This company is not responsible for any damages caused from the result of end-users flashing their Bios.

3. EVEN MORE IMPORTANT: HOW TO CLEAR THE CMOS WITHOUT DAMAGING THE MOTHERBOARD!
   After updating the BIOS it is recommended to clear the CMOS so that the saved settings of the previous BIOS do not conflict with the new BIOS.
1. If the system has an AT powersupply make sure that the switch of the powersupply is switched to "Off" or "0" and if it has an ATX powersupply without a mechanical switch at the back make sure that the powercable is disconnected from the powersupply.
2. Set the jumper in the "Clear CMOS" position for about 2 seconds.
3. Set the jumper back into the "Normal" position and then you can switch on or reconnect the power again.

It is especially important that people from technical departments realise that because if there is one person working there who does it wrong and clears the CMOS of motherboards with the power on it can result in a lot of malfunctioning motherboards.

If the clear CMOS jumper is set in the clear CMOS position while there is still power on the motherboard than it can cause damage in the clock-chip, resulting in incorrect time keeping, or damage some diodes between the battery and the clock-chip, resulting in incorrect time keeping and accelerated drain on the battery which in turn results in the loss of data in the CMOS-chip.

4. STEPS TO FLASH BIOS:
   
   1. Download the correct xxxxx.ZIP file and extract it. It includes The flashprogram (usually AWDFLASH.EXE), a BIOS binary file xxxxx.BIN and a README file. Please read the README file carefully.
   2. With the flashprogram you can use the command "AWDFLASH /?" to get a help screen with information about the options.
   3. Prepare a DOS bootable disk (With Windows you can usually find that under "Format" of the A drive properties) with only the system files: MSDOS.SYS, IO.SYS (these two files are usually hidden so you have to set the Windows Explorer properties to show hidden and system files) and COMMAND.COM. Do not include any AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS file and then save the flashprogram and the binary update file to this diskette.
   4. Enter BIOS setup and write down all the current BIOS settings. then Load Setup Default to use the default settings. In BIOS FEATURE SETUPS make sure the first boot device is the A drive for the floppy and disable the L2 cache (also known as "External Cache" with older versions). Finally save and exit BIOS setup.
   5. Let the system reboot from the prepared diskette, type the flashprogram command followed by the filename of the binary file at the DOS prompt. For example: A:\>awdflash b1sv13.bin
   6. The flashprogram will ask you two questions. The first question will be whether you want to back up the original BIOS from your system to a file. Choose Y(es) or N(o) but if you choose yes make sure to use a different name then the binary update file you wish to use.
   7. The second question needs you to confirm the update BIOS, you need to press Y(es) to confirm updating. If you get the warning "Unknown Flash Type" please check your manual concerning the BIOS protection Jumper and/or "Flash write Protect" BIOS option to make sure the protection is disabled.
   8. Once the update is done, you need to power off and on the system.
   9. Go back to the BIOS setup and Load Setup Default once again, then change back the settings that you have recorded before.
   10. Save and exit the BIOS setup, letting the system boot up successfully.
       
5. PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED DURING FLASHING BIOS:
   You might get the following warning messages from the BIOS update program:
   
   1. "Insufficient memory" - Occurs especially with the use of floppy disks made bootable with Windows. Please set the Windows Explorer properties to also display hidden files and look at the file list of the floppy again. Very likely you will now see the file "drvspace.bin" or "dblspace.bin" and if that is so please delete it and try again because that system file is not necessary to boot and it only uses up too much of the basic 640kb RAM. If you still get the message then in the MSDOS.SYS file that was build by windows when you formatted the floppy there is path information linking to the dblspace.bin or drvspace.bin (different names with different Windows versions for same program) file on the harddrive. When you boot from floppy it just looks up those file on your harddrive. Please read the article at: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q118/5/79.asp where there is information on how to solve that problem. Or just delete, remove or rename the dblspace.bin or drvspace.bin file on your harddrive if you do not use it for compression of your harddrive data.
      You can also locate the file mem.exe and use that to see how the memory is used with "mem /c /p" after you have booted from floppy.
   2. "Unknown Flash file" or "Unknown Flash Type"- Most of our models have a hardware and BIOS protection for the BIOS against being overwritten accidentally or by a malicious virus. Please check with your manual whether you have set the JAV jumper on the mainboard and the BIOS option "Flash write Protect" in the BIOS correctly.

6. PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED AFTER FLASHING BIOS:
   If no display appears after flashing the BIOS, but the beeping sound from the system can be heard and the floppy disk drive is activated, then all is not lost. Try the following method to recover the system:
   
   1. Prepare a bootable floppy disk with an QDIFLASH utility and BIOS binary file in the disk (you can use the prepared diskette mentioned in point 4).
   2. Create an AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the diskette with the following command line depending on whether you use QDIFLASH (works the same as FLASH or AWDFLASH) or AWDFLASH:

              QDIFLASH xxxxx.BIN /N

              AWDFLASH xxxx.BIN /py/sn/cc

      The option /N will answer the questions automatically that you would normally answer with "no" or "yes". That way the system will boot up from the floppy disk, program the BIOS and restart the computer It will take a while to carry out the procedure, don't turn off the system, wait for the system to restart again.
   3. If you want to see what it does you can use an ISA VGA card instead of PCI or AGP. If you don't have any ISA VGA card, the BIOS can still be fix in blind mode (no screen, but the BIOS is flashed by the Auto-run diskette). After the motherboard reboots itself, the floppy disk can be taken out and your system should have recovered. However if that doesn't work, return the motherboard to your vendor. If you no longer have warranty on the mainboard the only way to fix it would be to reprogram the chip itself with the binary file using an EEPROM programming device like for example the one at: http://www.hilo-europe.com/html/pro201.htm but it might take some effort to locate someone with a device like that locally. However there are some websites on the Internet where BIOS reprogramming services are offered.