flash laptop bios with vista-based bios?

[cumminbk]

alright i have down graded my vista based c717nr hp laptop to xp. now there is a much newer version of the bios available but it says its vista-based. for a bios is there really "vista" based. does bios depend on the platform being run or only whether it is an intel or amd chipset?

[JedMeister]

Firstly, I'm by no means a BIOS expert so don't take anything I say too seriously!

I guess a BIOS could be tweaked to maximise performance with a particular OS (eg Vista) but I would think that it should still work with other OS. Perhaps it updates specific issues or adds support for Vista - BIOS communication/monitoring etc? ANother possibility is that they are referring to a BIOS update tool (for Vista) rather than a BIOS update itself?!?

Unless the updates fix a bug thats troubling you or provide some drastic improvement (eg power saving functions) then there's no real need to upgrade BIOS is there?

If you are going to have a crack at upgrading, make sure you have a reliable backup of your current BIOS before you try it. Also check that the BIOS can be downgraded if required. Generally desktops can, no worries (from floppy), but I have heard of some specific laptops that you can't downgrade BIOS (sorry can't remember who off the top of my head).

[redxii]

This is what my HP laptop says for my BIOS:

"This package contains the WinFlash utility and a BIOS image for the supported notebook models and operating systems. The WinFlash utility is used to locally flash the System BIOS (ROM) on notebooks operating in a Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Windows Vista environment.

Operating system(s): Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Vista (64-bit), Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit), Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic (64-bit), Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic (32-bit), Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit), Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition"

The BIOS is flashed while the OS is loaded, whereas in olden days you would have to make a bootdisk with the BIOS image and boot from that and flash.

[MrCobra]

Never ever flash a BIOS from inside Windows. I personally killed 2 boards doing that and know of others that have had boards die on them as a result of flashing from within Windows.

Find out what EPROM chip your computer uses and find the good old DOS based flash program for it.

[Tripredacus]

Never ever flash a BIOS from inside Windows.

This isn't always an option. Some manufacturers only provide BIOS update utilities that can be run from Windows, such as AOpen. However the general rule is if you download an update utility that is 16-bit or says for you to boot off a disk and run it, then yes, don't run it in Windows.

And your OEM (HP) has a Vista BIOS listed because it supports the OA2 containing their OEM information. If you were to, for example, put a new BIOS for the board that wasn't from HP's site, then when you logged into Windows, it would ask you to activate. But if you are installing a fresh copy of XP and using your own Product Key, you'll end up activating anyways so the newest BIOS really isn't required. I recommend look at what the update does compared to the version you have installed and see if it makes sense to you to upgrade.