ASUS Motherboard BIOS Upgrade and Window 7

Steve R.

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I recently bought a computer using an ASUS Motherboard (P8H61-M LE/CSM). A new BIOS is available, so I installed it and Windows 7 promptly crashed. After much fiddling, I came up with the idea to use a LINUX (UBUNTU) "live" CD. I re-installed the new BIOS and then loaded UBUNTU, it worked!:)

I then attempted to boot into Windows 7. Once again it failed to load. The automatic repair feature was a total bust. After a series of tribulations, I was able to get Windows 7 to boot with the old BIOS. Clearly there is some issue with Windows not accepting a BIOS upgrade. Any thoughts?
 
This appears to be a Windows 7 "feature":mad:, not a BIOS hardware issue. As an experiment I loaded the new BIOS and then booted into Ubuntu using a "live" CD and Ubuntu successfully loaded. When I then attempted to boot into Windows 7, Windows crashed. After re-loading the old BIOS, Windows 7 rebooted successfully.

I will make the assumption that Windows is somehow tied to the BIOS as one of those "security" features. If the BIOS is changed, Windows then refuses to boot. It would be nice if Microsoft were to provide a message to that effect. But then that is not the Microsoft way.

Finally, having a "live" Linux based CD is actually a very useful tool. If you can't boot into Windows, Microsoft does not allow you to use Windows from the CD which makes things difficult. With the "live" CD you can access and manage your files, including the ability to save your files.
 
Were you fixing something on the old BIOS by upgrading to the new BIOS? Most people are given the impression by others that they're supposed to update the BIOS just because there's a new version, when in actual fact they should leave it alone in most cases if their PC is working as it should be. Generally speaking, unlike software updates which fix bugs in all copies of the software, BIOS updates address problems that only some boards are having.

Out of interest did you use the ASUS Update Utility (run within Windows)? I've had many problems with it in the past. As good as their boards are, the software is often very buggy.

Maybe try one of the other methods such as floppy or USB at boot. Did you try a CMOS reset after the update? If so, did you remove the battery? (Don't remove battery unless CMOS reset doesn't work)
 

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