Re: [Freedos-user] usb stick for bios upgrade

[Kevin McCormick]

> Honestly, I don't understand the need for Win98SE (MS-DOS 7.1) here.
I did not mean to imply that Win98SE was definitely required, just that
I used it in the attempt that ultimately was successful.  I likely had
this problem solved a few times without realizing it, since I made
numerous bootable freedos usb sticks.  They did not work in my bios
upgrade attempts, but they may very well have worked if I had correctly
guessed the right steps.   I have not seen a DOS prompt in several years
and I was worried about the boot menu because I expected the bios update
to be unable to handle dealing with a menu.  I was looking for a boot
straight into the C: prompt, then I realized the A: prompt was more
likely, and then realized the C: prompt would be the usb file system
root.  Then I decided just to try running the .exe file before buying a
new mobo.  In the documents you found there are two files discussed, one
of which is a bios.bin, which probably would have worked.  That was not
the case with the MSI download for my situation -- everything was
contained in the .exe file.

My personal opinion is that after repeatedly warning that a bios upgrade
can ruin your computer, there should be some effort to have directions
that match the process, but that is just me.  The whole thing was a
learning experience, which I may never use again.

It may be of interest to the FreeDOS community that the "M-Flash"
process required a UEFI boot setup on the DOS usb stick, which seems to
be a bit incongruous  (not if UEFI is really about selling more
product).  However, it was happy to use my non-uefi stick when it found
a bios.bin file, which was the old bios I backed up onto the usb stick. 
Directly running the .exe file did the upgrade, but you would not have
known that from the bios screen or any directions I found.

Regards

 


On 04/14/2018 03:23 PM, Rugxulo wrote:
> Hi again,
>
> On Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 7:44 PM, Kevin McCormick  wrote:
>> Upgrade bios for MSI 7677 H61i-e35 (B3) mini-itx motherboard
>>
>> Here are the steps as best I can recall:
>>  ...
>>
>> In conclusion, a working DOS usb boot stick seems to be the key, and it was
>> recommended to use the Windows 98 SE version in one MSI guide.  However, for
>> MSI owners, the lack of help and conflicting/confusing messages from MSI
>> imply that one should proceed with great caution.
> It seems MSI (Micro-Star International) is a company from Taiwan
> (China). It's possible that something was lost in translation.
> However, I do think support from the company itself is very important
> here, and you should do whatever they tell you to do.
>
> Honestly, I don't understand the need for Win98SE (MS-DOS 7.1) here.
> Without downloading it, the link you provided seems to imply a very
> minimal image (1 MB), which is "probably" similar to what Windows 7
> (and RUFUS!) uses (DISKCOPY.DLL) to make a "system floppy", aka EBD
> (emergency boot disk) or whatever.
>
> I did find two .PDFs via quick search:
>
> "BIOS Update Instruction By DOS Tool" (Revision 2.3, 2016/08/02)
> * 
> https://www.msi.com/files/pdf/How_to_make_a_bootable_flash_disk_and_to_flash_BIOS_en.pdf
> (uses UNetBootIn atop Windows [Vista? 7?] to install FreeDOS
> [fdboot.img, 7/24/2011])
> (FreeDOS "safe mode", aka "don't load any drivers", FreeDOS 1.0 final
> from 2006-July-30)
>
> * 
> https://www.msi.com/html/pdf/How_to_flash_MSI_Notebook_BIOS_under_DOS_mode.pdf
> (also uses UNetBootIn atop Windows)
> (FreeDOS "safe mode", aka "don't load any drivers", FreeDOS 1.0 final
> from 2006-July-30)
>
> You basically said you tried other things that didn't work, so maybe
> this is redundant for you. Still, it's hard to understand all of the
> details from afar.

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Re: [Freedos-user] usb stick for bios upgrade

[Rugxulo]

Hi yet again,

This kind of thing is a bit overwhelming to think about. I just don't
have enough experience to understand or remember every detail.

But I did vaguely remember two old freedos-user messages by Christian
Imhorst that may help even further:


On Sat, Apr 14, 2018 at 3:23 PM, Rugxulo  wrote:
>
> On Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 7:44 PM, Kevin McCormick  wrote:
>>
>> Upgrade bios for MSI 7677 H61i-e35 (B3) mini-itx motherboard
>>
>> Here are the steps as best I can recall:

Re: [Freedos-user] Is anyone installed FreeDOS from USB CD drive or
other USB device?
* https://sourceforge.net/p/freedos/mailman/message/32771882/
(fdisk + mkfs.vfat directly on /dev/sdX, then booting via grub4dos +
fd11src.iso by "qemu -m 512 /dev/sdX")

* https://sourceforge.net/p/freedos/mailman/message/32803806/
(or instead use SysLinux, providing link to his own 256 MB image,
needs dd or win32diskimager)
(oops, seems missing, but hopefully still generally useful tips)

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Re: [Freedos-user] usb stick for bios upgrade

[Rugxulo]

Hi again,

On Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 7:44 PM, Kevin McCormick  wrote:
>
> Upgrade bios for MSI 7677 H61i-e35 (B3) mini-itx motherboard
>
> Here are the steps as best I can recall:
>  ...
>
> In conclusion, a working DOS usb boot stick seems to be the key, and it was
> recommended to use the Windows 98 SE version in one MSI guide.  However, for
> MSI owners, the lack of help and conflicting/confusing messages from MSI
> imply that one should proceed with great caution.

It seems MSI (Micro-Star International) is a company from Taiwan
(China). It's possible that something was lost in translation.
However, I do think support from the company itself is very important
here, and you should do whatever they tell you to do.

Honestly, I don't understand the need for Win98SE (MS-DOS 7.1) here.
Without downloading it, the link you provided seems to imply a very
minimal image (1 MB), which is "probably" similar to what Windows 7
(and RUFUS!) uses (DISKCOPY.DLL) to make a "system floppy", aka EBD
(emergency boot disk) or whatever.

I did find two .PDFs via quick search:

"BIOS Update Instruction By DOS Tool" (Revision 2.3, 2016/08/02)
* 
https://www.msi.com/files/pdf/How_to_make_a_bootable_flash_disk_and_to_flash_BIOS_en.pdf
(uses UNetBootIn atop Windows [Vista? 7?] to install FreeDOS
[fdboot.img, 7/24/2011])
(FreeDOS "safe mode", aka "don't load any drivers", FreeDOS 1.0 final
from 2006-July-30)

* https://www.msi.com/html/pdf/How_to_flash_MSI_Notebook_BIOS_under_DOS_mode.pdf
(also uses UNetBootIn atop Windows)
(FreeDOS "safe mode", aka "don't load any drivers", FreeDOS 1.0 final
from 2006-July-30)

You basically said you tried other things that didn't work, so maybe
this is redundant for you. Still, it's hard to understand all of the
details from afar.

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Re: [Freedos-user] Connecting to a BBS via a modem

[Robert Riebisch]

Hi,

>> I will look into Net-Tamer and Procom. Telix was the software I had
>> found the defunct website for. I'm not sure if I want to trust a mirror.
> 
> Try looking here:
> 
> * http://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/comm1.htm

There also are UniCom (and Teleservice) at
.
The site is in German only, but UniCom also has a short manual in
English in README.TXT.

Cheers,
Robert
-- 
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 Home page:  http://www.bttr-software.de/
DOS ain't dead:  http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/

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