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Flashing your Gx00's BIOS.
So, you have a shiny, flashy Gx00 (G100, G200, G250, G400 or whatever), and found out that the BIOS it came with is dearly outdated, and you want to play that latest supergame, so you need a certain driver-pack, which on its turn needs the newest BIOS for your Gx00.
Okay, So what do we do about that?
[list=1][*] Goto the MURC BIOS download page for the latest BIOS for your Gxx0. Be carefull, as the G200/G400 uses another BIOS than the G100 does!! Save this file to a folder on your harddrive where you can find it easily again.[*] Goto the MURC Utilities download page and pick up the BIOS Reset Utility. Save this file to the same folder you saved the BIOS file into.[*] Close all programs you don't need to use, and goto the folder where you saved the Gx00 BIOS into, let's say MGABIOS. [*] Doubleclick the BIOS file, and it will open up into a windows where it asks where you want to unzip its contents to. You can go for the one provided, C:\MGAFOLD\ or choose your own. Then click OK. All the files will be unzipped to that folder. Close the unzip window.[*] Doubleclick the BIOS Reset Utility file, and if you have Winzip, it will open up the file. (If not, get Winzip from a site like http://www.tucows.com) [*] Press extract and type in the folder where you want the contents to be unpacked in. Do so and close Winzip.[/list=a]
So, what do we have until now? A BIOS file and a BIOS Reset Utility. Do read the Readme.txt of both the programs to understand what they do!
Here's the English text for the BIOS Reset Utility, taken from the official readme file.
<u>BIOS Reset Utility</u>
Matrox Recover Utility MATROX GRAPHICS INC. 22.12.1999
Contents
========
Instructions to create a recovery boot diskette for Matrox G-series graphic cards.
Usage of the recovery boot diskette
Creating a recovery boot diskette
===================================
1. Copy recover.exe to a new directory e.g. c:\pfad
2. Extract the file by double-clicking the recover.exe file
Recover.exe contains:
- RECOVER.IMG
- RUNME.BAT
- RAW.EXE
3. Go to MS-DOS prompt
4. Insert a diskette into the floppy drive
5. Execute RUNME.BAT e.g. C:\PFAD\RUNME (Enter)
6. Please follow the instructions given
Usage of the recovery boot diskette
====================================
1. Insert the recovery boot diskette into the floppy drive A.
2. Boot the computer
3. During the complete recovery process DO NOT shut down your computer
although there is NO display on your monitor.
4. The computer will reboot automatically after which the monitor display should
function again.
__________________________________________________ ____________________________________
That should be self-explaining
Why would you want to make such a diskette though? For if the flashing of your Gx00's BIOS goes wrong for some reason. With this utility you can get your card working again (thank God!).
Okay, but you've just read that in the BIOS file, there's such a recovery disk option as well. So which one is better to use?
To be quite honest, I don't know
Maybe someone can email me about the difference between the two?
So, now you're ready to update your Gx00's BIOS. Take a deep breath and read on as I let Matrox tackle the upgrade again (copied the following part from the readme file from the G400 BIOS):
Updating your graphics card BIOS
================================
"Matrox System Utilities" software can be used to update the BIOS of
your Matrox graphics card. If your version of this software was included
with your Matrox graphics card, you shouldn't need to update your card
with it. (Edit: Don't believe that! -J-)
If your version of this software didn't come with your Matrox graphics
card (for example, you downloaded it from the Matrox Web site), it may
contain an update for the BIOS of your Matrox graphics card.
To update the BIOS of your Matrox graphics card:
Windows 95/98 or NT 4.0
-----------------------
(1) Click "Start" -> "Run", type "c:\mgafold\bios_104\ubioswin" (Edit:or goto the folder where you unpacked the BIOS files to), then click
"OK".
(2) Select the BIOS option you want, then click "OK".
(3) Windows 95/98: Before the BIOS of your graphics card is updated,
you're prompted to make an emergency disk. Follow the on-screen
instructions.
(4) After the BIOS is updated, make sure no disk is in your disk drive,
then restart your computer.
DOS
---
(1) Type "c:\mgafold\bios_104\" (Edit:or goto the folder where you unpacked the BIOS files to), then press [Enter].
(2) Type "ubiosdos", then press [Enter].
(3) Before the BIOS of your graphics card is updated, you're prompted to
make an emergency disk. Follow the on-screen instructions.
(4) After the BIOS is updated, make sure no disk is in your disk drive,
then restart your computer.
Okay, that's that... Questions? Email me
Jorden.
Addition: If you want to check for the newest BIOS files, drivers and other useful software, bookmark ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/ ... Very useful
Okay, So what do we do about that?
[list=1][*] Goto the MURC BIOS download page for the latest BIOS for your Gxx0. Be carefull, as the G200/G400 uses another BIOS than the G100 does!! Save this file to a folder on your harddrive where you can find it easily again.[*] Goto the MURC Utilities download page and pick up the BIOS Reset Utility. Save this file to the same folder you saved the BIOS file into.[*] Close all programs you don't need to use, and goto the folder where you saved the Gx00 BIOS into, let's say MGABIOS. [*] Doubleclick the BIOS file, and it will open up into a windows where it asks where you want to unzip its contents to. You can go for the one provided, C:\MGAFOLD\ or choose your own. Then click OK. All the files will be unzipped to that folder. Close the unzip window.[*] Doubleclick the BIOS Reset Utility file, and if you have Winzip, it will open up the file. (If not, get Winzip from a site like http://www.tucows.com) [*] Press extract and type in the folder where you want the contents to be unpacked in. Do so and close Winzip.[/list=a]
So, what do we have until now? A BIOS file and a BIOS Reset Utility. Do read the Readme.txt of both the programs to understand what they do!
Here's the English text for the BIOS Reset Utility, taken from the official readme file.
<u>BIOS Reset Utility</u>
Matrox Recover Utility MATROX GRAPHICS INC. 22.12.1999
Contents
========
Instructions to create a recovery boot diskette for Matrox G-series graphic cards.
Usage of the recovery boot diskette
Creating a recovery boot diskette
===================================
1. Copy recover.exe to a new directory e.g. c:\pfad
2. Extract the file by double-clicking the recover.exe file
Recover.exe contains:
- RECOVER.IMG
- RUNME.BAT
- RAW.EXE
3. Go to MS-DOS prompt
4. Insert a diskette into the floppy drive
5. Execute RUNME.BAT e.g. C:\PFAD\RUNME (Enter)
6. Please follow the instructions given
Usage of the recovery boot diskette
====================================
1. Insert the recovery boot diskette into the floppy drive A.
2. Boot the computer
3. During the complete recovery process DO NOT shut down your computer
although there is NO display on your monitor.
4. The computer will reboot automatically after which the monitor display should
function again.
__________________________________________________ ____________________________________
That should be self-explaining
Why would you want to make such a diskette though? For if the flashing of your Gx00's BIOS goes wrong for some reason. With this utility you can get your card working again (thank God!).
Okay, but you've just read that in the BIOS file, there's such a recovery disk option as well. So which one is better to use?
To be quite honest, I don't know
Maybe someone can email me about the difference between the two?So, now you're ready to update your Gx00's BIOS. Take a deep breath and read on as I let Matrox tackle the upgrade again (copied the following part from the readme file from the G400 BIOS):
Updating your graphics card BIOS
================================
"Matrox System Utilities" software can be used to update the BIOS of
your Matrox graphics card. If your version of this software was included
with your Matrox graphics card, you shouldn't need to update your card
with it. (Edit: Don't believe that!
-J-)If your version of this software didn't come with your Matrox graphics
card (for example, you downloaded it from the Matrox Web site), it may
contain an update for the BIOS of your Matrox graphics card.
To update the BIOS of your Matrox graphics card:
Windows 95/98 or NT 4.0
-----------------------
(1) Click "Start" -> "Run", type "c:\mgafold\bios_104\ubioswin" (Edit:or goto the folder where you unpacked the BIOS files to), then click
"OK".
(2) Select the BIOS option you want, then click "OK".
(3) Windows 95/98: Before the BIOS of your graphics card is updated,
you're prompted to make an emergency disk. Follow the on-screen
instructions.
(4) After the BIOS is updated, make sure no disk is in your disk drive,
then restart your computer.
DOS
---
(1) Type "c:\mgafold\bios_104\" (Edit:or goto the folder where you unpacked the BIOS files to), then press [Enter].
(2) Type "ubiosdos", then press [Enter].
(3) Before the BIOS of your graphics card is updated, you're prompted to
make an emergency disk. Follow the on-screen instructions.
(4) After the BIOS is updated, make sure no disk is in your disk drive,
then restart your computer.
Okay, that's that... Questions? Email me
Jorden.
Addition: If you want to check for the newest BIOS files, drivers and other useful software, bookmark ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/ ... Very useful