Updating Bios only possible BEFORE installing windows???!!!?

shahabodin · Sep 7, 2010

my bios is outdated.
I wanted to update it. so I went on the manufacturer's website for my model

but it says: "This BIOS update should be installed before upgrading to Microsoft® Windows Vista™ operating system.", which is making me worried to do the bios update as I already have upgraded to vista. (the laptop was shipped with xp on it)
I asked a computer techie and he said its nonsense and I should update it the normal way by flash memory at the boot time.
Any suggestions?
Also, what happens if I screw the bios setting at boot time.
do I have to install windows again or can my windows be restored ?

roy69 · Sep 7, 2010

If your computer works, why would you want to update the BIOS?
If you screw up the bios at boot time then it depends on your motheroboard. (How much did your cost)

shahabodin · Sep 7, 2010

roy69 said:
If your computer works, why would you want to update the BIOS?
If you screw up the bios at boot time then it depends on your motheroboard. (How much did your cost)

Its slow at start up and it gives me an error in event viewer telling me I should update it. :/

roy69 · Sep 7, 2010

Did you buy your computer in America? If the answer is no then do not do the update.
Read the first part of red text.

Model:VGN-FE790GOperating System(s):Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium
See all applicable models and operating systems.

Note: This utility is only for use with the products identified and sold in United States, Latin America, or Canada. Not all models are sold in all countries.

Important Notes

<LI style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">This BIOS update should be installed before upgrading to Microsoft® Windows Vista™ operating system. <LI class=important>WARNING!!: Before installing this update, be sure the computer is running from AC power. If the installation of the BIOS is interrupted by power loss, the computer may not operate correctly or at all!
During the installation of this update:
- Do not turn the computer off.
- Do not allow the computer to enter Standby or Hibernation states.
- Do not start other programs.

shahabodin · Sep 7, 2010

roy69 said:
Did you buy your computer in America? If the answer is no then do not do the update.
Read the first part of red text.

Yes I did read that.

and yes I bought it in America.

Any idea why it mentions the necessity of updating before going on vista?

cheers,
shahab

roy69 · Sep 8, 2010

I have no idea why it would tell you to update the bios. I have known of the error reporting service not working properley with some cpu`s and OS`s.
Have you tried to turn off the error reporting service to see if this speed up your system. (do this purly as a diagnostic test).

What version of vista do you have?
This update is not apllicable to al version of vista.

roy69 · Sep 8, 2010

What version of vista do you have.

Download Information

FilenameVersionSizeLast ModifiedPHBSYS-01348001-US.EXER0172J31.23 MB04/18/2007
Applicable:

Yes

NoModelsOperating SystemsMicrosoft® Windows Vista® Home BasicMicrosoft® Windows Vista® Home PremiumMicrosoft® Windows Vista® BusinessVGN-FE550G

VGN-FE570G

VGN-FE590

VGN-FE590G

VGN-FE590P

VGN-FE650G

VGN-FE660G

VGN-FE670G

VGN-FE680G

VGN-FE690

VGN-FE690G

VGN-FE690G/B

VGN-FE690P

VGN-FE690P/B

VGN-FE770G

VGN-FE780G

VGN-FE790

ModelsOperating SystemsMicrosoft® Windows Vista® Home BasicMicrosoft® Windows Vista® Home PremiumMicrosoft® Windows Vista® BusinessVGN-FE790G

VGN-FE790G/N

VGN-FE790P

VGN-FE790PL

Close Window

This update is not applicable to all versions of vista

Lorien · Sep 8, 2010

According to your system specs, you have Vista Ultimate x64 SP1. If that's correct, I do not believe this update applies to you and there appears to be none available on this site for your version of Vista. You might try the BIOS manufacturer to see if they have anything that will be compatible, but do NOT use the one you listed (or the other option there either) or you will almost certainly seriously mess up your system.

Please post the exact error message you are getting that recommends you update the BIOS (copy it word-for-word). I'd like to know why it thinks after all this time that it's suddenly necessary - especially if everything seems to be working with the current version.

Thanks and good luck!

shahabodin · Sep 12, 2010

roy69 said:
What version of vista do you have.

Download Information
This update is not applicable to all versions of vista

yeah I have 64 bit ultimate which is not officially supported by the manufacturer.
aint it ironic that a 64 bit system only has support for a 32 bit version of vista?

shahabodin · Sep 12, 2010

Lorien said:
According to your system specs, you have Vista Ultimate x64 SP1. If that's correct, I do not believe this update applies to you and there appears to be none available on this site for your version of Vista. You might try the BIOS manufacturer to see if they have anything that will be compatible, but do NOT use the one you listed (or the other option there either) or you will almost certainly seriously mess up your system.

Please post the exact error message you are getting that recommends you update the BIOS (copy it word-for-word). I'd like to know why it thinks after all this time that it's suddenly necessary - especially if everything seems to be working with the current version.

Thanks and good luck!

yeah thanks.
I have Ultimate x64 SP1. I contacted themand they recommended me to use the recovery cds and do all the upgrades and stuff from scratch. which im not going to do :|

the error that led me to look for bios update is one that appears at start up.
it slows the start up process but nonetheless its harmless.
its Error 13 ACPI ,

: The embedded controller (EC) did not respond within the specified timeout period. This may indicate that there is an error in the EC hardware or firmware or that the BIOS is accessing the EC incorrectly. You should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS. In some situations, this error may cause the computer to function incorrectly.

As I dont think it gives any insight, shall I add the details too?
Event log online help doesnt have any page for the error so it doesnt help :|

thanks in advance for your help,

shahab

roy69 · Sep 13, 2010

It looks like more trouble than it is worth. I dont think that the startup is going to be that much faster with the error fixed.

Lorien · Sep 13, 2010

Here's what I normally suggest to people who have slow startups, slow response times when using the computer, slow shutdows, or are running out of space. It does NOT address your problem (that's a special case), but it may help enough that the delay won't be as significant. I have to agree with Roy that maybe fixing this particular error when it is causing such minimal impact (as far as we know) may be more trouble than it's worth unless the BIOS manufacturer has exactly what you need (and even then there is always some risk in flashing the BIOS - a risk it seems from what I've read here that you don't need to take unless and until a REAL problem relating to or caused by this problem occurs or is discovered). I looked up the error and almost everywhere I found a reply, the suggestion was updating the BIOS - I found no other reasonable solution.

Anyway, here's my little blurb on improving space and speed in Vista systems (and it also suggests other things of value that you can consider or ignore - the choice is entirely yours). All of this is your choice, actually - I'm just presenting some options that may help and that have helped many others (and that I pretty much use myself though sometimes i do procrastinate I'm sad to admit and there are some things I won't do no matter how beneficial - for example, I refuse to delete my cookies (but that's a personal choice as I prefer the benefits of having them when going to previously-visited web sites over the limited amount of space recovered and speed gained given their small size)).

A great many things influence the speed and performance and available space of your system - mostly the existence of various files and what's loaded on the system. There are ways to handle this in Vista (and you should follow all the suggestions) - and of course the amount and type of RAM and the speed of your processor and motherboard (but I'm just going to discuss software solutions here - you can go to your computer vendor/manufacturer for hardware solutions if any are available (I, for example, am maxed out at 2GB RAM by my motherboard and there is no better motherboard available for my model of laptop but if your system can handle it, Vista 32-bit can use up to 4GB of RAM (well, almost 4GB, more like 3.2-3.3 actually) and the 64-bit version can use even more). If space is the issue, replace your hard drive with a larger one, add a second hard drive (if it is a desktop system), or add an external hard drive. Those are hardware answers (which cost money). We'll now discuss software solutions (which are mostly if not entirely free - at least the options presented here - there are 3rd party programs that provide additional options but they really aren't necessary)..

One very important thing to begin – do NOT use any Registry Cleaner or Registry Booster or Enhancer, or Repairer or Fixer software (or whatever it calls itself) no matter what it says (scans will tell you have thousands of errors just to get you to download and install the program or worse, buy it) or where you got it (even safe sites sell these products but they are not worth the headaches they can cause). Most do nothing of value and some can do great harm (to the point where you need to do a clean install to fix the problem – and that’s not even counting the fact that many such programs are actually malware in disguise). Vista keeps the registry clean on its own quite well and doesn’t need any help.

To improve your speed and space, do Disk Cleanup using: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76073-disk-cleanup.html. Delete as much as you feel comfortable doing – nothing deleted there will harm your system in any way. This includes deleting the Temporary Internet Files. If you want to keep this from building, go to Tools / Internet Options / Advanced and check the box Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder whenever browser is closed and then that folder will always stay empty (except when you're using the program).

Also do an Optimization: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Optimize-Windows-Vista-for-better-performance. Do all of the options (or at the very least, consider them - many can help a great deal).

System Restore can take up to 15% of your partition's space but that can be reduced. It's a trade-off. The less space you allocate, the fewer restore points you will be able to retain - but many people reduce this to save some space while leaving enough to save 3-4 restore points at least (which is usually enough - until you need them). Here's the procedure: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76227-system-restore-disk-space.html.

Go to Start / Search options and type in msconfig and enter and then double click on the program icon that appears. Go to the startup tab and uncheck any program that you don't need starting at startup. That will probably be the majority of items there - if not most of them (some are needed like the AV program and Windows Defender but most are there to make opening the source programs faster and make you think they're more efficient). This will free up a lot of RAM and help a lot in making your system faster (though perhaps not so much that you'll be able to notice the difference - but maybe depending on how much unnecessary stuff is loading at startup). When I did this on my system I removed over 90% of the entries and suffered no ill effects – to the contrary, I noticed startup was quicker, response times when working were better and I could open more programs at the same time and still have no problems, and shutdown was also faster. Better still, download Autoruns http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx which is much superior to msconfig and click on the Everything tab and do what was suggested above (though here you can’t delete everything as with the start menu in msconfig because there are some very important files and services included which MUST not be deleted or it can cause serious harm to the system). If unsure, leave it alone.

You can accomplish some of these tasks (and more that aren't entirely related) by using http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/whatsnew.htm (which also searches for malware). I do this on a monthly basis or so - usually more like every 6 weeks - just as a part of normal maintenance and I suggest you do the same (except for the registry cleaner – no not even Microsoft’s own product is entirely safe and the product has been removed from the paying marked for reasons unknown though it’s still available here for now but probably not for long). Make sure you select a full scan - it will take a few hours (mine can take around 5-6) but can work in the background so start it when it has enough time to complete.

You also want to have good AV and AS programs on your system (so no malware is operating in the background draining resources). Windows Defender is a good AS program. The new, free Microsoft Security Essentials http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx is an excellent AV/AM program that has one of the least impacts on system performance and resources according to reliable sources and it does the job very well. If you're using MSE, you don't really need Defender and MSE will deactivate it when installed (but you would with many other AV programs - though some of them also deactivate Defender). I would also suggest downloading http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php and running it monthly to catch anything that MSE might miss.

If you follow this advice and do it periodically (at least monthly) then I believe you will have as fast and clean a machine as it is capable of going given the hardware.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

P.S. And don't forget to backup your system periodically - a full backup every week or two and incremental backups every day or couple of days depending on how much data to tend to create or add. You never know when it might come in handy and God forbid sometimes it's the only way to save or restore your data (and then you'll be mighty glad you did it).

Updating Bios only possible BEFORE installing windows???!!!?

My Computer

47,65,65,6B

My Computer

My Computer

47,65,65,6B

My Computer

My Computer

47,65,65,6B

My Computer

47,65,65,6B

My Computer

Account Suspended

My Computer

My Computer

My Computer

47,65,65,6B

My Computer

Account Suspended

My Computer