Updating BIOS and Basic Overclocking Help please

[BurningFeetMan]

Hi guys, im after a bit of help, quite specific as well.

Firstly

I am familiar with the basics on how to update a BIOS and have done so in the distant past however i need some help with it this time....

My motherboard, MSI K9A2 Platinum has an outdated BIOS on it and i wish to upgrade it. Now im well aware if its working i should leave alone but at some point i will need to do it to provide Phenom II support and the newer BIOS also has updated promise SATA support and eSATA support (both of which are god-awful at the moment....)

Ok this is where i need your help.

I would like step-by-step instructions on how to update a BIOS for this motherboard as MSI instructions have been translated from Taiwanese, into Martian, and then back into English!!

I have no floppy disc, and all my drives are SATA

Booting into DOS is a problem in itself as it doesn't seem to detect a SATA DVD-ROM, however, using ultimate boot disk i have managed so far.

I have a USB Pen Drive which i can use if necessary.


Secondly

I would like some basic info on overclocking, again, for this motherboard. What options to set higher/lower etc.

Im running a phenom 9500, 4GB (4x1GB) of OCZ Platinum pc6400 RAM and my motherbaord (as above) is an MSI K9A2 Platinum.

I would like to try and squeeze a few extra mhz out of the processor and RAM, just out of interest. I am not interested (yet ;) ) in upping the processor to 3Ghz on water cooling etc, i just want to take my first couple of baby steps.

Finally

I want to thank you all for your help in advance. I appreciate that there may not be many people with experience of this motherboard so i shall try and be patient.

Thanks again

BFM

[NeilX90]

All recent MSI motherboards can be updated online via MSI's website. It should detect your hardware and flash it accordingly... no need to mess around with boot disks etc. You can also download the software (you should have it on disk though) which will also update online.

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=html&name=liveupdate

or

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=utility&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1333

I had a quick look at the online manual and it seems perfectly readable to me. Have a look here:

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloadfile&dno=5976&type=manual

Pages 3-19 and 3-20 are the ones you want. It appears your board has an auto-overclock feature (D.O.T) which can be enabled for an easy life. If you want to go more advanced and set the clock speeds yourself, the manual explains which elements in the menu to adjust.

If you want a blow-by-blow guide on every single adjustment, it's probable that the BIOS on that board is common to many other MSI boards - you might not have to wait as long as you think !

[BurningFeetMan]

Ok, i have had major problems with the live update peice of software in the past and also as recently as yesterday but i thought i would give it another go.

What dya know, it worked. Strange how as soon as i post it works, bloomin' typical eh!!

The auto overclocking used to be a load of rubbish and cause the system to crash, i will however take another look at that too now.

That said i will now take a look into overclocking from the BIOS and see where i can get with that.

If anyone uses this or a similar board i would appreciate your input.

Thank you Neilx90 for your reply !

BFM

[NeilX90]

Well, I have to own up to knowing cack-all about overclocking AMD gear. Lots of people here do, though, so here's the BIOS page in the hope that somone can tell you what kind of voltages / ratios / fsb speeds you can aim for.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj218/magnoxphotos/manual2.jpg

[Madpeter]

You have the same board as me <_<
anyway
updating the bios
- using Live3
With "MSI live moniter" running and in your tray (bottom right)
right click and "Auto search" (if you have changed your setup you might need to click next)
wait for it to finish then click the "finished" button <_<

click on
"MSI Live Monitor found X BIO'S for your Mainboard." (they dont like motherboard it seems)

select *(Version 1.60) "current at time of writing"
it will download and self install (you will need to reboot to see the changes)

not had a chance to play with the volt's at this time.(if you have good speed ram) but if you put the multiplyer down a bit and up the fsb to match
the ratio of the ram you can get 1:2 easly ^_^ with a 4600+ (i got to 2.8 but lowered it as I dont like any long term risks) .

if your unable to use the live software you can get the bios from here
(link to page http://global.msi.eu/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=bios&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1332) have fun

[BurningFeetMan]

Thanks again to both of you for your replies, after my last post i decided to try the DualCoreCenter program again, and this too worked, i was happy to up my Mhz by 55 for each core, my first successful overclock (all be it without doing much except clicking buttons! ) I will try and increase it slowly as i feel more brave. Presumably, once my system becomes unstable i must add a little more voltage to try and maintain stability? Whilst also keeping an eye on the temperatures of course. Im running a stock cooler so im not expecting great results, but any results i am happy with!

Im guessing as i have the non-black edition i have an upward locked multiplyer. Like you say if i drop the multiplyer down and up the fsb i get the same Mhz?

For example, if i drop the multiplyer down to 9 and up the FSB to 245 i end up with (near enough) stock speeds yeah?

This is where RAM overclocking comes in? You say about RAM ratio, can you explain a little more where to go from where i have left off above?

I appreciate there are articles about on the net that describe this, however, you are using the same board as me so i could follow in your footsteps to a certain degree.

Thanks for your help!!

BFM

[Madpeter]

by dropping my multipler and upping the fsb I was able to get a stable overclock that is in time with my memory (ratio of 1:2) without upping voltage so the system did not bottleneck as much when I needed to do cpu based stuff (heplfull for my little life project im coding) (I dont like playing with voltages I killed a PC when I did not have the cash to replace it (2 months without a computer).

if you can keep an eye on the temps (I use speedfan to control temps and fans at the same time on boot)