A Comprehensive Guide to Flashing M860TU Motherboard BIOS

[Clyzm]

Right, so looking around on these forums I've noticed the same questions popping up again and again, being answered again and again either on the forum or through PM. I've gotten a lot of help from the people around these parts, so I figured it's time to give something back to the NBR community. (It was either this or another M860TU review, but really, do we want another one of those?)

First and foremost, a disclaimer:

BIOS flashing, especially the motherboard, is a dangerous process and should NOT be done yourself unless you're having some sort of issue with your system. There is no BIOS that simply performs better than another.

As well, since it IS a dangerous process, and you can permanently brick your system (read: you will have to send it to your reseller if you screw up), I assume absolutely no liability for your actions, and hence am not responsible if you mess this up.



Step 1: Create a Bootable USB Key

This thread, although slightly out-dated in terms of the actual flash process, is going to be your stop for creating a bootable USB key, so refer to it all the way up to the actual flashing portion of the guide, and then refer back here.



Step 2: Get All the Necessary Files

Now we'll need to get the files necessary for your flashing. I've hosted them on Rapidshare for the sake of ease, and made sure that ecflash.exe is included in each and every one of them. These are the BIOS I used personally to flash, and I can vouch for them working.

http://rapidshare.com/files/191455207/M860TU_BIOS.7z

If you're not 100% sure, you can also download the proper BIOS here. I warn you though, not every download pack there had the ecflash.exe file, which is 100% necessary for downloading BIOS. Took me about an hour to figure out why the heck DOS was giving me an error any time I tried to start flashing .



Step 3: Find out your BIOS version

Now you need to find out which BIOS version you're currently using. To do this, you must first boot into your BIOS by pressing the F2 key during startup (where you see your initial splash screen loading, RIGHT after you hit your power button). Now, near the bottom of your screen, having not moved from the main tab, you will see your BIOS revision, and your KBC/EC version. Take note of the last digits of both numbers.

This is important because BIOS need to be updated one after another (i.e. you can't flash .13 BIOS on top of .06 BIOS, you must do every step in between)

This will determine which files from my download pack you keep, and eventually put on your USB key and flash.



Step 4: Put All Files Onto USB Key

By now you've got your bootable USB key, you've got all the BIOS files you're going to use, now just make sure that you put them onto your key exactly as you see here:



This is especially important when navigating folders in DOS, as you'll have to type exactly what I post here, down to the letter. Make sure that those 5 folders are in the root folder (the main folder, F:\, E:\, whateverdriveletteryourcomputergivesyourkey:\) of your key, and not in any folder other than that.



Step 5: Setting Your Boot Order

Next, in order to boot into DOS, you'll have to modify your boot settings so that your USB key is active before your hard drive. To do this, restart your system with your key plugged in, and boot into your BIOS (F2 during startup, just like in Step 3). Now, head over to the boot tab, and you'll see your Hard Disk, your Optical Drive, your USB key etc. Find your USB key, and hit + until it moves up the list into first position.

You're done here, exit and save changes, proceed to Step 6.



Step 6: Flashing the BIOS

The next time you restart with your USB key in, you'll boot into DOS. You'll see a command line, and this is where you're really going to get to work.

Since some of you are starting at different start points, and some of the files are separated differently (Thank Clevo for that one...), I'll break this step down into separate BIOS versions.

Most of these are a two step process. Do not assume you are finished after finishing one step, and do not attempt to boot back into windows until this guide tells you to. As well, under no circumstances should you take out your USB key in the middle of a flash, as you WILL brick your motherboard.

Before we start, here are two useful commands that we'll be using for folder navigation, and comfirmation:

CD\ is the command for changing folders in DOS. By typing this, followed by any sort of folder name, you will navigate into that folder. However, to navigate within that folder, you'll have to use CD\currentfolder\next folder.

Here's an example:

Lets say currently you're in c:\. You've got a folder called Clevo inside there, and inside Clevo, you've got M860TU. Your entire directory looks like this:

C:\Clevo\M860TU.

Now, if you want to navigate from C:\ to C:\Clevo, you'd type:

cd\Clevo

Now that you're in C:\Clevo, to get into M860TU you'd type:

cd\Clevo\M860TU

That's pretty much it for folder navigation.

dir is a command that will display the files in the current folder you are browsing. This is useful for knowing that you are in the correct folder.

To use this command, simply type "dir" without quotes at any time, and you'll get a listing of all the files in the current folder.

Now then, onto flashing.



Flashing KBC/EC .06 and BIOS .06

At the command prompt type:

cd\BIOS06EC06

CD\ is the command for changing folders in DOS. By typing that, you are now in the BIOS06EC06 folder on your USB key.

If you type "dir" without quotes, you will now see the files in that folder displayed. You should see exactly the same files you saw in the BIOS06EC06 folder opened in windows.

Now that you're in the proper folder, the flashing can begin.

Type the following:

ecflash ecm860tu.06

Follow the on screen instructions, and reboot back into DOS.

Get back into your BIOS06EC06 folder with the "cd\BIOS06EC06" command.

Now, simply type

step2

or

step2.bat

Again, follow the on screen instructions. This time you're done, and you may proceed to the next step or be finished if you don't want to update any further.



Flashing BIOS .07

At the command prompt type:

cd\BIOS07

Now that you're in the proper folder, we can start our flash.

Type the following:

update

Follow the on screen instructions, and you're done! That one was pretty easy wasn't it? Reboot back into DOS to flash the next firmware, or else you're finished.



Flashing KBC/EC .08 and BIOS .08
At the command prompt type:

cd\BIOS08EC08

Now type:

step1

Follow the instructions, reboot back into BIOS.

And now you'll be typing:

step2

Done and done. It was really odd that some of these are organized differently than others, but I won't touch anything at this point since that's just how they're downloaded. Maybe at some point in the future I'll re-organize all the folders, and create any .bat files that are missing. That aside, we've got 2 more updates to go!



Flashing KBC/EC .10 and BIOS .12
At the command prompt type:

cd\BIOS12EC10\EC10

You may want to use the good old "dir" command to make sure you're in the right place.

Assuming you're in the EC10 folder, type:

update

Follow the instructions, reboot back into BIOS.

Now, we need to get into the BIOS12 folder, so you'll be typing:

cd\BIOS12EC10\BIOS12

And again, we'll be typing

update

The flasher will pop up, do its thing, tell you to reboot. You're done this one, one more to go, or call it quits if your problem is solved.



Flashing BIOS .13

This is our last one, and it's pretty simple (although really, this isn't brain surgery).

First we need to get into the BIOS13 folder, so we'll be typing:

cd\BIOS13

And now that we're in the proper folder, type:

update

Step 7: Setting the Boot Order Back to Normal

We're done with flashing, so you'll have to set your boot order back to normal if you ever want to get back into your OS again with your USB key inside . Just head on over to your BIOS by pressing F2 at startup, go to the boot tab, and keep hitting + on your hard disk until it reaches the first slot in the boot order.



Aaaaaaaaaand that's all folks. If you went through with the entire thing, your KBC version should be .10, and your BIOS version should be .13. You should now be paging up to 3GB of memory in 32-bit, and your CPU whining problem should be solved (mine was anyway, some people reported otherwise).

If Clevo releases further BIOS updates (maybe one for Intel Quad support?) I'll update this guide. But for now, enjoy.

If you have any further questions, shoot me a PM, or post em here.

[ptatti]

Wonderful guide.
Thanks a lot

[Bluemercury]

I thought you had to flash at least to .08 to go to the .12 and .13 versions....im currentely using the 08 version. So can i go directly to the .13???

[Heathkidd]

Love YOU... i will do it after the weekend... EXACTLY what i wanted. MMM .13 and .10 here i come!

[livesoft]

Wow finally someone decided to post some easy steps

[Clyzm]

I thought you had to flash at least to .08 to go to the .12 and .13 versions....im currentely using the 08 version. So can i go directly to the .13???

Titled two steps the same by accident, thanks for catching that.

Fixed!

[contactluke]

Sweet guide, thanks for that I'm now on the latest bios!

[livesoft]

Love YOU... i will do it after the weekend... EXACTLY what i wanted. MMM .13 and .10 here i come!

Sweet guide, thanks for that I'm now on the latest bios!

Don't forget to tell us if it fixed the whining noise

[Bluemercury]

im going to upgrade. Do i need to upgrade to .12 first or can i go straight to .13.???

[scourge18a]

Excellent guide, thank yo for all of your time and work.