> 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 <kev4...@fastmail.fm> 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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