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This Article is written as a guide for M2N users that have a ASUS BIOS utilizing ASUSTek EZ Flash 2. This guy may be usefull to other ASUS users. This guide is written to help walk you through a step by step set of procedures for finding your current BIOS version & flashing your BIOS to a updated or older version. I will try to cover as many methods possible so you will be able to choose the best way to flash your BIOS with the hardware you already have. I may mention the Pro’s and Con’s of each method as I see fit from my own personal experience.

Warning: if you are not comfortable with going into your bios and making changes stop right now. You will require the help of a more skilled person possibly a computer technician for the bios flash because you may need to make bios setting changes before & after a bios flash.


Finding your Current BIOS Version Technique #1:

To begin I would like to teach you the easy & safe way to find the current BIOS version loaded on your PLCC EEPROM chip. Open the latest version of CPUZ if you don’t already have it you can download it from here. Once you have CPUZ running in windows click on the mainboard tab on the top of the cpuz window. Then if you look about half way down the window you will see the BIOS field and the Version will be listed there. Now that you know what bios you have you need to learn how to save it.




Finding your Current BIOS Version Technique #2:


This method is pretty fast but is a little more dangerouse. If your computer is turned off, push and hold both keys ( Alt + F2 ) and turn your computer on while continuing to hold the Alt / F2 keys down untill you get into the ASUSTeK EZ Flash 2 BIOS screen. From here you can see the bois version you have installed. once you know your bios version you can press the Esc key and you should get a screen asking Are you sure to Exit? use the left arrow key to select yes and press enter. your system will reboot and you now know your bios version.



Saving your Current BIOS to a file Technique #1:

There is a couple of ways to do this but for now I will focus on the easiest way that I know of. Install the Update Utility program from your M2N series Drivers disk. If you don’t have the disk you can find the program here . You have to do a little work to find it but it’s worth it if don’t have the disk. After you click on the link above make the following choices on the web page First under the General down load collumb you have to select motherboard followed by the type of motherboard platform, so choose am2. Finally choose your motherboard model. Then the ASUS browser window should ask you for the type of OS you are running, just tell it your OS version to make the downloads page happy and you will be awarded w/all the available downloads available from ASUS for your particular OS and motherboard model. Now that you are on the down load page select the Utilities option and save the latest Update utility. Then unzip the Update file and run it to install it to windows. If you don’t have any Unzip applications installed you can find one here. Sorry the link is not ready and I will not be able to hold your hand for the Unzip application. Once you have Unzipped and installed the Update Utility you can begin to save your current bios version to a file. The Update program will ask you for a name of the file so you should only give it a hexadecimal number like 2001 or 2101 and save it to a drive of your preference. " I like to save to the desktop so that I know exactly where it is. This makes for easier file transferring to a floppy or USB thumb drive later on after I rename the file. I will talk about renaming the file later and why it is done.





Saving your BIOS to a file Techniques #2:


For this method you will need to have a Floppy A: drive or a USB Thumb drive available to save the file. I prefer the USB thumb drive because it is more redundant and no dust or foreign matter can cause any failure in the saving and/or transferring of the file additionally a floppy drive is not needed in your pc which many people don't these days. Once you have a blank formatted floppy or a usb thumb drive installed then you are ready. If your computer running the OS then reboot your computer and hold down both the Alt , F2 keys. (Alt/F2) This will take you directly to the ASUSTeK EZ Flash 2 BIOS screen. From this screen you should see a list of options at the bottom of the screen. You want to push the [s] key to save the current bios file.s


Downloading a Different BIOS Version :

Go to the ASUS downloads page and find the bios you wish to flash/update to. Just follow the instruction already listed above for navigating your browser to the ASUS Utilities Update application. Once you are on the down load page, click on the bios tab and you should see a list of bios versions. Next click the bios version you wish to update to. You will get a window asking you to save or run. Always chose save file. Then save the bios file to a drive location of your preference. Once again if you are not good at remembering the saved download drive location you can always save to the desktop so that it will be easy to find. Now that you have saved the bios file you may need to rename it.


Renaming a BIOS File:

The ASUS BIOS Flash applications like a clean standardized file name when you use the applications. So, for the best results after you download and unzip any BIOS file rename the file if needed. If the bios file is named with a 4 digit hexadecimal number followed by the .BIN then you are good to go. " Example 2101.BIN or 1903.BIN " If not then change the bios file name accordingly. If your file is named M2N32SLI2001.ROM after unzipping it then do the following to make the file Flashable with the instructions in this guide. Rename the file by deleteing the M2N32SLI from the file name and leave only the 4 digit hexadecimal number of the bios version. Then change the .ROM to a .BIN Ok now that you have renamed your file make sure it is good. Right click on the renamed file and click on file properties. The file should have a 1MB file size and a .BIN allocation to the end of the file name. If all this checks out for you then you are ready to flash your bios.


BIOS Flash USB Technique #1 " This is the most user friendly method in my opinion "

This method requires the use of a USB thumb drive. Place your recently/properly named bios file onto a USB thumb drive and reboot your system. Hold the delete key so that you will be taken into the BIOS
screen.

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