Save those BIOS chips

[jnansley]

I had a spare 8RDA+ BIOS, and decided I would do some hotflashing to make a backup BIOS before I started messing with the ROMSIP thing.

And, I happened to be looking around on aoafiles, and found this nifty "nTune" thingy.

So, anyhow, I did the "hot" part, but forgot the "flash" part.

I ran the nTune auto tuner, which involved multiple reboots, and came up with 188mhz, which seemed a little low... rebooted again, then did a few benchmarks, which seemed a little low...

then I realized my FSB was 166mhz, and I was operating with an 8RDA+ BIOS on an 8RDA3I. That explains why Windows was having a fit about reinstalling my Realtek driver.

Apparently they are interchangeable enough to where they could get you out of a sticky situation, should you find yourself in one.

[bETAbILLY]

A few months ago, I tried nTune on my 8RDA+, and had to use my spare 8RDA eeprom to post and hotflash to get my bios back in working order.
Then I had one hell of a time getting the utility un-installed.

That "nifty" addition to USDM sure wreaked havoc on my faithful 8RDA+, my advice is to be aware that the utility has absolutely no fear of fouling up a system. Had similar results with a nVidia radeon card auto-overclocking utility.

But keeping a spare eeprom is very wise, I learned that lesson after I bought a dodgy NF2 board from another manufacturer.