I have seen countless posts on these forums concerning failed BIOS flashing attempts, and most recently the difficulty people are having with the P67 BIOS flashing. I always recommend flashing a BIOS from DOS as it is unquestionably the safest way to go about it. Flashing your BIOS from within windows is inherently the most dangerous way to attempt a flash. There are many things going on in the background when you flash from Windows, any number of which are capable of causing a problem. While flashing from within the Windows environment may work for most, I say why risk it? It is true that newer boards have multiple BIOS's that you can switch to should a flash go wrong, but once you get the hang of the method I'm about to describe, you will use this method from now on...... trust me!
Inventory Required

• USB Flash Drive
• The BIOS File
• HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, V2.1.8
• Win98 Boot Files

Regarding the above list, I'll assume you know what a USB flash drive is and just about any kind will work. You can even use a SD card or similar which can be plugged in to your card reader if you have one. For those of you that have the FTW version of the P67 you can even use the onboard CF reader, provided of course you actually have a CF Memory Card plugged in to it.
 
The BIOS file you need can be downloaded from EVGA's web site, usually in a .zip format.
 
That brings us to the HP tool and the Win98 boot files needed. I have made both available for download on my server and you can obtain them by clicking HERE. Just save the file to your desktop, then go ahead and extract it to your desktop as well. Once the file is extracted, go ahead and double click it to get inside. Once there you will see a file called SP27608 which is the actual HP USB Format Utility and a folder called win98boot.
 
At this point we need to install the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, so go ahead and double click that file and install the program. Follow the on screen instructions, it's pretty self explanatory. Once the installation is finished the installer may or may not put an icon on your desktop to start the utility. If you did not get an icon on your desktop you can launch the utility by  going to start/all programs/Hewlett-Packard Company/HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.

 
Go ahead and open the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool and you should see this Window.

 
From the "Device" drop down menu at the top, make sure your USB flash device is selected. From the "File System" drop down menu choose FAT32.

 
The next steps are critical and where most people go wrong. First of all NEVER choose "Quick Format", we want to do a complete format. Make sure you click the "Create a DOS startup disk" and click the "using DOS system files located at" radio button as well.

 
Now we need to tell the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool where these DOS files are located. If you remember they are inside of the extracted folder describe above. So, choose the browse button and navigate to that win98boot folder which should be on your desktop if you followed the directions. Simply highlight the "win98boot" folder and click ok, you do not want to navigate inside of the win98boot folder.

 
You should now see the path to the "win98boot" folder in the bottom box. If everything looks good, go ahead and press the "Start" button to begin the formatting process.
 

Once the format process is finished you will see the below.

 
So, guess what?? If you followed the directions correctly you now have a properly formatted and bootable USB Flash Drive! The next step is to put the BIOS files on our USB flash drive. If you have not already done so then download the BIOS version of your choosing and save it to your dekstop. Once the BIOS file is downloaded, extract it to your desktop and open it up. You may have to click a couple of folders until you get all the way inside where the files we need are located, but you want to end up here:

 
Now open up your USB Flash Drive and copy all these files and folders to it. You don't need the ReadMe.txt, afuwin32.bat, afuwin64.bat, or afuwin folder, but I usually just copy and paste the whole shooting match to the flash drive. It wont hurt anything to have it all there and you may want to refer to them later, so just copy it all over.
 
At this point you are ready to boot from the USB flash drive and get your BIOS flashed! Enter your BIOS and navigate to the Save/Exit area where you want to choose "Restore Defaults". Once that is done navigate back to the "Boot" area and set it so the first boot device is your USB flash drive, save your changes and reboot. You will probably see a quick flash of the old Windows98 splash screen, don't panic..... perfectly normal! If all goes well you should get to a C: prompt. From here I usually type "dir" (without quotes) which will show you a list of all the files on the USB flash drive, you should see everything we copied to it.
 
From here simply type "AFUDOS.BAT" or "FPTDOS.BAT" (without quotes) depending on the BIOS files included in your download, and follow the onscreen prompts, you will probably have to type a capital "Y" for the process to continue.
 
Once the flash is finished I recommend the following after the system reboots.

• Turn off the power
• Turn off power at the PSU (Rocker Switch)
• Remove the motherboard battery
• Hold down the "Clear CMOS" button for 30 seconds

Once this is done, put the battery back in and switch your PSU back on. Start the system, enter BIOS, and make any changes you require. You will need to reset the date/time at a minimum.
 
Good luck and happy flashing!!

Ok, I think I got her finished.....LOL

Thanks again Lvcoyote for your help. I would think this would be a sticky.  Also, thank you for taking time out of your day for this.

Yes, thanks.  It took me several hours last year to find all the files and build my own USB stick for doing this. 

I just wanted to mention that this method also works with an Award BIOS if you happen to have a motherboard that uses that. All you need is the latest BIOS file and a copy of AWDFLASH on the USB flash drive.
 

This is a good post that should be a sticky!

great guide, I did a similar one in the x58 section, but for myself I find it simplest to just burn the ISO to a rewritable dvd and be done with it. Of course if you don't have a dvd burner then the usb way seems best, way better than floppy, anyway.
 
Thanks Lvcoyote

It maybe a good idea to reset your Bios to default before any flash.

PvtBlackdog


It maybe a good idea to reset your Bios to default before any flash.

Good idea, I added it to the tutorial.

Nice.  Tried to do this before and gave up when it seemed too complicated.  Now it seems easy.

Now I have a use for the CF slot on the P67 FTW.  A bootable BIOS updater.  Thanks.
 
wxmanunr

Nice write up, if you notice its now linked on the new driver page 

An update to the original post regarding using the onboard CF card reader on the FTW version motherboard. You can use it but your CF card will need to be formatted in a card reader or installed in something other than the onboard CF slot.  For some reason when you open the HP Format Utility it does not see the CF card if it's plugged in to the motherboard's onboard slot. I took my CF card and popped it in my front panel card reader, and it formatted and made a bootable drive from it no problem.  I then put it back in the Motherboard's CF slot and it boots from it just fine.  You only have to do this once and you can simply delete the old BIOS files and copy over the new ones next time you want to flash from it.  As long as you do not format it it will remain bootable.

so this should work to flash bios for pretty much any mobo?

Yes sir, I've been using this method for several years now over many different platforms and brands.

Another thing I noticed is that when the CF slot is enabled in the BIOS I was not able to boot off my SSD.  I think the JMircon CF controller is interfering.  I have an SSD boot drive and 3x500GB RAID 0 for storage.
 
The CF method rocked when building my system.
 
wxmanunr
 

Lvcoyote

An update to the original post regarding using the onboard CF card reader on the FTW version motherboard. You can use it but your CF card will need to be formatted in a card reader or installed in something other than the onboard CF slot.  For some reason when you open the HP Format Utility it does not see the CF card if it's plugged in to the motherboard's onboard slot. I took my CF card and popped it in my front panel card reader, and it formatted and made a bootable drive from it no problem.  I then put it back in the Motherboard's CF slot and it boots from it just fine.  You only have to do this once and you can simply delete the old BIOS files and copy over the new ones next time you want to flash from it.  As long as you do not format it it will remain bootable.

I think I ran into a problem but you guys are the experts. When I flashed the Bios in the Command prompt everything finished but the CMOS said WRONG!!! Also the board never rebooted it just stayed there on the black Command Prompt and that was it. So I was forced to power down, I pushed the CMOS button in the back (was I not supposed to do that?). My computer is working. The reason why I chose to flash the bios this way is because when I updated the bios thru windows originally, my Lan1 ethernet went out and my motherboard (P55 Sli) would beep histerically when woken up from Sleep, leaving me with a black screen. Please help.
 
Thanks for all your help and posting,
Eric

Follow the instructions and try again, flashing from the command prompt is obviously not the right way to do it.

Thanks for the info, I followed the directions and flashed without any issues.

I am mistaken, it wasn't the Command Prompt. It was in DOS when the motherboard was loading from the USB. What is there that I could have done. The computer wouldn't boot from after the update? The instructions didn't say anything other than putting "Y" to continue?
 
Thanks for your help,
 
Eric

yea I srew 1 up of my 3 BIOS up too, I update form windows 7 and after reboot the system doesn't boot from BIOS 2 (the updated one) just getting black screen, I sw back to the BIOS 1 and works fine, it's any way I can recover that BIOS up?
and I wanna update to A119 on my P67FTW mobo, because I think should fix my sleep problem (after wake up 100F CPU temp bug).
LVcoyote, I have a SD cards and a USB SD card reader, it will flash from it, or can I do it from a CD? I have a DVD-CD burner.
Thanks regards Dominick
 
Case: CoolerMaster HAF932 fulltower
MOBO: EVGA P67 FTW with Evgauge & ECP Pannel
CPU: INTEL i7 2600k sandy bridge
CPU cooler: CORSAIR H60 waterblock
memory: CORSAIR VENGEANCE RED 2x4 (8GB total)
Video adapter: 2X EVGA GTX470 superclocked in SLI
PSU: OCZ ZX1000W modular 80+Gold
HD: 1X WD caviar Blue 500Gb 7200rpm sata
DVD: LG DVD-RW 24X SATA
monitor: SAMSUNG 27” LCD SyncMaster P2770HD monitor+HDTV combo
Keyboard: Logitec G15
mouse: Microsoft intellipont X5 2000bpi
gamepad: belkin n52te
 

Try booting up from the USB stick following the guide here, once booted throw the switch to BIOS 2 and see what happens. Don't start any flashing procedures until the switch is moved to #2, I've never tried this before but it wont hurt anything to try.  Let us know if it works.

I will with the USB card reader, but before I try I wanna know, can I sw the bios with the PC OFF, or I have to power it off? the first time I just power it off, sw to the bios 2 power it back on, start win and flash it from win, and I think some thing went wrong, after reboot it never started again, is like a death mobo on bios 2 (black screen), so I think I may of kill that 2nd bios chip for good, I will try your way on the 3rd BIOS hope not to kill it too lol

If you switch the BIOS with the computer off it wont boot so you will not be able to get to the dos prompt.  This is why you need to boot the system with the BIOS switch set to a BIOS you know boots up. Once the system has booted from the USB device and you are sitting at the dos prompt, before doing anything else throw the switch to #2 and try flashing it.  I don't know if you are familiar with the Hot-Flash procedure that used to be pretty popular back in the day but basically that is what you are doing by throwing the BIOS switch while the system is running.  Just remember that once the system is booted the BIOS really isn't doing anything anymore and you should be able to throw the switch to #2 with no ill effects.... Let us know!

cool, I'm going to try it, that is what I may done wrong at the 1st attempt, sw the BIOS sw with the PC powered OFF, I will try and see if the BIOS 2 recovers, now it doesn't boot from it at all. I will post results, thanks, I'm not an cyber expert, I just start using a PC (6 years now) but I never really done nothing more then regular WIN user  (WIN XP is were I learned), this is my 1st buil alone computer from scratch, and I was happy to see it run with out issues, I been playing a lot of hr of L4D2 and it's smooth like a baby ass, 
 

Case: CoolerMaster HAF932 fulltower
MOBO: EVGA P67 FTW with Evgauge & ECP Pannel
CPU: INTEL i7 2600k sandy bridge
CPU cooler: CORSAIR H60 waterblock
memory: CORSAIR VENGEANCE RED 2x4 (8GB total)
Video adapter: 2X EVGA GTX470 superclocked in SLI
PSU: OCZ ZX1000W modular 80+Gold
HD: 1X WD caviar Blue 500Gb 7200rpm sata
DVD: LG DVD-RW 24X SATA
monitor: SAMSUNG 27” LCD SyncMaster P2770HD monitor+HDTV combo
Keyboard: Logitec G15
mouse: Microsoft intellipont X5 2000bpi
gamepad: belkin n52te
 

OK,,, I flashed the BIOS # 2 (broken one) the way you said, I turned on and boot the PC to DOS with BIOS # 1 (the known good one) then once to DOS I troll the sw to BIOS # 2, I started the flash process, after reboot WOLALA, BIOS 2 not boot no problem (REPAIRED) and I checked BIOS version was all so updated to 679 1.19 so I guest that mean was been updated from 1.13 successfully, so now all 3 my BIOS chips working again, I'm so happy that I know I didn't damage the mobo at all, good to know now this procedure for recover broken BIOS, thanks a million man.
if my BIOS wasn't damage I don't need to sw the BIOS after he system is booted right? I can sw to the BIOS I want to flash before turning on the PC! I'm right? so I know for the next time I have to flash my BIOS, I will defenitlly never again flash from windows, since it went wrong and mobo wasn't booting from the flashed bios (thank to EVGA for put 3 BIOS chip, I was able to keep using my PC without RMA my mobo), your way is fantastic man thanks again, and regarding using a USB SD card reader it's no problem @ all
 
best regards Dominick
 
Case: CoolerMaster HAF932 fulltower
MOBO: EVGA P67 FTW with Evgauge & ECP Pannel
CPU: INTEL i7 2600k sandy bridge
CPU cooler: CORSAIR H60 waterblock
memory: CORSAIR VENGEANCE RED 2x4 (8GB total)
Video adapter: 2X EVGA GTX470 superclocked in SLI
PSU: OCZ ZX1000W modular 80+Gold
HD: 1X WD caviar Blue 500Gb 7200rpm sata
DVD: LG DVD-RW 24X SATA
monitor: SAMSUNG 27” LCD SyncMaster P2770HD monitor+HDTV combo
Keyboard: Logitec G15
mouse: Microsoft intellipont X5 2000bpi
gamepad: belkin n52te
 

Next time you flash just boot to the BIOS you want to flash and go for it, the only reason we needed to throw the switch after boot was because it was the only way to get at your #2 since it would no longer boot up.
 
Glad you got it all sorted out and posted back to let us know it worked!

no problem, thank to you for teach me that trick, understood why I trolled the sw after system post, because the BIOS wasn't booting anymore, I was thinking that chip was death, now I understand that was just a flash error that made that BIOS not working anymore, I'm not a pc expert but I'm pretty smart on learning things pretty fast. THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! 

 
Lvcoyote, that is the link, hope you get it here since it dsn't send it trought pm, let me know.