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Upgrading the BIOS (Firmware) of your Eee

Disclaimer: The following instructions are tested on EeePC models 701 only. If you have experience with other models, please edit the page and add your notes at the foot of the page

  1. Download the BIOS image from http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx or from http://update.eeepc.asus.com/bios/. Make sure you select the right model.

  2. Prepare an USB drive formatted with FAT16 filesystem. Note that a SD card won't work, unless you insert it in an USB card reader. To format it using FAT16, use mkdosfs -F 16 (tip from twb). If you get an error, you may need to run *fdisk on the USB drive and shrink the partition you're using (16 MB partition seems to work). Yes, it really does need to be FAT16. The simplest way is to use the USB key installer as descibed in ../Install.

  3. Open the downloaded file. It should contain a file named like 701-ASUS-0801.ROM. The 701 part corresponds to the EeePC model. Copy that file in the root directory of the USB key, and rename it to 701.ROM. Again, 701 corresponds to the model. If your model is 901, then the download file should contain version.ROM and it should be renamed to 901.ROM when copied on the USB key.

  4. Reboot and press Alt+F2 during the boot. The BIOS updating program will start searching for USB drives, then for a suitably named ROM file. Follow the instructions on the screen.

Updates On Other Models

701SD Model: Got hold of 701SD-ASUS-0602.zip, unpacked it to 701SD-ASUS-0602.ROM, renamed that file to 701SD.ROM. Copied 701SD.ROM to a FAT32-formatted 1G (no need to create neither FAT32-type nor 16MB-sized partition) noname USB-stick. Inserted stick into 701SD and hit powerbutton, then Alt+F2. Waited 3 minutes or so. Voila. Previous BIOS was 0303, now it's 0602.

900 XP Model: Somehow the BIOS does not find the 900.ROM image on my Eee PC 900.

900 Linux Model: The BIOS update program looks for a file named "900.ROM", since the 1006 revision of the BIOS for the "900 Linux" model is shipped with a filename of "900-ASUS-1006.ROM", one has to rename the file to "900.ROM". After renaming the file, updating the BIOS to revision 1006 was successful. A USB-stick with a 16MB FAT16 partition was used.

900A Linux Model: Success updating from BIOS version 0403 to 0607 on two 900A Linux models, using these directions (900A.ROM on a 16MiB FAT16 partition).

900A Linux Model: with the release 0607 I cannot update the bios with the mentioned hints. I used succesfully a freedos live usb (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/), with bios .ROM and the asus afudos utility (ftp://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/flash/AFUDOS236.zip).

901 Linux Model: Success updating from 901-ASUS-1703.zip, but only after making sure the USB drive had a small 16Mb partition to hold the update. When using a FAT16 partitioned 1Gb USB device the update was not found.

1000 Linux Model: Success updating to BIOS version 0803 on a 1000 (Linux model). Note that the upgrade will reset the bios settings (there are a just a few, anyway). The bios zip file is also without the model number for this model.