Tuesday 28 November 2017

Present Day, Present Time (Part II)

So the first night saw me perform that most fundamental yet dread-inducing of tasks - BIOS flashing. Armed with a whole Jayztwocents worth of widsom about ensuring your GAP file is at the absolute naked root of your USB stick and to let your computer do its thing, whilst taking pains to ensure as best as you can that the system DOES NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LOSE POWER for the duration, I unleashed the routine (simultaneously proving the worthiness of that previously mentioned dubious front USB 3.0 mainboard connection). I avoided the direct internet update, which is I suppose another option but seems quite a reckless way to do a BIOS flash if I'm honest, and all was set!


It was after the above progress bar had done its thing that prospects diverged from the script. The screen just sat there with a primitive logo and a barebones screen asking for me to press F1 to enter setup. After leaving it for a while (Jay's words still echoing through my head "leave it alone to do its thing.."), I finally had little choice but to relent and press F1.

Nothing.. no response.. nothing.

I pressed F1 again.

Nothing.

A little piece of me fell over inside. That didn't happen on the tutorial I'd watched. What could've gone wrong? Nothing had popped up, nothing seemed untoward.. it even stated the new BIOS version above the insistent F1 request, yet simply refused to respond. Given that it was showing the new BIOS version I decided to bite the bullet and risk something which I felt was going massively against Jay's mantra, something I couldn't even have physically done if I'd followed my original plan of not connecting it up (it's rather too close to the case lighting controls for my tastes).. I poked the reset button.

and waited..

black screen..

and waited..

more black screen..

..the ROG logo appeared, and moments later a startlingly similar screen to the one above, with one notable exception - the newer BIOS version.

I've decided I don't like doing BIOS updates on my own personal stuff.

Next came the forging of a Windows USB boot stick. This took rather longer than I expected (the better part of the remainder of the evening), between conversations with Twitter co-conspirator Adrian about the importance of backups and patience. Deciding that it was better to sleep and undertake this on a fresh evening, I allowed my elder PC time to finish downloading and verifying the USB tool build. I also noted with some curiosity that by default the new PC continues to display it's chipset RGB lighting even after powering down the system. Without any Aura software to control it at this point you're stuck with the rainbow scroll in all its infancy, but it is lovely and adds to the feeling that Lain is somehow more alive than the primitive, lifeless black box predecessor sat next to her.

No comments:

Post a Comment