BIOS Updates for a Microsoft Surface Unit
November 10, 2008
C o p y r r i i g h t t
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Contents
Required Equipment _______________________________________________________________________________________ 4
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Introduction
This document describes how to update or flash the motherboard BIOS of a Microsoft Surface™ unit.
Important: The procedure in this document has not been tested with back-flashing (that is, loading an older BIOS version). Back-flashing might require a bootable USB flash drive and a MS-DOS® command-line utility.
At a high level, you can update the BIOS by installing an ASUS update utility on the Microsoft Surface unit, selecting the new BIOS in the update utility, restarting the Microsoft Surface unit, and then entering the
BIOS setup to load the BIOS defaults.
Required Equipment
To update the BIOS on a Microsoft Surface unit, you need the following items:
ASUS BIOS Update Utility (available from http://tinyurl.com/2nfwnw )
New BIOS image file (which is the .rom file that is included in this download package from the
Surface Community Web site )
Keyboard and mouse (wired or wireless)
Updating the BIOS in a Microsoft Surface Unit
To update the BIOS in a Microsoft Surface unit
1. Make sure that the I/O connections on the Microsoft Surface unit are accessible. (To learn how to remove the end panel to expose the I/O connections, see the " Removing the End Panel to Expose the I/O Connections " article on the Surface Community Web site.
2. Connect a keyboard and mouse.
If you are using a wired keyboard and mouse, connect them to USB ports in the I/O connections.
If you are using a wireless keyboard and mouse, connect the associated USB dongle (that is, the Bluetooth® transceiver) to a USB port and make sure it is installed.
3. Turn on the Microsoft Surface unit and let the Windows Vista® operation system load.
4. If the unit logs on user mode (and displays the attract application), log off user mode, and then log on administrator mode by using an administrator account.
5. Download the ASUS BIOS Update Utility package from http://tinyurl.com/2nfwnw , and extract the files.
6. Double-click AsusSetup.exe, and then following the on-screen directions to install the update utility to the hard disk drive of the Microsoft Surface unit.
7. Click Start, click All Programs, click ASUS, click ASUSUpdate, and then click ASUSUpdate.
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8. In the ASUS update program, in the list at the bottom of the screen, click Update the BIOS from
file, and then click Next.
Note: By selecting the appropriate option in this screen, you can also view the current BIOS version.
9. Select the new BIOS image file (the .rom file).
10. Click Flash to flash the loaded BIOS image.
The ASUS utility erases the existing BIOS image, flashes it with the contents of the new image file, and then verifies the new BIOS image.
Important
On this screen, the ASUS utility includes an option to clear the CMOS checksum and load defaults. However, this option is unreliable. Continue to the next step to reload defaults.
11. After the flash is successful, click Yes in the pop-up window to restart the Microsoft Surface unit.
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12. While the Microsoft Surface unit is restarting, press the DELETE key repeatedly (approximately one time every second) to enter the BIOS menu.
13. If a dialog box prompts you for a password, enter the supervisor password (if you have changed the BIOS password on the unit) or contact Microsoft Surface Support at (866) 425-8880 to obtain the supervisor password.
14. In the BIOS menu, press F5 to load the setup defaults.
15. Press F10 to save all settings and restart the Microsoft Surface unit.
Important
If you do not reload the BIOS defaults, you might experience erratic system behavior, including a “CMOS Checksum" error during the P.O.S.T. step.
16. After the Microsoft Surface unit restarts, log on administrator mode.
17. Click Start, click All Programs, click ASUS, click ASUSUpdate, and then click Uninstall to remove the ASUS update utility from the Microsoft Surface unit.
