Bios upgrade help!

Fallenleader · November 1, 2016

TL;DR: Go to bottom of post.

I have a very much dated Biostar TA790GX A2+
http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=374

About 2 months ago, I obtained an AMD Phenom II x4 945, which is the latest processor model this board can officially support, and upgraded to it from an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+.

Elephant in the room aside, I have notice just a few issues:

The AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ would show up in my motherboard and run as expected and desired. Being extremely dated and IIRC, budget oriented, it had to be replaced.
When I upgraded to Windows 10, even the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ was quite responsive and functional, performing many tasks you wouldn't expect it to handle, albeit with serious lag at times.
Upgrading to the AMD Phenom II x4 945 went smoothly, with an immediate noticeable improvement in overall performance.
My motherboard has not seen a driver update in ages, as this was my first ever gaming build PC (More on that in another post for those curious).
installing the AMD Phenom II x4 945 went smoothly, resetting bios made it take instantly, but I cannot say the same for Windows and actual performance.
The AMD Phenom II x4 945 does not show in my PC information in Windows. While this is not a big deal, the lack of a bios upgrade is actually hampering me from utilizing the full potential of this CPU.
Lack of a bios upgrade is causing bottlenecks in performance at various times, and is costing me the ability to overclock this CPU, as the beauty of the TA790GX A2+ is that it is capable of overclocking any compatible CPU given to it.

So now for the main point of this post:
Normally, to upgrade this bios, one needs an ancient piece of technology we used to call a floppy in the newer size of 3.55" (edit: 3.5". It's been a while XD)(which wasn't all that floppy actually).
My floppy drive is dead, or to be more honest, I lack the IDE cable to make it function, and cannot simply borrow or buy one.

Can I possibly flash this bios using a USB drive? If so, what dangers does this pose compared to traditional floppy?

November 1, 2016

13 minutes ago, Fallenleader said:

Can I possibly flash this bios using a USB drive? If so, what dangers does this pose compared to traditional floppy?

If it's possible, there are no downsides or extra dangers.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ = AM2(+), so the motherboard will most likely be AM2(+) to. That new CPU is indeed "the best you can install" for that mobo. Officially... (has something to do with wattage)

AM2(+) board can work, and "officialy work" with AM3 CPU's. However, you might not fully benefit from the upgrade. The bios not giving any info on that CPU, might be an indication of not having all the options to it.

About OC-ing... Not sure, because I didn't buy the AMD Phenom II x4 945 for my old system, just bought an A8 5600k. But the AMD Phenom II x4 945 is at the max power limits of your board. Not sure if you can even OC it at all... And if it was possible, it might have been possible to get the AMD Phenom II x4 965, which draws 125 watts. (might work, unofficially)

@ floppy disks... Not sure if the disks were indeed 3.55" big... Because the drive trays are called "3.5 inch trays/bays", meaning a 3.55" floppy disk, would not fit.

Also @ floppy disks... The cases of them 1.44-ish mb disks weren't all that floppy. But the disks themselfs were very floppy.

Fallenleader · November 1, 2016

I haven't used a floppy in ages for obvious reasons. I still remember the large actually floppy, well, floppy disc. My oldest system sported an i386 and one of those behemoths, though sadly, despite having the floppies and the drive, the corrosion made it actually useless. My very first personal computer I owned was an old emachines etower:

Though my actual experience came from old dos and windows 98 computers that were available to me at the time. I became familiar with 95 in first grade

Anyhow, what is special about that pc in the pic, is that was the computer that started it all: Gaming (Need for speed 3, 4, and 5 were amazing games this thing could handle), and when this fell off my desk (and a ribbon cable came loose, though I had no clue back then WTF it was) my first ever repair. since then, I have made it a point to pursue a career in computers, and I can even outperform most REPAIR techs.

Kinda interesting to note the mobo is at it's max power draw. I can avoid the OCing, but I have to update the bios, as it adds official support to the later AM3 CPU's it can support. OCing aside, there are other issues I have, such as improper thermal shutoff temps, occasional performance hits in speed, etc all related to the outdated bios not understanding how exactly to utilize this "new" of a CPU.