MSI motherboards suck

I found out that my MSI motherboard had an update for the BIOS so like any good computer geek I downloaded the update. Following the given instructions very carefully, I flashed the BIOS and shutdown for a reboot.

On boot the computer did not go past POST. The splash screen for the mobo would appear spit some text on the screen but never finish.

I rebooted and tried to get into the BIOS setup. No dice.

I said to myself "Okay, I'll download the manual for this motherboard which will let me know what jumper to change so I can boot and 'hard' reset the board".

The MSI web site has absolutely no PDF manual for my mobo. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch. And on attempt to go to the area where that stuff is, the site sends you right back to the home page.

And of course I don't have the original manual. Who keeps that around anyway?

In short, my motherboard is useless. Something went wrong when I flashed the BIOS and now the thing won't boot.

I will never buy an MSI motherboard again as long as I live.

. . .

Mind you, I've flashed many BIOSes in my day on both desktops and laptops. The first one I ever flashed was an HP Vectra series box way back in the late 90s - A REALLY LONG TIME AGO.

Since then I have never had one not apply correctly. Of all the computer issues I've ever ran into, a BIOS flashing problem was not one of them.

Until today.

I squarely blame the problem on a poorly programmed BIOS flashing app, which is what MSI delivered.

I learned my lesson and won't be buying from then again.

(sigh..)

So anyway, I wasted $55 and ordered a BIOSTAR mobo. The only real complaint about it by people who bought it is that it's somewhat not overclock-friendly. Being that I don't give a rat's ass about that, the 'board suits me just fine.

In addition it will take all my existing hardware with no problems. I can throw on my 256MB vid card, my 2GB of RAM, my Core Duo proc and all the rest.

I can only hope the BIOS screw-up didn't screw with any of the other hardware. If it did I am going to be one ticked off dude.

And in case you're wondering how I'm writing this blog post, I'm doing it from the laptop.