Flash OEM board with retail board's BIOS? Probably a bad idea?

[ruu]

I have an Asus-made board that was designed for a Sony system. The board's model number is P4SD-VX. Apparently many owners of various pre-made Sony systems have this motherboard, as well as owners of other brands (such as owners of HP machines), and no one has been able to find any sort of BIOS update for this mobo.

I'm just trying to find any kind of mobo update. I have found various posts online from many people complaining that Asus refers them back to Sony, and Sony won't reply. Sony has a BIOS update listed on their website (my Sony was marketed as a PCV-RS320), but that's from over 4 years ago. This mobo is probably 5 years old by now, so I know that any kind of support would probably be a while back, but 4 years ago is a bit much, isn't it? I'm looking for anything newer. Anything!

Barring that, I'm wondering if anybody has ever flashed an OEM board with a retail BIOS. I know that not all OEM mobos have a retail counterpart, but since OEM boards seem to be so crippled, I'm wondering if I can just cheat and flash my physically limited board with a more robust BIOS so that I can at least play with voltage settings. Is "close enough/good enough," well, good enough?, as far as flashing the BIOS goes?

Here's a link to some bizarre spreadsheet of Sony's OEM boards (there are tons of entries for the P4SD-VX):

http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/OEM/Sony/PCV2.html

And here's a link to the Asus mobo whose BIOS I feel like miiiiiiight work:

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=12&l3=33&l4=0&model=184&modelmenu=2

To be honest, my gut feeling is that this is a bad idea, but to paraphrase someone far more intelligent than I am, I don't believe in reasoning with my gut, so I'd like to hear some first-hand experience or some technical info from those who know more than me. What do all y'all think? Has anyone ever found a legitimate update for this board? Has anyone ever flashed a board that wasn't specified for that BIOS and had it work? Had it bricked?

Thanks so much for reading!

 

[Zorg]

I haven't, but I would have to say it's a bad idea.

 

[o1die]

If your board bios is already "dead" from a bad flash, then I would try it. But if the bios still works, I wouldn't risk it. Most bios chipsets are particular about what brand of boards they work on. I would just look for a different board that will fit in your case if you're unhappy with your oem board.

 

[ruu]

@ Zorg

Lol, yeah, pretty much.

@ o1die

Well, it's an Asus board that would be getting flashed with a BIOS that also goes with an Asus board... but I think you're right about it being too risky. Do manufacturers of mobos make boards that are honest-to-god physically different from the retail boards that they market? I guess any sort of retail mobo is going to have more robust features than an OEM mobo, but I thought that maybe they were the same parts and had just been flashed differently before being shipped out? Heh, that's probably wishful thinking.

The board is an mATX Socket 478. I don't think I have that many options for a replacement board, and it was one of those situations where I wanted to try overclocking to squeeze the last bit out of the system so I didn't have to spend more money on it. 😉