Update BIOS installed by OEM Windows

[DeafFrog]

I used to have an OEM machine by Packard Bell but it obviously got outdated and I needed a new machine. On of my friends was selling his machine that he built himself for a very good price and I bought it. It came with a 1TB HDD that he had formatted and never reinstalled windows on. So I took the HDD out of the Packard Bell and plugged it in, the windows worked somewhat okay, but I started to get a lot of BSOD's and decided to reinstall. It had a reinstall windows function from within the OS and I ran it.
It worked well for about 6 months until I started to get problems again. Some of the bloatware was starting to irk me so I went out and bought Windows 7 Ultimate.
Now I have noticed on the BIOS it says things like Packard Bell use only etc. And it has become clear to me that when I reinstalled the OEM windows it changed my BIOS.
I am at a point were I wish to update my BIOS and I do not know what the actual motherboard is as I can't find the make on the MoBo and any software says it is the Packard Bell one.
So how do I go about this? Do I just update with the PB software or try to change the BIOS back to what it should be? Or have I just learnt a lesson the hard way?

"I have not had that OEM version on any hard drive for about 3 months now. On one drive I have windows 7 and Ubuntu on the other. On windows 7 when I check system information it tells me that my system manufactorer is Packard Bell and my model is an ixtreme M5741 and I am definitely not using any packard bell hardware. And as I said, when I boot the bios says it is for Packard bell use only etc.

So I have no doubt that using the OEM windows somehow changed my BIOS. My question is, must i to update with PB software, try to change back to the correct BIOS or will either option be a bad idea?"

 

[nukemaster]

You should be able to just install Windows 7 on the system without issues. Using the Packard Bell copy of Windows on another system like that was not even legal according to MS's terms of use for OEM copies of Windows.

Windows does NOT change the system bios in any way(or never has in all the years I have worked on systems). You may be seeing system supported by Packard Bell, but that is about it.

If you still have 2 hard drives all want to keep your files, I recommend you ensure they are all on one hard drive, then disconnect it and install Windows to the other drive(removing anything that is on that drive at the time).

Once you get everything setup, then you can re-add the old drive.

If the old drive contained an operating system, you may need to enter the bios and ensure that it does not default to booting from that drive. You can enter the bios with the DEL key on startup. Every bios is a bit different, so you will have to look around a bit for boot priority and hard disk priority.

You can see what board you have by looking at it. They almost always have a model number listed on them.

 

[DeafFrog]

I have not had that OEM version on any hard drive for about 3 months now. On one drive I have windows 7 and Ubuntu on the other. On windows 7 when I check system information it tells me that my system manufactorer is Packard Bell and my model is an ixtreme M5741 and I am definitely not using any packard bell hardware. And as I said, when I boot the bios says it is for Packard bell use only etc.

So I have no doubt that using the OEM windows somehow changed my BIOS. My question is, must i to update with PB software, try to change back to the correct BIOS or will either option be a bad idea?

 

[Y0GI]

Try running CPU-Z and see what it says is your MB manufact. & model#.

Yogi

 

[nukemaster]

Well, you better check the board in the system because no way for packard bell to flash the bios on your system without killing it(honestly a bios from one system flashed on another tends to make the board no longer operable.). Installing an operating system NEVER flashes the bios(I mean this with no disrespect, I use OEM Windows all the time and this simply does not happen).

If you find out what board it is, you can flash it back to an official bios.

Now your friends system did not happen to start life as a Packard Bell did it? I mean I see many systems that look like home builds that in fact are old HP's with a new power supply and case.

Just in case some kind of upgrade was performed from the old OS, you could have some software information left over too.

 

[DeafFrog]

So I did take a look at the MoBo and it turns out that it is made by ami and the bios also says ami. So perhaps the Bios never was changed.

Thanks for your help.

 

[nukemaster]

Can we get an image of the board. AMI(American Megatrends Inc) makes bios chips and software, but does not make boards that I have seen.

Check below or above the top slot on the board(most common location now days) and see if it says anything.

Or just use cpu-z to see what it says.