Question : Need help with important safety precautions!

Hi everyone,
Im am going to be doing a BIOS update. Before I do I wanted to make sure I got as many details and direction as I could. I have an asus crosshair III formula mobo. My current bios version is 1503. There are two updates from 1503 (a 1600 & a 1700). These updates are for 6 core cpu's. I do not have a 6 core and not plan to anytime soon. Going with an amd 955 be. I want to change/ downgrade because there are known issues with the 1503 bios which could be cousing my other problems...I'll omit those from this for now.
I've done some searching and found that my bios Flash can be done with bootable FLASH drive using AFUDOS.
 
My core question is what are the correct safety precautions to take?
In reference to powering down, or battery removal, just hit the clr-cmos button.
and when do I do this?
All I have seen on this is general such as watch the bios flash thats it! or then power down and reset! The most I've been able to find is after bios flash wait till directs you to restart then shut down and remove plug from psu 30 second???
when I save and exit bios or restart my machine it boots to windows!
I do not want to go there without pulling the plug first, do I?

Do I just pull the plug when it says restart!

Please help with a more general description on this topic with details about correct steps in "safety first".

Thanks for responses,
Mike.

Answer : Need help with important safety precautions!

>> In the technical area, is a dos/afudos flash a better choice?

Don't know.  Always used DOS to flash.  Have never tried EZFlash.

>> Same as EZFlash would be better than web update?

Can't comment.

>> Isn't it the best option to go as basic/structural as possible.

Yes.  Not recommended to flash under Windows although some CD/DVD devices are flashed through Windows.

nobus will probably comment and may have differing views.