Bios Advice
lolfighter
Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Wanting to Learn More</div> As it is, I'm hesitant to mess with things I don't understand - it's what keeps my computer running.
That said, I don't actually understand much about drivers. I have no idea how they work, how they speak with my hardware, and how the hell they are programmed. If I did, I'd probably be the one writing them. I DO know however that my computer will do fine without them. That's a lie, of course, my computer wouldn't do much at all without drivers. But Windows comes with drivers that are, while not always optimised for MY hardware, very compatible. So if I uninstall all of my current third-party drivers, I'll be running at 800x600 with no sound, but I'll be running. And from there I can reinstall a working set of more optimised drivers. This would be my course of action if I'd downloaded a new set of say, nVidia's Detonator drivers that screwed up my system: I'd deinstall them, then reinstall the ones I'm currently using. But I digress.
So as you can see, I'm comfortable with the whole drivers issue. As long as I don't mess around too much, the worst thing that should happen to me is a couple of restarts combined with a deinstall and a reinstall, and I'm good to go again. Which brings me to the issue of BIOS:
I know that a good, up-to-date set of drivers will allow my computer to run at peak efficiency. Until recently however I didn't know that this includes the BIOS (or does it? Enlighten me). I thought the BIOS was merely some dorky-looking way of changing a few important settings that couldn't be changed otherwise. Seems there is more to it. Is it very important that I keep my BIOS up to date, or will it only offer me minor performance gains that are hardly worth the effort? Thoughts?
Then there's the matter of <i>software</i> and <i>hardware</i>. Until recently I thought that between these two expression, you could describe everything that makes up a computer. Hardware is all the stuff that actually makes up the physical extent of my computer. Software is the thing that resides on my harddisk or on my CDs, as well as in my processor's cache and my RAM when the computer's turned on.
I had occasionally encountered the term firmware, but not put much thought to the matter. I recently came to realize what this is however: The firmware is pieces of software that do NOT reside on my harddisk, but inside the various components of my computer (and lots of other things as well). My CD-Writer has firmware. So has my phone I believe. Hell, my microwave probably has firmware (which explains how <a href='http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19990228' target='_blank'>NT crashed the microwave <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--></a>). Am I hugely mistaken? Partially right? Enlightened ones, enlighten me about firmware! And tell me whether BIOS, as I suspect, is firmware too, residing, as I believe, in a certain chip on the motherboard?
Finally, the core issue: How do I go about updating my BIOS? I am currently away from my computer (yet another failsafe to prevent me from messing with this stuff until I know enough about it), so I won't be able to do anything right away, like find out what BIOS I have or where I get updates for it. I am pretty confident that I'd be capable of finding and applying the correct updates, but what if something happens? I've hear the spooky stories about how you can royally mess up your computer via the BIOS, so I'm cautious. What do I do if my computer doesn't start up anymore? What if I can't boot to safe mode? What if I'm simply met wit a blank screen? I've heard about "flashing" the BIOS, which is, I believe, a way of resetting the BIOS through the hardware. Right or wrong?
It boils down to this: Is updating the BIOS a terribly dangerous experiment, and what steps can I take to protect myself from mishaps? And is the entire affair worth the trouble?
This went into Off-Topic as it is entirely unrelated to NS. The Tech Support Forum AFAIK is for NS-related problems.
That said, I don't actually understand much about drivers. I have no idea how they work, how they speak with my hardware, and how the hell they are programmed. If I did, I'd probably be the one writing them. I DO know however that my computer will do fine without them. That's a lie, of course, my computer wouldn't do much at all without drivers. But Windows comes with drivers that are, while not always optimised for MY hardware, very compatible. So if I uninstall all of my current third-party drivers, I'll be running at 800x600 with no sound, but I'll be running. And from there I can reinstall a working set of more optimised drivers. This would be my course of action if I'd downloaded a new set of say, nVidia's Detonator drivers that screwed up my system: I'd deinstall them, then reinstall the ones I'm currently using. But I digress.
So as you can see, I'm comfortable with the whole drivers issue. As long as I don't mess around too much, the worst thing that should happen to me is a couple of restarts combined with a deinstall and a reinstall, and I'm good to go again. Which brings me to the issue of BIOS:
I know that a good, up-to-date set of drivers will allow my computer to run at peak efficiency. Until recently however I didn't know that this includes the BIOS (or does it? Enlighten me). I thought the BIOS was merely some dorky-looking way of changing a few important settings that couldn't be changed otherwise. Seems there is more to it. Is it very important that I keep my BIOS up to date, or will it only offer me minor performance gains that are hardly worth the effort? Thoughts?
Then there's the matter of <i>software</i> and <i>hardware</i>. Until recently I thought that between these two expression, you could describe everything that makes up a computer. Hardware is all the stuff that actually makes up the physical extent of my computer. Software is the thing that resides on my harddisk or on my CDs, as well as in my processor's cache and my RAM when the computer's turned on.
I had occasionally encountered the term firmware, but not put much thought to the matter. I recently came to realize what this is however: The firmware is pieces of software that do NOT reside on my harddisk, but inside the various components of my computer (and lots of other things as well). My CD-Writer has firmware. So has my phone I believe. Hell, my microwave probably has firmware (which explains how <a href='http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19990228' target='_blank'>NT crashed the microwave <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--></a>). Am I hugely mistaken? Partially right? Enlightened ones, enlighten me about firmware! And tell me whether BIOS, as I suspect, is firmware too, residing, as I believe, in a certain chip on the motherboard?
Finally, the core issue: How do I go about updating my BIOS? I am currently away from my computer (yet another failsafe to prevent me from messing with this stuff until I know enough about it), so I won't be able to do anything right away, like find out what BIOS I have or where I get updates for it. I am pretty confident that I'd be capable of finding and applying the correct updates, but what if something happens? I've hear the spooky stories about how you can royally mess up your computer via the BIOS, so I'm cautious. What do I do if my computer doesn't start up anymore? What if I can't boot to safe mode? What if I'm simply met wit a blank screen? I've heard about "flashing" the BIOS, which is, I believe, a way of resetting the BIOS through the hardware. Right or wrong?
It boils down to this: Is updating the BIOS a terribly dangerous experiment, and what steps can I take to protect myself from mishaps? And is the entire affair worth the trouble?
This went into Off-Topic as it is entirely unrelated to NS. The Tech Support Forum AFAIK is for NS-related problems.
Comments
Of course, the only way it would seem that the update could fail would be is if your computer lost power during the BIOS flash. But, just for the sake of your wallet, I wouldn't recommend flashing your BIOS unless your experiencing compatability problems that the update addresses.
On my Windows98 made by Hewlet Packard it was F2 at startup...but now I have a Compaq computer running WindowsXP on a FIC AM35 (with an Athalon 2400+). The BIOS is a Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00 ...(I can get all that information, but it doesn't tell me how to access it on startup ....or any other time for that matter). I blame myself for being poor and having to buy a Compaq in the first place.
It's best not to really do much with the BIOS, however, sometimes some diagnostic systems won't report right and you might need to check it for specifics. (like my last computer that had a P3 500mhz, but almost everywhere in dxdiag and stuff it would show P2...BIOS had it right though). I do think you can get your BIOS reinstall onto the motherboard by some computer specialist stores. I don't think it's cheap though. Generally you can make your computer more efficient just through some OS options and video/audio/other drivers.
I say...don't touch your BIOS...but I'm not that good with componets, I'm better with, uhh, technical stuff, like programming, and drivers and stuff.
All I know at the moment is that when my 1500 processor decides it is a 1050 processor (this happens occasionally) I tweak something in the BIOS and it behaves for about another month.
I know that the BIOS on some computers is on their hard drive, and other BIOS are on the motherboard.
Can you guess which is better?
Under the assumption that the hard drive crashes, your BIOS goes with it, and a new hard drive will NOT fix things by a long shot.
However, if your BIOS is on separate memory on the mother board, when you get a new hard drive, your computer will still know about itself.
On my Windows98 made by Hewlet Packard it was F2 at startup...but now I have a Compaq computer running WindowsXP on a FIC AM35 (with an Athalon 2400+). The BIOS is a Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00 ...(I can get all that information, but it doesn't tell me how to access it on startup ....or any other time for that matter). I blame myself for being poor and having to buy a Compaq in the first place.
It's best not to really do much with the BIOS, however, sometimes some diagnostic systems won't report right and you might need to check it for specifics. (like my last computer that had a P3 500mhz, but almost everywhere in dxdiag and stuff it would show P2...BIOS had it right though). I do think you can get your BIOS reinstall onto the motherboard by some computer specialist stores. I don't think it's cheap though. Generally you can make your computer more efficient just through some OS options and video/audio/other drivers.
I say...don't touch your BIOS...but I'm not that good with componets, I'm better with, uhh, technical stuff, like programming, and drivers and stuff. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Its usually F8, sometimes F10, just hit both of those 2 seconds apart till something pops up.
Want to know how not to risk anything during a bios flash? Use the super Dual-Bios. (my brother has this Gigabyte with dual bios, so that's how I heard about it)
Yes, limited use, but useful anyway.
Yeah, I don't think you will see any performance boost at all, if you don't suffer from a bug or another problem.
And to update the BIOS is a mess, you can't just download a file and double click it, you have to make a boot-floppy, boot with it, use another program to flash the memory with a certain file, clear the CMOS memory by messing with a jumper/the battery, and then redo all your settings in BIOS.
So yeah, it's not worth the hassle if you don't have any problem. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
Even I don't touch them. A power shortage, a speck of dust in the wrong spot, and I just wasted $150 bucks....so yeah, any performance increases you can get with bios are usually slim to none anyway, and if your super desperate for performance, well, that just means you need a new rig. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->