PCTech Forums

hey!
erm... i was kind of wonder what bios are and what they do, and because im cool i want to i want to know how to update them and like how do u know what to update and that?
n e 1 know!
write back!

Hey venney, same here. I wish I know more about Bios. From my experience, I know that upgrading a bios, is not that difficult but must be well trained because it's a bit risky. I mean... you can make damage to the board if while installing the upgrade your PC will stop responding - or any other errors. I will search for information about BIO's, I have to learn more about them too

HUAAAAAA!!!!!! Me again. Found these articiles itneresting (one of them is a bit advanced, but it's worth reading). Take a look here:

http://www.computerhope.com/help/bios.htm
http://www.rlrouse.com/bios.html
http://www.bioscentral.com/

IF you want more, try google. Search for BIOS Info. Perhaps there will be information about Award Bios and others...

I hope this will help you.

i was thinking more of advice or instructions from some one whos done it before. Also i want to know how do i know if i nreed to update my bios, ive just started an as level in computing so im sure il be learning more but i mean for the moment i was just wondering, thank you for your links tho!

ven

Your BIOS has a version number,if you goto your Motherboards Mfg's website,find your MOBO and check the lastest BIOS version available for your MOBO.
Flashing your BIOS can be tricky,do with care!!

Cactus

If you flash your Bios and say some freak accident down the road makes your electric go out your mobo is shot. That just happened to a friend of mine. Never thought he would lose his power.
My friends and I always joked about never flashing the Bios during a thunder storm

The traditional procedure for flashing your BIOS from within DOS using a floppy disk is similar for all motherboard manufacturers.

The first thing you will want to do is backup you old BIOS.
You can do this with or there is also a good chance that the BIOS Flash utility
that you download has the backup feature built it.

Now you will need to know what your BIOS version is.
To find out goto Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information
in the System Summary Section scroll down until you see the BIOS version/date.

Next you will want to obtain the BIOS update and Flash utility for your model number motherboard.
I would suggest that you only download a BIOS update from the manufacturer of the motherboard.
Do a google search for the manufacturer’s website.
Do not update with an older version/date BIOS update

Put a floppy in your A: drive and right click to select Format.
Select the Create an MS-DOS startup disk format option and press Start.
Once the floppy is formatted copy both the Flash utility program and
latest BIOS version downloaded previously on to the MS-DOS Startup Disk.
Make sure that these files are not compressed (zipped).
Write down the name of the flash utility and the name of the file containing the BIOS update
If your motherboard has a Flash BIOS jumper, make sure this is set to allow your BIOS to be written to.
Put the MS-DOS Startup Disk into your floppy drive and restart your system.
The system will boot from the MS-DOS Startup Disk and you'll be presented with an A:\ prompt.
Type the name of the flash utility followed by the name of the file containing the BIOS update
Press Enter and Enter again when you're asked to confirm that you wish to flash the BIOS.
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Hey Gecko,
I don't do much flashing but have done it. A question for ya, after you flash the bios and say you have to fdisk and reformat for some strange reason, is there going to be conflicts or trouble installing the O.S. or the mobo drivers back on the h.d.d?

The best is : do not flash the bios if you have no need for it, like not accessin a device, limiting devices and so on.
The reason is simple : it will not make your sytem run any better or faster, so why should you do it if you have no benefit from it?