Infomation About Bios

With today's rapid pace of design advancement, new product updates come fast and furious. This is especially true of board-level products, like Motherboards, Video Cards, GPU Processor Cards, and other main edge connector products. The good news is that manufacturers have designed in the ability to easily update your product BIOS, which is sometimes important for full compatibility. So before installing or combining components, it is always a good idea to check your product's current BIOS revision against the manufacturer's website, to determine if an update is needed, or advisable. The manufacturer's documentation will guide you through this process if it is necessary. However, remember that most products are designed to be plug-n-play out of the box!

But What Is BIOS?
Most electronic devices, from computers to MP3 players have software embedded in their hardware. These are programs that tell the device how it will function - from basic to advanced functions - so that it knows how to start, and perform the most simple and complex tasks it was designed for.We call this software the BIOS (sometimes also called Firmware). In computer jargon, BIOS stands for "Basic Input/Output System", but in reality, there is very little "basic" about it. In your computer's motherboard for example, it tells your computer how to: start up; communicate with hardware components, such as hard drives and video; how to move data in and out of memory; and even talk to your USB connected devices. Without your BIOS, your device is JOOL (just out of luck!).

Keep in mind that changing a PC's BIOS settings incorrectly can cause the PC to malfunction. If this happens, a BIOS reset is usually available, and will need to be performed to return the BIOS to the default "factory settings." This is usually activated by a jumper on the motherboard. [Warning: always read your motherboard or system manual thoroughly, before upgrading your BIOS, or making BIOS setting changes!] Though normally, most incorrect settings should have no negative affect on your PC, but please follow each step explicitly since some can.

Remember: It is recommended that you reboot after each individual BIOS setting change to ensure that your system functions normally. If you make numerous changes before rebooting, and your system will no longer boot, you won't know which change is responsible for the failure.
Updating Your BIOS
Before you consider updating your BIOS, be sure you need to - not every update will be needed or even benefit you. Also be sure you are up to the technical challenges you will face. Changing the version of BIOS stored in your computer or motherboard is not the kind of activity recommended for novice users. To perform this successfully, you need to be comfortable and familiar with your BIOS settings, and be able to download and apply the BIOS Update without issue. For this reason, it is best to let professional computer technicians do this work for you, if or when it is needed. However, if you know what you are doing, it is a fairly easy task.

Before Updating BIOS, consider the following:

* The reasons for updating your BIOS - frequently, updating is unnecessary
* Identifying your BIOS chip - if replacing is the approach required
* Replacing your BIOS chip - this requires significant care, and can void your warranty
* Locating your latest BIOS version - required for any update
* Flashing your BIOS - make sure you have a UPS!
* Live update - great for minor or quick updates - again a UPS is vital - a partial update can make your system inoperative
* Configuring your new BIOS settings - read the manual! twice for good measure!