Author Topic: BIOS question (Read 10058 times)

RudeDawg · « **on:** June 29, 2010, 06:47:59 PM »

Is this the right board to post a BIOS update question?

RudeDawg · « **Reply #1 on:** June 29, 2010, 08:30:24 PM »

Is anybody out there?

..::Merlyn::.. · « **Reply #2 on:** June 29, 2010, 08:38:23 PM »

There are many sections to post "BIOS questions" in.

Depending on the quiery you can post it here and I might be able to help you.

Merlyn

Allan · « **Reply #3 on:** June 30, 2010, 05:50:18 AM »

Feel free to ask your question.

RudeDawg · « **Reply #4 on:** June 30, 2010, 09:15:50 AM »

My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P. It is a dual boot machine running XP Pro on one drive and 7 on another. Currently I don't have any problems with any of the hardware. Would I see any performance benefit from updating my BIOS?

mektek · « **Reply #5 on:** June 30, 2010, 09:21:31 AM »

I never update a bios if the machine is running fine. You will not see any percievable performance benefit from bios updating.

Allan · « **Reply #6 on:** June 30, 2010, 01:18:12 PM »

Quote from: RudeDawg on June 30, 2010, 09:15:50 AM

My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P. It is a dual boot machine running XP Pro on one drive and 7 on another. Currently I don't have any problems with any of the hardware. Would I see any performance benefit from updating my BIOS?

If there's no specific reason to update your bios then don't.

..::Merlyn::.. · « **Reply #7 on:** June 30, 2010, 02:38:14 PM »

updating the BIOS is a long, hard and painstaking process.

Performance will not pick up by a BIOS update, hardware updates such as RAM or CPU may improve performance...

As I say, If it's not broken - DON'T FIX IT

..::Merlyn::..

Allan · « **Reply #8 on:** June 30, 2010, 02:40:52 PM »

Quote from: ..::Merlyn::.. on June 30, 2010, 02:38:14 PM

updating the BIOS is a long, hard and painstaking process.

Performance will not pick up by a BIOS update, hardware updates such as RAM or CPU may improve performance...

As I say, If it's not broken - DON'T FIX IT

..::Merlyn::..

Updating the bios is a quick, easy process. But if there's no specific reason to do it, don't.

..::Merlyn::.. · « **Reply #9 on:** June 30, 2010, 02:56:30 PM »

Shh... Allan...

The first time i did it it was a PAIN IN THE BUTTOCK

Took 2 hours and wouldn't read the floppy disk for atleast another 3 hours. I spent the day in my bedroom trying to resolve my computer's problems, the USB stopped working and one IDE channel. So i flashed my BIOS.

..::Merlyn::..

Allan · « **Reply #10 on:** June 30, 2010, 03:10:11 PM »

That's you. For the rest of the world it takes 5 minutes at most.

..::Merlyn::.. · « **Reply #11 on:** June 30, 2010, 03:12:37 PM »

Quote from: Allan on June 30, 2010, 03:10:11 PM

That's you. For the rest of the world it takes 5 minutes at most.

Don't be mean

... It was my first time and the floppy was faulty...

Sorry Allan.

..::Merlyn::..

RudeDawg · « **Reply #12 on:** June 30, 2010, 07:34:15 PM »

ROFL! Ok, I get it...... don't flash the BIOS just because...........

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #13 on:** June 30, 2010, 09:09:23 PM »

I sort of flashed a BIOS just because- it was my K6-2 (Pentium 2 class) machine. I was trying to get it to work with larger hard drives, and a BIOS update seemed to be the best bet. (So it wasn't purely just for the heck of it).

I have to admit, once I moved the jumper and booted to the floppy disk and went through the flashing process, it was relatively painless.

One caveat, and a rather curious one, too. For some reason, during the boot up sequence there is absolutely no flashing cursor. (doesn't affect functionality at all, but it feels wrong to me).

Oh and I still couldn't use the larger hard drive. Instead of hanging during the detection phase it now hangs whenever it tries to boot. (I mean a hard freeze, too)., so really it wasn't much different from how it was.

Well, anyway, that was on a PC that is over 12 years old. I would imagine they made the process easier in the meantime (I would still stay far away from BIOS flash programs that run while windows is running... I bricked a Burner ages ago using a firmware update program of a similar nature).

Allan · « **Reply #14 on:** July 01, 2010, 06:17:03 AM »

Quote from: BC_Programmer on June 30, 2010, 09:09:23 PM

Well, anyway, that was on a PC that is over 12 years old. I would imagine they made the process easier in the meantime (I would still stay far away from BIOS flash programs that run while windows is running... I bricked a Burner ages ago using a firmware update program of a similar nature).

Yeah, these days it couldn't be easier - or safer. On all systems (that I know of) built in recent years, the bios is flashed on reboot - either via a floppy or an executable file run from within the OS that forces a reboot and then the flash. Pretty much the only danger these days would be if the system is shut down (ie, power failure) in the middle of the process - and even then many bios update utilities are so well written that they can - and will - self correct on reboot.

Computer Hope Forum

News: