flashing/updating BIOS

**Rooster050** · 03-21-08, 02:03 PM

Hey, I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on my situation. I recently ran a group of updates and drivers for my machine. The Hel80 was made by compal and has updated drivers on their website. It also has about 12 BIOS updates. I read around and found out that Flashing or Updating BIOS should be done with extreme caution because if you mess up, you could mess your entire computer up. My problem is I am stuck on one of the earliest BIOS releases and want to upgrade to the latest. SO, my question is... What will updating/flashing the BIOS really do? Could it potentially make my machine communicate faster or run faster? I read in a forum on how to do it, and the person suggested that if it ain't broken, don't mess with it.

Please someone share your knowledge of the Basic Input Output System.

Thanks in advance

**jason_jinx** · 03-21-08, 02:08 PM

You risk fucking your board up when flashing but people do it all the time.
I am just giving you warning.

Update the bios only when you are having hardware problems or you crash before windows starts.
what board do you have?

**jason_jinx** · 03-21-08, 02:16 PM

You want a basic run down?

Basic I/O program runs when the computer is booted up. Its the small program embeded on the mobo to run before your OS does.

The main task of the BIOS program is to identify and startup component hardware.

There will be no performance gains or if there are any then its to small to notice.

Maybe if you were overclocking and there was a bios update to fix a bug/crash then maybe.

You have not listed any crashes etc so dont worry about it.

**Rooster050** · 03-21-08, 03:37 PM

thats what i needed to know, thanks for the response. My mother board is an Intel ® 945PM Express chipset. It is in a Hel80 laptop. I guess then I'll stay far away from the BIOS until i manage to fuck my system up beyond an operating system error. Thanks for the info :9

**RhysJD3** · 03-21-08, 04:33 PM

Sometimes it's to add support for newer hardware (or correct issues with older hardware). Check the readme's to see if there is any reason for you to do.

As with the above posters, if you don't need to do it, don't. Most readme's for the bios and download areas will also say "only install if you are experiencing issues".

However at work, we always update them and haven't had any issues with it (other than the one time I tried to update it via a pxe boot menu, that was a mess).

**...bigdog...** · 03-21-08, 06:08 PM

what you need to do is figure out HOW you're going to flash your bios.

does it have a windows based program? does it have a program built into the BIOS? do you have to make a boot disk? How will you mkae a boot disk on a laptop that doesn't take a 3.5" disk? Boot disk on a CD-ROM?

if your motherboard has a windows or BIOS based flash program, then all you have to do is download the most current BIOS, be 100% sure it's teh BIOS for YOUR MOTHERBOARD. NO EXCUSES. (likely, if it's not, it will say "this bios is not for me" and quit....BUT NO EXCUSES ANYWAY....MAN UP AND FIND THE RIGHT ONE).

Put it somewhere you can find it (like in the c:/ directory).

Start the program (if it's windows) and tell it where the bios files is.

Or, start the BIOS flash program contained within your motherboard's BIOS (press del when you start up, or whatever the "setup" key is).

if you have to do the boot disk route......find a friend that knows what they are doing.

**WileECyte** · 03-21-08, 06:38 PM

I always flash my motherboard to the latest revision when I first build my machine and only update it beyond that if I need the update (some processors require BIOS updates.)

ASUS motherboards have a windows utility called ASUS Update that will update your BIOS from within Windows. They also have a DOS utility that requires you boot off of a boot disk. I don't even own a functional floppy drive anymore so I went with the Windows utility.