B.i.o.s

J

joeswm8

New Member
What exactly is BIOS, everyone is like "my BIOS is doing something."

I know that BIOS means basic input output system and there is some kind of chip on the motherboard for it but what does it actually do?

Can the BIOS be upgraded and what are the advatages/disadvantages?

What tasks does the BIOS perform?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Wikipedia is your friend.
Wikipedia said:
The primary function of the BIOS is to prepare the machine so other software programs stored on various media (such as hard drives, floppies, and CDs) can load, execute, and assume control of the computer. This process is known as booting up.
Click to expand...
BIOS's can be "flashed" to a more recent version if nessecary, as with most firmware.
 
Well BIOS controls and hold the configuration setting of ALL of your computer-mainly hardware. You can't upgrade it to my knowledge, but it can be updated. Lets just say BIOS is the control center of your computer. You'd be screwed without it. Some are better than others. Good ones like mine are for gamers and make it easy to overclock the CPU add more electricity's to a certain wire, and all these other option I wouldn't dare mess with for not knowing what your doing in there can potentially kill your computer. It gets very VERY VERY technical at times in certain places and you access it when you boot up your computer you usually press something like F5 or DEL.
 
I think you can only update the kind you have which Is made specifically for your computer, but you can't take a better one from another computer and put it in yours. If I wrong please let me know cuz now I'm curious :P

Edit- Kinda like saying you have Windows XP home. You can update it, but you can't upgrade it right there on the spot. Just a medifore so don't take it too seriously.
 
Bios updates/flashes are particular to the specific make and model of motherboard it was designed for. A BIOS is not like an installed program or OS update, it's classed as Read Only Memory, meaning originally it couldn't be altered without a replacement chip. Technology has moved on, but flash upgrades can fail, causing the pc to not boot. To this end, bios flashing shouldn't be done unless absolutely nessecary, or unless you're prepared to carry the burdon of risk of a power cut, selecting the wrong bios to flash to, or some defective hardware. Recent motherboards often have a backup Bios to reduce the risks involved.
 
Should I even worry about my BIOS cause I am not really a super tech person?

Why do people always tamper with it?
 
Overclock, check things, erase there mistakes, monitor, tweak their computer, Change things like setting the command rate of RAM, set it to use the Graphics card as the primary video source rather than the on board, etc.
 
As you say you're not a super tech kind of person, there's no reason to alter anything, so long as you have a pc that's doing exactly what you want it to do. Altering the bios is only required when you begin to do "power-user" kinds of things, such as like ADE says, overclocking, or altering the ways in which the different kinds of hardware communicate with each other.
 
joeswm8 said:
What exactly is BIOS, everyone is like "my BIOS is doing something."

I know that BIOS means basic input output system and there is some kind of chip on the motherboard for it but what does it actually do?

Can the BIOS be upgraded and what are the advatages/disadvantages?

What tasks does the BIOS perform?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Binary Input/Output System

The BIOS is basically a chip packed with code that controlles and maintains keyboard, mouse, serial communications, display, etc. It also contains information to boot the computer.
The BIOS generally doesn't need to be tampered with unless you're into more technical modifications and specifications. In any case, try not to fiddle with the little thing unless you really know what you're doing. It's a tricky little bugger.
 
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