Updateing BIOS

Hi all,

My machine is about 2 years old now and I just ran AIDA32 and was going through it and was looking at BIOS. Now I am ashamed to say that I have never updated my BIOS nor do I know how to go about it.

I have AMI BIOS and I went to there site looking for updates... but silly thing is that in the update area of the site they ask you for a mother board type and in AIDA under mother board it says UNKNOWN ughhh must be junk and that really bothers me. So would anyone know how to go about finding out what mother board I have.

When I had the machine built The comp guy said at the time for what I wanted the machine for that the AMD "ThunderBird" was sufficant for my needs and now I question if I even got what I paid for . Not being to hardware savy I feel I am at a loss when trying to do the right thing for my machine upkeep. Any help/suggestions would greatly appreciated.

FIREDANCER

 

Hi FireDancer...

You can try the free Belarc or the new Aida32 - Everest.

I have not used the newer Everest yet but I hear good things about it. I do and have used Belarc. When you run Belarc it scans your PC (creates a profile) and creates a web page with the infomation listed in the page. Below is an example of what it's giving me for the Main Board on one of my PC's...

Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P4B266-C REV 2.xx
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software, Inc. ASUS P4B266-C ACPI BIOS Revision 1002 12/13/2001

Give them a try...

 

Never Mind...

For some reason I got a double post. Deleted the message.

 

Hi Firedancer,

Others may like to give their opinion, but for me, if the system is running smoothly, I would not do a BIOS upgrade. It may well make no difference at all, but it can have risks. If you flash the wrong BIOS for your motherboard it may become unusable unless you get another CMOS chip. If there happens to be a power failure or some sort of stoppage during the flash the BIOS can be "lost ", again another CMOS chip would be needed. Recommend that you do not upgrade unless there is some sort of need (a niggling unidentified problem may be one or upgrading the hardware, eg, it can allow larger harddrives to be identified). Most high-end mobo manufacturers have a listing of what the BIOS upgrades will do.

Anyway, other ways to ID the mobo are to open the case and find the motherboard make, model and revision number that will be printed on the board itself, usually between the PCI card slots or at the corners. It can also be ID'ed from the BIOS string (a long string of numbers/letters that should start with AMI) that appears on the first or second screen at startup (press the Pause key to stop at a screen).

Matt

 

Here! Here! Mattman. I thoroughly agree. Don't upgrade the BIOS unless you have a good reason to.

 

Mattman and ReggieB,

Goodmorning to you both,

I aggree with you both as well ...after much searching and reading last night the BIOS is nothing to mess with. In a artical about what BIOS is and does as well as the fact that most BIOS should last 10 to 15 years there is or was no need to mess with mine. I asked this question only because I thought it was like a software product and needed updateing at certain points to keep your machine fast but that is not the case. Thanks so much for the replys and the heads up. The read was good as well last night and gave a little insight as to what BIOS does and how severly it can compromise your system if handeled in properly!

Regards,

FIREDANCER

 

I go along with mattman also.

BillyBob

 

FireDancer

You and I must have been writing a reply at the same time.

BUT ! A VERY GOOD decision was made on your part.

BillyBob

 

Bb

All I can say is...........