How To Do a BIOS Upgrade

[Hardware Secrets Team]

There has been a new article posted.

Title: How To Do a BIOS Upgrade
URL: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article.php?cat=&id=33

Here's a snippet:
Several servicing cases can be solved with a BIOS upgrade. For instance, when a certain peripheral (a DVD unit, a video board or a new processor) is not recognized by your computer, though it is recognized when installed in another computer ...

Comments on this article are welcome.

[Balthor]

In the BIOS of the computer the various frequencies and voltages etc. are adjusted.I'm seeing that the same BIOS program is in every computer.This BIOS could not be improved upon.It already adjusted everything.This BIOS program contains the ROM software that allows for these adjustments.The BIOS flash is like a MIDI parameter file.The flash tells the BIOS program the values that these parameters like voltage should be set at.I'm seeing the BIOS chipset as also a repository for this BIOS program.How do you know that the flash that you are purchasing is the best and fastest computer flash for the computer?Has anybody ever seen the real total parameter BIOS in a computer?

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi there,

You are making a big confusion between BIOS, setup and CMOS memory. These are three different things:

BIOS: It is a software that teaches the microprocessor how to deal with basic hardware like floppy disk drive and video display in text mode.

Setup: It is a software where you can alter several configuration parameters of your motherboard.

CMOS memory: Also known as configuration memory, is where the configuration parameters are stored.

BIOS, Setup and POST are stored on the same ROM chip and everybody calls this ROM chip "BIOS", hence the confusion.

Please read this other tutorial of ours:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/6

Maybe after reading it you want to rephrase your question.

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[rodney]

OK, I am checking my Moms computer and it turns out that it has a Trigems Computers Dublin motherboard. I can't find anything about Trigems or Dublin. Anywhere.
It is in an eMachines computer and has a "Intel 845D/MP (Brookdale)" Chipset with a Intel Pentium 4 1600MHz processor according to Hwinfo.

Can I look up Phoenix Technologies to get a bios upgrade?

Why can't I find the motherboard anywhere?

Are all the computers I touch cursed to have questions I can't solve on my own?

[rodney]

Here is one of the motherboards on eBay (the listing even says it os for the right model)

http://cgi.ebay.com/eMachines-308721...em190174103460

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi there,

Never heard of this company before. Try running Hwinfo and Sandra to see what they report as being the motherboard manufacturer. Also post here the BIOS serial number so we can try to solve this mystery. Read this tutorial on BIOS serial number:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/34

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[rodney]

Found the manual:

http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/OEM/HP/...lin_manual.pdf

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi there,

Can you post the BIOS serial number?

Gabriel.

[Mondoman]

Gabriel, thanks for the nice article! One minor note: on the first page, "PLCC" should be described as "Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier" (rather than "leadless"), as all the BIOS chips I've seen do in fact have "J" leads rather than just contact pads.

[Gabriel Torres]

Thanks for the feedback, corrected!

Cheers,
Gabriel.