In this video from ITFreeTraining I will look at how to upgrade the BIOS in your computer. To do this, I will first look at how to determine what BIOS you have, where to get the update from and how to apply the update.
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Why Upgrade BIOS?
0:12 Before I get started, I will first look at why you would upgrade a BIOS. There are three main reasons why you would want to upgrade your BIOS. The first being increased stability. If you have a computer that is crashing all the time, this may be a result of an incorrect memory or CPU setting. It is not uncommon by the time a motherboard is manufactured, shipped and purchased that newer CPUs and memory modules are released. If these are detected incorrectly by the motherboard, this can cause the computer to crash. Updating the BIOS can help fix these kinds of issues.
The next reason to upgrade the BIOS is hardware updates. Newer CPUs come with hardware virtualization. This needs to be enabled in the BIOS. I once had a computer where this setting did not appear in the BIOS. After a BIOS update, this setting then became available. If you are finding that you are missing a setting this may fix the problem. Another problem I have experienced is that I purchased RAM with a motherboard the BIOS did not support. This resulted in the computer not being able to start. The manufacturer released a BIOS update to fix the problem, but how can I update the BIOS if the computer will not start?
To fix the problem, I contacted a friend who had some RAM that would work with that motherboard and BIOS. I borrowed the RAM and used it to update the BIOS. Hopefully you will never have to do this, but sometimes you may need to borrow a CPU or some RAM in order to update a BIOS.
The last reason you would want to update your BIOS is for security updates. BIOS will do some checks to help prevent tampering and detecting of boot sector viruses. Updating the BIOS may make your computer a little more secure.
What Motherboard do I have?
1:55 The next step is to determine what motherboard you have. Although there are two main manufacturers of BIOS, a BIOS is generally customized to work with only the one motherboard. Thus you need to download it from the manufacturer of the motherboard.
To determine what kind of motherboard you have, the easiest way is to look at the box it came in. In a lot of cases you may not have the box anymore. In this case, printed on the motherboard will be the details of what motherboard you have. In this example, the motherboard model is printed on the motherboard. This should be the case for all motherboards.
If you cannot find this information on the motherboard, it is possible it is printed in a location which is being blocked from view. Anything from CPU coolers to video cards can block this information. If you cannot see the motherboard model, remove extra cards like video cards and keep looking. The information should be there somewhere. In some cases, you may not have access to the motherboard. For example, maybe the computer is locked up or in a difficult place to get to.
Information Provided by BIOS
2:57 In some cases, you may get lucky and the information will be displayed during boot up. In other cases, you may need to press a key in order to get into the setup. Common keys are F2, F10, delete and escape. Once in the setup, if you are lucky, information about the product may be displayed.
In this example, you can see the product name and the version of the BIOS is shown. As the BIOS is customized to the computer, you will need this information in order to determine where to get a newer version of the BIOS. On some computers, this information will not be shown and you will need to look at other ways to get this information.
System Information
3:35 If you have Windows installed, you can use System Information to determine what motherboard you have. System Information on previous versions of Windows was called MSInfo.
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References
“CompTIA A+ Certification Exam Guide Ninth Edition” pages 195-196
“CompTIA A+ Exam Cram: Flashing the BIOS” www.pearsonitcertification.com...
“Ubuntu Linux - How to Get Motherboard Model Number and Other Info from Terminal Command Line”
www.itswapshop.com/tutorial/ub...
“How to Check Your BIOS Version and Update it”
www.howtogeek.com/196916/how-...
Credits
Trainer: Austin Mason ITFreeTraining.com
Voice Talent: HP Lewis hplewis.com
Quality Assurance: Brett Batson www.pbb-proofreading.uk