Bios Updates? Someone Help Me!

[adi]

I read in some PC magazine that updating your bios would substantially increase the speed of your computer. Is it worth doing it and how would I go about it? Also, does anyone know if your hard drive needs to be formatted before you do this?

[Slougi]

Well if you're not too experienced all i can say is: If it ain't broken don't fix it.

There are instructions on all sites that have bios downloads, and the procedure is a bit different for all mainboards.

[Remote]

Originally posted by theacj
I read in some PC magazine that updating your bios would substantially increase the speed of your computer. Is it worth doing it and how would I go about it? Also, does anyone know if your hard drive needs to be formatted before you do this?

As Slougi said, if there is nothing wrong with your computer don't change it... But in a best case scenarios a new bios could help performance, it would do wonders but certain new features, or bugfixes, could make your system more stable. There is no need for you to format your hd, unless you are using a raid setup with an onboard raid controller. Check your motherboard suppliers homepage for further instructions...

[Yingke]

Originally posted by Slougi
Well if you're not too experienced all i can say is: If it ain't broken don't fix it.

So true, only do it if the new version fixes an old bug that's bothering you.
I had to do it when my old motherbaord wouldn't support harddrives larger than 20GB. So i updated my bios but it still didn't work So i bought a new PC!

[blizz]

I've only done it once and like updating/ reflashing the firmware on a DVD Drive you spend the majority of the time shitting yourself incase you've fucked it up. They're not cheap mistakes to fix.

[Eagle]

New Bioses can only increase the Processor Speed Capacity of the motherboard. For example, my motherboard had a maximum of 800Mhz Intel processor. Thats because it was designed when 800Mhz was the fastest. With a bios update I was able to install a 1Ghz processor. In a sense, updating your bios might allow your computer to go faster, but only if you install a new processor too.