BIOS is an acronym for basic input and output system. The BIOS is built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk. BIOS is responsible for booting the PC by providing a basic set of instructions. It performs all the tasks that need to be done at start-up time, including tests.
2. Do you really need a Flash BIOS upgrade ?
It's possible that Windows 95 isn't configured correctly on a computer with an outdated BIOS. To let Windows 95 fully support Plug 'n Play you need a PnP-BIOS. This is a very important reason to update your BIOS. Large HDD support - All harddisks that are sold today are more then 528 megabyte. To support these harddisks the BIOS must have LBA Logical Block Addressing support. When your BIOS doesn't support LBA and you want to use your new harddisk at full capacity you have to use software drivers that trick the BIOS. With some of these software drivers Windows 95 will load your HD in compatibility mode which means a performance loss. A third important reason to upgrade your BIOS is to solve bugs.
3. How can you recover a corrupt BIOS ?
Modern motherboards have a boot-block BIOS. This is small area of the BIOS that doesn't get overwritten when you flash a BIOS. The boot-block BIOS only has support for the floppy drive. If you have a PCI video card you won't see anything on the screen because the boot-block BIOS only supports an ISA videocard. The boot-block BIOS will execute an autoexec.bat file on a bootable diskette. Copy an Award flasher & the correct BIOS. Bin file on the floppy and execute it automaticly by putting awdflash. Bin in the autoexec.bat file. The AMI boot-block BIOS will look for amiboot.rom on a diskette. Copy and rename the correct BIOS file on the floppy and power up the PC. The floppy doesn't need to be bootable. You will see the PC read the floppy, after about 2 to 5 minutes you will hear 4 beeps, this means the transfer is done. Reboot the computer and modify the CMOS for your configuration.
4. How can you clear your BIOS with the DOS DEBUG command ?
for AMI and Award BIOSs: C:\DEBUG
-O 70 17 -O 71 17 -Q
for Phoenix BIOSs: C:\DEBUG
-O 70 FF -O 71 17 -Q
5. Where can I download the Award and AMI Flashers ?
You can get it at your motherboard manufacturer's web site.
6. What is the BIOS actually doing when I turn on my computer?
The CPU has power and reads the x86 code in the BIOS chip. The code in the BIOS chip runs a series of tests, called the POST for Power On Self test, to make sure the system devices are working correctly, it boots the operating system from FDD or HDD. In general, the BIOS: Initializes system hardware and chipset registers Initializes power management Tests Random Access Memory Enables the keyboard tests serial and parallel ports Initializes floppy disk drives and hard disk drive controllers Displays the system summary information During POST, the BIOS compares the system configuration data obtained from POST with the system information stored on a CMOS - Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor - memory chip is located on the motherboard. After the POST tasks are completed, the BIOS looks for the boot program responsible for loading the operating system. Usually, the BIOS looks on the floppy disk drive A: Than drive C:. After being loaded into memory, the boot program then loads the system configuration information and device drivers. If this is Windows, the files in the Start Up menu are executed.
7. Can something go wrong ?
If you use the wrong flash BIOS, or have a power outage,
or have a defective chip, the computer may not boot.
8. Why are there no Flash BIOS on the Award or AMI site ?
Award and AMI give m/b manufacturers a BIOS customized for each specific board and the chipsets controlling that board. Then the manufacturer, using tools from Award/AMI, makes final modifications to the BIOS before shipping the system or board. In other words, the manufacturer knows more about that system than they do and is better able to provide a Flash BIOS upgrade.
9.What to do when the Award flasher says Insufficient memory.
In CMOS Chipset Features Setup, disable every caching and shadowing you can find. Save and exit. Reboot and press Ctrl+F5,when you see "Windows Starting" (This temporarily prevents Drvspace.bin from loading-making 108K more Memory available.) Award 7.x flashers now have a switch. If you use that switch the award flasher will need less free memory.