Bios update.

There are three main manufactures of systems BIOS’s these days.  They are Award, AMI and Phoenix.  Each company has a website where you can obtain the latest bios update for your computer’s bios.

You enter the bios through the cmos setup program.  And every bios maker has a different cmos program.  If you are not sure what you are doing with the cmos utility then you are better off saving it for someone that knows more about it.  You can poke around with it if you like; just make sure you don’t save the changes or do a bios update. 

These days the cmos is replaced by flash ROM’s which hold both the cmos and the system bios.

The POST (power on self test).

When a computer is turned on it goes through a test from a ROM chip call the power on self test.  This program checks the computer every time it is turned on for errors.  This test is a basic command that it sends out to the rest of the computer to check everything.  If anything goes wrong with your computer system there will be a series of beep codes you can use to decipher the problem. 

Getting the bios update for your computer.

If you bought a computer through a company like Dell, then you will need to check with them to make sure you have the bios update you need.  If you have a home made computer you can check with one of the three major bios makers.  Their websites are below.

http://www.phoenix.com/en/Home/default.htm

http://www.ami.com

Site Note:  Phoenix and award have recently merged.

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