Upgrading or flashing the BIOS

Upgrading (or "flashing") the BIOS is an easy, effective way to increase performance on your system. We recommend you contact the motherboard manufacturer before you flash your BIOS.

What is a BIOS?

BIOS (or Basic Input/Output System) is one of the most crucial components on a motherboard. The BIOS tells your computer what it can do without accessing any other files or programs from your storage. It also contains all the information that's needed for your computer to POST (Power On Self Test), including how to control your keyboard, communicate with your processor, send/receive video signals to/from your monitor, and recognize your components.

Why flash the BIOS?

When a manufacturer releases a new motherboard, the BIOS on the board is already flashed. You can flash the BIOS to the latest release to enhance the system's capabilities, help it to detect newer devices and components (bigger hard drivers, newer processors, and so forth), and improve stability.

When to upgrade the BIOS

Sometimes new hardware upgrades are not compatible with older motherboards. If it is a physical difference, chances are this cannot be solved. However if the problem is software, it likely can be fixed with a BIOS upgrade. A BIOS upgrade can also be used to improve compatibility and performance in general. A motherboard manufacturer may release a new BIOS revision as they have found ways to improve the motherboard or add new features.

There is always a "change-log" included with every newer BIOS release; it helps decide whether or not it's worth it to flash that specific version.

Performing the upgrade

As each motherboard and BIOS is different it is best to contact the motherboard manufacturer for full instructions about performing the upgrade. If the upgrade is not performed correctly, or if the wrong upgrade is applied, it can damage the motherboard.

How to access the BIOS and make changes

Because the BIOS "wakes up" the system and gets all of the components talking to one another, a new piece of hardware may require some settings to be adjusted in the BIOS. These settings are controlled by a Setup program. When you first start the computer, you may recognize a small message along the lines of "Press Del to enter Setup".

If the Del key is not pressed within a few seconds of the message, the system will boot as normal and start to load the operating system. If the Del key is pressed the computer will enter the BIOS Setup Utility. Once the Setup utility has loaded, you will be greeted by a blue screen with various options.

Every BIOS is slightly different, which makes it very difficult to document what each feature does and where it can be found. Getting to the BIOS is also a tricky procedure as there is not a standard button to press to enter it. As mentioned above, usually there is a message on the screen "Press Del to enter Setup". Simply press this key and you'll enter the BIOS. Some manufacturers have a splash screen when the system boots up to hide this message. If an OEM logo splash screen is displayed, press ESC key to see the boot up information.

Here is a list of the most common keyboard commands for specific systems to enter the setup utility (The list is a guideline, not a definitive list of all procedures):