What is BIOS ? How do I run it [if I must] ?

Question

I know that BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System and is critical to computer booting process.

Now, what exactly BIOS do ? And what are the circumstances that I need to run it under?

Answer 1

I'm not sure if this is what you're after but I'll try to give you a simple, practical answer.

The most common keys to entering the bios I've noticed are:
1. DEL (Delete)
2. F2.
3. CTRL-ALT-ESC
Here's a full list of bios keys:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

You need to press these keys as soon as your computer is powered on. Often, you can hit ESC(ape) to see what key you need to press if it doesn't show.

-- What is the BIOS/What is it for?
The BIOS is the operating system of your motherboard. It lets you configure what's part of your system BEFORE your system locks and uses all these devices. Because most operating systems (like Windows) load drivers and in a way, lock up the device by using it, so you can't change some settings inside Windows.

-- Here are some examples:
1. Enabling/disabling motherboard features, such as: Onboard video, onboard sound, USB ports, hard drive controllers)
2. Resolving resource conflicts (IRQ, DMA, etc.) when such devices have problems.
3. Troubleshooting/enabling/disabling hard drives. If you can see it in the bios, you know it's a software problem.
3. Configuring your processor's clock speed (how fast it runs, overclocking, etc... although now some motherboard chipsets support changing inside of Windows)
4. Changing your primary boot device (e.g. booting off an USB drive, CD-ROM, etc)

-- Resetting the BIOS settings/What if I screw something up:
1. Most of all, despite what anyone has mentioned, almost all BIOSes have a reset feature.
2. If you screw something up, you can reset the BIOS.
3. However if you do change something like clockspeed, your system may not boot. To reset, you will need to open up your computer and short a jumper (see your motherboard manual).
4. So long as you don't change clock speed, 95% of the time everything can be easily reset from within the BIOS.

Hope this helps!
Ken

P.S. If you need more assistance, or have any more questions, you're more than welcome to contact me via my Profile Information. (Or anyone else reading this)

Answer 2

The BIOS is a low level computer program that is stored physically on the motherboard. What it does is allow for the computer to turn on, recognize your CPU, memory, and hard disks. Without the BIOS, the computer will simply NOT boot. It runs every time you turn on the computer, before windows (or another operating system is loaded). You need not be concerned with it at all, unless you are considering say replacing your CPU or you are experiencing compatibility problems with a new Operating System. Most are upgradable, via a process called flashing, but again this is usually unnecessary. To the average user, the BIOS is something that acts transparantly to them and they never have to do anything with it. To a tech on the other hand, it allows them to change your hard drive, perhaps boot off a USB key or CD-ROM drive, customize your settings for optimal performance or overclock your system. Fiddling is not recommended unless you have a good idea what you are doing.

Answer 3

The BIOS is built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk. On PCs, the BIOS contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications, and a number of miscellaneous functions.

To access the BIOS you press a key or series of keys just after turning on the power to your computer and before it boots into the operating system. If you watch the screen when your computer is starting, it will generally tell you what key to press.

Don't make changes to your BIOS unless you know what you are doing.

Answer 4

BIOS is the way your computer starts. It tells the computer what devices it is connected to (hard disk, video card, etc)

If you need to change how the computer starts then that's when you need to alter the BIOS. For instance, if you change the hard disk the BIOS will complain that 'something' has changed.

Normally it will be just a notification to let you know that things have changed but if it tells you of a change that you weren't expecting then it can suggest that something has broken and should be investigated.

Hope this helps.

JW

Answer 5

The BIOS controls all of the devices on your motherboard, such as the keyboard input, drives, system bus, memory, etc. It is very hardware specific.


You may never need to run it, but there are upgrades that can have a huge effect on how your system and devices work. You should never do this casually. It is very serious. If you make a mistake, there is seldom a do-over. Your motherboard would be useless.

Answer 6

BIOS basically boots you machine up, in some cases when there is a problem, you may need to go into your BIOS settings to tell it to boot from data on a cd, rather than then on the hard disk, it aslo allows cd, hardrive, mother board ect. to be ran at a very low level allowing you to install windows, mac or Lineux if nesseary when your hardisk becomes corrupt

Answer 7

BIOS boots your computer and allows the operating system to use the hard drive, floppy drive, and others on a very LOW LEVEL.

It also manages settings on the motherboard.

You would never need to run it unless you were told to by a tech support. You can access it by pressing F8 as your computer boots up (thats the most common one, delete key might also be it).

Dont mess with it. You can seriously mess up your system.

Answer 8

BIOS iz da main control room there you can decide the faith of ur input output device such as u can choose to enable or disable ur keyboard, cdrom, harddrive etc..Also u can give system password, also you can choose boot drive(the drive frm whr OS will be installed). Thr iz not\ cirumstance to run under it itz a software installed in ur motherboard I have to use it when i want to install operating System i just set the bootpriority ..............

Answer 9

all (working) PC's run off of BIOS, basically all that you can do is set your boot sequence, fan initiation temp and L2 memory cashe with it. For the basic user, you probably should not mess with BIOS unless you are trying to overclock your processor, wich again I suggest you study and read all that you can findbefore attempting. Sorry, I can't spell.

Answer 10

The primary function of the BIOS is to prepare the machine so other software programs stored on various media (such as hard drives, floppies, and CDs) can load, execute, and assume control of the computer. This process is known as booting up.

BIOS can also be said to be a coded program embedded on a chip that recognizes and controls various devices that make up the computer.

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