All About Your Computer's BIOS
By Gary Hendricks
Are you confused by the computer BIOS? The BIOS is a fundamental component of
any PC and if you really want to get into the guys of a computer, it’s good
through understanding what BIOS Is all about.
This article gives you a summary of what BIOS is and how you can play with the
basic and advanced options in a typical BIOS configuration.
Definition
First up, let’s just define what the BIOS is. The BIOS stands for the Basic
Input-Output System of a PC. It is stored on a BIOS chip on the motherboard and
it is the interface between your operating system and the computer’s hardware.
All the software actions you make, e.g. click a in Windows XP, are translated
into machine instructions which pass through the BIOS and then subsequently to
your monitor, graphics card and what not.
The BIOS is a crucial component of a PC If it fails, your PC isn’t going to boot
up. I always skip a heartbeat if I see any funny behavior with a PC’s BIOS.
Because it spells (almost certainly that is) doom for the computer. Make sure
you’re very, very careful if you intend to fiddle around with the BIOS in
anyway. Children, don’t do this at home without the supervision of a technie.
Basic Options
Let’s run through the basic options of a BIOS setup. Right after you power up
the computer, there is usually a key you can hit (usually F8) which allows you
to access the PC‘s BIOS.
In the basic menu in the BIOS, you should see settings for configuring hard
drives and boot up options. You can specify which are your primary and secondary
hard risk and which will boot up first. You can also specify if the floppy disk
or CD Rom boot support before or after the hard disk.
Advanced Options
If you go in to the Advanced Options menu, you can delve into the advanced
options for the BIOS configuration. If you’re into overclocking, you can specify
a different CPU frequency than the default. But be very careful when you do this
– you may end up burning your CPU chip if you don’t know what you’re doing.
In the advanced options menu, you can also change memory frequency and timing,
as well as the AGP speed for your graphics card. Again, exercise extreme care
when playing around with these settings. You can damage your PC if you don't
know what you're doing.
There are many other options in a computer’s BIOS you can play with. Some of
them include password and security options to limit access to the system, or
stuff like power saving options. You can also control things like whether the
Numlock key should be on or off when you first start the system.
Conclusion
I hope the article has helped you understand a little of what goes into a
com0utper’s BIOS and how you can make use of it. Remember, the BIOS is such a
fundamental component of any PC that you MUST exercise extreme caution when
meddling with it. If you’re not sure – don’t change anything. It’s best to
understand the BIOS properly from an expert or read a good book before changing
it in any way.
Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on building computers. Visit his website at
[build-your-own-computers.com website unavailable] for tips and tricks on assembling
a PC, as well as buying good computer components.
More Computer Anatomy Articles:
• Understanding the Software Layers of a Computer
• MPEG4, H.264, MJPEG Compression for DVR Recording - What's the Difference?
• Anatomy of a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
• Hard Drives - ATA versus SATA
• How does a CD Burner work?
• Hard Disk Drive Basics
• Laptop Computer Bottom Access Covers
• How to Build Your Own PC - The Smart Way
• Installing an Optical Drive
• Power and Your PC
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