Vista Tutorial - Ultimate BIOS Tweaking Guide

Written by Gordon Mah Ung 10/06/08 at 01:00:00 PM


When man first booted the PC, he saw the BIOS screen: a jumble of monochromatic numbers that made about as much sense as the binary language of load lifters. Sadly, not much about the BIOS has changed since the DeLorean and skinny ties were cool. Decades later, in our modern, visual-based world, we’re still greeted with a screen full of text from machines 1,000 times faster than those that were around when the ol’ BIOS was born.

Most PC lightweights simply ignore the BIOS and wait for their OSes to take over. Power users, however, know that the BIOS can be a friendly and rewarding place to go spelunking.

So just what the hell is the BIOS? Short for Basic Input Output System, the BIOS is a tiny bit of software embedded in your motherboard that gets executed when your PC is turned on. The BIOS is responsible for chores such as sizing up the amount of available RAM, detecting the hard drives, and setting the CPU speed. Once the system house-cleaning is done, the BIOS boots the OS from the hard drive and hands over control.

Even though there are only two BIOS makers for consumer desktops today, AMI and Award/Phoenix, a multitude of BIOS variants exists. In fact, a Gigabyte board using an Award BIOS can bear little resemblance to an Asus board using an Award BIOS.

In motherboards designed for enthusiasts, board makers typically unmask as many controls as possible. Unfortunately, the dizzying array of options includes both safe and unsafe tweaks. While some tweaks will just leave you with a system that refuses to boot, others can do long-term harm.

So if you feel the least bit uneasy about even changing the boot order of your rig’s drives, you may not want to muck around too much in the BIOS. If, however, you’re comfortable with the prospect of a little trial and error, it’s time you dive in and discover the many secrets your BIOS holds.


Read more at the Source:
Maximum PC Essentials: Ultimate BIOS Tweaking Guide | Maximum PC

I would recommend being very cautious while reading this guide.

Nice, thanks for this post!

You're welcome Dr. Inferno, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Brilliant, thanks.
Glad I joined
Paul

yeah me too dont want my computer jsut not wantting to do anything

Sweet post! It explains BIOS better than my teacher did! (aNY WAYS theachers can't never explain things right, ....thats why forums were invented)
BE EXTRA CAREFULLLLLL BIOS is the squeleton of the system. and determines how well your O/S will run or ...not!
I love O/C'ing to get the max of a system when needed. For gamers this is a must. and for people who are using heavy apps. Or if you rather wait 1 nanosecond for an app to start instead of 2 nanoseconds.
For the common flavor home, family user, with an OEM PC bougth at COSTCO or SAM's its best to leave this alone, you don't want to void your warranty, while trying to change BIOS settings.

great post Brink........








SK