There has recently been a flood of reports on all the forums and many news websites regarding Dell Bios Updates which a stopping a lot of computers booting up properly.
Townsville Nerds recommend any of our customers who currently have a Dell laptop of desktop computer, wait a few weeks before updating your BIOS (Basic Input Output System) until Dell have fixed the problem.
Unless you really need to update your bios which is very unlikely, there is no hurry to do this unlike antivirus and operating system updates.
What is a BIOS
Your Basic Input/Output system is a chip on your motherboard which facilitates a way for you to access your computer and make changes at its most basic level.
This is done usually by pressing a certain key depending on the manufacture, during boot up where you can make changes and decisions as to which device your computer should boot up from first, CPU frequencies, overclocking and security.
The best way to think of a BIOS is as an operating system for your motherboard, as apposed to your actual computer you logically sit behind and use like Windows, MacOSX or Linux etc.
How do I find your BIOS
The easiest way to find out what BIOS your computer or laptop is using is to use the program called Microsoft System Information.
Using this application is not only very easy, you also don’t have to install any software on your computer and you don’t have to reboot and press lots in time when your computer is starting up.
To access Microsoft System Information, bring up your command prompt, or press [Windows][r] keys at the same time and type “msinfo32”, without the quotation marks.
A screen will appear and you should click on the System Summary link, and there will be another link on the right named Bios Version/Date which will display the information about your motherboards bios.
Should I upgrade my Bios
There are many programs on your computer which need to be updated frequently. The operating system which includes security updates and fixes, and your antivirus to help you protect from threats.
Its not uncommon for BIOS updates to go wrong and when that happens you will have bigger problems such as not being able to access your data or computer not being able to start up.
Only update your bios if you have a very good reason to, such as you have changed your hardware and need to reconfigure some settings or because something else has become unstable on your system.
If it is not broken don’t fix it.
How do I update my BIOS
Update your BIOS use to be quite complicated and time consuming where you had to find the right bios (the wrong bios could ruin your computer make some sort of media disk to complete the operation, and then perform the update on boot up and preyed it work.
Now it is much easier and most motherboard manufactures will have a Windows utility or application which yo can click on which will automate the whole process.
Check your motherboard or manufactures website for this application or you can probably download it from there website.
