The BIOS is the name of the main piece of hardware that runs your entire computer. "Firmware" is the name of the computer program that runs your BIOS. Occasionally your BIOS manufacturer will release firmware upgrades for your BIOS. You will need to download and install these firmware upgrades onto your machine to make sure that your computer is up to date and can interact with all of the latest software and hardware components that are available.
Instructions
1. Find out which company manufactured your BIOS, as well as your BIOS' model number. You can check for this inside the manual that came with your computer. If you can't find the manual, you can open up your computer and look at the BIOS, which is located in the center of your motherboard--the information will be printed on the chip itself. If you don't want to open your computer, look online for reviews of your computer to find this information.
2. Go to the website of the company that manufactured your BIOS.
3. Search for your BIOS by model number via the "Search" feature on your BIOS manufacturer's website.
4. Scroll down to "Downloads" and click on the download link for the latest version of your BIOS' firmware. This will download the installation file (with an .EXE file extension) to your computer.
5. Burn your BIOS firmware update file to a CD using your computer's CD burner. If you don't have a CD burner, you can save your BIOS firmware update file to a USB flash drive.
6. Make sure your BIOS firmware CD is in your CD drive (or the USB flash drive that contains your BIOS firmware update is attached to your machine) and restart your computer. Instead of loading your operating system, your computer will load the BIOS firmware update executable file.
7. Follow the directions onscreen to update your BIOS' firmware. These directions will differ depending on which BIOS manufacturer you have, so pay close attention and do not turn off your computer during this process. When the process is finished, your computer will restart itself and your BIOS firmware will be updated.
Tags: your BIOS, your computer, your BIOS firmware, BIOS firmware, BIOS firmware update, firmware update