messiah

What benefits are there to upgrading the Flash BIOS?

Any speed advantages?

Its for a 3yr old Dell Laptop BTW.

warrenm2

additional support for external peripherals mainly

mike1210

as above and may fix compatibility problems with certain things, some people say to only do it if you need to. Id advise you back up important stuff before doing so as well as the currect bios flash. Do this because there is a small chance that it may go **** up, i've had a few in the past

ChrisB

Some systems need a BIOS update to support Windows Service Packs.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Support new technologies such as updated CPUs. Fix issues with some vendors RAM not being compatible. Normally before you download the latest BIOS it is advisable to look at the readme file of what has been changed in a particular BIOS update, to see if it's worth doing or not. My last BIOS update I had for a PC, now allows for Dual Channel Memory support and another feature for AGP Fast Writes to be enabled or Disabled. Other updates may only incorporate a change to show the correct CPU information etc...

But be careful when doing a BIOS update, especially on a laptop use the Power Supply Unit and NOT the battery when flashing the BIOS, as if you have a powercut due to a low battery when flashing the BIOS, you won't get the PC to boot back up again. I.e new laptop needed or send off to get another BIOS chip installed for a lot of cost.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Gotta love dual bios mobos As said previously only update the bios if you really need to. Sometimes doing so can have an adverse effect rather than an improvement.

jowl

If you have something new on your machine that isn't working right, it may be worth a BIOS upgrade (new memory etc)

But if it's working generally ok, don't upgrading. If it ain't broke......

Scooby Dooby Blue

Even the newest motherboards can require bios upgrades.

The Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe (one of the latest motherboards) for example, needs a new BIOS to allow 4GB of memory to be supported in dual channel.


Paul

Fatman

Bug fixes & upgrades, generally. That said, if the thing's working OK now and you wouldn't miss any new features (in the most recent BIOS) - then leave it, don't flash the new BIOS.