Bios & Bios Errors

BIOS refer to the Basic Input-Output System of a PC. The BIOS chip is situated on the motherboard. It is the interface between the computer’s operating system and its hardware. All the software action you make are interpreted into machine commands which pass through the BIOS and then consequently to your monitor, graphics card and the like. The key purpose of the BIOS is to prepare the computer in a way so that other software programs stored on hard drives, floppies, and CDs can load, implement, and take control of the PC. This process is known as booting up. The BIOS is a vital constituent of a computer. If it malfunctions, the machine will not be able to boot up.

The moment you switch on your computer, you can get into BIOS by hitting the F8 key. The basic BIOS menu consists of settings needed for configuring your hard drive as well as boot up options. You can denote which are your primary and secondary hard risk and the order in which it will boot up.

When you switch on your PC, the BIOS does numerous things as mentioned below:

·          It checks the CMOS Setup for routine settings.

·          It loads the various device drivers.

·          It initializes registers.

·          It executes the power-on self-test or POST.

·          It displays the numerous system settings.

·          It determines which devices are bootable and which are not.

·          It initiates the bootstrap order.

In the advanced menu options menu, you have the option of specifying a separate CPU frequency than the default option. You can also alter the AGP speed for your graphics card. There are numerous other alternatives in a computer’s BIOS you can experiment with. Some of them comprise of password and security preferences to control access to the system. You can also manage things like whether the Number lock key is supposed to be on or off when you first power on the machine. But you must be very careful when toying around with these settings if you do not want to harm your computer in any way.

At times, you will need to update the BIOS information, especially if your machine is old. Since BIOS is stored in the form of ROM, it is a bit more difficult to upgrade BIOS information. You will require a special program for that.

BIOS Reporting Errors

BIOS uses three techniques for reporting errors namely beep codes, error/status codes, and onscreen messages.

Almost all systems make a "beep" sound while starting. But most of them have a particular sequence of beep codes that warn you about grave system troubles. Many of these can thwart your system from even starting or at least from performing to its complete potential. If the system is unable to start, it will give the code once and then stop. If you want to hear it again, then you have to restart the machine. A manual of beep codes is available which can guide you on the nature of the problem. The moment the problem is resolved, you will not hear any more beep sounds.

Error/status codes must be interpreted with a distinctive interface board, whereas the others need no special tools. They can be interpreted naturally.

An onscreen error message is the easiest of the error techniques to understand because you do not require count beeps or open the system to set up a POST card. However, because certain systems use numeric error codes, these error messages can still be difficult to translate. The onscreen error messages are less serious than the ones denoted by beeps.