Checking Motherboard Bios

[nwrigley]

Is there a way to check your motherboard BIOS after booting XP Pro (rather than from the boot screen)? I seem to remember there being a detailed system information page, but I can't remember how to get to it.

 

[Taz480]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there is a program or way to access your BIOS from within Windows. It is basically a seperate DOS based program in the chipset on your mobo completely independant of the OS on your HDD. There are a few different types of information programs in Windows containing information about your computer. Try Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Information. Not sure if that answers your question.

 

[corkyg]

Very easy - it is built in to XP. Go Start/Run/SysInfo. It is then about halfway down the page. (BIOS Version.)

 

[Taz480]

Doh! Sorry, bout that. Did I misunderstand? I didn't see "version" in the first post. I thought they meant they wanted to access BIOS from Windows. He-He, silly me. 😛

 

[nwrigley]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Very easy - it is built in to XP. Go Start/Run/SysInfo. It is then about halfway down the page. (BIOS Version.)

I've tried this, but the Bios it lists doesn't seem to mean anything: 42302e31

My friends computer lists the same Bios and she is running a completely different system (one is Intel, one is AMD). The only difference is that hers lists Epox before the number and mine is GBT (I have a Gigabyte board), so I was wondering what this number represents?

 

[scottws]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Very easy - it is built in to XP. Go Start/Run/SysInfo. It is then about halfway down the page. (BIOS Version.)

Are you talking about the System Information applet? It's actually msinfo32.exe, not sysinfo.exe.

 

[bsobel]

It is basically a seperate DOS based program in the chipset on your mobo completely independant of the OS on your HDD

While not completely independant (as the OS has to work with the bios), it has NOTHING to do with 'DOS' and is not 'DOS' based in anyway shape or form 😉

 

[Taz480]

Oh, I just kinda meant "DOS like" and ya, I know not completely independant from the OS, I just meant that AFAIK it can't be accessed from Windows. I was trying to stay in more lamens terms but I think I misunderstood what they were inquiring about, anyway. Sorry, I should be clearer. 😛

 

[Slowlearner]

AFAIK no way to do this with built in systems tools - you need Sandra/Everest or something like that.

Another useful way is to use the on line configurator at www.powerleap.com

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: Taz480
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there is a program or way to access your BIOS from within Windows. It is basically a seperate DOS based program in the chipset on your mobo completely independant of the OS on your HDD. There are a few different types of information programs in Windows containing information about your computer. Try Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Information. Not sure if that answers your question.

actually its a seperate program embedded in the chip and I think its written in basic as I recall.

 

[Eltano1]

Use SANDRA as Slowlearner suggested, you will have plenty of info there.

Eltano

 

[corkyg]

It's amazing! All I do is type SYSINFO in RUN and it pops up the System Information window. I guess my XP is smarter than some. 🙂

It gives me this:

SysInfo

Check out line 9. Q.E.D. and end of B.S. 🙂

 

[Slowlearner]

I tried sysinfo both at home and work from the start run command and it gave me an error message. Accessing it from programs-accessories does give the bios info in the system summary.

Corkg, you are absolutely correct and we thank you for enlightening us, and I have gone thru many anxiety attacks trying to read it at startup.

 

[scottws]

Originally posted by: Slowlearner
I tried sysinfo both at home and work from the start run command and it gave me an error message. Accessing it from programs-accessories does give the bios info in the system summary.

As I aluded to earlier, you need to type msinfo32, not sysinfo.

 

[alzan]

It's possible that for XP Home it's "msinfo32; for XP Pro it's "sysinfo". I have XP Home and got an error when attempting to run "sysinfo", but got the info page when I ran "msinfo32"

alzan

 

[scottws]

Originally posted by: alzan
It's possible that for XP Home it's "msinfo32; for XP Pro it's "sysinfo". I have XP Home and got an error when attempting to run "sysinfo", but got the info page when I ran "msinfo32"

I'm currently on a XP Home machine and I Remote Desktop-ed into my home PC (which is XP Professional). Only msinfo32 worked on both.

Maybe it's an alias they set up. Maybe that's the command on another version of Windows like 2000, but on XP it is only msinfo32 by default.