Flashing bios? (yes, no? more details)

[Dee67]

I have a Dell Dimension xpst700r and am sitting at Dell's support site and notice several bios updates since the time I bought my machine.

Question: Does each one need to be applied, or can I just take and run the latest one?

<be gentle, I've never messed with bios before and am nervous>

 

[rmblam]

Each bios update usually &quot;fixes&quot; or addresses some issue. So the last one should have all the prior &quot;fixes&quot;. Are you having any problems?

I expect Dell has the bios process pretty automated. If not it is still pretty easy. Just don't shut off the power during the process.

 

[Dee67]

not having any problems, just figured if there were new versions available (which there appear to be about 5 that I see) that it might increase my speed or allow more configuration options, etc..

 

[Spurst]

flashing a bios is a risky procedure. Some companies (cough abit) have posted unsupported bios updates which have lead to the motherboard dying.

Unless ur aiming at fixing a problem presented recently... ie conflicts or something, u really dont need to flash it.

 

[rmblam]

Does Dell actually let you at the bios &quot;goodies&quot;? Most MFR's just let you see limited info in the bios. I doubt the later ones will change that. Worth a shot though? You can always flash back manually. For example, Compaq doesn't let you modify squat in the bios. Once updated the bios can not be reverted using their utility. AMI and AWARD both offer flash utilities to allow a manual flash to any bios version though.

 

[Dee67]

This is prone to the &quot;goodies&quot; hiding too..

Here are the things listed for each bios upgrade on Dell's site:

The following changes were made in the A07 BIOS to create the A08 BIOS: 1. Latest Pentium III microde added. 2. Enable Mouse and keyboard to wake system from ACPI Standby. 3. Display integrated cache size on Coppermine-class processors. 4. Minor changes to OEM section of ACPI tables.
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The following changes have been made to create A09 from A08 BIOS: 1. Recognize Seagate tape drive when it is installed as slave to a Samsung DVD drive. 2. If LS120 present, treat it as a floppy drive and set legacy floppy drive to Disabled. 3. Allow Setup to display up to 8-character Service Tag. 4. Display proper speed for 850 MHz processor. 5. Increase DMI Maximum Processor Speed to 1200. 6. Power LED blinks on ACPI Standby. 7. Changes to DMI Type 0 and Type 11 structures for the BIOS Version and OEM Strings fields. 8. Display Service Tag using DMI Type 3 Serial Number instead of Type 3 Asset Tag. 9. Warning: CMOS will be reset when upgrading from an earlier BIOS to this BIOS.
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The A10 BIOS was created from A09 with the following changes: 1. Correctly display the drive capacity for hard drives that are greater than 64 GB.
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The following changes were made to the A10 BIOS to create A11:
1. Display the Service Tag number on a system where the number was set at the alternative location.


The things that looked interesting to me (but I don't know what they are) out of those are:

-Latest Pentium III microde added
-Display integrated cache size on Coppermine-class processors
-Minor changes to OEM section of ACPI tables
-Increase DMI Maximum Processor Speed to 1200
-Changes to DMI Type 0 and Type 11 structures for the BIOS Version and OEM Strings fields

 

[rmblam]

Those look like compatability updates more than performance updates. I doubt you'll gain much, but???

If you can't see the RAM, CPU, and PCI settings, to name a few, then you can't see the good stuff in your bios. Without any system problems I would leave it alone.

Lack of complete control over my system is what prompted me to learn about assembling (easy part) and configuring (harder part) my own systems.

 

[Dee67]

Just ran SiSoft Sandra performance tune-up and it said the following:

SMBIOS/DMI information may be inaccurate

Which makes me wonder even more about the &quot;dmi&quot; upgrades in the flash bios versions listed above.

Also, does anyone know what any/all of these things are/mean?

-Latest Pentium III microde added
-Display integrated cache size on Coppermine-class processors
-Minor changes to OEM section of ACPI tables
-Increase DMI Maximum Processor Speed to 1200
-Changes to DMI Type 0 and Type 11 structures for the BIOS Version and OEM Strings fields

 

[Oyeve]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.