The BIOS (Basic Input Output System) is a small chip that makes sure that all of the other chips and cards are functioning correctly. There are a few different types of BIOS, such as the soldered ones, which are soldered directly to the motherboard, there are also catched BIOS, where there is a small catch holding the BIOS in. The BIOS is also involved in helping to boot the Operating System up. It has it's own power supply coming from the CMOS battery, which keeps track of time and other infomation
The only reason as to why you would need to replace the BIOS is if it fails, otherwise the BIOS does not need replacing. The BIOS performes a POST (Power on self test) test during the start up sequence on all of the components such as the Hard drive and any disk drives and also activating any other BIOS chips such as those that can be found on the Graphics card.
When you initially start the computer, the BIOS does the following;
- Check the CMOS Setup for custom settings
- Load the interrupt handlers and device drivers
- Initialize registers and power management
- Perform the power-on self-test (POST)
- Display system settings
- Determine which devices are bootable
- Initiate the bootstrap sequence
When you need to update the BIOS, you need to go to the manufactuers website and download the upgrade along with a small utility to install it.
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