Slightly off topic, but you really should read it.

[FSTipster]

As flightsimmers, we run probably the most intensive programs that a PC is ever going to have to process.

Consequently, it's common practice to try and keep our hardware and our drivers up to date. You'll constantly see messages in forums (I post them frequently) about this as possible cures for problems.

I update my drivers around

[Oso]

Question? My mobo has  a reset. If you move a jumper to the 2 designated pins it resets the bios to original factory  bios. At least that is the way I understand it.

Does this fact render your warning of a potential mobo fatality less serious?

[FSTipster]

No - not at all.

That jumper is to reset the CMOS - which is basically all the parameters you see when you open the BIOS. If you adjust something in there that results in you being unable to boot, using that jumper will get your system back. It's commonly used when people overclock their chips too far.

Updating the BIOS in this case means flashing a brand new set of data instructions to the BIOS chip itself. If you have a good utility to do this and understand it, it's pretty safe. If you don't it's very risky.

[Blade]

YEEEOOOOWWWW, I just downloaded and installed a BIOS update and WOW my browser is spanking fast, its like a bull was let loose, gonna test out FS now, be back in a few to report.

[Brett_Henderson]

Man,, this stuff always makes my head spin, but here's how I understand it :

The BIOS can never be opened or accessed (other than flashing and changing it all together) by the user.

Going into "set-up" or CMOS (simply the name given to the type of semi-conductor that lends itself well to PROM (programmable-read-only-memory)),, only allows the user to alter how the computer behaves (ie.  boot-sequence clock-speeds etc.)  AFTER the BIOS has done it's thing.

As Tipster noted, changing a BIOS is not for the faint of heart and there really shouldn't be a reason to try it, unless your board is quite old or you've gotten a "really" new piece of hardware or chipset. Chipsets are an even scarier thing to change, as often it requires the use of a soldering iron  :o  and at that point, you're prob better of just buying a new board to go with your new hardware. In fact, many pieces of new hardware have a chipset (or BIOS) of their own.

I've never heard  of someone getting such an "unexpected" performance increase from a BIOS change (normally you'd know why you were flashing the BIOS) so somewhere along the line you must have "outgrown" the BIOS and were lucky enough to not have had a serious conflict to this point.

Anyway.. the prospect of such new-found performance boost has me intrigued enough to flash my BIOS just to see,,,  wish me luck  ;D

PS. gonna buy a new board and keep it nearby (still in the box so I can return if need)..  just in case the worst happens  ;)

[Blade]

FPS in FS went up about 4-5!!!!!! From its usual 1-4 in the VC, I get 9-10. External at airports my usual 5-8 is now 10-13. This just made my day  ;D

[FSTipster]

Blade - I haven't seen an fps increase thats obvious but I haven't really tested it properly, I experinced the same lightning increase in browser performance though - very odd, but glad it's helped.

Brett - I totally agree with everything you've said, which is exactly why I started this thread. I'm not an official computer engineer, but I know a fair bit about PC hardware. I build and repair the things regularly for people and I'm as surprised as anyone about these results.

My Motherboard is less than a year old and certainly wouldn't normally be considered to be out of date.
If I were less familiar than I am with my own BIOS settings, I'd say I must have changed something that I previously had set in a critcally bad setting. However, I know my BIOS settings ad verbatum. I spent a good deal of time playing with them not so long ago in an effort to optimise performance. I simply don't understand why the upgrade would have this effect but the fact remains that it has.

Very best of luck with your own upgrade.

Just to underline this once more to everyone - if you don't know what you're doing with a BIOS update - DON'T DO IT!

You may very well live to regret it.

[Blade]

I have a toshiba laptop, and I got the BIOS update in a download for my specific computer, it autoinstalled it, at least mine was easy.

[FSTipster]

I just did a thorugh fps test of FS2002.

My increase isn't as impressive as Blade's but I've gone from an average of 10.7 at Meigs (heavily modified scenery and pretty much everything maxed)

[zcottovision]

Can you enlighten us to which motherboards you're all using?

[FSTipster]

Mine is a Jetway V333U - runs the VIA 4-in-1 chipset.

The rest of my specs are a follows:

Athlon XP1800+ o/c to XP1900+equiv.
512mb 333mhz DDR RAM
GeForce 4 MX440.

[Brett_Henderson]

The computer I'm trying this on:

ASUS A7S333  MoBo (SiS745 chipset)

XP2000 (not over/clocked) CPU

Nvidia GF4 MX440 64MB  V-card

1024MB PC2700 RAM (DDR)

[fisharno]

I was just doing some reading..... Check here........


http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/bios/boot.htm