CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

4.2. Upgrading the System BIOS

When your system was designed, its BIOS program code was designed to work with very specific devices. As you know, computer technology changes very quickly, almost overnight. So, what can you do if you have an older system and you want to update its capabilities?

The BIOS dictates a system's capabilities. For example, assume that the BIOS on my old Pentium is only aware of an 8GB drive, but I would like to install a 20GB drive into the system. I must first upgrade the BIOS so that the system knows how to refer to a drive of that size. As far as the current BIOS is concerned, there is no such thing as a drive larger than 8GB. Thus, I need an upgraded BIOS to make the system understand!

Another example of a good time to upgrade the BIOS code in hardware is with a wireless home router. A few years back, I purchased my first wireless router. I knew that I wanted to configure the wireless network to limit which Media Access Control (MAC) addresses (network cards) could connect to the wireless network. Unfortunately, there was no such setting in the configuration screens of the wireless router, so I went to the manufacturer's Web site and updated the BIOS in the router. After I completed the upgrade of the router, the setting I was looking for suddenly appeared on the configuration screens! The point is that it is extremely common to upgrade the BIOS on devices to make sure that the device is up to date with the current trends.

4.2.1. Performing the BIOS ...