Should I update my bios

[gubar]

Hi all,

keep my drivers up to date, but after just using everest for the first time I noticed my bios is 6 years old (I use an old socket A MSI motherboard).

Should I update this, and what are the risks involved? Some of the sites I found about it gave mixed advice on what to do, and what it can do if it goes wrong.

cheers,

s

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Unless you`re having problems or there`s a specific reason to update your bios, don`t do it.

If it aint broke, don`t fix it.

Regards Howard

 

[Tedster]

If you're having issues, then go ahead, if not - no.


https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic75555.html

 

[Aolish]

That saying couldn't be more true: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

 

[gubar]

I'm having a lot of game crashes. Fine for a while after my clean install, now it's happening again. Ruling out drivers and spyware etc, I thought of the bios.

Is it likely to be that?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Can you explain what you mean by game crashes? As many details as possible, will help us to help you.

Regards Howard

 

[Nodsu]

If the same games ran fine before, then it probably isn't the BIOS.
With a mobo this old, the capacitors may be dead and that can cause a lot of instability and slowdowns.

 

[gubar]

Can you explain what you mean by game crashes? As many details as possible, will help us to help you.

Regards Howard

Half life 2 crashes to desktop all the time (sometimes with the message about "memory could not be read"), Stalker too (sometimes with the bug-delivery message about an illegal operation - the game's own x3da error screen), crashes 75% of the time when I render with Lightwave. Rarely blue screens - with games, I'm playing one minute, then a stutter, then I'm on the desktop.

I close as many background applications as I can, all the games are patched (and have tweak applied re crashes - ie, added "-noprefetch" to Stalker).

It was fine until recently. I've added new memory but it's made no difference. Tried different drivers, taken off all the overclocking. Removed all spyware.

As the last poster said, the computer is getting old, so maybe it's just packing in. Shame since it still runs pretty much any game I want it too as long as I'm not too ambitious with the settings.

regards,

g.

I've recently added the Java run time environment, and Microsoft Network framework - would that have anything to do with it. I also run norton - I know everyone hates it, but I've had it for ages and it's never caused trouble with games.

If anyone's got any ideas I'd be grateful,

regards,

g

 

[howard_hopkinso]

As Nodsu suggested, it may be a mobo problem with the capacitors. Checkout this article HERE.

I also suggest to take a look at this thread HERE and see if it helps.

Regards Howard

 

[gubar]

Thanks,

I'll try giving it a good clean first, and check the capacitors while I'm at it.

regards,

g