My MotherBoard and BIOS

You want to brick your motherboard, use a bios from ECS. You want it to keep running, only use a bios from HP. The board may have been made by ECS, but the bios is pure HP.

just downloacdpu-z from www.cpuid.com, it will tell u all u need to know bout ur board and cpu.

stormy13 said:

You want to brick your motherboard, use a bios from ECS. You want it to keep running, only use a bios from HP. The board may have been made by ECS, but the bios is pure HP.

Do NOT overthink this. Your machine has a model number and a serial number (or other unique ID number provided by the LABELED company on the machine). Get your BIOS from that information ONLY.

You are dealing with the nature of what was once known as "IBM clones". There are almost as many different manufacturers involved in making your PC as there are components and chips. HP basically makes two things - the case and the BIOS.

Labeled machines are almost always built from DE-manufactured motherboards. Components/circuits/chips are removed from the baseline model. This is done because HP and Dell and Sony (etc) do not sell upgrade kits, they sell new computers.

Stormy is correct. Unless you want to buy a new computer, get your BIOS update from HP. Nate42nd is also correct - upgrade to Windows 7 FIRST. Only then will you know if you need a BIOS update.

BIOS updates are not the same as Windows updates or even driver updates. The changes, in all likelihood, do not apply to you.

MUff1N said:

...I guess I was lucky I didn't brick the mobo...

Excellent example. You provided a link directly to your specific machine, replete with serial number. I did not browse thru the Gateway site, rather I will use Dell as an example (as a Dell Partner, as I am more familiar with their site).

If you go to Dell and look up a machine, with or without a specific Service Tag (serial number), you will see a variety of driver options for various onboard components. You could do a comparison of the original configuration and the current configuration, and with some effort, discern which of the drivers your machine actually uses. Why does Dell list drivers for a Service Tag if that specific machine does not have the component? The cynic in me says, "Because it is in their interest to create hardware problems", but that is for another discussion.

You can use chip mfgr drivers because you are addressing an instruction set for a single component. For the most part, OEMs do not ADD or unlock functionality on the chip(set), and if they do, they tend to be well-funded major players with good suport sites and easy to access driver updates, mailing lists, et cetera.

BIOS is another matter. You are addressing an instruction set for multiple components. Some MOBOs, for whatever reason, are built/rebuilt/debuilt with imperfectly compatible components. It is possible to load a BIOS that will include instructions for a component that has no register for that function. When you see that happen, it is often called a freeze or lockup. A person can easily spend more money and time in diagnostics and repair bills than the board (and CPU) cost in the first place.

Bottom line: Update BIOS to solve a problem, not to satisfy desire.