Chipset drivers & BIOS questions

[Golden]

Hi,

I'm familar with the concept of device drivers, and finding and installing the correct onces (e.g. graphics card, sound card etc.). However, I cannot claim to fully understand chipset drivers or even BIOS updates. In fact, I'm not entirely sure what a chipset is....

I took a punt and used the GIGABYE software to flash my BIOS : all good and no trouble at all.

So, the question is : is there a bit of software that can give me a picture of the status of chipset+associated drivers, possibly even my current BIOS version.

I'm looking for a bit of an education into parts of a PC that I don't know much about.

Thanks,
Golden

 

[Bill2]

Hello Golden,

I was about to launch, then remembered this page I had recommended to a friend. Its a nice, easy read on chipsets.

Everything You Need to Know About Chipsets | Hardware Secrets

As to what chipset you have just type dxdiag in the search box, then click on the display tab, that'll show quite a few things including the bios version.

You can also type msinfo32.exe in the search box for info.

Or you can take a peek in the device manager.

Or you can download a 3rd party like Speccy or CPUID to tell you more about your computer's hardware.

 

[Golden]

Nice one - thanks Bill +1 (oops...no +1, apparently I have to spread the reputation around a bit more...I won't forget)

I use Speccy quite a bit to get more info on my various components. Its things like the chipsets/northbridges etc. that I want to get up to speed on....your link should nicely.

If I have more questions, would it be OK to post here?

Cheers,
Golden

 

[kword88]

regarding the BIOS, you should be able to see what version you have when you first start the computer. its usually one of the first things that appears on screen. if your not seeing it, your computer is probably set to "silent boot". if you know how to access the BIOS, you can disable "silent boot", and the next time you restart, you should see all the basic hardware information for your system.

 

[Golden]

Thanks Kword88...I remember that now.

 

[fireberd]

One of the main things the chipset drivers do is define (identify) all the hardware devices on the motherboard. e.g. if you do an install and skip the chipset drivers some device drivers such as sound will not be able to be installed as the driver install will not find any sound device. Usually the Ethernet NIC drivers will not install or work either.

Actually, the chipset drivers, on most motherboards, are key to a successful OS/device install.

 

[essenbe]

I believe on the POST screen, the first line is the MB version and bios version.