I am updating BIOS. What are the advantages & disadvantages of doing either. I do not know this. (I am doing this in the vain hope of saving my computer. I am experiencing massive crashes making it unstable. Windows error codes strongly suggest impending hardware (MOBO) to driver failure.) Mainly interested in clearing vs saving CMOS. Plan on using WinFlash.
ZN

@ zeronero

Hard to tell with no info regarding the machine/hardware/manufacturer, OS, and specific error messages and nature of the problem/what seems to be causing it to crash, and what you have done so far to try to rectify the problem. If running a Windows OS, have you tried restoring from a backup such as System Restore, running currently updated anti-virus/anti-spyware? Or even setting the BIOS to default settings (the BIOS may even have a button to return it to default settings, perhaps on the Exit screen.)

Personally, I would reinstall the operating system before attempting to flash the BIOS. Because if the update is unsuccessful, the BIOS is toast. And of course without the BIOS, you can't even install an OS.

Having the info mentioned could prove very helpful.

Charlie

~~If it ain't broke, why screw it up?~~

tHE MOTHERBOARD IS PC CHIPs a12g with phoenix bios 6.00pg. cipset is nvidia. cpu amd 3600.symptoms run from xp crashing & restarting to bios starting in safe mode to nvidia doing array check to bios freezing or bios not booting w/o power off. installed sp3 & sxs.dll because app was installing error code mentioned by name or rather by article #. did not work.

some times just booting os causes it to crash, or can run hours, especially offline. unstable suspect bios or psu.

this computer has been lemon day one. this replacement for failed main board.

The os is oem recently brought. & from installing with board drivers,&c. had problems. also was having problems with nlite versions from friend not being able to finish installation, could not read blue screen - in de.

Will consider copying sp3 & reintalling windows.
Or buying my tangerine dream laptop - used corporate with OS pre-installed
What a concept thankyou for comments.

you need to uninstall sp3 and test first for the system stability before plunging into updating the bios.

your problem doesn't sound like a bios problem, bios problems are not sporadic meaning if a bios error is causing a crash right when you boot.. it will happen everytime in the exact same manner.

a psu problem will not cause your os to crash but will cause the whole computer to suddenyl shutdown or restart without a BSOD (similar to a power surge).. and a psu problem is easily identifiable because as some point your computer will sometimes refuse to turn on and after several attempts to will come to live all by itself.

i totally agree with charlie.. do not mess with your bios unless you have explored every other possibilty.

here's what i would do to troubleshoot this:

uninstall sp3> system working fine= unsupported driver or drivers by sp3.. investigate into a driver update especially for the integrated graphics card at the mobo's manufacturer site.

uninstall sp3> system acting up= could be a lot of software/drivers issue that are hard to pinpoint> clean format your hd and reinstall os from scratch> system working fine= whatever the problem it was software related and was fixed

clean install> system still acting up= possible hardware failure.. try a testing tool to check your hd and ram

If the machine is recently purchased I would assume it may still be under warranty, in which case I would hit the OEM up far all the help I could squeeze out of them. Who knows, the OEM support team may even be nice about it.

Charlie

~~If it ain't broke, why screw it up?~~

@disrupted i had had the machine refuse to turn on & only turn later if power is unplugged. or turn on & monitor stays asleep. neither these are consistent & 99% happens as result of crash.

i have ran various Bart's tools on hdds. the results also vary from ide errors (eg. pagefile.sys(can't get attribue);system volume info(error accessing drive); & reallocated sector count failure) & to no damaged blocks.sata is fine, ditto dvd/cd-rw rom. was not able test virtual drive e Hve not tested ram yet. cd use linux-os to test.

will consider re-install.

@caktus about 9 months after brought box - no os,(later 2kpro) on board audio was failing & was replaced with current board. there is outside chance this one being under warranty. found real address from shipping box. will write letter to techinical support describing best as possible the symptops

@all assumming I buy the used latitude laptop, will put off bios flash until then. when online windows explorer & all 3rd party software can crash & take os w/ it.
Once k-m was running when win crashed & when restarted km opened to Chrome with no bookmarks at all unless the slit file was accessed
thanks folks ZN