BIOS Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter mac
  • Start date Start date
M

mac

In a Windows Crash Report, it says to disable BIOS Caching or Shadowing...
So I did. What is the downside of doing that? I don't know what these
features do. Will impact performance?

Thanks,
mac
 
mac pravi:
In a Windows Crash Report, it says to disable BIOS Caching or Shadowing...
So I did. What is the downside of doing that? I don't know what these
features do. Will impact performance?
Click to expand...

The BIOS contains program code, which running programs may or may not
run. BIOS is cached into RAM, so that that code does not have to run
from the BIOS storage chip.

So there are two things you should know:
1. Modern BIOS chips are not that slow
2. Windows software does not ever touch BIOS program code (VGA BIOS code
maybe, tho even that is unlikely)

In other words, the downside is not noticeable on modern systems.

--
Primary function: Coprocessor
Secondary function: Cluster commander

http://www.thought-beacon.net

Pay once per lifetime webhosting:
http://farcomm-it.com/?ref=jsah

We are the paragon of humanity. You may worship us. From afar.

01010010 01100101 01110011 01101001 01100100 01100101 01101110 01110100
01000010 01000001 01010011 01001001 01000011
 
mac said:
In a Windows Crash Report, it says to disable BIOS Caching or Shadowing...
So I did. What is the downside of doing that? I don't know what these
features do. Will impact performance?

Thanks,
mac
Click to expand...

nill on todays systems....little when it mattered.
 
Jure Sah said:
mac pravi:

The BIOS contains program code, which running programs may or may not
run. BIOS is cached into RAM, so that that code does not have to run
from the BIOS storage chip.

So there are two things you should know:
1. Modern BIOS chips are not that slow
2. Windows software does not ever touch BIOS program code (VGA BIOS code
maybe, tho even that is unlikely)
Click to expand...

Depends what you mean by "touch" and "bios". Most modern
versions of Windows certainly do read the IRQ table from
system bios, along with several other settings. And it can also
cause bios writes in some cases (e.g. when hardware config
changes are made in a system, Windows will set the bios'
ESCD flag if "PnP OS" option is selected).
 
EDM pravi:
Depends what you mean by "touch" and "bios". Most modern
versions of Windows certainly do read the IRQ table from
system bios, along with several other settings. And it can also
cause bios writes in some cases (e.g. when hardware config
changes are made in a system, Windows will set the bios'
ESCD flag if "PnP OS" option is selected).
Click to expand...

Yes but that would be the Windows OS, not the Windows software. To me in
this context, windows software refers to software running inside the
windows protected environment. That software does not have access to
anything of hardware, it's all drivers.

Of course, this would be modern version of Windows, e.g.: 2000 or newer.

--
Primary function: Coprocessor
Secondary function: Cluster commander

http://www.thought-beacon.net

Pay once per lifetime webhosting:
http://farcomm-it.com/?ref=jsah

We are the paragon of humanity. You may worship us. From afar.

01010010 01100101 01110011 01101001 01100100 01100101 01101110 01110100
01000010 01000001 01010011 01001001 01000011
 
mac said:
Thank you all,
I went ahead and re-enable these options...
mac
Click to expand...

Uh, why??? If you are running just XP, these options _SHOULD_ be turned
off. You do NOT want to shadow the bios ROM, or any other ROM, it is a
total waste - XP never calls the ROM code.

These options are an old hold-over from the DOS days. google for "shadow
rom" and read a bit for further insight. here are good sites that cover
virtually all bios options and their "preferred" settings:

http://www.wimsbios.com/main.html

http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/04/bios_from_a_to_z/
 
I really don't understand this very well. I'll do some reading... In the
meantime I'll turn it off. I have three other PCs (two more WIN Xp and a
Linux Mandrake 10) . I can only assume that option is turned on in all my
PCs.

mac
 
Back
Top