Important - This Blog is shutting down (sort of)

When I started this blog earlier this year I never thought it would have gotten this big with so many persons visiting it on a daily basis from all over the world.  The main purpose of the blog was to help persons empower themselves in becoming more tech-savvy or adept - it was just a small local project, but oh how it has grown.

Today i'd like to inform all the followers and readers of this blog of its move to a better home.  Note I am NOT killing the blog, I will continue my project of trying to empower persons through my posts, just not on this site anymore.  This post will be the final post here.

www.jervisdabreo.com/thetechcorner/

I would now like to take the opportunity to invite you to visit the NEW WEBSITE.  Feel free to subscribe to it, to share your thoughts and comments there - let your friends know about it, especially if it has proven helpful to you.

Jervis Dabreo

BIOS Explained

Your Computer system’s BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is firmware that is stored in a chip on your motherboard which is responsible for handling basic system start-up — In essence, it gets your computer’s hardware ready so that the operating system can be loaded.  Some persons sees it as being a small operating system in its own right.

It is important to understand that the BIOS runs before the operating system runs, and handles the basic tasks of recognizing and configuring  the various pieces of hardware you have installed, from RAM to optical drive.  It means if you have a bad or faulty BIOS, you have a dead computer.

Tweak your computer's BIOS for faster Windows startup

When you power on your computer (desktop or laptop), there are several checks/tests that are performed by the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) before the OS (Operating System) is allowed to load.  By simply changing a few of the settings in the BIOS you can speed up these initial start-up checks/tests which will result in your computer system starting much faster.

How you would access the BIOS utility varies from computer to computer especially along motherboard brand names, but the most common keystrokes are Delete (Del), F1, or F10 - The keyboard key MUST be pressed at the first sign of life on your screen after pushing the power button on the computer. 

Once in the BIOS utility you will see a menu with a variety of choices.  Here are the choices/options that you can tweak to ensure for a faster system start-up (they tend to be in the Advanced BIOS section):

• Quick Power On Self Test (POST) -  The POST check for the presence of the essential components such as RAM, a video card, basic input device etc., enabling this option will make your system runs a shortened POST rather than the normal, lengthy one.
• Change Your Boot Device Order/Priority - If you change the boot order so that your BIOS checks the hard drive first rather than the CD/DVD or USB drive it will speed up your start-up time.
• Disable the Floppy Drive - Who uses these nowadays? When it is enabled your system spends a few extra seconds looking for and checking the floppy drive - a pointless task if you ask me considering the fact that you most like do not use your floppy drive IF you still have one.
• Disable Boot Delay - Some computer systems allow you to delay booting for a few seconds after you turn on your system to allow the hard drive a chance to start spinning.  Based on the speed and efficiency of modern hard drives, you most likely do not need to have this boot delay option enabled if the option is present. WARNING - If you run into problems after disabling the option please be sure to re-enable it.