Most people know that there is something called a “BIOS” (Basic Input/Output System) on their system. Many know that the BIOS can be updated. Far fewer have actually tried updating their BIOS. The BIOS that most people think of by default is the chipset level BIOS / system BIOS.
What many people don’t know is that even a graphics card has a BIOS. Even a CD/DVD drive has a BIOS. The term “firmware” is more correct for these but it is really the same thing. And updating these can often be more useful than updating the chipset BIOS.
So when is a chipset BIOS update needed? Typically when a new processor has been released for the CPU socket and you want to use the new CPU on your older motherboard. Or if a new piece of hardware has been released, it might be possible for your system to support it with a simple system BIOS update. Often, obscure bugs/glitches can be resolved with a system BIOS update.
Of what use is a CD/DVD drive firmware update? Aha, now this I did myself some time back. For a long time I knew something was wrong with the way my LG 52x CD-ROM drive dealt with errors when reading a CD. It just used to get stuck with the green light on at some point and the only way to get it unstuck was to eject the disc. The problem was so bad that I preferred to use my roomies’ drive shared over our LAN.
But then one day I decided to see if there was some firmware update available to fix the problem. Indeed, there was. The release notes for the firmware even mentioned that it was supposed to fix problems in reading discs with errors. So I went ahead and flashed the new firmware onto my drive. Problem solved! 
However one must be careful when flashing things. Once, several years ago, I flashed my Creative Labs 3D Blaster Savage 4 graphics card BIOS with an S3 Savage 4 BIOS. While it did fix one problem, it introduced some others. That happened because I made the foolish mistake of flashing a card made by one manufacturer with a BIOS update meant for a card made by another believing that only the chipset on the board (Savage 4) mattered. That was silly mistake by an over enthusiastic kid. What made things worse was that when I tried to reflash my BIOS with the original Creative Labs BIOS (which I managed to get from ‘da net’), the Creative Labs flashing tool won’t let me do so because it said that the board wasn’t a Creative Labs board! Damn, that really pissed me off! And Creative Labs support wouldn’t help because I had flashed their board with a “3rd party BIOS”. No wonder Creative Labs isn’t in the graphics card business any more!
There were 3rd party tools around which could force a firmware image onto the board, but I decided not to play with it any further. Back then I didn’t have an onboard graphics chip or a PCI graphics card or access to another PC where I could reflash my board if things went wrong. Moral of the story, to be safe, make sure that you have the official release of the firmware for exactly the same model that you own.
One geeky thing a person can do with firmware updates is to change the DVD drive region code so that the drive plays DVDs from whatever region the discs be. By default, the region code can be changed only 5 times in most drives after which you won’t be able to play discs of a different region (Eg. Discs sent to you as a gift from abroad). Google a bit and you should be able to find sites with a modified firmware for your drive.
Another, even more geeky thing is possible. Some manufacturers, for marketing and strategic reasons, disable features or downgrade speeds of their drives through the firmware. In many cases is possible to change your 40x drive to a 48x drive. Or to add support for additional DVD formats by flashing the drive firmware with the real manufacturers firmware rather than the firmware of the popular brand under which you purchased the drive. Infact, most of the Sony drives are actually rebadged Lite-On drives. Believe it!
So go, take a look if firmware updates are available for your system components that fix any issues you may be having. And take care! Don’t forget to Google for info about the update before you make the leap.
Do leave your insights and experiences on flashing as a comment.
Posted by Onkar Joshi 
