Video BIOS

[Caduceus]

I have run a number of 'SiSoft Sandra' tests on my PC following some possible AGP card woes, and one of the results says:

Warning W314 - The video BIOS is more than 3 years old. If the video adapter has a flash video BIOS, check whether an update is available and install it. You may gain extra performance or bug fixes.

Trouble is, I went to NVidia site, and it said that newer Video BIOS updates may not be compatible for an older PC, blaah blaah blaah.

Whats the difference between drivers and video BIOS?

Thanks
Caduceus

p.s - My card is a NVidia GeForce FX5600. (256 meg ram)

[ThePassenger]

Caduceus said:

p.s - My card is a NVidia GeForce FX5600. (256 meg ram)

Which is about 3 years old.

Video BIOS is much like the BIOS on your main computer (the bit that beeps at you before Windows loads) it handles the basic operation of the card, looks after the hardware side of things and that's pretty much it (i.e. Am I working?). It's also enable the absolute basics the card can do to be available via universal function calls and memory locations (i.e. VGA, SVGA) but other than drawing low res pictures it won't do a lot else. Ok, ok, it does do more than this but as an overview this is fine.

Video drivers talk to the hardware on the card (often directly, occasionally via the Video BIOS depending on who/what made them). They report back to the system what the card can actually do and contain hooks for things like DirextX to do it's funky stuff. Without drivers a graphics card will operate at the most basic level.

Often modern cards can have their BIOS updated, just like a motherboard; this can be tricky and applying the wrong revision to the wrong card will brick it totally. This gets more complex when you consider OEM's may use an Nvidia chip but will supply their own BIOS... thus the stock Nvidia update will again result in a brick... even through it all looks good.

Personally, the video BIOS being 3 years old is not something I would be overly worried about. I've a PIII kicking around with an ancient Rage 3D chip in it... still works.

[jimmyjimjim]

I've never had to update a video card bios. In my opinion, 'warning 314' really ought to be an adivsory or an observation.
As il passeggero says, I wouldn't. I've had enough fun with motherboards and scsi cards; settle for just updating the drivers.
What were the possible AGP card woes?

[mcflurry]

If it ain't broke ....

[Caduceus]

jimmyjimjim said:

What were the possible AGP card woes?

Whilst playing Medal Of Honor Allied Assault, the game/PC crashes. Not a blue screen, or action freeze, the screen just switches off/goes black. 1 0r 2 seconds more of sound, and then that goes.

You can hear the fans in the PC running, but thats it. You can't Ctrl/Alt/Delete back in. Just pull the plug.

[jimmyjimjim]

Shame it's AGP. Nvidia and ATI both intorduced their GPU protection hardware and sfotware with their first PCIe cards(I think). I'd guess at overheating; try playing with the case off for a while and see what happens.

[ThePassenger]

Caduceus said:

jimmyjimjim said:

What were the possible AGP card woes?

Whilst playing Medal Of Honor Allied Assault, the game/PC crashes. Not a blue screen, or action freeze, the screen just switches off/goes black. 1 0r 2 seconds more of sound, and then that goes.

You can hear the fans in the PC running, but thats it. You can't Ctrl/Alt/Delete back in. Just pull the plug.

Ok. Play MoH until the system is as described. Press & Hold the power button for at least ten seconds. Did it turn off? Tap the reset button, did this do anything?

If the answer to the Press n hold is: No, it didn't turn off. I'd start looking at the motherboard. Possibly BIOS (unlikley, if you're careful you can hotswap BIOS chips) or what's know as the Northbridge / Southbridge chips. I have seen an AOpen board pop the Northbridge when the system was hot (bad solder), caused all manner of weirdness until we figured it out.

Assuming Sandra pounded the system and did a VGA mem test (stupid stuff with triangles and such) which passed along with everything else... I'd be interested to know if its doing this with any other games you throw at it... even demo's.

[Caduceus]

Sarah. YHM