BIOS

[Cicjose]

anyone know anything about updating bios?

im getting green and purple dots over my games and i have just reinstalled windows 7

so this seems the logical next step

anyway i can do this safely?

[CrowsFan]

Sorry cic got not clue what you are talking about...

[Cicjose]

so no one has ever had to do it?

my graphics cards dont work properly a lot of the time that is why i need to do this

they do work but after a certain period they come back saying they have stopped responding and

the only way i can fix this as far as im aware is updating bios but from what i know is

that is it is very dangerous if you get it wrong

[hawk_88]

Modern BIOS can be updated, but there is rarely a reason you would.

I am almost certain that any issue with BIOS (you don't ever really have BIOS issues) will not produce green and purple dots over games.

If it is only games, and not your screen in general, it would strongly suggest an issue with your GPU. Try updating your drivers for your GPU. If that fails, and suspect it might, you will probably have to replace your GPU, but it is definitely worth a try.

Some more details of your PC would help. Laptop/Desktop? Basic specs, that sort of thing.

[Cicjose]

ive gone through control panel to see if it will install all of my windows 7 updates

84 of them

they have been downloaded and are currently installing hoping this helps......

i assumed it was a bios issue because most web troubleshooters have said that was what it should be

as a hardware noob i never touch anything that has been setup and get others to help me with that

[hawk_88]

Often Windows 7 will grab the most up to date drivers via its updates interface. It sometimes doesn't though so if that doesn't work, find out exactly what GPU you have and manually download the latest drivers of the card maker's website. It should be either Nvidia or ATI.

Also, I am very curious as to what reason people could give to update BIOS for this issue. If you could post a link to whatever site(s) you have used that would be helpful. The BIOS is basically a very simple interface that you can access soon after you start up your PC before Windows (or another OS) boots. Once the OS has started it shouldn't have impact on your system.

[Cicjose]

This is what is happening on web pages (hope you can see that)



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i get the error message from time to time

"display drivers have stopped responding and have now recovered"

Now that either recovers and i'm back to normal or shuts my computer down

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/display-driver-stopped-responding-and-has/aa523d51-e631-4799-a84e-63836d301a66

the website above believes that this is attributed to a need to upgrade bios reading the second reply to said question
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[hawk_88]

The drivers crashing could be caused by a number of issues.

My guess, without having your PC in front of me to test, is that it is a hardware issue with your GPU (the speckled screen suggests it is a hardware issue) which is causing the drivers to crash.

If you have a brand name PC or laptop and it is still in warranty I would contact them for support. If not I would borrow a GPU from a friend to swap in and see if that fixes it. If it does, it means you need to buy a new GPU.

[Cicjose]

how expensive is a new GPU?

do i need to replace my graphics cards?

[hawk_88]

GPU and Graphics Card are basically interchangeable terms, so yes, that would be my guess. I would verify that is the problem before replacing it though.

The prices vary greatly. It depends what you want to use your PC for and what hardware you currently have (i.e. a card that is compatible). You can pay anywhere from $100-$800.

[Cicjose]

i have already replaced 3 graphics cards for this stupid machine

[bomberboy0618]

Wouldnt 3 graphics cards exceed the cost of a new machine?

[Cicjose]

i bought my comp piece by piece 5 years ago for $4000

[bomberboy0618]

Oh. shower that is expensive.

[Cicjose]

actually it was $3900 plus COD 4