You are upgrading components in a computer to refurbish it. The motherboard and BIOS are three years old. You are concerned that the BIOS may not properly support some of the components you want to install.
Which component might require updating Flash ROM contents before the installation will work properly?
1. >>Graphics card for 1600 x 1200 display
2. 56K modem
3. 100Base-TX network adapter
4. 128MB of physical SDRAM
5. DVD-ROM drive
6. 80 GB hard drive
Explanation : The Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) program is required to enable a CPU to boot up and configure the system for use. The program is stored on a Read-Only Memory (ROM) chip. On older systems, the chip had to be replaced to update BIOS. Flash ROM chips allow a user to store a new BIOS program on the chip by running a DOS program and loading an update file. A Flash BIOS chip is technically called an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) chip. Circuitry built into the motherboard permits erasing and installing a new BIOS image file.
If components are added for which the BIOS is not programmed, it is necessary to run the Flash ROM program and update the BIOS. A new, higher capacity hard drive is one component that often creates the need for BIOS updates. Physical memory and hard drive size can be configured in CMOS, though memory size is often auto-detected during the Power On Self Test (POST) memory count. CMOS is external to the BIOS and can be looked at as being memory for the BIOS. CMOS is also known as the RTC/NVRAM chip.
Modems, network adapters, DVD drives, and graphics adapters are peripheral devices, not system devices. They use the existing slots and the expansion bus to communicate with the system and do not require BIOS upgrades.
Objective: Personal Computer Components
