Comptia A+ is a vendor neutral introductory IT technician certification and to help me study for the exam I’m starting a Comptia A+ series of articles.
BIOS stands for the basic input/output system that is necessary to boot a computer. It is the most basic set of programming that recognizes the inputs and outputs of a computer. The BIOS maintains the set of instructions for a computer to boot, load the operating system from the hard drive, output graphics to a monitor, register keyboard clicks and mouse strokes, and much more. As a firmware, the BIOS has non-volatile memory which stores these set of instructions referred to as the CMOS even when you reboot and completely power off the computer. The commonly used flash memory allows the user to perform firmware upgrades but when the BIOS is corrupt or the computer’s configurations need to be reset the user can do so by resetting the CMOS. This can be done either by clicking the dedicated CMOS reset switch that enthusiast motherboards typically feature or by removing the CMOS battery.
Nowadays most computers host a more advanced BIOS known as UEFI or a unified extensible firmware interface. The UEFI was meant to replace the common BIOS in the 2000’s which were originally present in IBM compatible personal computers. As the name implies, the UEFI is an extended firmware interface that adds more functionality than the common BIOS like supporting remote diagnostics and repair of computers even without another operating system. UEFI is also a more unified platform, while the BIOS typically required a separate network boot the UEFI unifies the computers configurations in a more easily accessible fashion. The UEFI also more notably improved boot speed, provides dual boot functions, and utilizes a much improved graphical user interface. However, most computer technicians and enthusiasts still refer to the computer’s utility settings as a BIOS than a UEFI due to the backward compatibility for BIOS legacy support.
When booting up the computer, the user can usually click the F11, F12, or ESC key to access the boot menu and click the Del, F2, Ctrl-S, or Ctrl-Alt-S key(s) to enter the BIOS settings. If your computer requires another key to access the boot menu or enter the BIOS settings, the computer will notify you during the Boot-up screen. The Boot menu decides whether you’d like to boot the computer from a specific hard drive, optical drive, or flash drive and the BIOS settings allow you to configure your computer hardware preferences. Before you configure your computer hardware in the BIOS settings you should backup the already configured settings and refer to your motherboard or computer manual when necessary. The BIOS setup utility was originally configured using only a keyboard but the UEFI is more commonly configured with a mouse. When you’ve made the preferred configurations save, exit the BIOS settings, and reboot the computer.
The Comptia A+ covers a lot more material than my Marketing series but I plan to condense and simplify the material due to time constraints and to make the lessons easy to learn.
