updating m1210 bios to a04

hi there

sorry if this has been asked before, but i did a quick search and i haven't found an answer

so wot's the point of updating the bios? or should i apply the 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it' philosophy here?

and lastly, if it IS recommended for me to update the bios, are there any other things that i should also update (and for future reference, how am i supposed to know if an update posted on the dell website is actually useful or not?)?

thanks a mil in advance!

 

Take a look at their release notes, and see if it mentioned fixing any type of problem that you have actually experienced. That's my rule of updating drivers and BIOS. Rule number two...wait a few weeks after any driver (especially BIOS) to make sure that another release isn't needed to fix a *new* problem. I hate when bugs crash/hurt my computer.

 

Generic: You'll see better results just updating drivers any day of the week. BIOS revisions are made to fix specific hardware issues or add features for new system releases that generally don't apply to you. Since flashing the BIOS is a very dangerous operation it's usually best to use it as a last resort fix for a serious problem, or as an expert upgrade to gain some special performance increase (usually not applicable to laptop systems).

Specific: Revision a04 is going to add some performance for the t5200 CPU (I'm not sure which version you have in yours), tweak the integrated audio, and has some fixes added if you're planning on running Vista. It's your choice if you want to upgrade- you can seriously mess up your notebook if something goes wrong...

 

The bios update has surely increased my lappy's temp (a04). I checked several times upgrading/downgrading to/from a03/a04 and the above holds true. I dunno the reason though.

 

I wonder if the update changes a voltage setting or a multiplier to coax some more power out of the t5200... Or maybe it just makes the temperature sensors more accurate? =)