The BIOS is the “Basic Input/Output System” of a PC--- it’s one of the very first parts of a PC to “wake up” when you hit the power switch, and it handles a variety of extremely low-level functions that must be running before any operating system can load and run.

From time to time, it’s a good idea to check your system vendor’s home pages to see if a new BIOS is available for your system:Sometimes, BIOSes have bugs or other deficiencies that an upgrade can fix.

In the Bad Old days, you had to physically replace a chip to upgrade a BIOS, but today almost all BIOses are software-upgradable: You download a “patch” to a floppy, and restart the machine from that floppy. The update program then re-writes the BIOS afresh, and you’re done.

While upgrading a BIOS isn’t hard, it’s also not something you’d want to do just for the heck of it. For example, if you download the wrong patch or err in installing even a correct patch or--- worst case---your machine hiccups or has a power failure as the new BIOS is being written, you’re toast: Your machine may not be able to start at all without a time-consuming and expensive trip back to the factory.

But if the bugs or deficiencies are bad enough, it’s worth the small risk, and a BIOS upgrade can help.

Ideally, the BIOS should come from your system vendor; they’ll know what works best for your hardware. Dig out your original purchase paperwork or open the case and look for a motherboard serial or ID number. Using that number, you usually can search the vendor site (in this case, Gateway) for the latest BIOS.

Alternatively, you can use third-party and retail BIOSes, but you’re more or less on your own in installing them:

Wim's BIOS Page Everything you want to know about BIOS