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Video BIOSs

The variety of available video display hardware for Intel PCs is astounding. Because of the range of options, there's a definite need for video BIOSs to control the display of information. On most computers, your only hint of the presence of the video BIOS comes when you first turn on the computer—a line or two of text flashes by, usually for only a second or so. This text identifies the make and model of video adapter, and possibly the BIOS version number. This information is occasionally helpful in diagnosing problems with video hardware, but video BIOSs seldom provide user-configurable options akin to those for the motherboard BIOS.

TIP

Modern video boards sometimes have the capability to use an interrupt request (IRQ) line, which is a way for hardware to request service from the OS. The number of IRQs in a modern PC is quite limited, and many OSs don't use the video IRQ. You might therefore want to disable this feature if you think it's not being used. You can often do so in the motherboard's BIOS. If you disable the video IRQ and then experience problems or poor performance, particularly in 3D games, you should reenable the video IRQ.

 

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Last Update: November 17, 2020