I bought a Geforce 6600 graphic adapter last year from Asus and had the initial problem that the fan was to noisy. Even when I was surfing the internet or writing a text in Open Office. I was sure that this could not be correct and decided to search for a way to reduce the fan speed and thus the noise level when it was not needed.
I tried utilities like speedfan which were compatible with my card but I was not able to alter the fan speed at all. The option was not active. I then found a forum entry from a user who changed the firmware of the card and was able to reduce the fan speed afterwards. I decided to give it a try and it worked like it should. The cards fan is now running at an ultra low level when I´am working and at full speed when I´am playing games. The way it should be.
In computing, firmware is software that is embedded in a hardware device. It is often provided on flash ROMs or as a binary image file that can be uploaded onto existing hardware by a user.
Now, what I want to explain with this little story is that firmware updates might be worth looking at for your hardware. They can make your hardware faster, enable features or get rid of bugs. I decided to create a list of good sites that offer firmware updates for various products like graphic cards, dvd drives, raid systems, motherboards and routers.
Before I start with the list I´d like to remind everyone that firmware flashing is no easy task and could damage your hardware. Make sure you know what you are doing.
DVD Writers:
Dvd writers can benefit in several ways from new firmware versions. Some could get added double layer support, increase their writing speed or disable the regional code.
Flashing a dvd drive is a simple task. You need to know the manufacturer, the model and the firmware version. To find this information do the following: (in windows xp)
Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Information
Click on components and select CD-ROM.
Look at the row PNP Device ID. There is a large underline in the middle, after that you see your firmware. Now visit a site like the firmware page and search for your manufacturer. It should show a entry and give you a link to all the firmware versions that are available. If you find one that enables new features download it and follow the guidelines from there on.
General links:
club.cdfreaks.com - A forum with a firmware section.
etnas firmware page
The dangerous brothers
The firmware page
Specific links:
Liteon, Memorex and Pioneer firmwares
Nec firmwares
Nec firmwares 2
Graphic Adapters:
New firmwares speed up your card, enable temperature sensors to work or even change the model of the card into a newer one.
Ati and Nvidea cards need different tools to flash the firmware. I recommend the atitool for ati cards and for nvidea cards a utility like nvflash
Search for your card, download the latest firmware if it adds new features and follow the guidelines of the text file.
General links:
Raid Controller:
I never updated a raid controller. They can be updated to support additional raid and udma modes. A very good site is storage-raid-forum.de which offers downloads for many companies.
You use the same flash utility when flashing your motherboards bios if the controller is an internal one. Take a look at the homepage of your manufacturer to recieve the information on how to flash a motherboard.
Router:
I never flashed a router myself but flashing could enable features or allow you to change parameters. Good sites with lots of information are openwrt.org and sveasoft.com
[tags]firmware, update, bios, flash, rom, ram, dvd, graphic[/tags]
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