Why buy a new piece of hardware if your existing model's performance can be noticeably improved by a firmware update? You could double the burning speed of DVD recorders, increase clock speeds and unlock the full performance potential of your motherboard.

Firmware updates can enhance performance and add new features to the hardware. For example, digital cameras might show additional information on the LCD or offer more preset features. Official upgrades from printer manufacturers can improve picture quality and optimise paper feeding.

You should also keep an eye open for firmware upgrades for your graphics card: for example, applying an update transforms a sub-£300 ATI Radeon 9800 Pro card into the more expensive Fire-GL-X2 Pro accelerator. This is possible because both cards use chips from the same product family.

In this feature, we'll describe the improvements you can achieve through firmware updates for motherboards, graphics cards, DVD and CD recorders, PDAs and printers. First, though, we go over the basics and explain how to carry out firmware upgrades safely.

The basics
A firmware update will go smoothly if you observe a few rules. Before flashing the firmware, you must back up the old version; almost all upgrade software has this facility. If a device doesn't behave properly after a firmware update, in most cases you can restore the old version.

Upgrading is easiest with tools that work under Windows. In particular, flash programs for products such as DVD and CD writers and digital cameras work like this. A single mouse click is all that is needed to start the firmware update.

Even printers, graphics cards and motherboards can be flashed easily under Windows. However, you need to be particularly careful when flashing a motherboard: unstable Windows drivers can interfere with the flashing process. A Bios update using the Windows interface should only be carried out on systems that are operating smoothly.

If you want to put new firmware on a Wifi access point, you have to connect the access point and the computer via an Ethernet cable. The wireless interface is not reliable enough for this fiddly process. You can either install the new firmware to the access point from the PC using a Windows utility or use the access point's own web interface to get it from the PC.

More reliable with Dos
If you don't trust Windows you can, if the manufacturer allows it, update a PC's Bios using a floppy disk. You need to copy the firmware file and the flash program to a bootable disk. If you don't want to make your own Windows startup disk, you can use a disk image, such as those at www.bootdisk.com. In order for the PC to boot from the floppy, the floppy disk drive must be specified as the first boot device in the Bios.

Updating is done from the command line after booting from disk. The name of the flash program, the firmware filename and further parameters are entered here. A more precise set of instructions can usually be found in the relevant readme.txt file.

A word of warning: do not turn off your computer while the update is running (usually shown by a progress bar), or the device being flashed might be damaged. During the flashing procedure on a notebook PC, the external power supply must remain connected at all times, as if the battery runs out during flashing it will have fatal consequences. The notebook will be left without a functioning Bios, and you'll need to get the manufacturer to sort out the problem.

Make sure it's legal
Numerous hacked firmware versions are circulating on the Internet. Often these work by tuning the device above the manufacturer's specifications, which can lead to the product being damaged. If you install an unofficial firmware patch, you will invalidate your warranty and possibly damage your hardware irretrievably.

Firmware files patched by third parties infringe intellectual property rights and are illegal. However, legal firmware patches have many advantages and are usually much more effective than tuning by altering software settings, as the firmware controls hardware directly, while software tuning tools are dependent on the Windows device driver.

Drivers only influence the hardware to a limited extent and are nowhere near as effective as optimised firmware when it comes to tuning. In addition, settings specified in the device hardware are retained, even if the computer is turned off. If software patches can't solve a problem, installing new firmware is often the only way to overcome it.

MOTHERBOARDS AND CPUs

A firmware update can boost an older motherboard to the same performance level as its more expensive successor, saving you anything up to £20 or £30.

For example, motherboards that use the Intel 865PE (Springdale) chipset can be elevated to the same performance level as a board using the high-end Intel 875P (Canterwood) chipset. The difference between these chipsets lies in the Pat (performance acceleration technology) function.

This frees additional performance reserves, optimising the memory access between the CPU and system memory at 800MHz front-side bus (FSB) frequency and dual-channel DDR400 memory.

You can activate this feature because Springdale (865PE) and Canterwood (875P) come from the same production line. They are identical but, at the quality control stage, the most powerful chips are selected for use in Canterwood chipsets while the rest are used in Springdale chipsets. Enabling the Pat function with a Bios update improves overall performance by about two per cent.

If your motherboard uses the Intel 845P chipset with an FSB frequency of 533MHz, you can switch to an Intel CPU with an 800MHz FSB without buying a new motherboard. Many manufacturers offer Bios updates that support the higher FSB rate.

The same goes for AMD CPUs with a 400MHz FSB - motherboards using Nvidia's Nforce 2 chipset with a system frequency of 333MHz also work with newer AMD processors after a Bios update. The higher frequency gives you a performance improvement of up to six cent.

Manufacturers such as Abit, MSI and Epox include overclocking functions that can be optimised by using Bios updates. Apart from menus for selecting preset values, they include tools for altering the FSB frequency, core voltage and multiplier.

MSI offers by far the most advanced overclocking with Dot (dynamic overclocking technology) - its integrated overclocking function increases the FSB frequency by up to 20 per cent for demanding applications. Different performance profiles can be selected from the Bios. Support for Dot and updates for this function are added via Bios upgrades.

If your computer won't start after an interrupted or completed Bios update, then hardware intervention is the only way out. Manufacturers such as Gigabyte produce models with dual Bios chips - if one Bios chip is damaged, then a second takes over. Some motherboards also have a Dip switch to perform a Bios reset. If this is still not successful then the Bios chip will need to be replaced, which means scrapping the board in the majority of cases.

With regular chipset driver updates you can optimise hard disk and Atapi drive access times. The aim is to get a high data throughput rate with low CPU usage. If you have a motherboard with an Intel chipset, install the Intel Application Accelerator. This speeds up loading times for both Windows and application programs.

If you have an AMD Athlon 64 CPU you should keep the processor driver up to date. This will enable the Cool'n'Quiet power-saving function to be activated from Windows.

Further information
www.wimsbios.com - exhaustive Bios collection covering all manufacturers, plus some useful update tips and tricks.
www.flashbios.org - help if a Bios update goes wrong; source for new Bios chips.
www.intel.com/support/chipsets - Intel Application Accelerator tool.

GRAPHICS CARDS

Performance fiends are catching on to graphics card firmware upgrades, which allow optimised settings to be saved in the hardware. The advantage over software tuning is obvious - these programs are available for numerous 3D cards and make it possible to change the most important settings such as clock rates and AGP modes.

These firmware changes are effective even if the operating system is reinstalled, a new driver comes into use or the graphics card is installed in a different PC.