Motherboard question, and yep, probably a dumb one

[sbjlsmtj]

I have a computer now (although I'm looking to get different one), that when it restarts, it says bios is not installed. Is that the motherboard bios? What is a bios lol, I think it's the parameters of how the computer will run but not sure at all. I have an athlon 64 3400+ 2.2 ghz with a gig of ram (not sure what kind) and it has a 80 gig maxtor, nvidia geforce 5900 video card, but the mother board is a k8t neo that I can see and I think I see MSI stamped on it, is that the manufacturer?

So after reading some of the posts here for a few days, it seems that bios not being installed is a bad thing, but I don't know how to install it or where to get it. I assume it will make a difference in performance if it was corrected. It's been like ever since I got it about a year ago. I would like it to do more (be faster) but I'm a pure novice, so I'm not sure what to do and I don't want it to become unstable at all. My buddy tried to update his bios a couple months back and wiped his system, I don't want that to happen, so am I better off just living with it the way it is? Thanks for any input.

[sbjlsmtj]

I guess the question is so stupid that it's not worth anyone's time to answer it, but please if someone has a minute to explain the answer to my question, I won't ever ask it again LOL. Thanks for any help.

[infinitevalence]

If there was no bios installed then the motherboard would never post. so i dont really know whats going on... something is not quite right.

[bigblockmatt]

mine has that message as well. the first time i saw it, i thought i didnt install the bios correctly...so i reinstalled it. the message is still there.

[dicecca112]

could be perhaps the video card, I seem to remember my old fx5200 saying, but hey if it works, who cares, just use your system