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What's the difference between an OROM driver ("option-ROM") and a "regular" Windows-level driver?
I see a lot of chatter amidst the BIOS-modding community about OROM drivers (modules?) and Windows-mode drivers, specifically relating to Intel RAID driver updates. It seems that it's important to update both the OROM driver and the Windows driver. I've never known about two sets of simultaneous drivers for a device.
What's the difference between them, and why are two drivers necessary? What would happen if one is significantly older than the other? (Purely hypothetical for understanding -- I'm not troubleshooting)
Interesting, thanks. So why all the worry from people about updating their BIOS' OROMs (and concurrently with driver updates)? Does an OROM version have any bearing on Windows' interaction with the drive/device? – Coldblackice – 2013-05-25T00:24:56.150
@Coldblackice, no idea without any context. The only time I've ever seen anyone talk about upgrading one is to get a video card to support EFI. I described a traditional OROM, but these days they can also contain an EFI driver, which apparently Windows 8 requires for some fast boot option. This allows the EFI to initialize the display in the proper resolution right off the bat so the Windows driver doesn't have to reinitialize it and change the mode. – psusi – 2013-05-25T00:57:37.107