How often do you update the BIOS on your system?

[D13H4RD]

This was a question in my mind ever since updating the BIOS on my laptop not too ago (annoyingly within Windows as I recently just found out that there is actually a simple utility in the BIOS itself that does the same thing and tends to be more reliable due to less conflicts. Ugh, but at least it's working).

 

Just how often do some of you guys update the BIOS?

 

It's been a general rule to only update your BIOS when it is absolutely necessary, like when you have some sort of issue that you need fixed and a BIOS update has that fix listed in its changelog, and that if it's just general tweaks that change very little, if at all, then you should ignore it.

 

But I know some people who update their BIOS a little too often, and that really got me asking on whether there are people who actually update their BIOS when there's an update available, even though they really didn't need to.

[Guest]

My laptop and desktop: never, there's no need to

[themctipers]

if i have to

otherwise, no, not worth the risk

[LHJKO]

only if i really need to like i had to do with ryzen that was the first bios i ever updated 

[Sir Asvald]

Unless there is a feature or the BIOS is broken, there is no need to update it. 

 

 

[D13H4RD]

That's really my thoughts.

 

I only updated because the GL502 on its original BIOS ran warm and the version it's currently on helps make it more manageable and maintains boosted clocks as a result.

 

I'll more than likely keep it the way it is, because so far, there isn't anything seriously wrong with it apart from a BSOD caused by netio.sys, which I traced to the GameFirst software. I mean, if it works really well and there are no issues, let alone serious ones, why risk breaking your system?

 

I mean, sure, it has a backup BIOS, but is it really worth the hassle?

[D13H4RD]

Also, a little PSA from yours truly.

 

If you do choose to update your BIOS (and I really hope it's for a good reason like better overclocking support, an issue that's fixed or recovering from a botched install that renders the PC unbootable if possible and not "I want the latest version"), many recommend doing so using a utility within the BIOS itself.

 

While you can flash through Windows and many of these utilities have gotten better and more stable over the years, that's still an unsatisfactory way of flashing a file that's vital to your PC working as a Windows environment has the potential for more things to go wrong due to more processes running and you'd want to hope that Windows doesn't crash or does something funny to the utility, especially since a broken BIOS pretty much always means that your system will do a ded.

 

In short, if you need (yes, need because hardly anyone "wants" to update a BIOS) to update it, I recommended doing so within the BIOS itself as it's safer due to much fewer chances of anything going wrong and causing your system to go to the Great PCMR Throne in the sky.

 

(Seriously, I'm not kidding. A BIOS update is one of those things that you need to work 150% of the time. Unlike a Windows update, where you can do a System Restore to hopefully fix it, when a BIOS update is borked, unless your motherboard has a dual BIOS or it has a way to recover via a USB stick, just don't do it when you don't need to and if you need to, do it 150% right, that is right file, no corruption, doing everything to make sure there's extremely few chances of failure, etc.)

[JR1911]

I never update the BIOS unless there's a specific reason for it, not worth risking it otherwise.

[AshleyAshes]

1 hour ago, themctipers said:

if i have to

otherwise, no, not worth the risk

 

1 hour ago, JR1911 said:

I never update the BIOS unless there's a specific reason for it, not worth risking it otherwise.

Risk of WHAT?

[themctipers]

Just now, AshleyAshes said:

 

Risk of WHAT?

my psu exploding on me 

power going out

tripping the breaker (i have too many things plugged into the one outlet in my room)

power going out (theres construction going on)

power going out (power is dangled through trees)

USB being a bitch (only two usb ports on my motherboard work at this point, and all i have are cheap lexar flash drives)

 

[AshleyAshes]

1 minute ago, themctipers said:

my psu exploding on me 

power going out

tripping the breaker (i have too many things plugged into the one outlet in my room)

power going out (theres construction going on)

power going out (power is dangled through trees)

USB being a bitch (only two usb ports on my motherboard work at this point, and all i have are cheap lexar flash drives)

So?  Pull the chip and flash it externally.  All you need is a BusPirate or something.

You guys are just cowards.

 

[themctipers]

Just now, AshleyAshes said:

So?  Pull the chip and flash it externally.

You guys are just cowards.

 

there is no chip on my motherboard. 

[rn8686]

Never, havent updated the BIOS in my Hero VIII and I dont intend to unless I have to or I gain alot of functionality. 

[AshleyAshes]

2 minutes ago, themctipers said:

there is no chip on my motherboard. 

Yes, yes there is.  There is a chip on EVERY motherboard that you can remove and flash.

[themctipers]

Just now, AshleyAshes said:

Yes, yes there is.  There is a chip on EVERY motherboard that you can remove and flash.

not worth desoldering  

[Klovnious]

I update everytime there is an update. But haven't seen an update for my Z97 board in a while

[Drak3]

On Project Enza, I've got 1 BIOS that is as it came, and the other was the most up to date version at the time.

Otherwise, only if it nets me OC potential or fixes something.

[AshleyAshes]

1 minute ago, themctipers said:

not worth desoldering  

Coward.  We had to solder wires to the chip in the AIMB-272 because it was too small to fit into any breadboard and any wire clips were too big.

[D13H4RD]

26 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

 

Risk of WHAT?

A hard-brick.

 

Granted, many modern motherboards can have some form of recovery from those, but isn’t it better to not get yourself in this situation than to try to fix it?

[AshleyAshes]

5 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

A hard-brick.

As I posted above, it's easy enough to simply remove the EPROM chip and externally flash it.

This is a different board, though the chip in the breadboard is hidden by the wires.  ...I may have purposefully bypassed all protections on the board to flash a BIOS from a different, slightly similar model on it, and had to flash it back to stock with the BusPirate.

I say you guys are just cowards.

 

[D13H4RD]

6 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

As I posted above, it's easy enough to simply remove the EPROM chip and externally flash it.

This is a different board, though the chip in the breadboard is hidden by the wires.  ...I may have purposefully bypassed all protections on the board to flash a BIOS from a different, slightly similar model on it, and had to flash it back to stock with the BusPirate.

I say you guys are just cowards.

 

Except when you have a laptop >_>

 

Not all of us are skilled with such tools btw.

[joesmith888]

Never but I really should do it

[D13H4RD]

13 minutes ago, joesmith888 said:

Never but I really should do it

Why? Any particular reason other than just wanting the latest version (more power to you if so, but I would not risk it personally)?

[Drak3]

24 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Not all of us are skilled with such tools btw.

How do you think people become skilled with them?

They fuck shit up, then decide to figure out how to fix it.

[dcgreen2k]

I've only updated my BIOS once, ever, and it was because I wanted to put a quad-core CPU in my PC. (2006 Dell PCs are strange things) When I flashed the BIOS, it "finished" and said that there was an error. It told me to restart the computer to fix itself, but do you want to take a lucky guess as to what happened next!? It had updated itself properly, and a few days later, I put the Core 2 Quad in it and it worked perfectly.