reason for updating BIOS

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miniminc98

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Jul 13, 2013
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Hey guys i have an ASUS m5a97 LE R2.0 motherboard and i just flashed the newest bios release on my motherboard.. im thinking to myself, what is the point of updating your motherboards BIOS? if anyone can answer that question it would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Someone Somewhere
Sometimes newer chips don't work on older BIOSs.

Also, there are often new features, bugfixes, and tweaks.

Same reasons you update any software, really.

EDIT:

Source for that? I've flashed way more than 3 BIOSs and never bricked one.
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Someone Somewhere

Someone Somewhere

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Sep 23, 2012
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Sometimes newer chips don't work on older BIOSs.

Also, there are often new features, bugfixes, and tweaks.

Same reasons you update any software, really.

EDIT:

Source for that? I've flashed way more than 3 BIOSs and never bricked one.
 
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Hazle

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to fix stability & compatibility problems the motherboard may have with newer hardware. for example; in the event that it comes with an outdated BIOS, if you didn't update it, your PC will not boot if you installed, say, an FX-4300/6300/8300 cpu on it.
 
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False_Dmitry_II

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Yeah, I've never had a problem flashing any bios either. Must be some survey where people were already there because they bricked something.

I've even flashed one with a CPU the motherboard didn't recognize in it, so that when it was done it did.
 
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nss000

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A small number of byteboiz can flash-and-flash ... like their Russian Roulette bullet always get stuck in cylinder #7. Those skillful or lucky-flashers skew the apparent statistics. So it's not 30% of all flash-tries that brick-da-board, but 30% of all flash-TRIERS who brick their boards.

This is reflected overall in very few computer-users flashing BIOS ... only epilectic/spaz lovers and sociopaths will accept a 30% risk of ANY bad result.



 
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nss000

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First flasher bricks ... a 2nd flasher bricks ... a 3rd flasher bricks ---- George-da-gura flashes successfully 7 times. Thus, the flash failure rate is 30%.



 
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nss000

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Most people who try ... & experience a flash failure NEVER AGAIN try to flash a BIOS no matter how useful or needed. I've failed twice (fortunetly w/o bricking) and have two mobos that could use a BIOS flash. Boo Hoo read lots of **wailing/gnashing-of-teeth** from those who have failed ... like pitchforked_tail hells 7-th circle bricked is forever !

Most computer shops will NOT guarentee a result! A shame scum_mobo manufactures have purposefully made BIOS flash so risky.



 
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Someone Somewhere

Someone Somewhere

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Purposefully? I don't see how they've purposefully made flashing difficult. It's not MB manufacturers, you'll find a similar case of 'pull the plug at the wrong time and you're screwed' design in all sorts of industries. Smartphones, microcontrollers, network equipment, engine management systems, and all kinds of devices.

Besides, motherboard manufacturers are about the only segment that sometimes use a second chip for backup.

Out of curiosity, how did you get it to fail?
 
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nss000

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Tut tut no excuses will do for snarky mobo manufatures. Do you own stock in AZROK ?? Here's what I expect. I get a headsup from Ubuntu UPDATER and an automagic DLoad/install of whatever --- even the entire operating system and configured to my specific hardware . That's current-best-practice . Can't be tuffer to update the 2-Meg BIOS ... but the mobo companies just lublublub the snark!

How did I fail? Dammed if I know. These fail-attempts were on Windows machines and I DLoaded the BIOS + installer , ran the installer and ... nothing happened. Nada/nothing/nix/nyte. In this YOOL 2014 a casual Linux lusr should need to do as little to update BIOS as he does to update his UBUNTU software which is ... given UPDATER and SYNAPTIC basically ... NOTHING !!! Your examples are all non-"retail" products --- a mobo is a retail product and should update/upgrade/re.configure automagically for any lusr.

That's just current-best-practice.
 
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Someone Somewhere

Someone Somewhere

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No, I don't own stock in anybody.

You'd like any virus or rogue software to be able to easily overwrite your BIOS? I wouldn't.

FYI, most motherboard vendors want you to flash the file from the BIOS off a USB stick. This means that OS doesn't matter, and you can install it without a working OS.

A smartphone isn't a retail product? Nor a router? A NAS?

Also, please make your posts pass a spell-check. It makes it substantially easier to read.
 
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nss000

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In eight (8) years of automagic updates by Linux venders I have not-once had rogue software installed. That perfectly-safe software automagiic-install is the rule, not the exception under Linux. If OS sources can do it so can mobo manufactures, but they choose NOT to! I think they make money off bricked/non-updated mobos & you present a strawman argument in their defence.

Hope yo mobo stock prices are doing well ...



 
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Someone Somewhere

Someone Somewhere

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No, motherboard vendors can't do it over aptitude. It's not a package; the way it's updated is completely different.

Aptitude updates stuff that's in the file tree. The BIOS isn't linked into that. There's no mount point for it.

Also, you can fix anything that gets screwed up in updates (and yes, Aptitude managed to break it's GUI front-end on my system) by at the very most formatting the HDD. You can't do that with the BIOS.

I'm running linux currently. You don't need to espouse its values to me. That said, if there's one thing that I absolutely, positively, DO NOT WANT AUTOMATICALLY UPDATED, it is firmware.

Firmware is a different class of software entirely. It's not a good idea to update it in the same way, because it will break just as easily then as it would otherwise. You can go through recovery if software gets broken. You can't for firmware because there is no lower-level software that can load a recovery environment.

Also, how to motherboard manufacturers make money on failed BIOS flashes? People are quite likely to RMA the board as being broken and get a replacement. If they don't, they'll buy a different brand.

As I said above, I don't own any stocks in any companies, nor do I work for anybody in the motherboard business. Saying otherwise is basically libel.
 
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