Should I Update Bios On New Motherboard

A tiny BIOS fleck lurks inside every computer, sitting on your motherboard to breathe life into your organization when you press the ability button. It not just powers your PC, but helps protect information technology, likewise—equally Duo Security'due south recent report on Apple tree macOS attacks points out.

BIOS stands for basic input and output organisation, and the BIOS scrap initializes all the other devices in your PC, like the CPU, GPU, and motherboard chipset. But a few years agone, motherboard manufacturers—in partnership with Microsoft and Intel—introduced a replacement for traditional BIOS chips dubbed UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface).

Well-nigh every motherboard shipping today has a UEFI chip rather than a BIOS chip (UEFI is a Windows xi arrangement requirement, in fact), only they both share the same cadre purpose: preparing the system to boot into the operating system. That said, almost people still call the UEFI the "BIOS" because of the familiarity of the term.

Why y'all should (or shouldn't) update your BIOS

Agreement your UEFI is of import and so yous tin can understand how (and if) to take advantage of the characteristic updates and problems fixes that come up with the BIOS updates offered past motherboard manufacturers.

amd ryzen 1800x build 7 — New scrap and motherboard platforms oftentimes receive numerous BIOS revisions early in their lifecycle, to work out bugs.

Your motherboard probable uses whatever firmware revision the motherboard manufacturer was on back when information technology was congenital. Over the lifespan of a motherboard, manufacturers release new firmware packages or BIOS updates that will enable support for new processors and memory, or solve commonly reported bugs. For years, the merely real reason to update to a newer firmware revision, even so, is to solve a bug in your UEFI or to bandy in a CPU that's newer than your motherboard.

Some people like to regularly check for and update their UEFI firmware packages merely to stay up to date. At in one case, this was considered a risky practice, given that the firmware updating process tin can potentially brick your motherboard in the same mode that flashing a custom ROM on to Android phone can brick the device. It's best not to update your UEFI firmware unless there is something specific that the updated firmware offers that you need.

That said, you probably want to stay on pinnacle of BIOS updates if you're on a flake or motherboard platform that's fresh out of the gates. Several motherboard BIOS updates were released early on during the first generation of AMD'due south disruptive Ryzen chips, and each provided boosted performance and system stability. With Intel's Alder Lake switching to a radical new hybrid core chip design this fall, and both Intel and AMD expected to ringlet out new motherboard sockets side by side generation, nosotros may before long be an era where it's more common to update your BIOS while bleeding-edge kinks go worked out.

How to update your PC BIOS

1. Find your current BIOS version: Before you upgrade your BIOS, make sure you're really installing a new version. The easiest way to detect your BIOS version is to open up upwardly the System Information app by typing msinfo into the Windows search bar. In the window that opens, your BIOS version should show up on the right, under your processor speed. Record your version number and date, and so compare it to the latest version bachelor on your motherboard's support folio on the manufacturer's website.

2. Enter the UEFI BIOS: When yous boot upwards your PC, you'll run into text that informs you which button to printing to enter the UEFI BIOS. Press it! (The exact button needed, and the design of every motherboard'due south actual UEFI command panel differs, then these instructions volition be more guideposts than step-past-step instructions.)

3. Boot into the UEFI control panel (when possible): Although not all motherboards offer this feature, on certain models you lot can boot into the UEFI control panel and use a congenital-in update utility to connect to the cyberspace and flash the latest firmware from the industry'southward server. This extremely nice feature makes updating to newer firmware revisions equally painless as possible.

The procedure is a chip more involved for motherboards that don't support this characteristic.

4. Find the latest BIOS update from your motherboard'southward support page: Become to your motherboard's support folio on the manufacturer's website. The latest BIOS update should be in the support and downloads section.

five. Download and unzip the BIOS update file

6. Transfer update file onto a USB flash drive

7. Reboot your computer into the UEFI control panel

viii. Launch the UEFI's firmware update tool or flashing tool and back up your PC's existing firmware to your flash drive: This protects you in case something goes wrong.

9. Use the same UEFI utility to select the new firmware image yous saved on the flash bulldoze: Running the firmware update utility should take just a couple of minutes, just make sure not to shut off your PC during this process. This is critical .

10. Once the flashing process finishes, restart your computer: Your updated PC BIOS is set up to stone.

Some manufacturers offering utilities that can update your UEFI chip from directly inside Windows by running an .exe file, but nosotros strongly recommend using one of the two methods to a higher place to avert any bug.

Again, updating your PC's BIOS can provide many benefits, but it's important to understand the risks. Don't touch information technology if there isn't a articulate, compelling reason to update your UEFI firmware. That said, if you want to driblet in a newer CPU into an older motherboard, then it's articulate that a BIOS update lies in your future.

Updated at 10:46 AM to reference Duo Security'due south contempo report on UEFI attacks on the Apple Macintosh and MacOS.

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