Easily Flash/Update Your BIOS

Flashing and updating your computer's BIOS chip was a daunting task back in the old days. Although that still holds true today for many, the task has been relatively simplified. In fact if you are lucky, updating your BIOS is no harder than installing a regular program which I'll prove here.

When you first press the power button on your machine, the first code being run will usually be the BIOS code. The BIOS will identify and initialize key hardware in your system. To put things in a much simplified perspective, the BIOS is a very important component of a computer system! That is one of the main reason why inexperienced users should stay away from the BIOS area. Yes, I'm also talking about the curious users as well. If you don't know what you are doing, you could end up actually degrading your computer's performance or worst, make the system not boot-able.

With that being said, you might be wondering why would anyone want to have anything to do with the BIOS in the first place. There are many answers to this question. For one, accessing the BIOS allows you to configure some options for the hardware in your system. A simple example is when you need to configure your system to have it boot from the CD/DVD drive first. Usually your hard drive is the first bootable device but when you need to reinstall your operating system from a disc, you will need to instruct the computer to boot from the CD/DVD drive first instead. To do that, you configure that option in your BIOS. For people who overclock their systems to get the most out of their hardware, the place to check for hardware information is the BIOS. In fact, overclocking CPU's can actually be performed directly in the BIOS as well. Sometimes, it's also necessary to enable or disable certain hardware functions of your motherboard. For example, if you have a motherboard with a onboard graphic chipset but later decide you want to use a stand-alone video card instead, you might need to head into the BIOS and disable the onboard graphical chipset.

This brings us to the point of why we would need to update the BIOS. By doing so, it can enhance your system's capabilities. Think of upgrading a BIOS similar to upgrading a device's driver. To get the most out of a device, whether it's a video card, printer or a simple mouse, you'll want to use the most up to date driver to help unleash the devices true capabilities. With a BIOS update, you'll allow your system to detect more hardware, drivers and a host of other features. When you buy a new computer, the BIOS should have been flashed to the most recent version. As time goes by however, the BIOS manufacturer discovers new and better ways of doing things and to allow customers to get the new experience, they release new BIOS firmwares. Another reason why manufacturers release new BIOS firmwares is to correct problems. For example, if a known device is causing problems, flashing your BIOS with the newest firmware upgrade could help solve the problem.

This brings up the last question some of you may have. Is it really necessary to upgrade the BIOS? Honestly, the answer to that question is it depends. If your system is running smoothly at the moment, there really isn't a big incentive to upgrade. Personally, I rarely upgrade the BIOS for my own computer systems because I never really experience any problems whatsoever. For computers that I help repair, I decide the upgrade on a case by case scenario. If the user hardly has any problems with the computer in general, I leave it alone. If the opposite holds true, than I'll perform the BIOS upgrade. To help you with the decision making process, it is best to refer to the README file of the firmware you are upgrading to. Also, the list of changes the BIOS firmware will offer should also be made available on the manufacturer's website. Look over the changes and see if they apply to you or not.

Updating the BIOS

Updating/flashing your BIOS is serious business. Just like how you can cause your system to not boot at all by misconfiguration, the same could happen if you screw up on the update procedure. Also, the method of flashing a BIOS may be different in your scenario so the methods I detail here may or may not apply to you. You need to carefully read the instructions on how to perform the upgrade before attempting anything. If possible, consult a friend who is more familiar with this process to help guide you along. Please don't hold me responsible if your system suddenly doesn't boot at all after the upgrade!

1. One of the first thing we are going to do is checking out what our current BIOS version is. To do so, we simply open up a Run dialog box and type in 'msinfo32'. The System Information window should appear. In System Summary, locate the BIOS Version/Date entry and write it down on a piece of paper.


2. Next, it's time to find and download, if any, our new BIOS firmware. Before we can do that though, we need to figure out what is our computer system or motherboard model is. If your computer was store bought and is from a big name PC manufacturer such as HP, Sony, Dell etc, than you'll most likely find your computer model in the front or on top of the computer case. In my example, I have a Lenovo R61 laptop. Once you find the information, write it down.
If you have a custom built computer, then you'll have to find out what motherboard your currently have installed. To do so, simply download the free CPU-Z utility. Select the .ZIP option if you don't want to deal with any installation. Simply extract the tool and run it. Click on the Mainboard tab. Your motherboard manufacturer and model should then be listed. Write it down on a piece of paper. If you look down a bit, CPU-Z also shows you your current BIOS version and date similar to what was shown in System Information.


Once you got the information down, we can then proceed to the next step. If your PC is from one of the big PC manufacturer (as in my case with Lenovo), head to their support website. Simply enter the PC manufacturer's name along with the word 'support' in Google search for the fastest result (example: Lenovo Support). For users with custom motherboards, do the same (example: Gigabyte Support).


Once you are on their support webpage, it's now time to drill down to your specific computer or motherboard model. You'll most likely get to work with drop down menu's to select the product you are looking for or you could be asked to directly type in your product's model number. Either way, keep going until you arrive at the download page for your PC or motherboard model. You'll also likely be asked what operating system you are using as well so make sure you fill in the correct answer!

3. Once you reach the download page, select what it is you want to download. In our scenario, we only care about BIOS updates so that's what we'll select here. Once done so, you should then be able to see a list of the BIOS related downloads.


This is where things can get a little tricky if you are not familiar with BIOS updating in general. There are in fact many different ways to reflash your BIOS. For example, via a CD, floppy disk, removable device (USB) or if are fortunate enough like me, a executable file. As you can see in the above picture, I have two options. I can either download the BIOS firmware as an .iso file to burn onto a blank CD or I can use the BIOS Update Utility, which is a executable file. In my example, I will chose the latter option because it is the less hassle.

4. Before downloading the actual BIOS firmware, you'll want to go over some important pre-caution advice. Like I've mentioned earlier, look for the summary (or full list) of changes this new BIOS firmware will provide. Hopefully, the description will be meaningful to you and not just technical jargon.


Next, you'll definitely want to go over the instructions. Although it couldn't get any easier with a executable file, you don't want to risk anything and end up with a crashed system. If you are using another method than what I'm doing, than it is worth mentioning again that you need to read the instructions carefully! Make sure you understand every step of the process before beginning.


Once you have done both steps, then proceed with the download of the BIOS firmware. Make sure you are downloading the correct version! Although the flash procedure might stop due to a wrong BIOS version, you don't want to take any risk whatsoever. Therefore, you must be 100% sure that the BIOS version you are about to download applies to the system or motherboard you own.

There might also be some requirements BEFORE you can proceed to flash your BIOS with the newest version. For example, the manufacturer might require you to update your BIOS to a certain older version prior to installing the newest version. Or there could be different versions of the BIOS firmware in that each one is meant for your computer model with or without certain hardware installed. It is your job to pick the one that applies to your system. That is why you must read and go over the notes on the website before proceeding. If you are confused at any point, I highly recommend you stop and consult someone with more computer experience before proceeding. As the old saying goes, better be safe than sorry.

5. Once you got the firmware downloaded, it is finally time to flash our BIOS. In my case, I downloaded the executable file so I'm going to open that first to extract the files as mentioned in the instructions.


Next, I'll begin the actual BIOS flash by opening up the executable specified in the instructions manual once again.


Fortunately for me, all I have to do next is click Next and the process will kick off. Once the process has finished, it will prompt me to reboot the system. It is now the time to pray that nothing went wrong and your system will be bootable yet again.

YOU MUST MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT POWER DOWN THE COMPUTER ONCE THE FLASHING BEGINS. THIS IS THE EASIEST WAY TO BRICK A SYSTEM. AS FOR A LAPTOP, MAKE SURE YOU ARE PLUGGED IN AND THAT THE BATTERY IS INSTALLED AS WELL. THAT WAY IF THE POWER DOES GO OUT, THE LAPTOP WILL STILL RUN ON BATTERY, HOPEFULLY.

As you can see in the picture below, my BIOS flash was successfully performed as indicated by System Information. You'll most likely notice nothing new happening with your computer once the BIOS has been flashed, especially if the BIOS changes doesn't apply to you but it's still nice to know that you have the newest version of the firmware installed.

In the End...

I didn't break a drop of sweat performing this BIOS update on my laptop. The entire process took less than 5 minutes. But like I've said earlier, you might not have the incentive to actually upgrade your BIOS to the newest version. For me personally, this is actually the first BIOS upgrade after the laptop purchase in early 2007. Hardcore custom PC builders and PC gamers in general will definitely want to upgrade their BIOS to get the most out of their hardware.