How often should you update your BIOS?

[whm1974]

Now I'm wondering due to conflicting information, but how often should I one do BIOS updates for your motherboard? I did it once for my Z87 board back in 2014 or 2015, but my Thinkpad T430 I did this as soon as I got it last year.

However I'm not having any issues at the moment and my main system is working fine and I see no reason to fix something that isn't broke. Now if I had a new platform such as Ryzen or Threadripper, then I would be updating often.

Any advice?

 

[Billb2]

Bios updates can be two things:

Fix problems, Maybe some you don't even know you had.
Add new features, Which you may or may not want/need.

 

[RLGL]

Read the reasons that are given with the new version. If stability is one of them I do it all the time. There have been a bunch of updates for my Z170, with the latest last month. I have grabbed all of them.

 

[whm1974]

Read the reasons that are given with the new version. If stability is one of them I do it all the time. There have been a bunch of updates for my Z170, with the latest last month. I have grabbed all of them.

I'm all for stability and fixing bugs.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Read the change log, update when you feel like

 

[cbn]

Stability and enhanced compatibility would be enough for me.

Spectre v2 fix was another reason....although I notice all boards haven't got the update yet.

 

[richaron]

*puts on old man voice*
Back in the day updating BIOS was quite a risky procedure. My first few BIOS updates were done with floppy drives and I lived in the country with sketchy power lines. If the floppy wasn't perfect or there were power issues the motherboard would probably be bricked.

Since then the update procedure has improved considerably. Not only newer and more reliable storage media and power distribution, but the motherboards have got more clever with verifying integrity of the new firmware and sometimes run a dual BIOS in case the user screws one up. But the improvements only reduce the risk of bricking the motherboard, some risk still remains.

These days my main system is running on a UPS and is able to download new BIOS directly from the internet (from within BIOS itself) I think the risks are almost zero. So I don't think twice about updating.

But as others have said, it's still a risk vs reward situation. And if a newer BIOS provides no advantage there's no "reward" to take the risk, no matter how small the risk might be..

 

[mikeymikec]

Aside from black-and-white scenarios like "hardware x and y won't work together without a BIOS update", my view is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

I'm on Haswell hardware at the moment so I very much doubt there'll be BIOS updates to fix CPU vulnerabilities for that. I would however regard security vulnerabilities as a "broke" situation, but I think I'd leave the update for at least a couple of months and ideally see on the board forums a load of people who have applied the update without problems.

 

[LTC8K6]

Aside from black-and-white scenarios like "hardware x and y won't work together without a BIOS update", my view is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

I'm on Haswell hardware at the moment so I very much doubt there'll be BIOS updates to fix CPU vulnerabilities for that. I would however regard security vulnerabilities as a "broke" situation, but I think I'd leave the update for at least a couple of months and ideally see on the board forums a load of people who have applied the update without problems.

ASUS just put up a beta BIOS for the Z-97A.

Presumably it's for Spectre/Meltdown, but it does not say.

What is the general opinion on beta BIOSes?

I am old school and generally don't update the BIOS unless it addresses a problem I am having.

 

[mikeymikec]

I wouldn't touch a beta BIOS with a barge pole, generally speaking. Anything as low-level as say the BIOS, firmware or the OS is not remotely appropriate for beta-stage stuff IMO (unless your job directly requires that sort of thing or you don't mind what gets broken/bricked for whatever reasons).

ASUS is my preferred mobo manufacturer but it has always irritated me that they don't document their BIOS updates. 90% of the time they describe the update as being "for system stability" or something equally unhelpful.

 

[LTC8K6]

Yeah, I've never flashed to a beta BIOS.

 

[dlerious]

I wouldn't touch a beta BIOS with a barge pole, generally speaking. Anything as low-level as say the BIOS, firmware or the OS is not remotely appropriate for beta-stage stuff IMO (unless your job directly requires that sort of thing or you don't mind what gets broken/bricked for whatever reasons).

ASUS is my preferred mobo manufacturer but it has always irritated me that they don't document their BIOS updates. 90% of the time they describe the update as being "for system stability" or something equally unhelpful.

I have a few asus boards and I hate the lack of documentation as well. What I like though is the ability to flash my BIOS on my Crosshair VI via USB back to the last one if needed.

 

[mikeymikec]

I have a few asus boards and I hate the lack of documentation as well. What I like though is the ability to flash my BIOS on my Crosshair VI via USB back to the last one if needed.

I've never done that before. How does it work? Presumably you only use it when the computer refuses to boot after a BIOS flash?

 

[dlerious]

You can do it at any time. Basically, I have 2 USB thumb drives - one with current running BIOS and one with new. Plug the USB into the flashback port and push the flashback button - with computer shut down, but plugged in. LED blinks 3 times then begins flashing, LED goes out when done. I haven't tried it yet, but I believe you can use it with nothing more than the 24-pin connected (no CPU or anything).

I've used it mainly with the Zenith Extreme.

 

[dlerious]

I should add, you don't need 2 thumb drives, I just like having one with the current working BIOS in case something does go wrong with the new one and I couldn't get online to grab the old one or they they remove the old one.

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm going to kick myself from here to next year if I find the Ryzen boards I've been using have that feature (I went out and bought an A6-9500 to ensure I could BIOS update to allow the boards to handle the Ryzen-Gs I've been buying)!

... phew. 'flashback' is not mentioned in the board's manual.

 

[dlerious]

Unfortunately, it seems to be in only the top tier motherboards. I'd like to see it in more.

 

[DaveSimmons]

My default action is: Never

I run the CPU and memory at stock speed so I don't need improvements to aggressive timing support.

Unless there is an issue that is affecting me, I leave a working BIOS as-is instead of risking bricking the motherboard or having new bugs cause new problems. Like you said,

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

[mikeymikec]

Ok, I'm a little different - when building a PC, I'll update to the latest BIOS, then install the OS. After that, I need a specific reason to update.

 

[UsandThem]

My default action is: Never
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

+1

I only do it if it fixes something I am having a problem with, or fixes a bug (like the Spectre/Meltdown exploits). Even then, I waited for over 60 days before updating to make sure it was a stable release.

 

[whm1974]

Thanks guys. I found this to be very helpful. So For my Haswell system it looks like I have no need to update the BIOS, and it appears to be the same for my notebook.

 

[Arshad Hussain]

Not that often, only when required. I had bad experiences with bios updates ruined some motherboards in past.

 

[you2]

I only do it if I'm having a problem or there is a security issue. Frequently I go years without updating the bios. The last time I had to update a bios was when I purchased a new GPU and the board (early sand bridge model) was sufficiently old it did not support the tweaks to pci (I forget the exact details but the updated bios was a beta (that would always be a beta) that didn't have a gui interface but fixed the pci issue - the board was something like msi p68). The board was a pain to use after the flash but it was the only way to use the gpu.

Anyway if it aint' broke don't fix. Btw I really like asrock bios update (vs msi which is somewhat painful).

But if you have an old board and are updating the cpu - update the bios first esp if the cpu changes generations