[SOLVED] Update Lenovo Laptop BIOS Without Windows

stchman

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Oct 7, 2012
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Hello all. I have a Lenovo 15ALC6 laptop. Lenovo has recently released a BIOS upgrade. My laptop is currently running Mint 20.3 and the Lenovo BIOS is a Windows installer only.

I was wondering if anyone has found a way to update the BIOS on one of these laptops without having to install Windows on it. Yes I know, I could open it up, take out the NVME, put in another drive, install Windows on that drive and then get the BIOS flash. Just wondered if there was a way to do it through USB?

Thanks.
 
Solution
I figured it out yesterday.

I downloaded the latest Windows 10 .iso from Microsoft. I then got Rufus https://rufus.ie/en/ and it has an option to do "Windows on the go". I had a portable USB SSD and Rufus was able to install Windows 10 on it. The normal Windows 10 installer does not let you install to USB devices.

I then took the portable USB SSD to the Lenovo laptop, booted it up using USB, after Windows 10 did all of its "setup" BS, I inserted a flash drive that contained the .exe BIOS flash utility and the BIOS is updated.

Why didn't Lenovo just put the BIOS flashing utility in the BIOS like all the other manufacturers?
Hello all. I have a Lenovo 15ALC6 laptop. Lenovo has recently released a BIOS upgrade. My laptop is currently running Mint 20.3 and the Lenovo BIOS is a Windows installer only.

I was wondering if anyone has found a way to update the BIOS on one of these laptops without having to install Windows on it. Yes I know, I could open it up, take out the NVME, put in another drive, install Windows on that drive and then get the BIOS flash. Just wondered if there was a way to do it through USB?

Thanks.
Sorry if this is not so helpful, but i extracted the .cap of the bios .exe, for flashing i think you couuld either try to flash using afudos, or the bios internal bios flasher if there is any option in the bios.
 

stchman

Distinguished
Oct 7, 2012
146
4
18,695
I figured it out yesterday.

I downloaded the latest Windows 10 .iso from Microsoft. I then got Rufus https://rufus.ie/en/ and it has an option to do "Windows on the go". I had a portable USB SSD and Rufus was able to install Windows 10 on it. The normal Windows 10 installer does not let you install to USB devices.

I then took the portable USB SSD to the Lenovo laptop, booted it up using USB, after Windows 10 did all of its "setup" BS, I inserted a flash drive that contained the .exe BIOS flash utility and the BIOS is updated.

Why didn't Lenovo just put the BIOS flashing utility in the BIOS like all the other manufacturers?
 
Solution