Updating BIOS stlll unsafe and risky?

[thakkarkaran04]

I have an Asus motherboard.

Asus M5A97 R2.0

I was wondering whether to update the BIOS or not. Searched many forums on the internet and people say "you should only update it when really there is a need or else just leave it be". Please help.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Those people are correct. Unless you have a specific problem leave it alone. If something goes wrong you will have a dead board on your hands. That being said, if you do it correctly and don't interrupt power while flashing the BIOS it is pretty much safe. But if it's not broke don't fix it

 

[Shaun o]

Well if your motherboard is working fine then don`t bother with a bios firmware update.

The reasons why people do a bios firmware update is because later bios patches add support for newer models of cpu in the range that the cpu socket of the motherboard can accept, and also add more support for different brands of memory modules.
And better stability of the motherboard under certain conditions, or for extra hardware connected to the motherboard.

These days it`s pretty hard to brick a motherboard with a new bios firmware file.
Because a lot of checks are done to see if you have the correct bios file for the exact brand and model number of the motherboard.

And new motherboards also come with a secondary bios just in case things do go wrong you can switch back to the prior version of the bios firmware and settings known to work correctly with your model number of the motherboard.

 

[thehutti]

A BIOS upgrade almost never brings more performance and in most cases only increases the compability to new hardware. If your Hardware is running perfectly you should stay away from it and just not risk it. An upgrade generally works without any complications, but it's just not worth it in most cases.

If you are trying to install newer Hardware on the other hand, I would update it to the newest Version to increase the possibility that the BIOS detects the new Hardware without problems.

To try a new BIOS, your board offers a feature named "USB BIOS-Flashback" that works without destroying the working one.

 

[maugusto]

today, BIOS updates is as easy and secure thing to do, because of the fail-safe measures like Dual bios and USB BIOS Flashback.
to do the bios update just see the appropriate method to do in your manufacturer manual or website. normally you can do the update in 2 ways: or in Windows (using an utility normally called EZ Update in your case) or you can use an USB drive, download the update file (xxxxxxx.CAP) put that file in the USB drive and use the BIOS to update the bios (the Tab in the bios is called EZ update or EZ Flash too i think)
Personally i prefer to use the more direct one (BIOS Tab utility) and in the old times DOS Floppy drive
If you have the right BIOS file, know the best method to update and there are no power loss in the system during the update then you always do a good job. If for some reason something goes wrong, you can use the recovery methods to get your system back. just check the manufacture manual/website to see more details about the recovery

 

[thakkarkaran04]

Thank you for the reply everyone. I asked you folks just cause of curiosity. Asus has a feature called EZ Update and I have read that its safe but I am too skeptical about it. Also one more thing I wanna ask, will updating my BIOS would wipe off the data from my SSD or HDD?

Also when I was downloading the drivers for my MoBo from asus website I came across the BIOS driver. I found a .CAP file after extracting the zipped BIOS driver.

 

[thehutti]

No your HardDrives are not wiped while doing a BIOS upgrade. The only thing that can happen is that the BIOS settings are reset to Factory default and then you maybe have to set your Boot Device in the Boot Order again.

 

[thakkarkaran04]

Okay thanks for the quick reply. Between I updated my previously posted comment asking something else too.

 

[thakkarkaran04]

Okay I get it now. So currently my windows is installed in my SSD and it is the first device to boot. So the BIOS update would change the boot order?

 

[thehutti]

Here this thread handles yout CAP-File Question: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1686196/update-bios-driver-cap-file-format.html

The BIOS-Update sets the BIOS to factory default in most cases. I don't know what the default boot order is in factory default. Could be that your PC tries to start from the hdd and does not find the OS. So keep in mind that you maybe have to set the ssd to first boot device again after the BIOS Upgrade. Could also be that the default order sets your SSD as the first boot device again and then you have to do nothing.

 

[tungleboomps]

I've updated the BIOS many times, hoping for something to go wrong just so I could experience what some others are howling about. I've recently updated my BIOS with Winflash with absolutely zero problems. That means I did it within Windows. It used to be that Winflash would do it without rebooting but now when one clicks on the Flash within Winflash, it shuts down the system and does the update and then continues on to reboot back up to Windows. Amazing.