How to Update Your Computer’s BIOS

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Your computer’s basic input/output system, aka BIOS, lives in a small chip on your motherboard and manages the most basic instructions that allow your computer to boot into the operating system.

From time to time, your PC manufacturer may provide updates to the BIOS with certain enhancements. Here’s how to install them.

In general, you don’t need to update the BIOS as often. Installing (or “flashing”) a new BIOS is more dangerous than updating a simple Windows program, and if something goes wrong in the process, you could end up bricking your computer. I don’t mean all doom and gloom about it. I’ve never had a problem updating my BIOS, and I’ve done it numerous times, but it’s important to be careful.

Since BIOS updates usually don’t introduce new features or give a big speed boost. You won’t see big benefits anyway unless the latest BIOS comes with security patches, support for The new hardware you plan to use, fixing a bug that has failed to appease your day-to-day use is best left alone. However, if you fall into one of those categories and need to update your BIOS, here’s how.

Note that navigating this interface may vary slightly from computer to computer if you have a newer machine running Unified Extensible Firmware Interface or UEFI (although it is more powerful than its sibling, it is still commonly known as the BIOS).

Go to the PC manufacturers like Dell, HP, or Lenovo, and find the Support page. (If you build your PC, you’ll want to search for the motherboard manufacturer, like Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI.) Then find the support page for your particular PC by searching for the model number or The serial number you’re looking for can usually be found somewhere on the device.

Once you have found the Support page, there will be a section for downloads or drivers. Go there and search for BIOS or UEFI updates. Download the latest one and check the included instructions. Generally, you will have to go through one of two processes.

Format the flash drive

On many PCs (especially older ones), you’ll need to format the flash drive, copy the new BIOS file into it. Restart your computer, press a key to enter the BIOS setup (usually Erase, F2, some other key you’ll see on the screen at startup).

Once in the BIOS, note any settings you’ve changed in the past, as an update will usually revert your system to default settings. Take pictures of each category if you need to!

Then look for the option to update your firmware, and you should be able to run the update utility using the file on your flash drive. Again, be careful not to interrupt the process or shut down your PC during this time, or you could render your PC unusable.

Update from EXE. file

Like the Acer laptop shown above, some machines simplify the process by presenting the update as an EXE file. Instead of restarting your machine, you can double-click the updater, and it will run through the reboot process and update you. Even so, you may still want to go into the BIOS setup before running the update to make a note of any settings you want to keep.

Once the process completes successfully and you’ve made any settings tweaks, you can continue to use your computer as you normally would, with any improvements or fixes that a BIOS update provides grant.


Pamer

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