How necessary is it to update the bios for a motherboard?

[Badran]

As the title states, for anyone experienced with this type of thing, how necessary is it to update the bios or keep it up to date.

I think I did update it a while back, but since I reset my windows installation I haven’t touched it, since I’ve not been on the PC nearly as much.

[David H. Lipman]

It is not.

That is, unless, there is a problem that the BIOS will actually correct or address.

For example.  A Dell Notebook had a history of overheating.  The algorithm in the BIOS was tweaked and a new BIOS update corrected the issue. 

Others situations may be related to other hardware issues as the BIOS acts as a kind of "middleman" between the Operating System and the hardware the motherboard is built on. 

Another may be an exploitable bug.

Edited January 3, 2023 by David H. Lipman
Edited for content, clarity, spelling and/or grammar

[Badran]

I see.

I suppose I might, as it seems very easy to do, since my motherboard manufacturer has software that allows one to update it very easily. There’s also been several updates now that I’ve checked, so I may do it tomorrow when I’m fully awake.

I was initially worried that there would be a big security risk since I hadn’t for a while.

Thank you for the response!

[David H. Lipman]

And...

If a mistake is made during the process then the system can become "bricked".  That is with now inoperable BIOS the platform becomes as dumb as a brick and no longer usable.

Edited January 3, 2023 by David H. Lipman
Edited for content, clarity, spelling and/or grammar

[Badran]

That’s what I was afraid of.

Ill look more into it before making an attempt of any kind. It doesn’t seem to update the bios through using a USB though, so that could eliminate any problems.

still, I’ve just been concerned about leaving it un updated like it’s a security risk.

[Badran]

So I assume that not updating the bios won’t be a security risk compared to not updating the OS?

[1PW]

Dave, of course, is right. At the hands of a clueless amateur, BIOS updates, gone wrong, are one of the best ways to brick a computer.

[Badran]

I suppose I’ll hold it off.

I have an ASUS motherboard, and they have something called AI SUITE 3 that makes installing BIOS updates easy, but even in spite of that, I feel anxious that something would go wrong.

I think I’m sitting on the bios version which added windows 11 support, though I don’t feel like updating to windows 11 despite it being free since I imagine there’s a lot of issues with it at the moment.

I guess hardware is another thing which can effect your device, since there’s somethings with my computer that weird me out, like when I boot up the PC and the date and time on the Lock Screen will disappear and reappear when it gets to the Lock Screen after booting up for the first time. Maybe that’s because of my local user profile.

I guess there’s also the occasional notifications on startup asking me to finish setting up windows to use things like the one drive, etc, even though I don’t want to use my Microsoft account to sign in. Don’t know if there’s a way to turn that off since I clicked on remind me in 3 days.

[AdvancedSetup]

Though still possible to brick a computer during BIOS / UEFI updates it is very rare today.

This appears to be your current computer hardware.

BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 4005 07/13/2021
Motherboard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI)
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor

 

You need to decide for yourself if any of the listed fixes are something that affects your computer or not.

 

[Badran]

I’m holding off for the time being unless there’s security risks, on top of me not being too sure about how the update process works and if I would be able to just download the newest update and bet set there, or if I would have to download each update I missed that was released after the one I’m currently on.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Badran
Fixed a typo at the end

[AdvancedSetup]

No problem. If the computer is working well for you then there should be no immediate concern to update the BIOS

 

[Badran]

I think this topic can be closed.

If I run into a problem with BIOS in the future, I could maybe ask for it to be reopened.