Stupid Noob Question

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Shiymmas

n00b
Joined
Sep 6, 2006
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62
Very simple question:

How safe is it to update my BIOS?

I JUST got my brand new system in today (specs in sig) and after looking at intel's site I found this BIOS upgrade for my motherboard. Being as I have little to no experience with this stuff, and the readme has a bit wary of updating, I'm just wanting to be sure that when/if I update my BIOS I'm not going to see my system stop working as it seems to run pretty damn good as it is. My main motivation for the update is the fact that the new version fixes a POST delay. Right now, my POST time is about 30 seconds or so, and I'm assuming the newer BIOS has resolved this issue. I just don't want all my settings to get reset or have my brand new PC just stop working on me. So just how safe am I to update? Which method of updating is best? Can I just use the express BIOS update through windows and expect to have no problems whatsoever?

Thanks in advance for any help. :D
 
Updating BIOS will reset all settings to default values, and you'll have to reapply any settings you've had to alter.

The BIOS update may not necessarily 'fix' your boot times. If the boot delay is related to network configurations, for example, a BIOS update won't do anything for that.

BIOS updates are safe enough so long as you don't experience a power outage during the update. UPS power units are a boon for BIOS updaters, because they eliminate the problem of unexpected power failures.

And if it does go horribly wrong?


To be quite honest, I wouldn't bother with a BIOS update if all you are expecting from it is an improvement to an already perfectly adequate 30 second boot period!
 
Catweazle said:
Updating BIOS will reset all settings to default values, and you'll have to reapply any settings you've had to alter.

The BIOS update may not necessarily 'fix' your boot times. If the boot delay is related to network configurations, for example, a BIOS update won't do anything for that.

BIOS updates are safe enough so long as you don't experience a power outage during the update. UPS power units are a boon for BIOS updaters, because they eliminate the problem of unexpected power failures.

And if it does go horribly wrong?


To be quite honest, I wouldn't bother with a BIOS update if all you are expecting from it is an improvement to an already perfectly adequate 30 second boot period!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the post :) Pretty much confirms what I was thinking then in not doing it. I didn't build this system myself - it's an ABS. So, I have no clue what options have been altered in the BIOS, if any at all, and short of manually writing down each and every option, it just doesn't seem worth to risk to lose functionality when everything works perfectly anyway.

And yeah, I guess the only real motivation was for the faster POST times, and potentially avoiding some of the other issues that've been fixed with the lastest revisions. Will avoid for now, and short of some update that will severely impact my performance or something vital, I'll probably just leave it alone for good at this point lol.
 
heh heh.....

That pretty much confirms my own suspicions too. If you're a complete beginner at such things it's best to leave well enough alone to begin with, do your homework and learning along the way, and then attempt the task a bit more informed when time comes that it's actually necessary. "Don't fix what ain't f******!" is a good principle to adhere to.

A slow boot time is an annoyance rather than a problem. (and 30 seconds isn't slow) Even if a system is taking a couple of minutes to fire up, it's simply a matter of hitting the power switch on the way past, grabbing a coffee or attending to some other essentail activity, and then sitting down to the machine after it's fired up. Slow boot times are only a problem for people who sit down to the PC, press the power button, and then wait for the thing to start! That'd be the dopiest damn approach to firing up the PC I could ever imagine!
 
in the future, if you run into some issues that are motherboard related, you may need/want to do a bios update. it can easily be done thru windows now. you can probably be walked thru it while on the phone with tech support.

there are no stupid questions.
 
Catweazle said:
heh heh.....

That pretty much confirms my own suspicions too. If you're a complete beginner at such things it's best to leave well enough alone to begin with, do your homework and learning along the way, and then attempt the task a bit more informed when time comes that it's actually necessary. "Don't fix what ain't f******!" is a good principle to adhere to.

A slow boot time is an annoyance rather than a problem. (and 30 seconds isn't slow) Even if a system is taking a couple of minutes to fire up, it's simply a matter of hitting the power switch on the way past, grabbing a coffee or attending to some other essentail activity, and then sitting down to the machine after it's fired up. Slow boot times are only a problem for people who sit down to the PC, press the power button, and then wait for the thing to start! That'd be the dopiest damn approach to firing up the PC I could ever imagine!
Click to expand...
hehe what i do with my blazin 2k file server, talk about slow bootup :D
My mani rig has a quick bost though, i turn it on go grap some coffee and its sitting waiting for a log in :)
 
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