Dragonlich

Although I assume most of you probably know that updating your bios is dangerous, I'd like to add one more bios horrorstory... (with a happy ending, luckily)

First, the background story...
Over the past few months, I've been having problems with my harddisk speed. Just after start-up, the harddisks work perfectly. I can easily download, unpack files and play music at the same time. But after running for a few days the system becomes sluggish. My music skips and stutters, transfer speeds are low, etc. After a reboot, everything works fine again. In the past, I didn't have these problems; I could easily keep the system running for weeks on end, without any hickups.
(FYI, these problems could be caused by Windows, which slows down the harddisk speeds when it gets too many write/read errors.)

Now for the bios bit...
Yesterday, I checked out the website of my motherboard manufacturer (Gigabyte), and discovered a new bios version for my board, the EP35-DS4. I currently have bios version F3, and they had version F5. The release notes mentioned something about it fixing raid errors. I'm running my harddisks as ACPI, which uses the RAID controller. So I figured that might solve my problems. It was worth a shot anyway. After all, the board has dualbios, which should protect me if things go bad.

I downloaded Gigabyte's @bios tool, which can update the bios while running Windows. A lot of people say you shouldn't use Windows tools, but I've had good experiences using Asus' Windows tool.

I used the tool to update my system to bios version F5, and rebooted. Everything seemed fine bios-wise. Because it was reset to factory-default settings, I changed some things in order for my system to work (boot order and such). I restarted the computer, to start Windows... but all I got was a screen telling me an important system file had changed, and that Windows couldn't start.

After fooling around with various bios settings, I gave up. I simply couldn't start Windows anymore. I also couldn't use the Windows Vista DVD to repair the system. I didn't want to format one of the disks to re-install Windows, because I had no complete backup. I decided to re-install the older F3 bios. This time I used the update utility build into the bios itself.

During this second bios "update", everything seemed to go fine again. The utility reported that the update was succesful. Afterwards, I rebooted the system. But now my troubles started: the PC started up, then shut down again, over and over again. I didn't get any output on my monitor, no bios screens, nothing. I just had a constantly rebooting computer. One can imagine my frustration and fear...

After looking around on the internet (using an olde backup PC), I tried various things to fix the system. I cleared the CMOS repeatedly, I removed all non-essential hardware, I even tried poking around the bios chip with a screwdriver. Various websites said that you're supposed to connect two connectors of the primary bios chip. That will make the motherboard think the bios is corrupt. It will then install the backup bios in the secondary bios chip. But no matter what I did, the system kept rebooting.

Today, I was about to order a new motherboard for my system. But I wanted to give the thing one more try. I again tried poking the bios chip with a screwdriver. This time something different happened. The system rebooted again, but then didn't shut down; it stayed on. I rebooted, the same thing happened. So I shut it down, installed the rest of the system, started it again... and I saw a bios coming up. The system reported: "The bios is corrupt, reinstalling from backup" (or something like that). After recovering the bios, it rebooted again. When it came up again, I was looking at a working bios (version F1), from the secondary bios chip.

After that, I succesfully reinstalled bios version F3. And after tweaking that, I could start Windows without any trouble.

So... in case you were thinking about updating that bios of yours... stop and think: do you *really* need it?
I was very lucky I could get my system going again. I certainly won't try updating the bios again.

Jetée

I have no idea what bios is, does, encompasses, or where I can find one, but you scared me straight. I don't think I need it, but that's due to my ignorance of it, like Santa Claus.

They better not notify me of it, but if they sell hard enough, I might've believed them one day.

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Psycho Dad

I've always considered bios upgrades an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" thing. I can see where you would think that it was going to help your problem, but it just turned into a pain in the ass instead.

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Don't always trust the opinions of experts.

Martian

Updating the BIOS carries an inherent risk, and should not be attempted unless one knows exactly what one's doing.

I recently updated my BIOS when I installed 4 GB of RAM; the old BIOS was outdated and unable to use the new sticks, so I updated to the most recent version. Worked like a charm.

And yes, Windows utilities are a bad idea.

Glad you got everything sorted.

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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

Radio Monk33

Glad it worked out! That's a scary story...sometimes these computer things seem so simple but once something goes wrong...

I'm feeling nervous about getting an AM2+ motherboard to pair with the new AMD PH2 CPU's if updating the BIOS is that sketchy. :/

Eep! I try to never tinker around with anything unless I know that I can do a full backup recovery of the drive (preferably with redundant backups!).

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Wrexify

Close call! BIOS flashes are always an intense situation in my house. I'll repeat everyone else's thoughts by recommending that you only do it if something is really broken.

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vanblah

We are "required" to update the BIOS in our 40+ servers every time a new one comes out. The reason "required" is in quotes is because it's really only required if we have to place a service call on a server ... it's the first thing the technician asks and is just one of many hurdles we jump in order to get service (along with the firmware revisions on every other device in the system).

You're right about those Windows utilities ... don't use them. Any kind of firmware update (hard drives, video cards, RAID controllers, BIOS) deserves special attention and should be done before a stupid OS can get its fingers in the mix.

Hain

We supply HP laptops to students at my university, and we were required to update the BIOS on every unit--students' laptops in for repairs or returned loaners--that came back to us. We used only the Windows BIOS update tools and not a single unit had any problems after upgade. Given a big company like HP, one would hope that something like that would work. Fortunate for myself and all the other student techs, it did.

I honestly have to say you had the bad luck or that the people that made the Windows BIOS update didn't know what they were doing. Personally, I would not have played with the BIOS first. I would have reformatted the system. If the problems continued, I would look at various other components, with the system board and BIOS being some of the last things I look at.

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