The computer BIOS you may know it is just
that screen that comes up before the computer boots into the operating system. Of course, there is a little bit more to it. And you may also know that you can actually
update the BIOS usually the motherboard a computer manufacturer will have the update
files on their website, but there are some potentially big risks involved in updating
the BIOS which is what this video is about. We're going to go over is it really necessary
to update BIOS? Is it worth it considering these risks and
I'm also going to do a live demo of what will happen if things could potentially go wrong. I literally bought a cheap old laptop off
of eBay kind of as a sacrifice to show you. So first of all, what exactly is the BIOS? Well it stands for basic input-output system,
but that alone is not very helpful. But essentially it's a very low-level software
that is first run when the computer powers on, more specifically it's not just an interface
but also the firmware for the computer. The BIOS activates all your hardware and also
runs the operating systems bootloader and the bootloader being essentially a small piece
of code on the hard drive that the BIOS how to read and tells it how to start up the operating
system and then after the operating system starts up it takes over and the BIOS doesn't
really do much else. You can access the BIOS settings usually by
pressing a specific key that's going to vary depending on the motherboard or computer manufacturer. But if you just let the computer start up
by itself without pressing anything the BIOS will typically just do a check that all the
hardware is working and then it'll do what's called the power-on self-test or POST. And then if you see this it means it's all
good and it's going to then load the boot record and let's be OS take it from there. So really again the BIOS only handles stuff
right after the computer turns on. Now that being said these days BIOS is not
really actually a thing anymore. It's been replaced by the newer generation,
you can think of it, which is the UEFI and that stands for unified extensible firmware
interface, but colloquially most people still just refer to the UEFI as the BIOS anyway,
and even on the computer manufacturers websites, if you go and search for the download files
will still call it the BIOS update just for less confusion most people know it as the
BIOS that's what they just call it anyway. UEFI you can mostly just think of it as like
a next generation of BIOS, even though technically it does kind of work a lot differently, but
it has a lot more features and can do more stuff like it supports larger hard drives
that I can boot from its typically faster it as much fancier interface can look like
a graphic user interface can support Mouse all sorts of stuff that BIOS couldn't. So basically any time in this video I say
BIOS really I'm referring to the UEFI but BIOS is a lot easier to say. Now you might be wondering where the BIOS
is stored and it's actually not on a hard drive or anything it has it's own physical
dedicated chip on the motherboard where it's located and you can actually see it on this
HP laptop that I got that I opened up and found it on here. This is what it looks like on this computer
at least. Now the settings for the BIOS though are usually
stored separately on its own chip call CMOS chip and actually is CMOS chip needs to be
constantly powered to store the data. So usually you're going to have what's called
a CMOS battery, which is just a basic Button cell battery on the motherboard as well. And if you take out the CMOS battery it essentially
is a way to hard reset the settings for the BIOS but the BIOS itself stays on there, but
you can reset the settings by taking out that battery. Though strangely for some reason this HP laptop
is not actually have a CMOS battery. I see the place where is and I found the documentation
where shows this is where would be on some other models, but for some reason this one
just doesn't have it. So I guess in this case it stored somewhere
else just be aware that it might not necessarily have CMOS battery in every single computer. Now one more thing is even though I said,
the settings are stored on the CMOS chip actually modern UEFI has its own dedicated partition
typically on the main hard drive or SSD and it's called the EFI partition usually around
a hundred megabytes and this is going to contain stuff like bootloaders for the different operating
systems, certain drivers system utilities, error logs. Basically just some stuff that might need
to be run before the operating system loads. This stuff is not a hundred percent necessary
to boot the computer, but it might be necessary to successfully boot the operating system. So that partition is important. So now that we know some of the basics of
BIOS and UEFI, let's talk about updating. You can update the BIOS / UEFI again, usually
by downloading files off of the computer manufacturers website. And what is will do is actually rewrite that
physical chip on the motherboard to contain a new firmware and the updated version of
the BIOS. Though as you can imagine, this does have
some risks because if something goes wrong and the BIOS is corrupted to the point of
not working then it means you're not only can't just boot into an operating system,
but you can't boot the computer at all because the BIOS is the thing that does the booting
even to the hard drives so you can't even create rescue CD and boot from a backup CD
or backup hard drive or anything like that. Like if windows were corrupted you could just
maybe wipe the hard drive or boot from the CD, no the BIOS is what does all that. So if the BIOS is corrupted you're kind of
screwed. So for the rest of the video we can talk about
How likely this has to happen What would cause it to happen, And also what recourse you might
have if something does go wrong updating the BIOS because there are potentially a few things
you could do. So let me go over with the physical update
process is for the actual chip. Basically, The BIOS again is going to be stored
on its own chip called a SPI chip typically - serial peripheral interface. At least that's for my understanding. There might be other types as well, especially
in older versions, but basically these little chips don't hold much usually around 16 megabytes
or so, but they could be up to even 128 megabytes and they don't need to be big though because
the downloaded firmware file is only going to be around a few megabytes. For example on my Asus motherboard for my
main computer. It's around 8 megabytes and I also found the
spec sheet for the BIOS chip on that HP laptop and it says that it's 8192 KB. From what I've read, typically the writing
speed on a BIOS Chip is going to be around somewhere like 100 kilobytes per second. I don't know how accurate that is, but it
sounds about right and that's important because considering how big the average BIOS firmware
file is and how big the usual SPI Chip is going to be, that usually means the actual
update process could take around a few minutes on average. And that's important know because you can
kind of assess the risk based on is my computer likely to crash or maybe lose power with in
any given five minute time frame, maybe if the power in your neighborhood is really unreliable
or maybe your computer crashes all the time. Then that 5 minutes might be a pretty long
time and not worth the risk of even updating cuz there's a good chance it could happen
during the update. So the next thing to talk about is is updating
the BIOS really even necessary, and I definitely think for most people the answer is no. Like I said the BIOS really only handles things
right after the computer starts and just handles some basic boot up stuff, but most people
never even see the rest of the BIOS or even care to change the settings in there. So it's not like updating the BIOS is going
to add any features that you're going to notice while using the computer in the operating
system or anything and even if you are someone who maybe has changed the settings in the
BIOS, maybe to overclock the computer typically all that same feature is going to be available
in the stock BIOS that came with the computer. BIOS updates are usually pretty small and
incremental, so it might include things like stability updates or bug fixes or occasionally
it might add hardware compatibility. And in that case unless you really have a
specific reason to update BIOS. Maybe your computer is very unstable and there's
a BIOS update specifically to address that issue. Or maybe if you do have a new piece of Hardware
you bought to put in and the BIOS update specifically is required to support that piece of Hardware. Then you might actually do need to do an update. But otherwise if there's no need to do an
update don't do it. One example, is you can see for my motherboard
there was a BIOS update in 2015 which added support for NVMe drives and 5th generation
Intel CPUs. Now, I actually do have NVMe drives in there
now that I didn't when I first bought it, so I had updated since then so that was okay. But if I didn't have that BIOS version I would
have had to install that update to be able to use those drives. Occasionally though BIOS updates may also
include security updates. For example in that major CPU vulnerability
was found for Intel it required a BIOS update to update like a micro code for the CPU to
fix that vulnerability and that is one case where all right for security you might have
to do the update even though it's not necessarily going to add any features or anyting. But again, really the only reason to update
the BIOS is if there is a specific reason to do so and you know what that is, but don't
just update the BIOS thinking it's going to make any difference if there's nothing wrong
with your computer. You're not going to notice any benefit. So as for the risks of updating the BIOS,
I kind of already touched on this but if things go wrong like the BIOS gets corrupted while
being written to and then restart the computer it could potentially be catastrophic. And like I said because the BIOS is what really
first starts up and starts up all the hardware, if it gets corrupted and doesn't work anymore. Then there's literally nothing you can do
with computer... at least most of the time we talk at you in a second. As for what could cause the BIOS to become
corrupted. There's probably two main categories first
is if the BIOS update is interrupted while writing to the chip, so this could typically
be from power loss, the computer turns off for whatever reason while the update is being
written. Or if you're running the update using an update
tool within windows, then maybe an antivirus program will kick in and be overzealous and
interrupting stop that process for while it's writing to the BIOS, or maybe some other program
could interrupt it somehow or maybe Windows itself will crash while that update is going. Now the other main thing that is probably
less common, but also possible is if you install the wrong BIOS, you install the wrong version
of the BIOS. Maybe it's for other hardware and obviously
that BIOS is not really going to work on your specific Hardware could definitely cause issues
or does not work at all. Now I do too much because the next main thing
we're going to talk about is that sometimes there are some methods you can use to recover
the BIOS. But it's going to depend on your computer
and your Hardware. One example is some motherboards have what's
called a dual BIOS - either two separate chips or maybe one chip split into two, and it literally
has two copies of the BIOS installed on it that you can switch between by pressing a
button or flipping a switch. For example on my computer's an Asus motherboard,
there is a button on it labeled "BIOS SWITCH" and by pressing it, it can switch to a sort
of backup copy of a BIOS in case the first one gets corrupted. Alternatively or maybe in addition to the
BIOS switch. Your computer may also have a recovery tool
of some kind. So this may be for example, I'm assuming some
kind of extra separate chip that detects if the BIOS is not booting correctly and then
it switches to boot to this little chip that can install the BIOS and rewrite it using
for example a backup copy that might be stored on a hard drive or something or a USB you
can insert. And you will see an example of this later. The important thing to know though, is before
doing any kind of BIOS update, always always look up what recovery methods for the BIOS
are available to you and your specific computer. If it's a custom-built computer, then you're
probably have to look it up for that specific motherboard model or if it's a pre-built computer
or a laptop then usually you just look out for that specific model. And if you find out that your computer doesn't
really have that much in terms of options for BIOS recovery, then you really have to
consider, Is it necessary to update the BIOS, do I really need to do this for a specific
reason or do I just kind of want to have the latest BIOS update, might not be worth it
if the risks are involved and you don't have any way to recover the BIOS if it goes wrong. And like I said, it's really going to depend
on your specific computer or motherboard. But what I'll do is let's go over some of
the major computer Brands and what they advertise as being the recovery options across most
of the models. And then what I'll do is I'll do specific
example using the HP laptop that I bought, I'm gonna purposely corrupt the BIOS and then
try to recover it. First of all, we have HP, it seems like they
do have a BIOS Recovery tool on most of their computers and usually this involves pressing
the Windows key + B or V while the computer is booting up and then that opens up a automatic
recovery tool for the BIOS. And if there is a previous version of BIOS
stored on it, then it will automatically recover that and rewrite the BIOS or you might be
able to do it via a USB. Next we have Lenovo, which from what I've
read apparently does have on most of their models a not-so-well-documented method for
recovering the BIOS which involves downloading the BIOS files off their website and formatting
a USB drive in a certain way and then pressing a key combination on start up. Again, this isn't really advertise anywhere. I basically just read about it on random forums
with people saying you can do this. Ao basically the best thing you're going to
do is Google "Lenovo" and then your specific model then BIOS Recovery to see if any people
are forms have been talking about it's really not well documented. So just something to be aware of. Next up we have Dell, which in my opinion
it has one of the best help Pages describing the availability of BIOS recovery tool on
their different models, and it seems like all Dell computers released after December
2015 have a BIOS recovery option and it also specifically lists the models supporting it
before that. So what I like about this is it's very easy
to find out exactly if your computer has a virus recovery option and how to access it
if it's a Dell. And as describe hered, usually it's going
to require holding some kind of key combo on boot up and the recovery tool may already
be on the computer, or you may just have to load it onto a USB and I can boot from there. But most Dell computers appear to have some
kind of option. Next up for Asus or Asus, I always forget
how to pronounce it does seem like at least some or maybe even most of their computers
and motherboard do have some kind of recovery mode. However, you're going to have to specifically
look up your individual model of your device to find out if it's does for that or not. Like I mentioned it might have a dual BIOS
on the motherboard like mine is even though my motherboard is pretty olds from 2014 at
the Rampage V extreme. But also it's some other boards may have a
future called flashback where you can plug in the USB with the files on it into a dedicated
port on the back of the motherboard and then if it needs to it can recover by reading right
off that USB drive and then there's a button you press on the back to initiate the transfer
and rewrite. What I've also read is apparently you can
actually send in as like a last resort your Hardware into Asus and they will physically
reflash the chip, or maybe even replace the chip for you. Although that probably does have some costs
involved. All that being said though, what do you do
if your BIOS is corrupted and there is no actual tool to use for recovering it? Well you do actually have a few options, though
they might not be that ideal. First you might be able to send the device
to the manufacturer and then they could either reflash it using special tools by literally,
you know, attaching clips and stuff to the Chip And rewriting it that way, or they might
just replace the BIOS chip altogether. Next you could try to replace the BIOS chip
yourself. If you can manage to get your hands on one. From what I seen on eBay, apparently there
are sellers who they kind of specialize in this, you search the name of the motherboard
that you have for your computer and then "BIOS chip" and there's some sellers that claimed
this cell pre-programmed BIOS chips and then you just have to be able to desolder the old
one off and resolder the new one on, of course, you have to be comfortable doing that. Or third, you could try to manually reflash
the BIOS chip yourself, though this is probably going to be a little bit complicated. It's going to require like third-party software
probably a special cable. I think it's called SPI cable that you literally
hook up to parts of the leads of the BIOS and then the third-party software can rewrite
to it. For example, the software I came across was
called SPIPGM, again this is probably for a super Advanced users and not very user-friendly. Not exactly plug-and-play. Finally, I've also seen some so-called BIOS
programmer chips and kits that you can buy off Amazon and this apparently involves physically
taking off the chip again off the motherboard desoldering it putting it into this programmer
thing, and then it will rewrite the BIOS to that chip and then of course you do need some
software to be able to do that. So again, none of this for do-it-yourself
is exactly easy. So unless you're a super Advanced user your
best bet is still to use the official recovery tool in might be offered for you computer
or device or just maybe send it in and not worry about it. Alright so now we can get to the part you've
probably been waiting for, I'm going to show you a real life demo of what might happen
if you corrupt the BIOS. So what I have here is an HP stream 14-inch
laptop. It's apparently from 2017. So not exactly super older anyting and the
BIOS update for these laptops that can be downloaded from HP's website and then can
be installed in a few ways. One can be using a Windows version of the
tool. So it'll update the BIOS right from within
Windows, or alternatively it can be done from outside of windows by you going into the BIOS
settings and running from there. And I usually do prefer to install BIOS updates
from outside of Windows using the BIOS settings pre-boot because it means there's not going
to be any risk of Windows crashing or any programs interfering with it, no antivirus
interrupting it or anything like that. Of course there are still some risks of doing
it this way, for example power loss is still an issue possibly, or if it somehow writes
something wrong or the process of writing goes wrong. I don't know, but it's just less so I think
less stuff can go wrong then if you're using Windows. So I looked up the different key combos to
use on boot and apparently there's one that's separate from BIOS settings, for using 'startup
settings' or something. So I went to that and then I navigated to
where you do the BIOS firmware update, selected the USB drive, and then let it go. And as you can see it really started off slow,
not writing very fast at all. But eventually it did kind of speed up. So I would have estimated this probably would
have taken maybe no more than a couple minutes if I let it go completely. But after it was going I tried to interrupt
it in a few ways for example by pressing 'Escape' and maybe exit the program. I tried pressing the power button, but I'm
assuming they had some safeguards built in to prevent you from doing that and interrupting
it on purpose. So finally I was able to just unplug laptop. I guess the battery was so degraded or not
charged enough where it just shut off immediately after unplugging it, so perfectly right in
the middle of the update, good for the demonstration. And now when I tried booting up the laptop,
it was pretty much bricked. There was no post, it didn't boot anything
really. However like I said HP, devices including
this one does have a built-in BIOS Recovery tool so let's try it. Now this is kind of funny because this was
going to be the part of the video where I showed you, how if you have a BIOS Recovery
tool on your computer, you don't have to worry as much because you can just use that to fix
any corrupted BIOS, but things didn't exactly go as planned. I used the BIOS tool from HP's website, which
also allows you to create a BIOS Recovery USB, and the idea is you do this on another
computer and you insert that USB into the computer and hold down certain key combo while
powering on the computer, and then presumably whatever recovery tool they have, which I'm
assuming some kind of separate chip from the BIOS so I can boot even without the BIOS,
starts up after detecting the BIOS is corrupted. And then it uses the backup copy of the BIOS
stored on the USB and then rewrites the BIOS with it. Except in this case, it didn't. I was able to get the BIOS Recovery tool to
start. It booted up, it was on the screen and everything
but after saying 'initializing', it just goes to a black screen and dies again, it wasn't
actually doing the recovery process. And I literally tried doing a bunch of different
stuff for several hours with no success. I found it when no USB drive was inserted,
it does also boot to the same recovery screen. It does like a countdown while saying that
no BIOS Recovery was found, and I believe in this case if no USB is inserted instead
looks on the EFI partition on hard drive. So I figured all right, you know I can try
is opening up the computer, taking out the hard drive, plugging it into another computer,
maybe inserting those files onto that EFI partition where the recovery files are located,
and then when I put it back in it'll be able to find those files, and use that to recover
instead of USB. But when I opened it up, I found that the
internal drive is not an actual hard drive you can take out. It's just a flash chip actually soldered onto
the motherboard. So that sort of even more scary because if
I use this computer for all my stuff that had important files on it, and I corrupt the
BIOS there's not even any way I could have gotten those files off because I couldn't
have transferred to drive to another computer. It's actually soldered on to the drive. I don't even know what I would have done. Maybe you could potentially send it to a data
recovery specialist that could have put the chip on to their own motherboard. Who knows. So in the end of this sort of ended up being
a worst-case scenario example. I was not able to figure out how to recover
the BIOS. It's just a dead computer now, and if I needed
those files off it, well, there's not really any way for me to get it easily. I have no idea why the BIOS Recovery did not
work. Maybe if I had run it within Windows it actually
would have written the backup copy to the EFI partition that it could have used, but
I don't know, it seems like it was running the recovery program it just with crashing
or something while it was happening. So it might not even worked in that case. I guess if this wasn't just a demo my only
recourse would have been to literally send in the computer to HP to have him try and
reflash the BIOS and fix it, or even just try to do it myself but not exactly the ideal
situation. And this just goes to show why you do need
to be very careful when updating the BIOS. Before you do it be very sure you look up
all the potential backup methods you have if you do need to do some kind of recovery
a rescue of the BIOS. This may be, again, a backup dual BIOS or
something, or the best bet would probably be if your motherboard has both a dual BIOS
and another recovery option just in case. But hopefully in any case, you'll now be much
more familiar with updating the BIOS the next time you find you may have to. Let me know down the comments if you might
have any stories from updating the BIOS. Maybe you had one that got corrupted and went
completely wrong or maybe you're like me but you've never actually had any issues when
updating the BIOS except this one right here that I demo'd. Also if you like this video be sure to subscribe
I make new videos every week so it should be worth it. If you guys wanna keep watching, the next
video I'd recommend is one where I was talking about OLED displays, and specifically what
does the 'Organic' in 'Organic' LED actually mean. I wanted some super detailed science should
be very interesting. If you've ever wondered about screen displays
and stuff like that. So definitely check that out with the link
right there. Thanks so much for watching guys. I'll see you in the next video.
