How to find out the model and version of bios (BIOS)? Or useful tips for experienced users

There are probably no users today who have not heard of BIOS. Beginner users (some spend their entire lives in the state of beginners) are afraid of this very BIOS like fire and have no idea how to enter it, let alone configure it. Well, experienced users or, as they are commonly called, computer enthusiasts, not only configure the BIOS system, but also reflash it. It should be noted that the BIOS flashing procedure even for specialists causes a surge of adrenaline, since it is by no means safe and often poses a threat to life. However, the procedure for flashing the BIOS is still a piece of cake. Much more extreme is modding, or editing, BIOS, which will be discussed in this article.

Before we start talking about ways to edit the BIOS, let us briefly recall what a BIOS is, what capabilities it provides to the user, and why it should be updated, much less edited.

What is BIOS

BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is a basic input/output system. More precisely, BIOS is a system for configuring and managing memory, processor, chipset, controllers integrated on the board and devices connected to the board. Unlike most other programs, the BIOS is not located on the hard drive, but on a special self-powered chip on the motherboard.

A lot depends on the BIOS in a computer. In fact, the BIOS defines the system settings that determine the functionality and performance of the PC. Often, the first BIOS versions with which motherboards appear are replete with “bugs” that disappear only in subsequent versions.

The BIOS system is included in any motherboard (with the exception of boards for Apple computers), whether it is for a desktop PC or a laptop. However, traditionally, the BIOS for a laptop has a minimum of settings and is more of an informational nature. Regarding Motherboard BIOS board for a desktop PC, it allows you to make a fairly large number of settings that affect both the performance of the system and its functionality. In particular, traditional system overclocking, which involves increasing clock frequency processor, changing the processor supply voltage, changing the clock frequency, timings and memory supply voltage are made precisely in BIOS settings. In addition, in some cases, the BIOS allows you to configure the speed mode of the fan installed in the processor cooler and additional fans installed in the system, and configure a RAID array hard drives in case this array is created on the basis of a controller integrated into the chipset, and also perform a lot of other fine adjustments computer.

The BIOS is located in a ROM memory chip (Read Only Memory), which ensures that the BIOS is always available regardless of the functionality of external devices. motherboard components (for example, boot disks). Since access to RAM ( RAM) is much faster than accessing ROM; many manufacturers provide automatic copying of the BIOS from ROM to RAM when the power is turned on. The area of RAM used in this case is called Shadow ROM.

Currently, most modern motherboards are equipped with Flash BIOS chips, the code in which can be rewritten using a special program. This approach provides the ability to update (new firmware version) the BIOS.

There are not so many BIOS kernel manufacturers. The most common BIOS are from AMI (American Megatrends, Inc.), AWARD and Phoenics Technologies. Other BIOS (from FirmWorks, Micro Firmware, etc.) are much less common. AMI BIOS currently dominates the market, so in the future we will focus on ways to flash and modify it.

Naturally, each manufacturer makes its own changes to the basic BIOS version, and, of course, one or another BIOS version is intended only for a specific product (computer or laptop) and is incompatible with other solutions.

Finally, we note that BIOS chips currently use two interfaces to connect to the motherboard: either the LPC (Low Pin Connection) bus or the new SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) bus.

Why flash the BIOS?

All manufacturers of motherboards and laptops strongly do not recommend flashing the BIOS unless absolutely necessary. Moreover, representatives of service centers constantly turn to motherboard manufacturers with a request to completely block the user’s ability to flash the BIOS. Of course, this idea is absurd and this will never happen, but we emphasize once again that the BIOS flashing operation is unsafe and can pose a threat to life. If the board or laptop is working fine, then there is no point in updating the BIOS.

At the same time, situations often arise when updating the BIOS is necessary. For example, you purchased a motherboard with a processor and found out that they are incompatible with each other. Most likely the problem is that your motherboard has firmware old version BIOS that does not support new processor. The only option in in this case- find the old processor and update the BIOS on the board.

In addition, each new BIOS version corrects errors made in previous versions, so the procedure BIOS updates turns out to be quite useful.

The safest in terms of the flashing procedure Board BIOS s from Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI, which implement protection against unsuccessful BIOS flashing. Gigabyte motherboards are equipped with two BIOS chips (DualBIOS technology), and if the BIOS is not flashed correctly and the system cannot start, the emergency BIOS recovery procedure from the backup chip automatically begins.

On new ASUS boards, the BIOS emergency recovery technology is called ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3. The essence of this technology is that in the event of a BIOS crash or a checksum mismatch after unsuccessful firmware, a program is automatically launched that searches for the BIOS on a CD/DVD disk, floppy disk, or flash drive (with FAT/FAT32 file system). If a file is found on some media, the recovery procedure starts automatically.

A similar technology, called M-Flash, is available on MSI boards. The only difference is that BIOS file must be on a flash drive.

Methods for flashing BIOS

All motherboard manufacturers, along with new BIOS versions, also post utilities for flashing their firmware, as well as detailed instructions, how to flash the BIOS. Alas, there is simply no universal toolkit for flashing the BIOS. In general, there are three ways to flash the BIOS: from DOS, from the Windows operating system, and directly from BIOS.

Actually, there is nothing special to talk about about methods for flashing the BIOS from under BIOS and using a proprietary utility from under the Windows operating system. Everything here is simple and clear. Moreover, the method of flashing the BIOS from under BIOS is the simplest and safest, however, alas, not all manufacturers support this function. The only exceptions are ASUS and Gigabyte.

Moreover, not all manufacturers provide their boards with utilities for flashing the BIOS from Windows, and in some cases, flashing from DOS is the only possible method.

The method of flashing the BIOS from DOS can be called classic, but also the most inconvenient. The fact is that, in addition to having the appropriate DOS utility, this method of flashing involves booting the computer not from hard drive, but from external media. Previously, ordinary 3.5-inch boot floppy disks with DOS were used for this, and the BIOS file itself and the DOS flashing utility were written to this floppy disk, along with the operating system. However, at present, 3.5-inch floppy disks, like the floppy drives themselves, can be considered obsolete devices. Many modern motherboards do not even have a connector for connecting a floppy drive, and laptops with 3.5-inch floppy drives have not been produced for a long time. However, the problem this method Flashing the BIOS isn't even about that. In the end, you can find a 3.5-inch floppy drive with a USB interface, but this is unlikely to solve the problem. The fact is that a modern BIOS can be several megabytes in size and simply cannot fit on a floppy disk.

In principle, you can try to solve this problem, using instead boot floppy bootable flash drive with DOS kernel. But even in this case, complications arise. First of all, you need to find a utility that will allow you to make the flash drive bootable, and system files operating system DOS. On the Internet you can find several utilities that allow you to make bootable flash drives with DOS, the most famous of them are HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool and BootFlashDOS, which are freely available on the Internet.

The HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool allows you to create bootable flash drives if you have DOS system files, that is, it also requires the files themselves. However, on torrent resources you can find assemblies that include DOS system files.

If you use flash drives with a capacity of less than 4 GB, when formatting and creating a bootable flash drive using the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool utility (Fig. 1), you can use the FAT or FAT32 file system, but if you use a flash drive with a capacity of more than 4 GB, then a file system is required FAT32.

Rice. 1. Creating a bootable flash drive with DOS
using the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

The BootFlashDOS utility allows you to create bootable flash drives with DOS by pressing just one button, since all the necessary system files are already included in the utility itself (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Creating a bootable flash drive with DOS using the BootFlashDOS utility

In principle, if you create a bootable flash drive with DOS, then there will be no problems with flashing the BIOS. It is enough to copy the DOS utility for flashing the BIOS and the BIOS file itself to a bootable flash drive and boot the computer from the flash drive. To boot your computer from a flash drive, you need to insert it into the PC, reboot, or simply turn on the computer and at the boot stage enter the BIOS to set the settings to boot from USB Flash Drive. Next, having saved the settings, reboot the computer and, having loaded DOS, execute the required command on the command line in accordance with the BIOS manufacturer’s instructions.

We will give examples of executing such a command a little later, but for now we will consider another way to flash the BIOS from DOS. It consists in using a bootable CD/DVD instead of a bootable flash drive. It’s hardly worth reinventing the wheel here - it’s better to use a ready-made Hiren’s BootCD (current version 10.4), the image of which can be downloaded from the website www.hirensbootcd.net. In case of use boot disk Hiren`s BootCD will additionally require a flash drive (with file FAT structure or FAT32), on which the DOS utility for flashing the BIOS, and the BIOS file itself must be written.

Now let's look at the procedure for flashing the BIOS from DOS using an example MSI laptop GX640 with AMI BIOS. On MSI laptops, there is only one way to flash the BIOS from DOS using the proprietary DOS utility included with the BIOS file itself. Actually, all that is needed to flash the BIOS is to create a bootable flash drive, download from the MSI website an archive with all the necessary files, which includes the BIOS file, the flashing utility and executable file flash.bat with the prescribed sequence of all actions. After this you should unzip this archive to a bootable flash drive and, after booting from the flash drive, run the flash.bat file for execution. The main thing is that all unzipped files are in one folder (you can unzip them to the root directory of the flash drive).

In general, it should be noted that for each type of BIOS (AMI, Award) there are specialized utilities from AMI and Award for flashing. For example, from the AMI website you can download the amiflash package, which includes the afudos and afuwin utilities, which allow you to reflash the AMI BIOS from DOS and from Windows, respectively. However, you need to keep in mind that AMI BIOS can be either a classic AMI BIOS or an AMI Aptio BIOS. Aptio is a type of AMI BIOS, but the main thing is that AMI BIOS and Aptio AMI BIOS use different utilities afudos and afuwin.

In addition, many motherboard manufacturers make such significant changes to the BIOS for their products that the universal AMI or Award utilities simply do not recognize them and, therefore, cannot reflash them. In particular, in the AMI example discussed earlier Laptop BIOS MSI GT640 the afudos and afuwin utilities do not recognize it as an AMI BIOS and, naturally, cannot reflash it.

In general, the situation when it comes to modified versions of AMI BIOS, which are defined as AMI BIOS by the AMI utilities themselves, occurs quite often. This and many MSI boards, and many Gigabyte boards. Only the ASUS boards, BIOS on which can be flashed using utilities from AMI (although, of course, utilities supplied by ASUS itself are better suited).

Why modify the BIOS

So, we have looked at the main ways to flash the BIOS, and now we will discuss how you can modify it. Naturally, the question arises: why modify the BIOS at all? One can argue endlessly about this, as well as about whether it is necessary to overclock a computer. Actually, if the BIOS modding procedure is possible in principle, there will always be enthusiasts who will do it.

Just a few years ago, few people thought about the possibility of editing the BIOS themselves. However, in lately this procedure has become popular, and you can find many resources on the Internet dedicated to BIOS modding. Interest in this issue can be explained by the fact that recently many users have begun to flash the SLIC table in their BIOS, and this is one of the options for modding, or editing, the BIOS. The procedure of flashing the SLIC table in the BIOS itself is quite legal, but the purpose for which it is done, of course, is already illegal - this is precisely what explains the popularity of this procedure.

Let us briefly explain what we are talking about. Flashing the SLIC table in the BIOS is used to implement the OEM activation mechanism for the Windows 7 operating system in the same way as Microsoft OEM partners do to activate pre-installed copies of Windows without Microsoft checks. This method allows you to activate the system subject to three conditions: the use of a special OEM key and OEM certificate, as well as the presence of an SLIC table in Computer BIOS.

Windows 7 requires SLIC tables version 2.1 in the BIOS, and there is no strict binding of the OEM key to the SLIC table and certificate. The key is only tied to Windows edition and allows you to activate both x86 and x64 versions of the OS. The file certificate and SLIC tables are interrelated, and for successful activation both components must be from the same OEM partner.

We will not tell you how to illegally activate Windows 7, but we will focus on the procedure for inserting an SLIC table into the BIOS. Let us immediately note that this is not always possible and not all BIOS can be edited in any way.

You can find a package on the Internet software tools(AMITool), containing both the SLIC tables themselves and the utility (AMI SLIC Mod) for flashing them into the AMI BIOS. However, for this you need to use AMI BIOS on your board, but even in this case there is no guarantee that the procedure for flashing the SLIC table in the BIOS will be possible. As we have already noted, many manufacturers modify the BIOS for their products in such a way that the AMI SLIC Mod utility simply does not recognize it as an AMI BIOS, and therefore cannot modify it.

However, even in this case, you shouldn’t despair and run to the store for another one. system board. Before attempting to flash an SLIC table in the BIOS, you should check whether it is missing from the BIOS. If you bought a motherboard or laptop recently, then it may well turn out that the version of the SLIC table you need (version 2.1) is already available in the BIOS.

You can view the version of the SLIC table in the BIOS using the specialized utility RW - Read & Write Utility (current version 1.4.7), which can be downloaded from the website http://rweverything.phpnet.us. Another name for this utility is RW-Everything.

Having installed this utility, launch it and in the main program window on the toolbar, click on the button labeled ACPI. In the ACPI Table window that opens, click on the SLIC tab. Next, you need to look at the table in hexadecimal format and find a line in it starting with byte 53 20. If the next four bytes are 00 00 00 00, then the BIOS has the SLIC table version 2.0 flashed, and if - 01 00 02 00, then the SLIC table is flashed table version 2.1 (Fig. 3).

Rice. 3. Determining the BIOS SLIC table version

Of course, embedding a SLIC table into the BIOS is far from the only option for possible modding. Another way of modding is to unlock some BIOS functions. Indeed, motherboard manufacturers often deliberately block some functionality BIOS to simplify the Setup BIOS setup procedure. They also disable those functions that are not present in a particular motherboard, but can be used in the following modifications.

Using specialized utilities, you can try to unlock all disabled functions and options in the BIOS. You can also change the logos (some motherboard manufacturers, such as ASUS, even supply special utilities to change the BIOS logo), as well as some names, so that, for example, when loading, not the real name of the processor is displayed, but something like “ AMD Core i9-995".

Another example of BIOS modding can be given. Some craftsmen manage to unlock the ability to use SLI mode through the BIOS for NVIDIA video cards on those motherboards where this mode is not provided. Actually, if a board officially supports SLI mode, then its BIOS has the corresponding key from NVIDIA. The idea of modding is to cut this key from the BIOS of the board on which SLI mode is officially supported, and insert it into the BIOS of the board on which SLI mode is not supported (that is, in the BIOS without the NVIDIA key). In particular, there are examples of how, due to such modding, the SLI mode was activated on boards based on the Intel P45 Express chipset.

However, let's move from theory to practice and discuss editing BIOS, in particular editing AMI BIOS as the most common.

Editing AMI BIOS

To edit a BIOS with an AMI kernel, you will need the AMIBCP utility, which, by the way, is produced by AMI itself. This utility can be downloaded either separately or as part of the AMI BIOS ROM Utilities package. It should be noted that since, as we have repeatedly emphasized, manufacturers of motherboards and laptops make changes to the AMI BIOS for their products, there is no guarantee that the AMIBCP utility will recognize the BIOS. Alas, not every BIOS can be modified. As practice shows, the BIOS of ASUS and ECS boards can be edited without problems, but for boards from Gigabyte and MSI the AMIBCP utility is powerless.

So, let's return to the consideration of editing the BIOS in the case where this is possible. The AMIBCP utility (version 3.x) runs under the Windows operating system, but it should be noted that there are versions of the same utility for DOS.

After downloading the utilities, you need to open the BIOS file. In our example we will look at editing the AMI BIOS for motherboard ASUS P6X58D-E using the AMIBCP v.3.37 utility. We will edit the P6X58DE.ROM file.

So, in the main program window we load the BIOS file that we will modify (Fig. 4).

Rice. 4. Main window of the AMIBCP v.3.37 utility

First of all, the Setup Configuration tab is interesting, in which, in fact, the BIOS settings are modified. The left window of this tab displays the main BIOS settings menu. If you uncheck a menu item, it will not appear in BIOS menu. In the example considered (see Fig. 4), we unchecked the Ai Tweaker and Advanced checkboxes, thereby blocking all options for overclocking the system. That is, BIOS menu items in which you can view information about the processor and memory, as well as change frequencies, supply voltage, etc., will simply be absent in the modified version of the BIOS.

The situation is similar when expanding the tree structure of each item in the BIOS setup menu: if you uncheck any sub-item, it will not appear in the BIOS menu. For example, if we do not want the Intel PPM Configuration item to be displayed in the Advanced settings menu, we simply need to uncheck the corresponding item (Fig. 5).

In order to block any option in the BIOS setup menu, just set the value to No in the Show column for the corresponding item. Such blocked items will (after saving changes made) are highlighted with a green stripe.

For example, if our system does not have additional fans installed in the case and we do not want their settings items to be displayed in the BIOS, then we enter the Power menu, then open the Hardware Monitor menu and for the options Chassis Fan 1 Speed, Chassis Fan 2 Speed, For Chassis Fan 3 Speed, Chassis Q-Fan Profile and Power Fan Speed, set the value to No in the Show column (Fig. 6).

Rice. 6. Blocking the display of various setup menu options in the BIOS

It should be noted that BIOS P6X58DE.ROM for the ASUS P6X58D-E board does not allow any improvements using the AMIBCP v.3.37 utility. All options in it are unlocked, so the maximum that can be done is to block what is not needed (though it is not clear why to do this).

You can also try to change some of the inscriptions, but keep in mind that the inscriptions will not be displayed in Russian. For example, if we want the string ComputerPress P6X58D-E BIOS Edition to be displayed instead of the string ASUS P6X58D-E ACPI BIOS Revision 0106 when loading, then just find the string ASUS P6X58D-E ACPI BIOS Revision 0106 on the BIOS Strings tab and change it to the specified one .

We just have to consider one more type of BIOS modding - changing the background image (logo) of the BIOS. At the same time, ASUS even completes its motherboards special utility, which allows you to implement this opportunity. Of course, for ASUS boards it is easiest to use this utility. However, for AMI BIOS you can also use the OEM LOGO utility from AMI itself (Fig. 7).

Rice. 7. Changing the BIOS logo using the OEM LOGO utility

The interface of this utility is very simple and does not require any comments. Just load the BIOS and specify the path to the file with the new logo. The only limitation is that the drawing must be of a certain resolution and format.

There are times when you need to get detailed information about your BIOS, most often this happens due to the need to update it or flash it. This article discusses in detail ways to find out what BIOS is on your computer, what model and version of BIOS are installed on the motherboard of your PC or laptop.

There are several ways, as mentioned above. Therefore, you can immediately click on the table of contents you are interested in and you will be directed to it.

Each of these points is considered in detail. If you are interested in something specific, you can immediately go to that very part by clicking on the item of interest in the table of contents. Or you can familiarize yourself with all the points in more detail.

Find out the BIOS version using commands in Windows

msinfo32

We discussed this method of obtaining information about the BIOS in the article, since this is the easiest option to quickly find out the model and version.

Here's a simple way to get information about your basic system I/O

Another option is to find out the BIOS version through the command in the "Run" menu.

All. It’s also a fairly simple way to find out the BIOS of your computer.

There is also an option to get detailed information about your BIOS. It will not cause any unnecessary difficulties either.

Launch the command line (Start -> search -> cmd, run as Administrator).
Enter the command in the window that opens command line: wmic bios get smbiosbiosversion
Next press Enter.

Information about the computer's BIOS version will appear instantly in the same CMD window:

BIOS version via third-party utilities

There are many programs that allow you to learn about the components of your computer, where you can also see the version and model of your BIOS. Now let's look at some of them.

By using CPU-Z utilities you can find out a lot of information about the computer, for example. Here's how you can use it to find out about the BIOS.

Download and run the CPU-Z utility.
Go to the "Payment" tab

There will be information about the computer's BIOS.

As you can see, there is nothing complicated about this. Also, the BIOS version can be viewed in other utilities.

Find out the BIOS model/version when starting the computer

Information about the basic input/output system can be found when you start your computer.

Turn on the computer.
Immediately when the PC starts up, but before the OS loads, press the Pause Break key.

Something like this information should appear, where you can find both the model and version of your BIOS.

Of course, there are other ways to find out the BIOS version of your computer's motherboard. This can also be found using other utilities (only 3 utilities were taken as an example in this article), and you can also find out using the registry editor. But we no longer considered them in this article. If you have questions on the topic, ask in the comments.

Any computer equipment and software, as is known, becomes outdated over time and ceases to meet current requirements. This equally applies to primary BIOS/UEFI systems, the software of which is integrated into a special chip on the motherboard. When installing new equipment (“hardware”), it may sometimes be necessary to flash the BIOS. This procedure will be performed on a laptop or a stationary computer terminal, it doesn’t matter. The technology is almost always the same. Some users, unfamiliar with the basics of such techniques, believe (and not without reason) that this process is unsafe and difficult. If you can agree with the first statement, then you can argue about the second. In fact, flashing the motherboard BIOS is not such a troublesome task. But to carry out this procedure correctly, you should pay special attention to some important details and nuances, which depends on the manufacturer of the motherboard and the programs and techniques used for flashing.

Why do you need to flash the BIOS?

In general, if it is not planned, and the entire system is working stably, there is fundamentally no point in updating the BIOS version.

But when new equipment is installed on a computer, which may not be supported by the primary system only due to its obsolescence ( Device BIOS it just doesn’t recognize it), flashing the BIOS becomes a pressing problem. Although many users find this process difficult, anyone who works with a computer can perform these steps on their own. It will take no more than 10 minutes.

Flashing the motherboard BIOS: prerequisites

First, pay attention to several mandatory conditions, failure to comply with which can lead to catastrophic consequences.

Download files and programs to update primary systems only from official resources motherboard manufacturers. If you install unofficial firmware, no one can guarantee that the process will be successful and the system will work as expected.

The second thing to pay attention to is during the update. You need to take care in advance to ensure that there are no power surges or spontaneous disconnection of your computer or laptop from the power supply.

General rules for updating all firmware

Flashing the BIOS for almost all motherboard models involves using the same scheme:

creating a bootable drive (USB devices only);

firmware installation;

For standard systems BIOS in most cases uses DOS mode. However, for some BIOS versions, as well as for more modern systems UEFI may apply special program for flashing the BIOS, created by the motherboard manufacturer, which is capable of running even in an operating environment Windows systems without necessarily creating bootable media.

How to find out the modification of the motherboard and the current BIOS version?

The very first thing you need to do is determine which model of motherboard is installed in computer system, and also find out the version of the primary BIOS systems(perhaps it is currently relevant and does not need updating).

You can view information about the board and BIOS version in the section that is called from the Run console using the msinfo32 command.

For the motherboard, you can also use specialized utilities like CPU-Z (formerly Everest). For a device identified in this way, you need to find the latest firmware on the manufacturer’s website and save the files on your hard drive.

Preparing bootable media (general procedure)

If you use bootable media, when an update from Windows is not provided, the first step is to create one. Regular recording of downloaded files will not work.

To simplify your work, you can use the Rufus utility, which is very easy to learn and creates bootable USB flash drive within a couple of minutes. There is practically no need to change anything in the parameters. Only in file system you should specify FAT32, and use MS-DOS mode in the recording method, making sure to check the box next to the line to create bootable media. If this is not done, then when you reboot the device will not be recognized as bootable. Then, to install the update, in some cases you will need to additionally copy it to media control program and the firmware file.

Next, the process of updating the BIOS will be discussed with examples for motherboards from several well-known manufacturers. Although in general they are very similar to each other, nevertheless, each of them has its own nuances. We assume that the priority is already set in the BIOS settings.

ASUS

Flashing the Asus BIOS can be done in several ways. Among the preferred utilities, two programs worth highlighting are AFUDOS and ASUSTeK EZ Flash 2.

When using the first utility, you should create bootable media and pay attention to it in mandatory there was a program file afudos.exe and the firmware itself (for example, p4c800b.rom).

Flashing the ASUS BIOS looks like this. Booting from a flash drive. Since the media was recorded for DOS mode, the initial line C:\> will appear on a black screen, in which you need to enter the command /i p4c800b.rom and press the enter key. Once the update is complete, a reboot will occur, during which you just need to remove the media from the USB port so that the system starts from the hard drive.

Flashing the BIOS of an ASUS motherboard when using the second utility is somewhat different from the previous option.

Despite the fact that most firmware on the official ASUS website have a .rom extension, CAB files can sometimes be found. There is nothing wrong with this, since they are used for UEFI systems.

To flash the firmware, you should enter the UEFI settings when rebooting, go to Advanced Mode ( additional settings) and in the service (tools) section of the Tool, select the line ASUSTeK EZ Flash 2. Next, from the list, again select the media with the program (line of the same name), after which the required firmware file will be shown on the right. We select it and agree to the warning twice (first to check the file, then to start the firmware process).

At the end of the process, a reboot notification will appear, and at the beginning of the restart, a proposal to carry out initial setup. Press F1 and set the required parameters. Otherwise, we simply exit the settings without saving the changes.

Gigabyte

Flashing the BIOS of Gigabyte systems is quite different from other processes. First of all, this is due to the fact that you can use online update to install the firmware. But first, let's look at using the Q-Flash utility, which is believed to be best suited for updating firmware.

First, you should enter the BIOS settings and use the option to reset all Load Optimized default settings. After this, you need to save the changes, restart the computer and enter the BIOS settings again. Next, to launch the Q-Flash utility, press the F8 key, and the start is confirmed by pressing the Y and Enter keys. To begin with, it is recommended to save current version via the Save Bios option, after which you need to use Update Bios. Next, you will be asked to indicate the source from which you want to update. You should select HDD 2.0 as the media (this is how the flash drive is displayed in the settings). Then everything is as usual: select the firmware file present on the media and agree with all the warnings.

For an Internet update, you can use the @BIOS utility specially developed by Gigabyte specialists, which runs in Windows environment. In this case, it is strongly recommended to disable Hyper-Threading mode in the settings of the primary system, as well as deactivate anti-virus and other resident applications to avoid errors or failures during the update process.

After starting the program, you can immediately save the current BIOS version by clicking on the Save Current BIOS button, and then select the Internet Update online update mode, click Update New BIOS and specify one of the servers present in the list. After this, you will be asked to indicate the model of the installed motherboard, and the program will automatically download all necessary components and activates the update process.

MSI

Flashing the MSI BIOS, as in the case of ASUS, can be done either from Windows or from DOS. For DOS mode, a tool built into the BIOS called BIOS-MFLASH is used. But the MSI Live Update 5 or 6 application can also be used as an initial management utility. It is notable for the fact that with its help you can also update everything installed drivers MSI, and also reflash the BIOS of the corresponding graphics accelerators. Let's start with it.

In the main window you just need to check the boxes necessary elements. Select the MB BIOS component and click the scan button at the bottom (Scan). If new version The firmware will be detected, use the Download and Install button, after which the update process will start.

First you will need to select an update environment. To simplify matters, check the In Windows mode item, in the next window click the button to close all programs that appear in the list (Close all listed programs), click the Continue button (Next) and in the next window click the start process button.

For DOS mode, select it from the window running process update, after which we indicate the media and agree to the destruction of all data present on it (the process will take no more than a minute, after which a message will be displayed indicating the successful creation of the boot drive). When rebooting, all you have to do is follow the instructions of a kind of “Master”.

In case of updating using the built-in MFLASH mechanism, you will have to download the firmware manually, create bootable media and perform the same actions in the BIOS as described above (select the media and firmware file in the tools menu).

Acer

Flashing the BIOS of Acer systems is surprisingly much easier. You don't even need to create bootable media, although you will still have to format it in FAT32.

To install the update, a special utility called Insyde Flash is used, which is copied to removable media. At the same time, you need to copy the firmware file downloaded from the official website, which has the extension .fd and corresponds not only to the motherboard, but also to the laptop model, to the main directory of the program on the flash drive. Please note that the device must contain only one firmware file, otherwise the application will prompt you to flash only one of several. After running the utility while the power is on, you will be prompted to install the update immediately.

The second method is just as simple. First you need to completely turn off the laptop, unplug the cord from the outlet and wait until the power indicator stops blinking. Next, plug the cord into the outlet, insert the flash drive into the appropriate port, hold down the Fn and Esc keys and press the power button. As soon as the indicator starts flashing, release the pressed keys. After this, reading information from the drive will begin (this can be seen by the blinking LED on the device itself). Once the update process is complete, the laptop will reboot on its own.

Video cards

Since GeForce and Radeon are dominant in the video card market, flashing the BIOS will be considered using their example.

At the initial stage, for your card on the manufacturer’s website you need to download new firmware and management programs. If the system has several video cards, only one should be left during the update, inserting it into the PCI-Express slot.

For GeForce cards the NVFlash program is used (from two files), for Radeon - the ATIFlash utility (one file). Next, you need to create a bootable USB drive for DOS mode, and then copy program and firmware files to it.

When starting from a flash drive, you should make sure that the card is single-processor, otherwise the proposed method will not work. For NVIDIA use the command nvflash --list, for ATI - atiflash -i. If information is displayed for two cards, then the adapter has two processors, and the proposed firmware method cannot be used (it is better to go to the manufacturer’s website and find instructions there).

The next step is flashing the BIOS GeForce video cards involves disabling protection. This is done with the line nvflash -protectoff.

Next, to start the BIOS update process for GeForce cards, use the command nvflash -4 -5 -6 newbios.rom (the name of the ROM file must match the name of the downloaded firmware), for Radeon cards - atiflash -p -f 0 newbios.rom. After this, we wait for the process to complete and reboot the system in normal mode.

Brief summary

That's all for flashing the primary I/O systems. Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that the best option is to install the update exclusively in DOS mode, although special utilities can be used to simplify the work. But they only work if there are UEFI systems, and are not suitable for standard BIOS versions. You need to be extremely careful with video cards, because incorrect installation update or the slightest violations during the flashing process can lead to the graphics adapter failing.