I purchased yet another SFF PC off eBay recently, these things are great btw. Cheap, small, powerful and very reasonable on power usage... And I noticed this HP unit had a BIOS update in its initial Windows Update run. Granted it was under 'optional' updates but there are no warnings or even descriptions as to what it could or will do.
Seems like it should at least provide some info on potential consequences for a regular user. But things have been trending this way for a while, I remember when the SOP was to never attempt a flash under Windows yet I haven't seen that warning/advice in ages.
Dell is reflashing the bios automatically on reboot now?
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Re: Dell is reflashing the bios automatically on reboot now?
#12Did you reboot the computer a second time to see if it flashed the BIOS again? Once is a scheduled BIOS update, possibly triggered by an administrator. Twice is more concerning...
I am the administrator. The update worked but a heads up would be nice.
In theory there should be a setting within the BIOS that should allow you to disable any sort of automatic BIOS updating. Unfortunately, I can't speak to Dell machines, but the HP ones I manage have a "Lock BIOS Version" setting I can use.
Re: Dell is reflashing the bios automatically on reboot now?
#13What a ridiculously bad idea. :-/ As an anecdote, MSI's dragon center utility bricked my motherboard trying to apply a BIOS/UEFI update which required me to use the flashback recovery method and wait in terror for about 15 minutes to see if I would have a working computer again. After that experience, I will only use the usb thumb drive + booting into BIOS/UEFI method for applying updates.
Yeah, I have an MSI Mobo in my home PC and an older model Stealth. Get rid of Dragon Center. It's an, albeit smaller, resource hog whose functions can be managed through the actual tools as opposed to Dragon Center.
Re: Dell is reflashing the bios automatically on reboot now?
#14If it's running Windows then sometimes BIOS updates can be delivered through Windows update. Yes it's just as bad an idea as it seems. Source: Dealt with it occasionally at a computer repair shop I worked at.
This is such a bad idea. For large systems/companies there are management platforms.
Large companies manage windows update.
Re: Dell is reflashing the bios automatically on reboot now?
#15Windows update has been pushing bios and firmware updates for years now since Windows 7.
Also even if you loose power it won’t brick anything the firmware can and will recover from failed updates.