What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

[lti]

For years, I have wondered why everyone says that all drivers need to be updated to the latest versions as soon as a new version is released. In my first attempt to reinstall Windows, I did install the latest versions of every driver. All that did was make the computer run like it had 64MB of RAM. I reinstalled Windows again using the drivers that were built into Windows. If a device was not automatically detected by Windows, I used the drivers on the software disc included with the computer.

I have also heard that the BIOS needs to be updated regularly as well. Most computer and motherboard manufacturers use a Windows-based flashing program, and Windows isn't the most stable operating system.

All computer manufacturers include a "support" program that runs constantly in the background and alerts you when a new update is available. If you choose not to install this update, the software nags you to perform the update so often that it is impossible to do anything on the computer. I have heard of this software telling people to update the BIOS, then screwing up the update.

What is the point in updating drivers or the BIOS if everything works perfectly?

[b700029]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

They're mostly playing on the "newer is better" mindset that the majority of users seem to have... but if an update fixes a bug or several that I encounter, then I do proceed.

I personally believe in "don't fix it if it ain't broke", especially with things like BIOS updates where failure is particularly inconvenient.

[Topcat]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

I dont update a BIOS unless there's some kind of hardware malfunction that is caused by a firmware glitch or I want to upgrade to a CPU that's not supported in the current revision, but is in the newer. In this business, I've seen a lot of people hose their boards by unnecessarily flashing BIOS's....so I advise against it unless there a bug in the current version.

[shovenose]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

I've only done 2 BIOS updates on my life. Both were Dell Dimension 4600s and neither required it, I just did it because I accidentally downloaded the BIOS "driver" and wanted to see if the windows-based BIOS update utility actually worked. Both worked fine, but didn't make it any better or anything...

Driver updates, well, only useful if they fix a bug that you're having.

[Evil Lurker]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

I have flashed many a board's bios with no hiccups, cept of course when I was intentionally trying do something that was never meant to be done. Even then I have yet to brick a board.

Personally I always try to use a bootable cd or dvd with the flash program on it. Floppy drives have a nasty tendency to get bad sectors if you even fart in their general direction (provided they can even hold all the necessary files nowadays) and you really don't want your bios getting flashed with parts of the ROM file missing. As far as windows based flash programs go to me they are just plain scary considering all the crap that is usually running in the background... crap that could possibly interfere with the flash.

The key thing to remember is you generally have one shot to get the flash right before you cycle the motherboard's power. If the power dies during a flash, or your computer hiccups, you may be screwed. Always always always back up your old bios, and if the flash program throws any errors or if something doesn't look right, try to flash try to flash the bios back to the way it was before using your backup file.

[mockingbird]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

ICH8M is no longer having drivers developed for it... Someone managed to hack a newer driver to work on ICH8. I would have never found out about it if I wasn't obsessed with drivers.

Wireless drivers give better compatbility and performance with each update.

BIOS give microcode updates for better CPU support.

It is generally good to be concerned with updating drivers.

There are exceptions. I purposely use older nVidia drivers for my aging GeForce 6600 because of the better performance and compatibility. For my ATI 2900XT, I also use an older Catalyst because although they claim that Catalyst in a unified architecture, it often gives BSODs with newer versions and older products.

Firmwares for DVDRWs are always a good thing to upgrade. There's even a program called MediaCodeSpeedEdit which let's you transplant media codes from one firmware to another. Someone wanted to buy a laptop DVDRW drive from me, but it was only running in PIO mode. I cross-flashed it to its OEM equivalent and I got UDMA mode.

Just a few examples of why keeping up to date is usually a good thing.

[Topcat]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

Personally I always try to use a bootable cd or dvd with the flash program on it. Floppy drives have a nasty tendency to get bad sectors if you even fart in their general direction....

I use an old 6.4gb IDE hdd with DOS6.22 installed on it with an empty autoexec. That drive has many BIOS modding utilities on it....cbrom, modbin, modbin6, and some other nifty things....just ask any of those who remember my nicely modded VP6 BIOS. If its a board new enough that it doesn't have an IDE port, I have a 1gb thumbdrive that I have formatted and DOS startable. The last time I flashed from a floppy was on a dual AMD board that belong to a customer that bricked it. It would only POST to the boot block A prompt....

If you must flash from Windows, I always reboot it in safe mode. That way I know there's nothing going on in the background that could fubar the board.

[retiredcaps]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

Always always always back up your old bios, and if the flash program throws any errors or if something doesn't look right, try to flash try to flash the bios back to the way it was before using your backup file.

Before I flash the BIOS, I always check to see if there is recovery mechanism. If not, then I weigh the pros/cons of flashing.

I also reset BIOS back to default before flashing the new one.

I try to avoid Windows based flash, but if there is no other option, then I reboot to get a fresh boot and disable AV, shutdown all unnecessary programs, etc.

With respect to drivers, I update drivers all the time without any real issues.

[Scenic]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

There are exceptions. I purposely use older nVidia drivers for my aging GeForce 6600 because of the better performance and compatibility. For my ATI 2900XT, I also use an older Catalyst because although they claim that Catalyst in a unified architecture, it often gives BSODs with newer versions and older products.

Glad I'm not the only one. It seems like both nvidia and ATI/AMD release newer drivers claiming to support old cards without even testing them anymore. (random glitches/bugs and horrible performance compared to old driver versions)

In general, I always flash the newest available BIOS onto any board i get my hands on. Sometimes even modding it, making hidden options visible if it's a crippled one.
The handful of times it went wrong i just hotflashed it on another board. No big deal.

For drivers, I keep the ones that are proven to work fine and only update them if there are any bugs/glitches or it underperforms for some reason.
Happened recently with a nvidia driver (in-game framerate slashed in less than half) and a realtek onboard ethernet driver (caused BSOD's when going into standby or hibernation)

[PCBONEZ]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

I flash the newest available BIOS before it goes in a case and then after that I forget about it unless some bug shows up.
Also on anything I'm going sell because buyers [especially the not so tech savvy ones] like to hear it's done and they don't have to mess with it.
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For drivers I get the newest when I install the OS and if they work right I don't update. If they don't work right I'll look for an older one.
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If there is any way at all around it I won't update a BIOS through Windows.
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[370forlife]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

With every computer where I have gone to download drivers, typically under the bios download they say specifically not to do it unless there is something actually wrong with the bios.

Same with most motherboard manufacturers. Usually if you read the manual they will say not to update the bios unless absolutely necessary.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

With every computer where I have gone to download drivers, typically under the bios download they say specifically not to do it unless there is something actually wrong with the bios.

Same with most motherboard manufacturers. Usually if you read the manual they will say not to update the bios unless absolutely necessary.

They say that to cover themselves against lawsuits brought on by dimwits.
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Flashing a BIOS is no where near as big a deal as they make it out to be.
All that's needed is to pay attention to what you are doing.
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That warning is about the same as a sticker on a PSU or similar saying "No Serviceable Parts".
.

[ratdude747]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

for updating BIOS, i often keep a .iso of win98 handy... and then i mod the .iso to have the bios files... boot from cd, boot with cd support... and some dos commands...

recently did that to the gigabyte 7DPXDW from the other thread... upgraded to the latest bios, f7.

[acstech]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

My general theory has been, to upgrade the BIOS if there's a problem, or if there are useful added features (such as a modded bios for my own boards). I have seen an occasion where the board would randomly not detect the optical drive on one of the SATA ports. Plug it into a different port, and the drive would show up, for about a week. Flashing the BIOS fixed that issue. Sometimes I think manufacturers get things to market before they've been properly tested.

With regards to drivers, I've had good luck with WHQL drivers, where available. The people who upgrade to the latest driver all the time usually need that last frame per second, if you know what I mean.

[lti]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

I have only updated the BIOS on one computer, and it had a bug that would cause Windows to crash or claim that files were missing on a cold boot. When Windows finally booted, it was unstable.

On my parents' computer, Windows XP has a built-in driver for the video card (nVidia GeForce4 MX420) that works better than the official nVidia driver. That was the driver that made the computer run like it had 64MB of RAM.

I may have said above that the manufacturer-provided support programs constantly tell the user that the latest BIOS should be installed, even though there is nothing wrong with the computer. They do not give any warning that screwing up the process will make the computer unbootable.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

They do not give any warning that screwing up the process will make the computer unbootable.

That's why the thing came with a manual.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

I may have said above that the manufacturer-provided support programs constantly tell the user that the latest BIOS should be installed, even though there is nothing wrong with the computer. They do not give any warning that screwing up the process will make the computer unbootable.

I don't think I've ever seen a manufacture -push- updating the BIOS.
Recommendations not to are very common on their sites.

OTOH: I don't use mfr support 'programs' because I know how to do that myself and those things are inclined to change shit without asking first.
I either don't install them or I turn them off.

The BIOS that comes from the factory is usually outdated by the time you get the board. For the first year or two after a board comes out there can be lots of bug fixes and new CPU's [and sometimes RAM types] made available.

The most updated BIOS gives you the widest range of CPU support, sometimes more RAM support [updated SPD tables], and known bug fixes.

It's a good idea to update when you first build a system just to avoid problems [CPU compatibility issues, bugs, etc] that you aren't aware of.

But once it's built [and working fine] there is no reason to update it again unless maybe you are upgrading to a CPU that wasn't included in the last update.

..
When those programs suggest you update the BIOS they are probably assuming you have the Revision that got installed at the factory and that it's a POS.
.

[Topcat]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

I HAD to update the BIOS on my current Supermicro system when I got it, it had a firmware conflict with my 3ware controller, and wouldn't boot (would hard lock after POST, but fine if the controller was removed). The board had the latest BIOS on their site, and I went through all the usual troubleshooting techniques....talk about your heart sinking with disappointment when you know you're dead in the water....I couldn't run the system the way I designed and wanted.... I called Supermicro and explained the situation. He asked for an email address and said boot to a DOS prompt and flash the BIOS with this..... He stayed on the phone with me until the flash was successful, and voila.....everything was fine. Loaded the OS to my 3ware RAID's, and life was good. The BIOS he sent was a final release they just haven't posted yet, as apparently the board had problems with a few controllers, including mine....obviously... Cheap plug for supermicro, but their support was superb....and that's the only reason I'll update a BIOS. I won't update a BIOS on a problem-free and functional system unless the revision adds support for newer CPU's, and I actually plan on upgrading it. If its a new build, I will update the BIOS as its built, before loading the OS....thats the perfect time to do it...but if the system is up and running, 100% stable, and the newer BIOS doesn't fix some kind of major quirk, I usually won't bother with it.

[Ami Sapphire]

Re: What's so good about constant driver/BIOS updating?

There were times I had to update the BIOS on some computers:

An old Atrend ATC-6240M motherboard. After solving the bad caps issue with this board, I was testing it with an 8.4GB hard drive. Worked fine, until I tried to have it recognize a 40GB hard drive. It just hanged when it tried. Of course rebooting the system didn't fix this. The BIOS version was 1.1.07, and the last version was 1.1.08. Updated it, and all is well. It now recognizes drives above 32GB, and the HDD limit is 137GB.

An even older PC Chips M571 motherboard. Same hard drive limit issue, except it was 8.7GB. My BIOS version was 1998/05/06. This BIOS no longer exists on the Web, so I archived it, lol. Didn't even try to boot hard drives larger than 8.4GB on it, though; I just upgraded it. It is now version 1999/05/14, and the HDD limit is now 32GB.

Mom's Dell Latitude D620. This is her second laptop, which runs Windows XP Professional. I was using this one before I got my current laptop. Upon checking for BIOS updates, I found that the latest BIOS version was A10. Hers was A07. On A08, there were critical microcode updates from Intel within the BIOS (amongst other updates), and I just updated and hoped for the best. That computer is still running.

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As for drivers, I usually just upgrade them to the latest, that is, unless it breaks something.