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Firmware anxiety

Hello! I’ve been with you guys since the Boot magazine days. This might seem like a simple question to answer, but is there any way you guys could do a tutorial on how to update the BIOS for motherboards?

I’ve built several computers, but I’m always worried about updating the BIOS because I don’t want to brick the motherboard.

I know there are many different makes of motherboards, but if there’s a general tutorial, that would be very helpful.

PS. I love the magazine, but I wasn’t crazy about the smart cities feature in the December issue. It just didn’t seem relevant to the magazine!

– J. Neggia

CONTRIBUTOR, JEREMY LAIRD, RESPONDS: We’d be happy to help! The good news is that updating your motherboard’s BIOS isn’t nearly as scary and risky as it used to be. You don’t mention which brand your current board is, but all the big names make updates pretty easy these days. It’s often possible to do it from within Windows, and it’s typically done via a fairly failsafe process that either makes it very difficult or nigh-on impossible to brick your motherboard.

The RTX 3060 is over four years old now. Should owners upgrade?

Even where updates aren’t possible from within Windows, it’s usually a pretty straightforward process of downloading the latest file, booting into the BIOS, and hitting a few keystrokes. The simplest advice is to head to your motherboard vendor’s website, look for the support option, choose your board model, and select software updates. Sometimes, there’s a separate tool you’ll need to download, or a Windows app for applying updates. Occasionally, you’ll also need to rename the actual BIOS file itself as well, but it should all be explained in the README that comes included in the ZIP file download.