Hi,
How to know whether the original bios has been updated or not in Windows? Is there any way to know that whether my bios is in its original settings or upgraded? like looking in to registry or menu.
I want to check that whether it has been updated or not. Because, updating bios sometimes does not help you but rather give you problems. Is there a way to see,
There is no indication of whether the BIOS has been updated in Windows 7 or any where else.
You can determine the current BIOS version and then look at the motherboard/computer manufacturer's support site and find out what the latest version is.
Motherboards and computers usually have the latest available BIOS installed at the time of manufacture so motherboard/computers bought at different times may contain different versions of the BIOS.
Copy/paste/type System Information into the Start >Search Box, then click on System Information under Programs at the top.
It will automatically open to the System Summary, look down a bit until you see BIOS Version/Date and it will tell you the version and date.
Unless another member has a better idea you will have to compare that version/date to any of the other versions/dates that the manufacturer of your Bios has to offer.
Ahh...I see pbcopter beat me to it.
A BIOS update should not be done unless it fixes a problem you are having or adds support for hardware you intend to add. Otherwise it should be left as is. On many motherboards there is no recovery option if a BIOS update fails and corrupts the BIOS, thus another reason to be cautious on whether to do a BIOS upgrade.
The BIOS does not update automatically, it requires user intervention. So, you would either deliberately have updated it or there would have been a notification, such as "Would you like to update now" or words to that effect.
If you allow other people to use the computer, then they might have updated it.
As posted by pbcopter;
"Motherboards and computers usually have the latest available BIOS installed at the time of manufacture so motherboard/computers bought at different times may contain different versions of the BIOS."
Updates made at the time of manufacturing a computer are done to improve performance and compatibility and shouldn't be a concern.
Last edited by Sir George; 20 Nov 2014 at 11:26.
I do agree with firebird.
If things are working as they should leave the motherboard bios alone.
To the question.
If you new the exact date the motherboard was made and when it was shipped you can get close to what bios was installed by comparing that information with the bios chart on the manufactures site.
Example:
If you knew the motherboard was made on May 1, 2012 and shipped and it had a bios from 2014 you would know it was updated by somebody. What good this information would do anybody is unknown to me.
Some motherboards will have a serial number or a separate sticker on the motherboard which can be converted to indicate the bios that was installed on the motherboard from the factory.
Windows 7 does not update bios. You have been given methods of seeing what your bios are but it will not tell you what it was before.
Speccy is a great little program that will indicate lots of information about your system including what motherboard bios is being used. It will not indicate whether it is a update or not.
https://www.piriform.com/speccy/download
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I recommend if you are having a problem with your computer seek help with that problem before you do anything with the bios.
The bios is the last place I go to repair a problem.
Hi,
thanks for a lot of useful information on the above subject. I had an inkling of doubt that the latest version of BIOs in HP site, which i updated normally , as in the case of other drives update would have made my laptop audio to not to function, if it is not for hardware issue of speaker itself.
It does not warn me about updating of bios, since i obtained from the same site for the same laptop model and version. I just downloaded every update, in trying to get sound problem fixed. But that was not to be.
Then i came across some sites, which warned me against update of bios, which will not improve anything in the system or fix any problem, but rather would pose problems in the behaviour.
I tried to roll back the version, but could not do so . I could roll back drivers and not bios.
I tried to set default bios settings in my laptop. Ofcourse, i found similar to default settings menu in my bios, which i have choosen. But i do not see any improvement. I came across an article, that bios are written on the motherboard chips and hence could not be rolled back.
This was the time i raised my question to this forum and am glad that some ideas were given. When bios settings does not improve, why then this has been updated unnecessarily by the manufacturer for the model.
Since, every drivers have been updated and HP says that update of BIos may solve some problem one tries to test that.
Should one be able to get the exact BIOs from the manufacturers site? (Because available are the latest for the bios or drivers for the same model.
How it will affect the system, as usually updates are improvements over the previous versions and this should naturally improve the working of the system?
Can i overwrite the BIOs with the original BIOs if it is available.is the BIOs version different from one make to another make? Or is it same for all the models so that one could download the non updated bios to your laptop?
I removed the BIOs in my computer, by power draining and removing the CMOs battery, and power on (without main plugging) . But doing the same in Laptop is very tough, as opening and removing the cmos from laptop is a technician job, unlike in computer. May somebody would thro more light. Thanks
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