OK, I think I'm somewhat blindered here by dealing so much with factory preinstalled Win7 where the PC maker's want it updated via Windows (they preinstalled) if they even list BIOS updates. I should realize that mobo OEM's must provide another DOS method to update by necessity.
Dell uses a Windows utility that reboots the PC and does the flash from outside of Windows, so it isn't really a Windows flasher. I don't know how the other big manufacturers do it.
The risks in doing a BIOS update from Windows is more lore than knowledge. I've gotten away with all manner of foolish BIOS updates for years, until I bricked a couple of Sandy Bridge boards earler this year. (One of them was an MSI "dual BIOS" board.)
What method did you use when it failed? Can it not be reflashed after failure? What was the remedy?
I probably used EZ Flash on the Asus board, and a DOS based utility on the MSI (from a prepared USB flash drive). Both flashes appeared to complete successfully, but the PCs never booted again.
It's hard to reflash if the system won't boot into the BIOS setup, or automatically start the BIOS recovery.
I never managed to brick a board in the pre-UEFI days.
The Asus board was a first generation P67, with the 6Gb SATA bug. I was able to return it for free. The MSI has its 2 CMOS chips soldered to the board, and it went back also. Looks like a dual BIOS may not be helpful if there's no manual jumper to force the use of the good BIOS.
My current board have spare CMOS chips on hand (bought from the Asus estore), with preflashed BIOSes, to be swapped if I suffer another problem. (Should be simple to replace: 8 pin DIPs.)
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