Updating BIOS that bad?

Is updating mobo BIOS that bad? From what I've read, it seems like there's a 49.5% chance your mobo will go dead on you, a 49.5% chance that you'll inadvertently open the gates of hell and plunge the human race into eternal darkness, and a 1% chance that you'll succeed with no side effects. Is it really that risky?

ur stats are a bit off

it's not *bad* or *dangerous* if you do it right, however my motto when it comes to flashing bios is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." (cuz i hate to think something COULD go wrong)

download the new bios to a floppy disk (have a copy of your old bios there too just in case...) and put a flash writer on the same disk along with a command prompt (c:\command.com) reboot with the disk in and you should goto a prompt. goto a:\ then run the flash prog and follow the directions

there should be more detailed directions on your mobo's website (these directions are very basic/generic)

NOTE: just be SURE you don't turn off the power while it's updating or you'll probably need to get a new bios chip


--and if for some reason your system doesn't boot with the new bios just put the old bios back on

Yeah, I'd say your stats are a little bit off, but I'll say this:

DON'T FLASH YOUR BIOS UNLESS YOU HAVE VALID REASON.

Some guys update their BIOSes just for the he!! of it when a new one comes out, I don't believe this to be particularly wise. The law of averages will catch up with them, and they'll be either sitting, watching their mail for a new BIOS chip or going down to the local Fry's or MicroCenter to buy a new mobo....

SickBoy

It is like airplane crashes. You never hear about it unless it is a disaster. I upgrade BIOS all the time and have not had a problem. ....yet. My company just did over 6000 of them and had 2 problems with the BIOS.
A lot of it is fear. If something does go wrong then you either have to do something drastic or replace the motherboard. Most of the time it works just fine.

Just don't do anything stupid and it should go fine. I update my BIOS all the time. It's probably safer to use the MS-DOS utility, but you can use the windows BIOS flasher provided by your mobo manufacturer too. It's probably better if you do it off a cold boot though. Don't play computer games for a few hours, mess around in Photoshop, browse the web and THEN decide to flash or you'll likely regret it (it might go through fine, but why take the extra risk?). Also it might be best to clock down to default speeds before doing it, even if your comp is 100% stable (I usually don't, but it never hurts to be safe).

I'd say there's probably a 1% chance of anything going wrong. That rises to 50% if you are stupid or don't know wtf you are doing.

i need to update bios to support a 512mb RAM chip...