Bios update

Message

Kenshin Himura · #1 Post by **Kenshin Himura** » 2019-12-03 14:08

Hello guys. I would like to ask if there is a possibility to update my bios without using windows and of course avoiding getting screwed the laptop if i used the exe with wine or etc and the program crash by accident.

Dai_trying · #2 Post by **Dai_trying** » 2019-12-03 15:45

My Bios has the option to install updates from a usb drive while in the bios settings, although this is not always possible but would depend on your motherboard options. If you posted some information about your motherboard (or even the machine make/model) somebody might be able to give you more exact answer.

cuckooflew · #3 Post by **cuckooflew** » 2019-12-03 16:14

Agreed, there is not really enough info to say much.

Hello guys. I would like to ask if there is a possibility to update my bios without using windows ---snip--

Why would any one want to use windows? it is not necessary at all. I use FreeDos for that sort of stuff.
https://www.scivision.dev/freedos-flash-bios-linux/
Or some search foo, lot's of info on this out there, see also:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fl ... ux#FreeDOS

Warning: Flashing motherboard BIOS is a dangerous activity that can render your motherboard inoperable! While the author of this article has successfully run this procedure many times, your mileage may vary. Be careful! You may want to consider updating microcode instead if it is supported by your system.

OP>and of course avoiding getting screwed the laptop ---snip--

OR, you may want to consider just taking the laptop to a professional. Considering that the OP does not know how to search for good info, nor give good details, taking it to a professional probably is the better option.

cuckooflew · #4 Post by **cuckooflew** » 2019-12-03 16:16

Some additional info: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/BIOS_Update

Kenshin Himura · #5 Post by **Kenshin Himura** » 2019-12-03 16:20

Dai_trying wrote:My Bios has the option to install updates from a usb drive while in the bios settings, although this is not always possible but would depend on your motherboard options. If you posted some information about your motherboard (or even the machine make/model) somebody might be able to give you more exact answer.

Thank you all for helping. The laptop is the c340 14api with ryzen 3200u

Kenshin Himura · #6 Post by **Kenshin Himura** » 2019-12-03 16:24

cuckooflew wrote:Agreed, there is not really enough info to say much.
Hello guys. I would like to ask if there is a possibility to update my bios without using windows ---snip--
Why would any one want to use windows? it is not necessary at all. I use FreeDos for that sort of stuff.
https://www.scivision.dev/freedos-flash-bios-linux/
Or some search foo, lot's of info on this out there, see also:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fl ... ux#FreeDOS
Warning: Flashing motherboard BIOS is a dangerous activity that can render your motherboard inoperable! While the author of this article has successfully run this procedure many times, your mileage may vary. Be careful! You may want to consider updating microcode instead if it is supported by your system.

OP>and of course avoiding getting screwed the laptop ---snip--
OR, you may want to consider just taking the laptop to a professional. Considering that the OP does not know how to search for good info, nor give good details, taking it to a professional probably is the better option.

The lenovo gives nothing but an exe at their site to update the bios, so... Your way i think can't be useful.

Dai_trying · #7 Post by **Dai_trying** » 2019-12-03 18:13

Kenshin Himura wrote:Thank you all for helping. The laptop is the c340 14api with ryzen 3200u

I don't know the specifics of that machine but I see it has UEFI and I would check in your settings to see if there is an update option somewhere, I would imagine there is as most UEFI settings that I have looked into have this. So I would suggest you put the exe file onto a usb stick (make sure it is a standard fat32 one) and enter the bios (UEFI) settings and find the update option and then it should give you a dialog box where you can select the file from the usb stick, remember to insert it before you boot up though to make sure the system has read that it exists.

stevepusser · #8 Post by **stevepusser** » 2019-12-03 18:14

Some .exe files will run in FreeDos.

Just a moment's Google-Fu shows that it is possible for some Lenovo laptops, though this thread said that the creation of the bootable USB drive still required a Windows installation somewhere: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P ... -p/3897962

Kenshin Himura · #9 Post by **Kenshin Himura** » 2019-12-03 19:28

Dai_trying wrote:
Kenshin Himura wrote:Thank you all for helping. The laptop is the c340 14api with ryzen 3200u
I don't know the specifics of that machine but I see it has UEFI and I would check in your settings to see if there is an update option somewhere, I would imagine there is as most UEFI settings that I have looked into have this. So I would suggest you put the exe file onto a usb stick (make sure it is a standard fat32 one) and enter the bios (UEFI) settings and find the update option and then it should give you a dialog box where you can select the file from the usb stick, remember to insert it before you boot up though to make sure the system has read that it exists.

Ok brother. I ll try it tomorrow.

pylkko · #10 Post by **pylkko** » 2019-12-04 07:55

Kenshin Himura wrote:
The lenovo gives nothing but an exe at their site to update the bios, so... Your way i think can't be useful.

exe is not a Windows-only format, but was used by DOS before Windows existed and earlier versions of Windows ran on top of DOS. There are of course windows exe files that wont run without a graphical user interface or something else required by windows. However, in my experience BIOS update tools are usually not like this. I have also updated a BIOS using FreeDOS and it worked well. Not only that but it is much more reliable than using an emulator (wine) or virtualization (if that will even work).

But, you should also realize that a newer version of a BIOS or UEFI will not automatically be better. IT might be worse. There is also risk of damaging the computer, because if you use the wrong version not intended for the model or in some other ways screw up the update, it might brick the entire device. Therefore, I would say, do it only if you absolutely need it.

v&n · #11 Post by **v&n** » 2019-12-04 08:27

stevepusser wrote:..<snip>..the creation of the bootable USB drive still required a Windows installation somewhere..<snip>

Apparently, the USB drive is not necessarily 'bootable' in case of similar HP tool, even though it did create an EFI directory on the drive. In a recent experience of mine with my HP laptop, just manually creating the EFI directory and extracting/copying necessary files into it were enough for the BIOS to recognize and use it to update BIOS : https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook- ... ue#M537729

(Ignore the initial Great-Wall-of-Text in that post, skip to the 'Update' section to see how it could be done with WINE)

Although the idea of trying FreeDOS definitely sounds better. And yes, of course avoiding a BIOS update is an even better advice unless it is necessary to fix some problem OP is having.

cuckooflew · #12 Post by **cuckooflew** » 2019-12-04 14:35

Kenshin Himura wrote:Hello guys. I would like to ask if there is a possibility to update my bios without using windows and of course avoiding getting screwed the laptop if i used the exe with wine or etc and the program crash by accident.

I am not a big fan of using full quotes, but in this case I think it is useful. As for this:

The lenovo gives nothing but an exe at their site to update the bios, so... Your way i think can't be useful.

Ok, well I apologize if you find my answer is not use full, others might find some of the the links I shared use full, but in any event I apologize for taking the time to try to help, and do the searches to find those links,. my advice for consider using a professional techs to help you still stands, or for anyone else, yes I do realize sometimes there are no professionals in the area, or we can not afford one, but if this is the only laptop or PC you have, and it is critical to not brick the machine, and if you do some research, you will see that every tutorial that might be use full says the same warning :

Warning: Flashing motherboard BIOS is a dangerous activity that can render your motherboard inoperable! While the author of this article has successfully run this procedure many times, your mileage may vary. Be careful! You may want to consider updating microcode instead if it is supported by your system.

So it would be wise to at least do your experimenting and learning on some other laptop, if you have one avaialbel, if not, I still stand by my advise to try to get professional help, especially on your first try. My experience, I did trash the first one I tried, and ended up having to take it to a shop, and that is where some additional tips were explained to me,

The lenovo gives nothing but an exe at their site to update the bios, so... Your way i think can't be useful.

I do not know if the lenovo .exe file requires Dos or Windows, you might consider consulting with lenovo support on that, since you don't think my advice is use full, I will not waste my time trying to get that info, However I will share a tip /hint, that the tech I used shared with me, he used Hirens Boot CD, it include tools that will run either Dos, or windows .exe files. Free Dos, is not critical, but it is still maintained, and easily available for free, MS Dos can be used as well, but it is outdated and not maintained, that is a entire other topic though. Hirens boot CD, and more info on that are easily available using some search foo.
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/hbcd-v152/

BIOS / CMOS Tools

Award DMI Configuration Utility 2.43: DMI Configuration utility for modifying/viewing the MIDF contents (Dos Freeware).
!BIOS 3.20: A powerfull utility for bios and cmos (Dos Freeware).
BIOS Cracker 5.0: BIOS password remover (cmospwd) (Dos Freeware).
BIOS Utility 1.35.0: BIOS Informations, password, beep codes and more (Dos Freeware).
CMOS 0.93: CMOS Save / Restore Tool (Dos Freeware).
DISKMAN4: A powerful all in one utility (Windows/Dos Freeware).
Kill CMOS: A tiny utility to wipe cmos (Dos Freeware).
UniFlash 1.40: BIOS flash utility (Dos Freeware).

I apologize if my way seems to not be use full to some people, but for others it might be useful, my way includes researching all my options carefully before trying any thing, making a good back up of the system before doing anything, and more, but I don't have the time to waste for some one that sees "my way" as not being usefull. My way works well for me, I can not afford to have to tell a client , "Oh sorry, I borked your laptop, and lost all the data", a law suite would be expensive, fortunately that has never happened, so for me "my way" is quite use full.

v&n · #13 Post by **v&n** » 2019-12-04 15:15

cuckooflew wrote:
The lenovo gives nothing but an exe at their site to update the bios, so... Your way i think can't be useful.
Ok, well I apologize if you find my answer is not use full....<snip>

I'm pretty sure the OP meant something along the lines of 'doesn't seem applicable (..in their case)', nothing in a negative or insulting sense. I think you took it too seriously, possibly in a wrong way.

And even the 'not applicable' thing, it seems to me, was just their assumption which is not completely invalid. We all have to make assumptions whenever facing 'new' challenges, and while it might seem 'prejudice' to more experienced ones, it is part of the process of troubleshooting tech stuff.

Kenshin Himura · #14 Post by **Kenshin Himura** » 2019-12-04 15:49

v&n wrote:
cuckooflew wrote:
The lenovo gives nothing but an exe at their site to update the bios, so... Your way i think can't be useful.
Ok, well I apologize if you find my answer is not use full....<snip>
I'm pretty sure the OP meant something along the lines of 'doesn't seem applicable (..in their case)', nothing in a negative or insulting sense. I think you took it too seriously, possibly in a wrong way.

And even the 'not applicable' thing, it seems to me, was just their assumption which is not completely invalid. We all have to make assumptions whenever facing 'new' challenges, and while it might seem 'prejudice' to more experienced ones, it is part of the process of troubleshooting tech stuff.

Brother don't bother to explain...

Kenshin Himura · #15 Post by **Kenshin Himura** » 2019-12-04 15:50

pylkko wrote:
Kenshin Himura wrote:
The lenovo gives nothing but an exe at their site to update the bios, so... Your way i think can't be useful.
exe is not a Windows-only format, but was used by DOS before Windows existed and earlier versions of Windows ran on top of DOS. There are of course windows exe files that wont run without a graphical user interface or something else required by windows. However, in my experience BIOS update tools are usually not like this. I have also updated a BIOS using FreeDOS and it worked well. Not only that but it is much more reliable than using an emulator (wine) or virtualization (if that will even work).

But, you should also realize that a newer version of a BIOS or UEFI will not automatically be better. IT might be worse. There is also risk of damaging the computer, because if you use the wrong version not intended for the model or in some other ways screw up the update, it might brick the entire device. Therefore, I would say, do it only if you absolutely need it.

Thank you for explaining it

Kenshin Himura · #16 Post by **Kenshin Himura** » 2019-12-12 12:55

cuckooflew wrote:
Kenshin Himura wrote:Hello guys. I would like to ask if there is a possibility to update my bios without using windows and of course avoiding getting screwed the laptop if i used the exe with wine or etc and the program crash by accident.
I am not a big fan of using full quotes, but in this case I think it is useful. As for this:
The lenovo gives nothing but an exe at their site to update the bios, so... Your way i think can't be useful.
Ok, well I apologize if you find my answer is not use full, others might find some of the the links I shared use full, but in any event I apologize for taking the time to try to help, and do the searches to find those links,. my advice for consider using a professional techs to help you still stands, or for anyone else, yes I do realize sometimes there are no professionals in the area, or we can not afford one, but if this is the only laptop or PC you have, and it is critical to not brick the machine, and if you do some research, you will see that every tutorial that might be use full says the same warning :
Warning: Flashing motherboard BIOS is a dangerous activity that can render your motherboard inoperable! While the author of this article has successfully run this procedure many times, your mileage may vary. Be careful! You may want to consider updating microcode instead if it is supported by your system.
So it would be wise to at least do your experimenting and learning on some other laptop, if you have one avaialbel, if not, I still stand by my advise to try to get professional help, especially on your first try. My experience, I did trash the first one I tried, and ended up having to take it to a shop, and that is where some additional tips were explained to me,
The lenovo gives nothing but an exe at their site to update the bios, so... Your way i think can't be useful.

I do not know if the lenovo .exe file requires Dos or Windows, you might consider consulting with lenovo support on that, since you don't think my advice is use full, I will not waste my time trying to get that info, However I will share a tip /hint, that the tech I used shared with me, he used Hirens Boot CD, it include tools that will run either Dos, or windows .exe files. Free Dos, is not critical, but it is still maintained, and easily available for free, MS Dos can be used as well, but it is outdated and not maintained, that is a entire other topic though. Hirens boot CD, and more info on that are easily available using some search foo.
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/hbcd-v152/
BIOS / CMOS Tools

Award DMI Configuration Utility 2.43: DMI Configuration utility for modifying/viewing the MIDF contents (Dos Freeware).
!BIOS 3.20: A powerfull utility for bios and cmos (Dos Freeware).
BIOS Cracker 5.0: BIOS password remover (cmospwd) (Dos Freeware).
BIOS Utility 1.35.0: BIOS Informations, password, beep codes and more (Dos Freeware).
CMOS 0.93: CMOS Save / Restore Tool (Dos Freeware).
DISKMAN4: A powerful all in one utility (Windows/Dos Freeware).
Kill CMOS: A tiny utility to wipe cmos (Dos Freeware).
UniFlash 1.40: BIOS flash utility (Dos Freeware).
I apologize if my way seems to not be use full to some people, but for others it might be useful, my way includes researching all my options carefully before trying any thing, making a good back up of the system before doing anything, and more, but I don't have the time to waste for some one that sees "my way" as not being usefull. My way works well for me, I can not afford to have to tell a client , "Oh sorry, I borked your laptop, and lost all the data", a law suite would be expensive, fortunately that has never happened, so for me "my way" is quite use full.

Used freedos and i got "this program must be run under win32"

shep · #17 Post by **shep** » 2019-12-12 16:25

I do not own any Lenovo hardware but have recently updated the bios of 2 motherboards. There were several ways to update.
My asus bios offered an "instant flash". I essentially extracted the bios download and copied the update to a vfat formated, usb thumb drive. Rebooted the computer with the usb drive plugged in and started "instant flash". Instant flash found the drive/bios update and installed.

Another method relies on Bios settings to setup a dhcp ethernet connection. If connected to the internet, the bios update would download and install.

The third method appears to have been tried, download a freedos usb image and mount it loop back and copy the bios update and a dos install utility. One aspect you may want to research is that some manufacturers still have archived dos utilites to update firmware.

A fourth method, mentioned on Lenovo's site is a linux utility to install from a running linux install.

Lastly, Lenovo mentions the availability of an pre-formated image that contains the bios update - essentially Lenovo has performed the 3rd method above for you.

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/migr-61990

pylkko · #18 Post by **pylkko** » 2019-12-14 07:14

Used freedos and i got "this program must be run under win32"

If this is the only available installer, then you probably need a windows install.

Kenshin Himura · #19 Post by **Kenshin Himura** » 2019-12-14 19:47

pylkko wrote:
Used freedos and i got "this program must be run under win32"
If this is the only available installer, then you probably need a windows install.

Ok Brother. Thanks for feedback

shep · #20 Post by **shep** » 2019-12-14 23:53

https://workaround.org/article/updating ... ash-stick/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_P ... nvironment

Web search indicates that it is a free download and has been used to update a bios.

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