Rant: That time a BIOS update bricked 3 workstations in one afternoon

I was at a client site in Austin last Tuesday updating firmware on their Dell Optiplex machines and the power flickered mid-flash on three of them. Suddenly I had three paperweights and a screaming office manager asking why their accounting team couldn't work. Do you guys always use a UPS for BIOS updates or do you just roll the dice like I did?

3 comments

3 Comments

michael51921d ago

Roll the dice and lose - that's basically the motto for anyone who skips the UPS. It's just like forgetting to back up your phone before a big update, you only learn the hard way once.

margaretk8921d ago

Dang, you're braver than me doing BIOS updates during a workday with thunderstorms rolling through.

susan_ward21d ago

I mean I get why people worry but honestly most modern boards have enough safeguards now that it's not as risky as people think. The chip has fallback modes and can usually recover from a failed flash. Thunderstorm risk is more about the power line and if your PSU has any real protection you're probably fine. I'd be more scared of a random Windows update killing my bootloader than a BIOS flash these days. People act like it's 2005 still where one hiccup would brick your whole system. The drama around it seems way overblown to me.