The BIOS on your motherboard is a very important type of firmware that allows your computer to boot up properly. You can configure some important settings such as your CPU voltage and frequency in the BIOS. You may have heard that some new motherboards come with a feature called BIOS Flashback. But what is BIOS Flashback?
BIOS Flashback is essentially a feature that allows you to reinstall or update your BIOS. The most common scenario where you want to use the BIOS Flashback button is when your new motherboard does not support your CPU. To use BIOS Flashback, you do not need to have a GPU, RAM, or even CPU installed. You just need a properly configured USB stick with the BIOS update and the motherboard.
But what is BIOS Flashback and why does it matter? Should you always keep your BIOS updated? You can read everything that you need to know about BIOS Flashback down below.
What Is BIOS Flashback?
The name “BIOS Flashback” offers a good explanation for what it is intended for. When something bad happens to your current BIOS, you can use the feature to flash your BIOS back to a previous version. But nowadays this feature is mostly used to update the BIOS, especially when you do not have access to a CPU that works with the motherboard or do not have any RAM installed.
You can also use the feature to update the BIOS as an alternative to some other methods. But whether you should do it if you are not facing any problems will be talked about later. For now, let’s look at an example of when BIOS Flashback is a very useful and convenient feature.
If you bought an older motherboard that does not support a newer CPU, for example, a B450 motherboard and a Ryzen 5000 Series CPU, then BIOS Flashback on your motherboard can save you here. You just have to follow the instructions provided by your motherboard manufacturer on how to update your BIOS using BIOS Flashback and you will be all set.
You can find the instructions on the manufacturer’s website. The exact method varies between manufacturers, so make sure that you are following the right instructions. You will essentially have to format your USB flash drive and save the right BIOS file to the USB. Make sure that you plug the USB stick into the right USB port for the BIOS Flashback feature to make this work.
You can do this without the CPU and RAM, but remember that you still need to connect all the power connectors to the motherboard to make this work. If you do not follow all the steps correctly, you could brick your motherboard, and then you would have to RMA it.
But do all motherboards come with BIOS Flashback? Even though it is a very useful and convenient feature, only some motherboard models come with it. Any feature that is added to the motherboard increases cost due to additional steps in the manufacturing process. You can check if your motherboard supports BIOS Flashback by simply looking at the back I/O or by checking the specifications list on the manufacturer’s website.
But when should you use BIOS Flashback? You should only use it when you absolutely have to and there is no other way for you to update the BIOS. Moreover, you should never update your BIOS as long as there are no compatibility issues or important fixes for performance or security risks. Flashing your BIOS is the most common way in which people break their motherboards.
You can use BIOS Flashback on a motherboard with a corrupted or broken BIOS by flashing a previous version of the BIOS that works with the rest of your system. This is somewhat similar to the dual BIOS feature on some other motherboards.
Conclusion
So, what is BIOS Flashback? Should you buy a motherboard that has it? BIOS Flashback is a convenient feature that allows you to update the BIOS on your motherboard without a CPU, RAM, or GPU installed. This is great if your motherboard has an outdated BIOS and an update allows your motherboard to work with your newer CPU.
If you know that your motherboard and CPU are compatible out of the box, there is little reason to spend the extra money to get a motherboard that comes with the feature. But it is still a good fail-safe feature that can save your motherboard from being bricked.