[Discuss] Risks of BIOS (actually UEFI) updates

[Alan W. Irwin]

>From my last post, it turns out I might need to do a BIOS (actually
UEFI) update for my "newish" Ryzen 7 1700 computer to solve its random
lockup issues.

When I bought that custom system from Mother Computers they told me
they went out of their way NOT to apply BIOS updates since they felt
that was a last resort.  But if after 6 months of instability and if
the kernel measures I just discovered to deal with such lockups are
not working, then I am sure I could convince them to do a BIOS upgrade
now, but likely at my own risk since from my experience with them I
think it is a fair to say that Mother Computers are uncomfortable with
any Linux-only issue.  So I will definitely ask them their take on
such risks before authorizing them to go ahead with it.

However, I would also like to ask the same question here.  For
example, my experience with much older boxes was it was common for
assemblers not to apply BIOS upgrades.  But is that attitude still
common for modern PC's?  Or is the consensus here that BIOS upgrades
for modern PC's should always be done and reverted back to a previous
BIOS version only if the latest version works worse than previous?

Finally, I would appreciate comments on the worst-case scenario, where
the BIOS update turns the computer into a brick.  What are the
chances, and if that scenario happens, does that mean I would have to
get Mother Computers (or some other vendor) to reassemble my new
computer components around a brand-new motherboard, or are there
easier ways for computer shops to deal with a modern PC with
non-working BIOS?

Alan
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Alan W. Irwin

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time
Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting
software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project
(unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net);
and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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