Updating the BIOS question

Question

On the Dell drivers site it says that version A05 update for my system BIOS is recommended. The version on my PC is A02 so its quite a bit out of date.

If I update my BIOS will this ruin future Windows 8.1 reinstallations. Because it is an OEM system I don't have installation media .. I reinstall from the factory image. At the moment when I do a clean reinstallation Windows 8.1 gets installed and Windows Activation is done automatically. Activation is tied to the BIOS.

Can you flash/update the BIOS without affecting future reinstallations and the current automated Windows activation method or does updating the BIOS completely ruin that method

speedstep · Accepted Answer

SMI Bios is held in a Serial Based EEPROM that also has Serial Number and Service tag and other relevant numbers like serial numbers. This information is NOT stored in BIOS or UEFI Bios. You cannot write to the SMBIOS where the encrypted key is stored only the manufacturer can do that. Microsoft specifies WMI as the preferred mechanism for accessing SMBIOS information from Microsoft Windows.In UEFI, the "SmbiosView" shell application can retrieve the SMBIOS data. Newer Dells Bios must be updated via INTEL Management Engine aka DOS does not work anymore on UEFI based systems.

System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) has a lot of information in it.

If you open an administrative DOS box window aka CMD.EXE

you can read this via WMI Commands

C:\>wmic bios get serialnumber

SerialNumber ABCDEF1

C:\>wmic csproduct get vendor,name,identifyingnumber
 IdentifyingNumber Name Vendor
 ABCDEF1 Dimension XPS 8300 Dell Inc.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384463%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

speedstep · Answer

Updating bios does not change windows 8 or 8.1 or 10 activation.   The Key is in SMI bios with the service tag not in BOOT UEFI bios.

delboy777 · Answer

Thanks mate for the quick reply.

I don't know what SMI BIOS is (I just googled it as well but couldn't get any info lol)...I just though BIOS was BIOS...does that mean that the product key/service tag are stored separately. In other words when you update the BIOS the product key and service tag aren't touched and so cant be deleted by the BIOS update or altered in any way?

I read a few horror stories on the net where people were saying flashing the BIOS had also removed their product key...that's why I was concerned about it.

Philip_Yip · Answer

Yes you can flash your BIOS to the latest version it won't influence the product key.

delboy777 · Answer

Thanks Philip for taking the time to reply

delboy777 · Answer

Thanks... Speedstep...very much for explaining all that to me. Very informative...I appreciate the time and effort you put into your reply

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Updating the BIOS question

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