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> On x86 PCs, you can usually download a BIOS image, but to flash it you need hardware tools on most computers. Even then, it isn't always obvious how to write
by duskwuff 5y ago
> On x86 PCs, you can usually download a BIOS image, but to flash it you need hardware tools on most computers.
Even then, it isn't always obvious how to write that image to flash. Sometimes you get lucky and the downloadable BIOS is a full image of the serial flash chip, but sometimes it's a delta update, or the flash chip contains other data (like configuration) which isn't part of the public image.
And even then, there's a ton of other updatable firmware in a typical PC that isn't part of a BIOS update -- most video adapters and network devices will have at least a small flash chip on board, which may not be repairable at all if it's damaged.
- marcan_42 5y agoYup. On M1s Apple tries to make all external chips either use runtime loaded firmware or be bootloadable, both for security and recoverability reasons. I don't know if it's possible to truly brick an M1, but if it is you have to try really hard.
- floatboth 5y agoGPUs are often the easiest to recover actually – boot with another GPU, keeping the screwed-up one plugged in – it will still be flashable, just run atiflash or whatever. Also, high end "gamer" hardware often includes "dual BIOS" (on both mainboards and graphics cards) and/or "BIOS flashback" (special button makes a microcontroller flash an image from a USB stick inserted into a marked port, even without a CPU present).