Gigabyte B360 HD3 - apply latest BIOS update?

[stockhausen]

I am building a system based on a Gigabyte B360 HD3 (LINK). The currently installed BIOS is F2, dated February 23rd 2018. The latest BIOS is F5, dated June 21st 2018.

Amongst other things F5 claims to improve the Windows boot time - which I would quite like.

Of more interest however, it claims to "Update [the] CPU microcode" which I take to mean that it addresses the Meltdown and Spectre flaws. I would like to be sure that the system is (relatively) immune from these.

I know that if a system is working properly, the advice is NOT to flash a later BIOS firmware. None the less, can anyone see any problem with updating the BIOS?

 

[AliG]

Always flash latest BIOS, never bricked a board before going back 20+ yrs (lots of boards).
These days Intel microcode updates are more important, flashed the MSI Z370-A Pro board recently, tested the microcode with "Get-SpeculationControlSettings" command in PowerShell;

PS C:\Windows\system32> get-speculationcontrolsettings
Speculation control settings for CVE-2017-5715 [branch target injection]
For more information about the output below, please refer to https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4074629

Hardware support for branch target injection mitigation is present: True
Windows OS support for branch target injection mitigation is present: True
Windows OS support for branch target injection mitigation is enabled: True

Speculation control settings for CVE-2017-5754 [rogue data cache load]

Hardware requires kernel VA shadowing: True
Windows OS support for kernel VA shadow is present: True
Windows OS support for kernel VA shadow is enabled: True
Windows OS support for PCID performance optimization is enabled: True [not required for security]

Speculation control settings for CVE-2018-3639 [speculative store bypass]

Hardware is vulnerable to speculative store bypass: True
Hardware support for speculative store bypass mitigation is present: True
Windows OS support for speculative store bypass mitigation is present: True
Windows OS support for speculative store bypass mitigation is enabled system-wide: True


BTIHardwarePresent                  : True
BTIWindowsSupportPresent            : True
BTIWindowsSupportEnabled            : True
BTIDisabledBySystemPolicy           : False
BTIDisabledByNoHardwareSupport      : False
KVAShadowRequired                   : True
KVAShadowWindowsSupportPresent      : True
KVAShadowWindowsSupportEnabled      : True
KVAShadowPcidEnabled                : True
SSBDWindowsSupportPresent           : True
SSBDHardwareVulnerable              : True
SSBDHardwarePresent                 : True
SSBDWindowsSupportEnabledSystemWide : True

 

[stockhausen]

I have flashed the BIOS on various motherboards in the past. This system doesn't include a floppy disk drive and I am not sure how to flash the BIOS without a DOS Boot Disk.

 

[pastymuncher]

Download the latest bios, unzip it if it's zipped, and put it on a usb stick. Reboot and enter the bios. Under the tools tab you will find the bios flashing tool Q-Flash. Fire that up and when prompted point it to the usb stick containing the new bios. When it asks you if you are very very absolutely sure you want to proceed click yes and let it do it's thing. Once completed it will reboot or prompt you to reboot.

Please note that flashing the bios will reset everything to default so either save the profile if your board supports that or write down all the settings so that you can re-enter them once the flash is complete.

 

[stockhausen]

Many thanks for that, Q-Flash worked perfectly - I am now on F5

 

[Panos]

I am building a system based on a Gigabyte B360 HD3 (LINK). The currently installed BIOS is F2, dated February 23rd 2018. The latest BIOS is F5, dated June 21st 2018.

Amongst other things F5 claims to improve the Windows boot time - which I would quite like.

Of more interest however, it claims to "Update [the] CPU microcode" which I take to mean that it addresses the Meltdown and Spectre flaws. I would like to be sure that the system is (relatively) immune from these.

I know that if a system is working properly, the advice is NOT to flash a later BIOS firmware. None the less, can anyone see any problem with updating the BIOS?

AMD CPUs are SoC. Microcode update could mean anything. From code to update the memory controller to what ever.
In relation to Spectre & Meltdown, you need to make sure you have the lastest browser (aha chrome), as the protection is on software level on AMD CPUs.

The chips are not badly affected like the Intel ones requiring new updates always while losing 2% perf in the process for each Spectre variant.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Intel CPUs use microcode for chip-level updates too