Questions tagged [firmware]

In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices.

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Is it possible to update BIOS to UEFI?

I just ran the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant on an older machine (just for fun) and was informed that due to lack of UEFI firmware, Secure Boot would not be supported. Is it possible for motherboard ...
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9 answers
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Make a USB drive read only

I have a 1.5TB USB drive with many important files that I want to give to a friend (they have Windows7) for reading only purposes. thumbscrew appears to flip a registry switch but it seems to be on ...
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33 votes
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Difference and relation between firmware and device driver

How are firmware and device driver different and related? I think both control devices? Is firmware always self-booting, while driver must be run/booted by OS?
Tim's user avatar
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What is firmware and what happens when I update it?

I've seen the phrase "firmware update" a few places before. Why and how do I update it? What changes are made to my computer? EDIT: I originally wrote "what it firmware?" but I'll save someone the ...
Gordon Gustafson's user avatar
50 votes
12 answers
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What is the difference between BIOS and firmware?

Could anyone elaborate on the differences between BIOS and firmware please?
Koray Tugay's user avatar
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AMD fTPM - What does this firmware option do?

I have ASRock X370 Professional Gaming (AM4) motherbord with Ryzen 7 CPU. It has network firmware upgrade option, but I had to disable fTPM to enable network flash option. What exactly is fTPM option?...
Harry's user avatar
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21 votes
4 answers
63k views

Asus RT-N66U Enable SSH Access

Is the option to enable ssh access to this router not available in the stock version of the firmware? I can only see "Enable Telnet" under Administration -> System. That's kind of lame. Telnet is ...
CarlGammaSagan's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
7k views

Could installing DD-WRT speed up my Internet?

I believe that my router's firmware is causing me to get much lower Internet speeds than I should be getting. This is true for general browsing, downloading large files and uploading files. Would ...
Pops's user avatar
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UEFI/BIOS seemingly missing

Recently, I have messed around trying to dual-boot Windows 10 and Ubuntu. It was a great failure with various problems. Long story short, I wiped my drive and installed Windows 10 fresh. The first ...
user3608260's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
3k views

Are modern drives able to be low-level reformatted by an end user or is this strictly a factory OEM process?

As is well known, modern HDDs (think 4 to 8TB SAS/SATA) are low level formatted by the manufacturer before sale, ready to hold data. "Reformatting" usually just means clearing the user data content ...
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3 votes
3 answers
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remove DD-WRT from DIR-615

I have two dir-615 routers with dd-wrt, however I want to remove dd-wrt from one of them and reflash original firmware to this router. are there anything I need to do prior to this, or can I just ...
Plastkort's user avatar
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How to update firmware of my iPod Touch in Ubuntu?

As far as I know iTunes doesn't support Linux OS, though it is very strange. I need to update a firmware of my iPod Touch and don't know how to do that. Could anybody help me to solve this problem ...
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3 answers
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MacBook (late 2008) EFI Firmware Update 1.8 Problem

Last night I applied EFI Firmware update 1.8 to my Macbook (late 2008). After installing EFI Firmware Update and rebooted my computer and installed SuperDrive Firmware Update 3.0. After that my ...
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1 vote
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USB 3 works, USB 2/1 doesn't work. The Root Hub reports "HubIs2xCapable: 0 (Is not 2.x capable)"

The USB ports on my laptop only work with USB 3.x devices, but not USB 1/2. I've confirmed with a multimeter that the DATA+/DATA- pins are silent, even when talking to a USB 3.0 drive. What could ...
sssheridan's user avatar
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USB 1.0/2.0 stopped working, but USB 3.0+ still works. Acer laptop, Windows 11/Linux Mint

The laptop is a 2017 Acer Spin 5 SP515-51GN, which internally is the same as a Nitro Spin NP515-51. The laptop has three USB-A ports, and one USB-C port. Edit for clarity: all ports are USB 3. No ...
sssheridan's user avatar
23 votes
5 answers
29k views

What are the differences between firmware and software/OS?

I was wondering what differences are between firmware and software? What differences are between firmware and OS? Are boot-loaders firmware? Bios is. How about GNU grub? Is grub software or firmware?
Tim's user avatar
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How do I set up a proxy server for home with bandwidth control, download limit options?

3 room mates share a single 2 Mbps connection. Have a 40GB per month download limit beyond which speed drops to 256Kbps which is annoying. One of the roommates abuses the connection by downloading ...
Rajavanya Subramaniyan's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
87k views

How can I verify the health of hard disks using a Synology NAS?

I'll receive my first NAS (a Synology DS413) and three hard disks tomorrow. Of course I'd like to check if everything's fine with the disks before setting up RAID and migrating my data. Unfortunately, ...
Berty43's user avatar
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14 votes
5 answers
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On consumer grade laptops what is the significance of “RAID ON” option in the firmware?

On few consumer laptops I have noticed that the laptop’s firmware provides an option for RAID. Firmware -> SATA Operation -> RAID ON or AHCI (AHCI and RAID ON are mutually exclusive) The ...
samshers's user avatar
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11 votes
2 answers
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Accessing the firmware of an USB flash drive

Is there any way via which one can read the firmware of an USB flash drive? And if there is really such a way, can one write to that memory area?
Nitzs's user avatar
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2 answers
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How to update samsung's SSD firmware?

I'm having problems with my SSD (samsung 850 PRO) on linux so I wanted to update the firmware. I reinstalled windows and downloaded the magician software. It recognizes my SSD, I can run some ...
Guerlando OCs's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
108k views

Hard disk not detected in BIOS, disk does spin up when powered

A friend asked me if I could fix his laptop, with the description "black screen on boot". Having tried using his laptop I immediately noticed that the laptop's BIOS claims there is no hard disk ...
Adambean's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
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How to flash firmware upgrade to Thinkpad Ultra Docking Station on Linux?

I need to update the firmware of a Thinkpad Ultra Docking Station to V3.3.1, which has been released last year. I got no laptop running Windows 7/8/10 and Lenovo does not provide this update via LVFS, ...
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6 votes
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Run EFI files/scripts from [boot, virtual media] ISO

Most vendors recently provide servers firmware updates only as set of EFI files (example). But their servers internal (also as any external) IP-KVM can connect only ISO images as boot virtual media. ...
Dmitry Sukhodoyev's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
7k views

Is there a way to run Windows without installing it?

Is there a way to run Windows without installing it? Something like a Linux Live-Boot CD would very useful. I need it to run a command line tool which upgrades the firmware on my Blu-Ray burner. I ...
Itai's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
20k views

Installing firmware with samsung magician dc

I am trying to get Samsung magican DC to work on my linux (linux mint 17 xfce) computer. I downloaded samsung magician dc from here. Then I downloaded the firmware update files from this page (under "...
Brian Moths's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
668 views

UEFI "replaces" BIOS and "connects with firmware" but BIOS == firmware so WTF?

If you look for "UEFI Definition" on google you find : Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a specification for a software program that connects a computer's firmware to its operating ...
lapin's user avatar
  • 171
3 votes
2 answers
167 views

What firmware updates should I be tracking?

Seems like everything has possible firmware updates these days. Not just PC BIOS, but network cards, routers, printers, monitors, etc. The other day I heard about a firmware update for a mouse. I ...
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3 votes
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What firmware should I use on my router? [closed]

I've got a Linksys something or other router. I've never had any issues with the default firmware but have always wondered what I'm missing out on by not changing to a 3rd party more configurable ...
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2 answers
2k views

Explain TRIM, and are all SSD's going to support this with firmware updates?

I just bought a Kingston 64GB SSD to install an OS on, but after purchasing it I noticed a review that said it doesn't support TRIM and that this isn't good to install an OS. So, I did a bit of ...
GiH's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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Dell Latitude E5540 doesn't recognize external display

I stumbled over this problem when I connected a projector to my E5540's VGA port and the laptop simply failed to detect it. Even restarting the laptop did not make it recognize the external display. ...
Patrick Echterbruch's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
491 views

How does Windows bootloader add option to open firmware setup?

There is an option in Windows Setup1 which lets one enter firmware setup2. How does it do it? I would guess it would be some kind of assembly instruction, but I'm not sure which it is. 1 If my memory ...
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1 vote
2 answers
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SATA1 hard drive not seen by BIOS anymore

I haven't had much success with storage at all because all my hard drive and USB drives have gone faulty and all on them on this very old PC except a few USB. Motherboard: http://uk.msi.com/product/...
EuphoriaFTW's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
7k views

SSD Firmware update = loss of data?

I recently got a new SSD (OCZ Vertex Plus) and after reading the helpful answers for my post Disk Corruption = Failing Drive/Bad sectors? I would like to try updating the firmware but the OCZ Firmware ...
nmc's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
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How to flash the firmware of an Intel onboard ethernet adapter

Situation I want to update/flash the firmware of my onboard ethernet adapter (Intel I218-V on an ASUS Maximus Ranger VII board). Intel has a tool bootutil that can be used for this purpose, but the ...
Leo's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
895 views

HP Procurve 2010-24 J9019B 24 port network switch firmware [closed]

I have looked everywhere, and cannot find a firmware download for my network switch, HPE doesn't have the files as they are legacy and no longer accessible, if ANYONE has a copy of the latest firmware,...
jamesYValley's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
239 views

Could two brands share the same DSL modem firmware?

Tried to update DSL modem (Telewell TW-EA501) firmware, but received "Server Error A file system error was detected on the RomPager server. Return to last page" - message. Did Googling on the string ...
Aki's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
3k views

HP Pavilion BIOS Failure. Unable to restore

My laptop BIOS seems to be dead. When I turn it on the CapsLock light blinks for 2 times and nothing happens on my screen. I tried to remove battery and power cable for some minutes, but nothing ...
Chris K's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
194 views

Multiple issues after trying to install systemd-boot

This question is a follow up of this question which suffered from an XY problem I have a Lenovo MIIX 310-ICR with Arch installed on it. I tried to install systemd-boot to replace rEFInd since I ...
Tooniis's user avatar
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