Give hardware new life with firmware updates

You can update your hardware without buying anything new. A simple firmware update can add features, stability, and functionality.

By David Murphy / Tuesday, September 29 2009

Utter the word firmware to the average computer user, and you'll likely elicit a blank stare in return. But the concept isn't really that hard to understand, and once you grasp it, you can quickly improve your PC and any number of other devices, making them faster and more stable, and supplementing them with features that they didn't have out of the box.

Firmware is a set of permanent instructions on a piece of hardware, stored in the device's read-only memory. It's analogous to an embedded driver, providing the hardware identical information each time it powers up. While you can modify the hardware's interaction with your operating system via software drivers, certain lower-level functions remain constant and unchangeable. That's firmware.

But even though we call it "unchangeable", it isn't necessarily so. Some firmware, located in the device's PROM or EPROM (programmable read-only memory or erasable programmable read-only memory), can be altered, or flashed (the technical term for upgrading firmware). You do this by running software from the device manufacturer; such programs load new firmware onto the device to extend its feature set, life span, or performance, and to correct significant errors.

Firmware isn't a PC-only concept. You can (and you should) update the firmware in external devices such as network-attached and external storage hubs, as well as wireless routers and portable media players. You can even upgrade the firmware for your phone, depending on the model. (That's how people hack the iPhone – and how Apple attempts to outsmart them. Firmware updates from Apple overwrite the customised firmware that some people use to jailbreak and unlock the devices, sending hackers back to the drawing board.) Other products – like Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, which gained features such as native 1080p HD support and a new interface via a single download – can also benefit from firmware updates.

The frequency of such updates varies by manufacturer and product. Though you shouldn't expect to find updates on a weekly basis, you should perform a firmware search for all of your PC-related devices at least once per quarter.

Manufacturers often stress that you should ignore firmware updates unless you're having a problem with your hardware; but we recommend that you run your hardware on the most up-to-date firmware you can find, since the increased stability (as well as the potential to gain features) is worth it.

Unless you're an expert, you probably don't want to use third-party firmware like the iPhone hacks mentioned above. Such offerings are typically more complicated to install – and more likely to cause problems – than are manufacturer-supplied firmware updates. They can also void a warranty. Unless you know what you're doing and you don't mind the risks, stick to official firmware.

The benefits of new firmware
What can you update with new firmware? It varies. Few devices receive no firmware updates over their lifetime – CPUs benefit from motherboard firmware updates, but are not upgradable themselves. Components such as hard drives and optical drives are open to firmware updates, but the device manufacturers tend not to release fixes unless they correct a specific, disastrous problem.

You'll find the real meat of firmware upgrading in three areas: your motherboard, your networking devices, and your portable media devices. But what will you get for your meddling? In all three cases, firmware updates can provide stability and access to features that didn't exist out of the box. You could potentially increase the ability to overclock your motherboard, integrate advanced utilities such as BitTorrent downloading into your network-attached storage, or, in the case of a device like Apple's iPhone, improve the response times and signal strength of your mobile gear. Firmware updates may not revolutionise your digital experience, but they will improve it, and are often necessary for new driver updates or additional device compatibility.

Before you hit your search engine of choice and start downloading every firmware update you can find, it's important to consider a few points. For starters, even though firmware upgrading isn't very difficult to do, it has the potential to cause catastrophic damage if you fail to follow the instructions that the manufacturer provides. A firmware update isn't like a device driver – you can't uninstall it and reinstall it on a whim. Compared with driver installation, rolling back firmware if your initial installation gets botched is much harder.

Check, double-check, and triple-check that you're grabbing the correct firmware for your device. Some companies make that easy; plug your iPhone into your computer, for instance, and Apple will automate the entire process for you.
Other companies, particularly motherboard manufacturers, might force you to wade through drop-down menus of their entire product line to find your model's unique ID. Most devices won't let you install a different product's firmware, but on the off chance that yours does, the last thing you want to do is flash your product with the wrong file.

Finally, firmware upgrades can act as a reset switch. While some flash utilities let you save and restore your settings before and after the update, a typical update will revert your device to its factory defaults. If you've spent time setting up custom networking configurations on a router, for instance, you should save those settings prior to a firmware update.

Unless your router offers some settings-backup functionality, you should copy your router's pertinent settings (such as port forwards, access controls, and wireless network configurations) into a text document.

Flashing firmware
How easy it is to flash your firmware depends on the type of device and the kindness of the manufacturer. I've illustrated a few scenarios here, but what you'll do depends on what your device maker provides to you.

The easiest way to update your motherboard's firmware is to use the manufacturer's Windows-based flashing application. If your manufacturer offers such a program (and that's a big if), just follow its instructions.

If the device maker doesn't have such a program, it may provide a bootable CD in the form of a downloadable .iso file (a CD or DVD image). With luck, double-clicking that file will launch your disc-authoring software and prompt you to insert a CD. But if Windows doesn't know what to do with that .iso file, download and install the freeware ImgBurn (imgburn.com), and then double-click the file.

Reboot with the new CD in the optical drive; now the firmware-flashing process should start immediately.

Update firmware with a bootable USB drive
Unfortunately, not all manufacturers make flashing that easy. Some offer only a DOS-based flashing utility that you're supposed to run from a bootable floppy disk. Once you prepare the floppy, you reboot with the disk in the floppy drive, run the flash utility, and then remove the floppy and reboot again.

If your PC is less than a few years old, you're probably asking, "What floppy drive?" If spending money on an external floppy drive for a single firmware update isn't your cup of tea, you'll need to get creative and make a bootable flash drive instead. To do so, grab the HP USB Disk Storage Format utility (tinyurl.com/ndtsww). You will also need the HPUSBFW_BOOTFILES.zip archive. You should be able to find it at 4shared (tinyurl.com/lqxrh2); if it isn't there, track it down by typing the file name in a search engine.

Unzip and run USB Disk Storage Format (if Windows refuses to run this program because it requires administrator rights, even though you're logged on as the administrator, right-click the file and choose Run as administrator). Select your flash drive as the device and pick the option to format it as a FAT32 file system. Click the check box that says Create a DOS Bootable Disk and select the folder containing the unzipped files of the HPUSBFW_BOOTFILES.zip archive. Once the utility is done, drag and drop whatever files the manufacturer of your device wants you to put on the "floppy".

The flash drive is ready, but is your PC ready to boot it? Try leaving the drive plugged in while you reboot. If Windows comes up normally, you'll have to tell your PC to boot from the flash drive. To do so, restart your PC and watch for a message (it will be one of the first things to appear) telling you which key to press for the boot menu, or which key to press for setup. Press that key immediately. (If you see both, press the boot-menu key.) If you pull up the boot menu, set the computer to boot from its USB ports. If you get the setup screen, hunt for a section called Boot Options or Boot Order; there, make sure USB devices are listed before the hard drive in the boot order. Save the settings and reboot.

When you boot from the flash drive, watch the screen; you might have to press a key to activate the boot from your USB device.

Network-device and mobile-gear updates
NAS boxes, routers, and mobile devices are much easier to update than motherboards. On most network devices, you access the configuration screen by typing its IP address into a browser. There, you should be able to find the firmware-update option, likely accompanied by a large browse button. Click that, select the firmware file you downloaded, and click to update.

We could fill an entire PC World issue with the exact means for flashing half the devices open to firmware updates. What's most important is the safety of your devices. Save your settings and, whenever possible, follow the manufacturer's instructions to the letter, using the correct firmware. Take these steps to prevent mishaps, and you'll quickly find that updating firmware can be one of the easiest – and best – upgrades you could possibly make.