Solved Device Manager is reporting wrong BIOS version installed


wiganken said:
However, seeing the source is not fixing the issue and messing with the registry in these circumstances is too dangerous methinks. What say you guys.
Click to expand...
Well, there isn't actually any issue to resolve, what you're seeing in device manager is completely normal. I just wanted to point out where they information was coming from. Any device which have a device instance path with "UEFI" in it will appear as firmware in device manager. It is completely separate to your UEFI/BIOS version. I suspect that the Dell update is a UEFI application update, this runs within the UEFI itself and includes things like your Boot Manager.

More information: UEFI in Windows - Windows drivers
 

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wiganken said:
@x BlueRobot - You may have pinpointed the source of the problem. :-) The different places in the registry show different BIOS versions. See photos. It seems that DM is getting its wrong BIOS info from first photo location. The second photo shows the correct BIOS info. However, seeing the source is not fixing the issue and messing with the registry in these circumstances is too dangerous methinks. What say you guys.

View attachment 71451

View attachment 71452
Click to expand...
Now that's interesting. I wonder but it looks like it's reading an oem inf file. oem17.inf. Perhaps an inf file not updated with the correct revision? For comparison with my Amd Ryzen system the HardwareID shows "....&REV_4601..." where 4601 is my bios version number.
 

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BamaInArk said:
I don't think that "System Firmware" reflects the bios image. That suggests a Microsoft driver version only.
Click to expand...
exactly..this is what i was getting at lol.
 

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I blitzed through the responses and did not see anyone comment on this yet...

Maybe the discrepancy in versions in simply because Microsoft is using Decimal and Dell is using Hexadecimal. Note that 16 decimal is equal to 10 Hexadecimal. Bottom line is that the information shown may be correct, assuming a decimal value :-)

EDIT: For clarity, this is only a guess, but it makes sense in my head :-)
 

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@Helmut @x BlueRobot @ShamrockRig - Thanks for the pointers in your posts #2, #21 and #24. These caused me to check online that BIOS and Firmware are different. Having been satisfied by what I read and you guys I installed that firmware update fairly confident that it would not overwrite the BIOS and it didn't. It must have been for some other hardware. It took less than 20 seconds to download and install and I was not asked to restart the computer afterwards. The firmware update has now disappeared (at last).

All that hassle because I thought BIOS and Firmware were the same thing.
 
Last edited:

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DM Firmware version is now showing as v1.10.0 (it had been showing v1.4.1) so maybe the firmware update was only updating the registry entry for whatever hardware it referred to since it was that quick.

I learned a lot today. Solved. :-)
 

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    AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS
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    32GB DDR5 SO-DIMM
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated AMD Radeon 780M (4.00 GHz)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 2250HM
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED 14" Laptop - UX3405CA-QL192W
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 - 255H processor
    Memory
    16 GB LPDDR5 SDRAM
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Arc 140T onboard graphics
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200 (16:10 WUXGA resolution) OLED Touchscreen
    Hard Drives
    1TB SSD
wiganken said:
DM Firmware version is now showing as v1.10.0 (it had been showing v1.4.1) so maybe the firmware update was only updating the registry entry for whatever hardware it referred to since it was that quick.

I learned a lot today. Solved. :-)
Click to expand...
No. Imho what happened is that WU started to facilitate the flashing of the UEFI. WU itself doesn't flash the UEFI as it is done outside of Windows. It found that the UEFI was already up to date so it simply fixed the registry and ended the process. Nothing was actually updated.
Your Device manager is now showing the correct UEFI version.
 

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This is from a Dell link:

Code: 
2. What is a Firmware?
The firmware is a software program permanently etched into a hardware device such as keyboards, 
hard drive, BIOS, or video cards. 
It is programmed to give permanent instructions to communicate with other devices and perform functions
 like basic input/output tasks. 
Firmware is typically stored in the flash ROM (read-only memory) of a hardware device.

It can be erased and rewritten. Keep a server up to date is important to have the best interoperability between 
OS and server, and avoid issues. To better understand the changes and improvements introduced by a firmware, 
it is advised to read the Release Note associated.


 

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You are done and good to go, I would not worry about the details.

You know it was not a BIOS/UEFI update as such, but some other related hardware.
 

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Helmut said:
You are done and good to go, I would not worry about the details.

You know it was not a BIOS/UEFI update as such, but some other related hardware.
Click to expand...
Depending on the motherboard manufacturer UEFI firmware updates is a thing. This thread was about system firmware update and not device firmware update.
Most likely only mid to low range of laptops (mobiles) motherboards offer this system firmware updates and high end (expensive) laptops and desktop motherboards don't.
This was related to the UEFI. See this article as it should clear up any confusion.

learn.microsoft.com

Windows UEFI firmware update platform - Windows drivers

Windows supports installing system and device firmware updates via driver packages that are processed using the UpdateCapsule function.
learn.microsoft.com
 

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    M1605YA
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    24GB Dual-Channel DDR4 @ 1596MHz (22-22-22-52)
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    512MB ATI AMD Radeon Graphics (ASUStek Computer Inc)
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    ACER NITRO
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    AMD Ryzen 7 5800H / 3.2 GHz
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    Realtek Audio. NVIDIA High Definition Audio
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    15.6" LED backlight 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) 144 Hz
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The firmware updates offered by WU are actually BIOS updates but also contain some sort of inf information that windows can use to talk to the BIOS on UEFI systems. That is the discrepancy you are seeing. Be careful installing them as they can and sometimes do brick your system. If you already have a newer BIOS version flashed then all the update will do is install the inf information updating the version reported by device manager.

I have disabled all WU updates as they cause more problems than they fix especially after you have found stable drivers for your system (ie no need to update). You can search for the hardware id on Microsoft catalog and install the inf manually after flashing the bios using the manufacturers recommended BIOS.

Late post but I was searching for what happened to the firmware field in device manager... it no longer exists on my system after the last few WU updates.
 

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