Maybe you've done it before. Maybe you haven't. The point is that you pray that there will not be some power outage in the few moments that your computer's motherboard is vulnerable to loss when you upgrade your BIOS.
So why do we do it? It is only recommended when for some reason a new piece of hardware is not recognized or not compatible with your current BIOS. I flashed my little brother's BIOS a week ago when we installed a 40GB Hard drive. That was fun. :( Good thing for him I knew what I was doing. Great thing for him I got him to bring his computer over to the parent's house to install all of his new components for him, otherwise he would have been up a sh!tcreek without a paddle...
He is the technical one when it comes to automobiles, I am the computer person. But that is another story.
I did a search when I installed his BIOS, and I came up with a site that had it, but it wasn't before I came across esupport.com. Of course I would have just gone out to the support site for his computer to find BIOS updates, except that the company that he bought his computer from didn't have a site available to go to! They (eSupport) have a form for you to fill out on their site, and then they will contact you over the next few days about an update. Nevermind that it is 'for the low price of just $24.95' to get the stinking upgrade! I wasnt' happy when I saw the email asking for me to contact them with a link and the “Low price” written in it. I must have missed something. Someone makes a living charging people for something that most of the time they can find for free. Oh well. Something to complain about I guess. Lucrative business methods some people have.
I received a comment tonight from a friend when I told him I updated my BIOS: “Dude, you work on your computer like a blue collar worker works on his car.” I thought that was somewhat humorous, and not just because I also work on my “car.” Not a big deal, just a rant...