BIOS (or Basic Input / Output System) is part of the system the controls your computer, interacting with the firmware in a chip on your motherboard.
BIOS is the very first piece of software that runs when your computer turns on, and makes sure your computers components (Network adaptors, Graphics cards, etc) are running properly.
BIOS is gradually being phased out for a similar system called EFI or UEFI (Unified / Extensible Firmware Interface).
There are a number of reasons why it would make sense to update the BIOS on your computer, however things can go wrong, so this should only be done when absolutely necessary.
Before updating BIOS, you should make sure that you've already followed our
- Windows Optimisation Guide, and
- Troubleshoot USB Dropouts guide.
As these state, it's important to make sure system software up to date, and BIOS / UEFI BIOS is part of this.
Because the updates are different for each manufacturer you will need to carefully follow the instructions they provide and make sure that you are using the the correct update. Running the wrong update or losing power to your laptop whilst the BIOS is being updated can seriously damage your machine.
If you are not confident doing the update yourself you should contact your laptop manufacturer's local service specialist. If you do perform the update, and any issues arise, you need to contact your computer hardware manufacturer.