Does clean installing Windows reset flashed BIOS?

Question

First let me give you some background:

This notebook came with two graphic cards. After four years, it chose to not boot anymore overnight (fans go on, but display stays black; no BIOS, no nothing, just black). Detaching the second graphic card solves this problem and the system is booting like always. Hate when that happens :-D

The only thing I changed right before was enabling the SLI mode. But why would it be a problem?

I've already tried the following:

• Reinstalling some drivers, updated everything to manufacturer standard
• Checking SSD, RAM, temperature
• Recover Windows 10 (this device has a button to boot a recovery install tool)
• Updating the BIOS
• Flashing the graphic card (not successful though)
• Check all cable connections
• Insert the second graphic card ten times
• Do the twenty seconds power button magic

After days I think either the second graphic card is broken, or something with all the driver/BIOS/flashing stuff went crazy. So here comes the question for the next try:

Will a clean Windows installation revert bad BIOS flashes?

This Lenovo system comes with so much unnecessary software and I'm not sure what a "system recovery" is really doing, so I think best is to clean install Windows 10. But this only makes sense if this step will revert flashed hardware. Is it?

I'll be glad to have this system boot properly!

Solution

No. Installing/Reinstalling Windows (or any other OS for that matter) won't affect the BIOS/UEFI version of your system in any way whatsoever.

Considering the sheer number of different firmware versions in use across all computers, and the various iterations of each available, it would be a monumental task for an OS to include all of this in the installation media. Furthermore, updates to a system's BIOS/UEFI are often meant to fix bugs or support newer hardware (e.g. CPU versions) making the very latest version usually most desirable. Keeping OS installation media updated with all of these releases would be a nightmare.

Comments

[Bensen]

Man, I just wanted a yes so I can finally fix it...

[I say Reinstate Monica]

@Bensen I understand. It does sound like a hardware problem though, so a BIOS update isn't likely to fix it.

[Nullpointer42]

Might be worth looking to see if there's a reset to defaults option in the BIOS/UEFI. Would help isolate if it's a bad hardware issue or a misconfiguration.