If I brick my BIOS during update, can I use my computer if it was originally using UEFI?

So my question basically is, if my BIOS needs an update and power goes out during flashing the update, can I still use my computer if it was originally using UEFI environment to boot the computer?

I know UEFI is independent from BIOS, that's why I ask this question. I want to know if UEFI in any way relies on BIOS firmware and want to know what happens to UEFI when the BIOS firmware bricks and loses its settings. Does my computer still boot with UEFI enabled if BIOS is out of work?

Solution 1:

No, being independent doesn't mean a computer has both of them simultaneously. There's just one kind in any system, and it might use the UEFI architecture or it might not.

The term "BIOS" means two different things – it can refer specifically to the old "IBM PC BIOS" firmware type that's not UEFI, but it can also refer PC firmware in general regardless of type, and you'll often see people using it both ways. Even the firmware manufacturers themselves do this on occasion, with labels like "UEFI BIOS".

So if your computer has UEFI-compliant firmware and you do a "BIOS update", that really means you're just updating the system firmware in general, and in this case that's the same UEFI firmware that was being updated – not a completely independent thing.

(UEFI firmwares often have a mode to emulate the older BIOS architecture for old operating systems which require it, but that still doesn't mean you actually have both, it's still just one firmware that knows how to provide two different kinds of interfaces to an OS.)