Insyde H2OFFT (Flash Firmware Tool)

The Water Cooler
1

Booting up my Dell Inspiron 16 laptop, I was greeted, for the first time ever, by a screen beginning with:

      Please do not remove the AC power!

Insyde H2OFFT (Flash Firmware Tool) Version 2.01.26.00
Copyright 2000-2025, Insyde Software Corp. All Rights Reserved.

             Loading new BIOS image: Done
             Loading EC image: Done

…

I’ve never seen anything like this before, nor have I ever heard of automatic BIOS updates. I thought your were suppose to leave the BIOS alone unless there was a specific reason for upgrading it, because of the risk of serious problems should an error occur during the update.

Is this legitimate, or I does my machine have some serious malware on it?

I have looked at Dell’s website, but can’t find anything about this. A general search turned up a reference on a Lenovo website suggesting it’s legitimate, but …

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Dell says:

  1. Is there any way to automate BIOS updates on Dell systems?

Yes, you can automate BIOS updates using preinstalled apps like Dell’s SupportAssist, Dell Update, Alienware Update, Dell Command | Update, or Windows Updates which automatically checks for and installs the latest updates as they become available.

Any chance you are running one of those (possibly in a dual-booted Windows install)?

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I am definitely dual-booting with Windows.

As to the settings you mention, I do not recall having turned them on, but I suppose it’s quite possible they are on by default. I’ll have to have a look and see whether I can figure out what may be turned on. In any event, I am reassured that this is most likely legitimate, even if I’m not happy about it.

Thank you!

P.S. I’m grateful for your help in another thread about pip and conda. I have recently been distracted by other projects and have not yet followed up but get back to that topic eventually.

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