Updating my HP Z200 workstation with latest Bios

[TheReal_Tin_man]

I've been running my windows 10 on one of 2 HP Z200 workstations I have for about a year.   After the recent scare of Meltdown and Spectre bad guys, I went looking to see If I have any Bios updates that I could install.  I found that this computer was only supported up to Windows 7 64 bit. So when I look for any updates, I don't have an OS listed.  I'm all up to date with MS and their patches, so do I need to do anything else with my HP from the HP website?

Thanks,

TheReal_Tin_man.

[Skylarking]

Windows 10 is not a supported OS on your Z200 so you are on your own when problems occur. Luckily the system will work well as Win10 update seems rather good at finding required drivers.

But I'd be wary of updating BIOS on an unsupported OS. Having said that, BIOS updates can be installed via BIOS itself so OS is not relevant in this contect.

Sadly, the last BIOS for your z200 is v1.22 dated 11 March 2016. Whether this last BIOS includes last years BIOS & ME vulnerabilities i don't know BUT there are no Spectre fixes for you 

It also looks like there will not be any Spectre fixes for you as your system is not listed within the document found via this HP has released a security bulletin for systems with Intel x86 processor link as seen on the top right of the z200 Support page

Sadly, my z210 is also not listed as waiting for a fix (and i know Xeon E3 series CPU's are impacted)

[fixed speeling :smileywink:]

[TheReal_Tin_man]

I knew that windows 10 was not included in the supported OS's, but wasn't sure if the BIO's was going to be updated.  I have 2 of these machines, on one of them I run Ubuntu, and I noticed the other day that Ubuntu received a Intel-Microcode update, and I'm pretty sure it was concerning the new threats.  

Oh well I'll just keep my OS systems uptodate, and hope for the best.

thanks for the reply.

TheReal_Tin_man

[Skylarking]

Yes, linux can update the microcode at runtime as can Windows.

Sadly, Microsoft has not seen fit to provide Spectre microcode workarounds via it's update mechanism.

This may be due to Intel dragging its feet with Specre microcode workarounds for all CPUs OR it could be that Specre microcode updates cause a bigger preformance hit than what MS is comfortable inflicting on our systems.

Who knows the truth as Spectre is an opaic issue... too many $$ involved to get any clarity from anyone....