BIOS Overview for Intel® NUC
Content Type: Product Information & Documentation | Article ID: 000006714 | Last Reviewed: 02/06/2025
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The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is the program that controls the computer from the time it powers on until the time the operating system takes over. The purpose of the BIOS is to identify and initialize processor, memory, hard drives, optical drives, and other hardware.
The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware. UEFI replaces the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) firmware interface, with most UEFI firmware implementations providing legacy support for BIOS services.
The terms are often used interchangeably.
CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) is an onboard battery-powered chip inside the computer that stores information, when the computer is not connected to AC power. For example, it stores the BIOS settings, time and date, etc. It's also referred to as a Real-Time Clock (RTC) or non-volatile RAM (NVRAM).
Update the BIOS on your computer only if the newer BIOS version can solve a specific problem. You can view all BIOS changes in the Release Notes included with the BIOS updates in Download Center.
All BIOS updates are available at Download Center. Enter your Intel NUC Model Number in the search box for available driver/bios downloads.
There are several methods of updating an Intel® NUC BIOS to the latest version. The number of options available for any particular model varies, depending on drive support and BIOS update file size. See BIOS Update Instructions.
For a list of BIOS settings along with their purpose and options, see the BIOS Settings Glossary.
The BIOS Setup program can be used to view and change the BIOS settings for the computer. You can access the BIOS Setup program by pressing F2 just as the system powers on before the operating system boots.
If any problems occur after making BIOS settings changes, such as poor performance or intermittent issues, reset the optimal default values:
If the system locks or does not boot after changing the BIOS settings, do a BIOS recovery.