The BIOS acts as the bridge between your laptop's hardware and the operating system. Updating it (often called "flashing the BIOS") is crucial if you are experiencing:

I’m trying to update the BIOS on my Toshiba Satellite C50A (model C50-A-1E9). Current BIOS version is 1.30, and I see 1.40 is available on Toshiba’s old support page (now Dynabook).

This method is built into Windows and automates the search for the correct file.