Guest operating system displays BIOS update message

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
After an ESX/ESXi host is upgraded with an update or patch that includes an update for the BIOS of the virtual machines, the next time the virtual machines running on that host are updated, the guest operating system may display a message similar to the following:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Application Popup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 44
Date: 9/6/2008
Time: 11:36:10 PM
User: N/A
Computer: COMPUTER NAME
Description:
Windows has detected that the system firmware (BIOS) was updated [previous firmware date = <date>, current firmware date <date>].

Environment

VMware ESX Server 2.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESX Server 2.5.x
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware ESX Server 2.1.x
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX Server 1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
VMware ESX Server 1.5.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded

Resolution

This is an informational message.

If the ESX or ESXi host has recently been upgraded with an upgrade or patch, you can safely ignore this message.

Additional Information

For more information, see the Microsoft Events and Errors Message Center.