3 ms·

Guess I was lucky then, I flashed a very similar new asus motherboard from this same generation for AMD ryzen 7000 cpu's, I used the first random usb stick lyin

Guess I was lucky then, I flashed a very similar new asus motherboard from this same generation for AMD ryzen 7000 cpu's, I used the first random usb stick lying around, wrote the bios update to it from linux, possibly had to rename the file to something specific (manually. Who needs a tool for that? Also why doesn't asus just give it the correct name in the zip file?), and flashing worked first try. May have been a usb 2.0 stick though. Rebooting after that does take a while though (minutes) since it needs to re-learn the RAM. And this is a painful process indeed, especially when I originally just had the mobo since I had probably not seated the RAM to the fullest extent (DDR 4 seems to require pressing it very well even after it already clearly clicked in, after pushing it harder it worked well), and the only feedback from the mobo was very similar LED codes as when it "learns" the RAM, and sometimes even half working...

Aardwolf 4y ago
(typo, I meant DDR 5 instead of DDR 4)
scruple 4y ago
I recently updated an MSI Z690-A to the latest BIOS in preparation for installing a 13th generation Intel. I downloaded the updated BIOS file, put it on a thumb drive, renamed it to "MSI.ROM," put the thumb drive into the "Flash BIOS" port, had the motherboard connected to ATX and CPU1 power only, no CPU, or RAM, or any other hardware installed, flipped on power, pressed the "Flash BIOS" button and everything worked fine. This board "learned" the RAM sticks very quickly, maybe because the board never had RAM to begin with. It took seconds. I was originally going to pick up an Asus Strix Z690-A but read about a variety of problems with that board, especially with regards to RAM. Many anecdotes I had seen online had similar complaints about need to really press hard to get the RAM sticks properly installed. I had no issues with the MSI. My previous build had an Asus mobo and it had strange issues, too.
- _rs 4y ago
  Yeah I’ll give a +1 to MSI, their BIOS firmware updates have been nothing but smooth for me and I haven’t had to think much about which USB sticks I’ve used. I’m about 80% sure I’ve used a USB 3 stick at one point but can’t be certain
  - AtlasBarfed 4y ago
    IF you read the special notes about a not-too-big flash drive and FAT and all that. IIRC I also had to try several USB ports in back and something else hacky to get the flash going. It was still half black incantation and performative dance learned from the internet, and about 5% directions provided by MSI on their website or within BIOS. I've used Gigabyte and Asus/ASRock in the past, and I think a Biostar ... and I'll be going back to those in the future.
  - AshamedCaptain 4y ago
    MSI is not much better than the other choices when it comes to buggy firmware. Just grep on a z690 how many AE_ALREADY_EXISTS errors you get on a fresh kernel boot ( which indicates at the very minimum a total lack of attention to detail). It did not improve on the z790 despite the fact it was widely reported to them.
  - nonbirithm 4y ago
    MSI? The same thing the author describes happened to me with a new MSI Mortar a while ago. It turns out the BIOS didn't recognize the new Ryzen CPU I bought because it was too new and an update was required. I'd never experienced that before so it took me several hours to realize that and find the "support newer CPU revisions" update buried in one of MSI's support pages. Then I found the flashing process wasn't working and there were no errors to indicate it was really the USB stick I was using that was incompatible. I went through 5 USB sticks before I could flash the thing successfully and have confidence that my brand-new motherboard wasn't a paperweight straight out of the box. Can't imagine what I would have done if I ran out of USB sticks earlier.
xattt 4y ago
Is using flashrom(1) in-situ not an option? (1) https://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom https://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom
- mjg59 4y ago
  Firmware will typically configure the SPI controller such that flash can't be written directly from the OS, both as a self-protection mechanism (there's been malware in the past that deliberately bricked boards by overwriting the firmware) and as a security boundary (if you can modify flash directly, you can replace the set of keys trusted by secure boot).

Aardwolf 4y ago

(typo, I meant DDR 5 instead of DDR 4)

scruple 4y ago

I recently updated an MSI Z690-A to the latest BIOS in preparation for installing a 13th generation Intel. I downloaded the updated BIOS file, put it on a thumb drive, renamed it to "MSI.ROM," put the thumb drive into the "Flash BIOS" port, had the motherboard connected to ATX and CPU1 power only, no CPU, or RAM, or any other hardware installed, flipped on power, pressed the "Flash BIOS" button and everything worked fine. This board "learned" the RAM sticks very quickly, maybe because the board never had RAM to begin with. It took seconds. I was originally going to pick up an Asus Strix Z690-A but read about a variety of problems with that board, especially with regards to RAM. Many anecdotes I had seen online had similar complaints about need to really press hard to get the RAM sticks properly installed. I had no issues with the MSI. My previous build had an Asus mobo and it had strange issues, too.

_rs 4y ago
Yeah I’ll give a +1 to MSI, their BIOS firmware updates have been nothing but smooth for me and I haven’t had to think much about which USB sticks I’ve used. I’m about 80% sure I’ve used a USB 3 stick at one point but can’t be certain
- AtlasBarfed 4y ago
  IF you read the special notes about a not-too-big flash drive and FAT and all that. IIRC I also had to try several USB ports in back and something else hacky to get the flash going. It was still half black incantation and performative dance learned from the internet, and about 5% directions provided by MSI on their website or within BIOS. I've used Gigabyte and Asus/ASRock in the past, and I think a Biostar ... and I'll be going back to those in the future.
- AshamedCaptain 4y ago
  MSI is not much better than the other choices when it comes to buggy firmware. Just grep on a z690 how many AE_ALREADY_EXISTS errors you get on a fresh kernel boot ( which indicates at the very minimum a total lack of attention to detail). It did not improve on the z790 despite the fact it was widely reported to them.
- nonbirithm 4y ago
  MSI? The same thing the author describes happened to me with a new MSI Mortar a while ago. It turns out the BIOS didn't recognize the new Ryzen CPU I bought because it was too new and an update was required. I'd never experienced that before so it took me several hours to realize that and find the "support newer CPU revisions" update buried in one of MSI's support pages. Then I found the flashing process wasn't working and there were no errors to indicate it was really the USB stick I was using that was incompatible. I went through 5 USB sticks before I could flash the thing successfully and have confidence that my brand-new motherboard wasn't a paperweight straight out of the box. Can't imagine what I would have done if I ran out of USB sticks earlier.

xattt 4y ago

Is using flashrom(1) in-situ not an option? (1) https://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom https://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom

mjg59 4y ago
Firmware will typically configure the SPI controller such that flash can't be written directly from the OS, both as a self-protection mechanism (there's been malware in the past that deliberately bricked boards by overwriting the firmware) and as a security boundary (if you can modify flash directly, you can replace the set of keys trusted by secure boot).