BIOS Flashback

SuperSeb · 27 Oct 2023 at 18:27

Hi,

I have an AMD 7800X3D and a Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming motherboard arriving tomorrow, I am just doing some research before I start putting it together.

I have read that some people suggest to do something called a BIOS Flashback before installing the CPU and RAM, is this necessary or can I do it the way I know (building the pc, installing windows and then updating the BIOS from USB)?

I am slightly worried because I have read that there was a problem with this combination catching fire before the BIOS was updated! Is this still an issue or will the motherboard come with a safe BIOS pre installed?

Thanks

SuperSeb · 27 Oct 2023 at 18:41

bazzastan said:
problem catching fire and you still bought it ?

Unfortunately I have read about this after ordering it.

SuperSeb · 27 Oct 2023 at 19:12

Dg834man said:
It was a problem with expo setting the soc voltage too high, expo won't be enabled unless you turn it on.

Ah thats a shame as I have bought TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 to go with it.

SuperSeb · 27 Oct 2023 at 19:38

Quartz said:
All this is is a BIOS update. The 'flashback' part is being able to do an update from a USB stick if things have gone wrong. Just make sure you update the BIOS as the very first thing you do. You can do it even without a CPU installed.

If you have a UPS then make sure everything is plugged into the UPS, just to be on the safe side.

Thanks for this, I have already got the renamed BIOS file on a USB ready to go.

SuperSeb · 28 Oct 2023 at 14:01

Jamin280672 said:
Just put the PC together, start it up, enter the bios itself and use the built in bios utility to flash the bios to the latest version before doing anything else, for this you will need the orginal bios file on a USB stick, not the renamed file.

Be aware, ASUS do a 2 or 3 step bios update processes, so it will reboot a couple of times whilst its updating, dont think that when it switches off for the first time its finished and then remove the USB stick, just leave it alone until you are 100% sure its finished, it will switch off and wont come back on again until you press the power button when its finished, I normally wait until im safely back in the bios before removing the USB stick.

On a plus note, out of the millions of people that brought ryzen 7000 and AM5 motherboards, there was only about 5 people that had the burn out issue, and only 2 or 3 of them were on an ASUS board, ive been running ASUS X670e with a Ryzen 7000 since almost the beginning and never had a problem, even with Expo enabled, there was Gigabyte boards and ASRock boards involved in that mess too.

GN reproduced the the issue here, there first board was an ASUS, the 2nd board was a Gigabyte with the 1.45v SOC "We found a bios so buggy with Gigabyte that it can kill a chip accidently":

Thanks for your reply, ill do what you are saying and update the bios this way.

SuperSeb · 28 Oct 2023 at 14:44

Elevon said:
I think bios 1413 had the cpu voltage bios fix which was back in late April, regardless as mentioned just flash bios to latest version as soon as possible and you'' be fine. Btw I've the Asus B650E Gaming E version and my CPU Soc does not go over 1.24v even with expo enabled with 7800X3D cpu and latest bios 1809 for my board.

Still running great after three weeks .

Ok great to hear.

Bit of a different question - what pattern did you apply your thermal paste? I’ve got a peerless assassin heat sink to use and am finding lots of different opinions on this.