MSI X570 Tomahawk WiFi Bios Flash button, how to tell if it's worked?

diziet · 6 Nov 2020 at 13:27

Does anybody know what it means if the bios flash button only causes the LED to blink for a handful of seconds?

I'm struggling to determine whether i've already updated the BIOS and didn't notice it working the first time or whether something has gone wrong.

Also is the only way to check to install a CPU and GPU so I can view a post screen to check the bios version? Which could be difficult as my only CPU is one of the new Ryzens.

I've downloaded this one from the MSI website:

Version
7C84v14
Release Date
2020-11-04

Renamed it to MSI.ROM on the root of a FAT32 formatted USB drive but I never noticed the LED light near the USB port flashing for any extended length of time so think something may have gone awry.

diziet · 6 Nov 2020 at 14:28

Oh I've tried some 15 or 20 times already. I'll find more USB drives and keep trying. Stupid question, if I provide a BIOS file that's the same version as the one already installed will it flash it again or abort?

diziet · 6 Nov 2020 at 15:34

LOL.

- USB Corsair Stealth formatted on a mac. No.
- Same drive setup on windows. No.
- SanDisk USB drive, mac or windows. No.
- Cheap USB stick found in a draw from some promotional people. YEP!

Seems the motherboard is really picky about what's acceptable. Maybe USB 3 pen drives, and drives over 4GB aren't recognised or something weird.

diziet · 8 Nov 2020 at 17:12

Aye, fairly sure I had the others formatted and setup correctly. Good advice for anyone that stumbles over this thread in the coming days though.

diziet · 11 Nov 2020 at 16:05

Allattar1 said:
Flashed mine earlier. Assuming it worked. Started with a quick flash which lasted 5-10 seconds, then stayed with a slower flash for a few minutes. It looked like it then rebooted as fans power went off and came back on again.
I'm going with thats what a succesful bios flash looks like

Yes that's what it did when it worked for me.

1Dustin said:
Are you guys bothering to install the CPU and RAM before attempting the flash for the 5000 series, are after everything is done? I shall be attempting this tomorrow... :/

I didn't, I don't think it would cause any problems if you do but the bios flash button let's you complete this step when you don't have CPU/RAM to hand and/or the system won't POST.

It felt wiser to me to update the BIOS for Ryzen 5000 support before installing the CPU as at least then it won't even attempt to boot with an incompatible CPU.