Msi Z97 Bios

Jamielicious · 25 Jan 2015 at 22:44

I know the Live Update thing is to be avoided but has anyone on here safely updated the bios of a Z97 through the m-flash tool or is there a better way to do it?

I'm not in a rush to update it but I have the oldest version bios and future upgrading would probably work better on a more up to date bios.

pastymuncher · 26 Jan 2015 at 11:59

Being MSI I would say leave it alone if it's working fine. There doesn't appear to be any 100% safe way to update the bios on their boards. They recommend people to sign up to their forums so that they gain access to their forum flashing tool but even that is not a guarantee that you won't end up with a bricked board. This has been going on for years and they really need to get on top of whatever problem they have with bios flashing. I have flashed boards from Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock and other's and have never had a bad update so why does it happen with MSI?

Jamielicious · 26 Jan 2015 at 17:44

Thanks for the advice, I don't currently have any problems as such, I was just thinking ahead really for future upgrading, RAM and graphics mainly.

Blackbadger · 26 Jan 2015 at 22:18

MSI have a great tool and VERY comprehensive guides, albeit in funny colours.

As the Muncher said, if it's not broken don't fix it.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=116721.0

Craiig · 26 Jan 2015 at 22:21

Don't update your BIOS on an MSI boards, I just did and now can't boot.

pastymuncher · 27 Jan 2015 at 13:22

Blackbadger said:
MSI have a great tool and VERY comprehensive guides, albeit in funny colours.

As the Muncher said, if it's not broken don't fix it.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=116721.0

No they don't. Their tool is crap. Do a search and see how many boards get bricked by their software. There are many on here alone. You should take a look on their support forum and see just how many there are on there.

Danny75 · 27 Jan 2015 at 14:23

That thread for a tool* is from 2008, guys. Last post from 2010.

* https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=116721.0

Avoid it and avoid Live Update, and do it through the simple-to-use M-Flash.

Swifty55 · 27 Jan 2015 at 14:33

Updated mine on a USB stick via BIOS, perfectly fine. Running on latest BIOS without a problem..

Danny75 · 27 Jan 2015 at 14:48

Swifty55 said:
Updated mine on a USB stick via BIOS, perfectly fine. Running on latest BIOS without a problem..

I've flashed BIOS on my Z87 MPower Max like 9 times. And on two Z87i's twice each, through M-Flash. No trouble. Same process as Asus EZ-Flash.

Of course that's no help to Craiig, or others though. And I don't think the Gaming 3 has dual BIOS, no. Only some of their higher tier boards do.

Jamielicious · 27 Jan 2015 at 19:56

I had heard even m-flash via USB can brick boards. My previous board seemed less hassle to update (Gigabyte P35C) but yeah does seem like msi have issues.

pastymuncher · 27 Jan 2015 at 21:13

It does. The majority of bricked boards I have seen have been caused by using M-Flash or the awful live update. Most people don't know about the forum tool until it's too late.

Craiig · 27 Jan 2015 at 22:16

pastymuncher said:
It does. The majority of bricked boards I have seen have been caused by using M-Flash or the awful live update. Most people don't know about the forum tool until it's too late.

agreed!