Is your BIOS up to date?

[Bloax]

Staying up to date is what every aspiring Zen2 Beta Tester aspires to do!

Otherwise, not really - if the system works perfectly, it tends to stay that way instead of having constant attempts to fix what isn't broken until there is something to fix.

I had issues on bios updates with my Aorus gaming 5 board. The latest one seems stable now. Sometimes upgrading isn't the best on a stable system. I usually wait to see if a bios comes directly after another since that is a sign of a "goofed" bios.

As a backwards-compat beta tester, you don't really get much choice in the matter - as it was The Newest Version or Go Pound Sand until the latest (suddenly a week old but that's a lie) in my case.

The June 2019 version of this b450 Tomahawk version being scuffed enough that trying a sHinY NeW BIoS didn't exactly seem like much was at stake.

But yes, that's a good General Guideline to follow if you're not a Willing Test Subject (tm)

 

[Zarathustra]

I assume MSI stopped releasing new bios for my Z77 motherboard a while ago although I haven't checked in years

I was about to make the same statement about my P9x79 WS which I bough tin 2011, but I checked for ****s and giggles and found this:



Looks like it was updated for Spectre/Meltdown last year (7 years after launch!), and I never noticed. Maybe I got extended support because it is a Workstation board?

Maybe I'll flash it. I don't know what this "Improve system performance" stuff is about, as I am fairly certain the Spectre/Meltdown mitigations had pretty negative performance effects. Maybe what they are saying is that this Microcode update is a better fix than the OS Software patches, and it will have less of a performance impact?

 

[Zarathustra]

I was about to make the same statement about my P9x79 WS which I bough tin 2011, but I checked for ****s and giggles and found this:

View attachment 39

Looks like it was updated for Spectre/Meltdown last year (7 years after launch!), and I never noticed. Maybe I got extended support because it is a Workstation board?

Maybe I'll flash it. I don't know what this "Improve system performance" stuff is about, as I am fairly certain the Spectre/Meltdown mitigations had pretty negative performance effects. Maybe what they are saying is that this Microcode update is a better fix than the OS Software patches, and it will have less of a performance impact?

Jeez. I should really do this stuff when I've had more sleep.

I stupidly completely forgot that updating the BIOS means clearing all the settings and saved overclocking profiles, and completely forgot to take down my settings for my max stable overclock....


...so here I am, trying to find stable OC settings on an 8 year old system I plan to retire in September...

What a colossal waste of time.

 

[Bloax]

Hey, on the bright side it was User Error hee hee

 

[Dan_D]

I was about to make the same statement about my P9x79 WS which I bough tin 2011, but I checked for ****s and giggles and found this:

View attachment 39

Looks like it was updated for Spectre/Meltdown last year (7 years after launch!), and I never noticed. Maybe I got extended support because it is a Workstation board?

Maybe I'll flash it. I don't know what this "Improve system performance" stuff is about, as I am fairly certain the Spectre/Meltdown mitigations had pretty negative performance effects. Maybe what they are saying is that this Microcode update is a better fix than the OS Software patches, and it will have less of a performance impact?

The workstation boards get supported for longer and security is a bigger concern for those. As for the "improve system performance" thing that ASUS put in there, they either put that in there or put in "improve system stability." It doesn't seem to make any difference and frankly, you can't do much for performance on the BIOS front. The only thing I can think of is that there are some improved mitigations for Spectre and Meltdown which take less of a performance hit. Microsoft integrated those into build 1903 for Windows 10 as an example. However, I don't know if this is true of BIOS updates and that seems unlikely given how old that one is.

 

[Zarathustra]

Hey, on the bright side it was User Error hee hee

Oh well. After some tinkering, I got it stable at the same clocks I used to have again, (or at least as stable as is possible with this short a period ofmload testing) but I'm missing some tweak or something so used to use, but I can't remember what. It used to drop clocks and voltages when idle, but now it doesn't, just stays pegged producing heat.

Going to have to go through the entire list of settings and see if anything regarding power management jumps out at me. Enhanced Intel Speedstep is on, not sure what else could be missing...

Edit:

Doh, just turns out I forgot I put Win 10 in performance power mode.

Even so, it seems to run hotter now. I wonder what I did differently last time to get it running leaner yet still stable...

 

[Strelok]

Yes. On my X470 I did it and it fixed my VGA POST errors somehow. In the ~10 or so years I've been into computers, I have never had a BIOS update fix an issue like that. Funny part is, none of the issues I was having were mentioned in the updates.

 

[[H]orrorshow]

MSI needs to update this X470 Gaming Pro Carbon with a non-beta 3000 BIOS already so I can put this rig together....

I assume they're piecing it together as we speak but come on now....

EDIT: Apparently a couple more weeks.. https://community.amd.com/community...te-5-let-s-talk-clocks-voltages-and-destiny-2

"A more comprehensive solution in the upcoming AGESA 1003ABB is still required for other affected software affected by the same underlying issue. AGESA 1003ABB will appear in production BIOSes when your manufacturer has completed QA testing to ensure stability and reliability. This process typically takes a few weeks."

 

[Bloax]

The latest BIOS on this b450 Tomahawk is pleasantly, less Beta Tester tier; with slightly more features, and even the ability to export/import your settings to/from a USB drive!
wowee insane

In other news, I'm now running a 99.9% Stable (tm) memory setup
no takesie backsies on spontaneous one-in-a-thousand system crashes

Now, of course - it'd be 101% stable if I tried to run it without sub(sub)-timings that are stupid tight, but where's the fun in that?
And yes, I've tried to make it stable at 1T but it wouldn't go past being Benchmark Stable™ so **** that noise.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

I think its safe to say I update BIOS ROMs more than most people given that I've been reviewing motherboards for a decade and a half. I've only seen two flash failures so far. One was recoverable, and the other was resolved by ASUS sending a new BIOS chip out to the customer who owned the system. I installed it, and then re-flashed. It worked fine after that.

Generally speaking, are those chips in sockets or do you have to de-solder them? Just curious.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Can't remember if I've ever updated the BIOS on my Z68 board. I might've once when I first put it together or maybe 3-4 years ago but that system has been rock solid since putting it together and I haven't read of any issues from others stating it needed to be done. The X79 board, on the other hand, I've updated as needed. That motherboard has a lot more features and at different times I've nearly all of them. That rig was a bit trickier for me to overclock as well and I wanted to make sure nothing was holding me back. I'm pretty sure I updated the BIOS on my MSI GT80 Titan due to some WIndows 10 issues along with some strange shutdown bugs.

I didn't see if anyone else posted about it but firmware updates have become much more regular for many devices now. I know it's not the same as BIOS but they do have similarities. I've had to regularly flash various older modem/routers/pbx's firmware over the last few years with the updates relating to exploit fixes. On the home theater front I've updated my receivers and T.V.'s as well. The Sony Z9D has gotten 2-4 of them since I got it in November. Disc players sometimes need updates but I've honestly seen very few that were needed other than app related items. All of these devices share the same vulnerability with a PC in that if it goes wrong they can brick. Glad to see newer ones have become much easier with the ability to download their own instead of needing to apply via a drive.

 

[Grimlakin]

I personally like to check for BIOS updates for my personal systems monthly. For the servers I manage depending on projects with the same frequency to be honest.

 

[Dan_D]

Generally speaking, are those chips in sockets or do you have to de-solder them? Just curious.

The ROM was in a removable socket. ASUS used them for practically all of their boards until a couple years ago.

 

[Captindecisive]

Not all BIOS updates are good or fun Always a good idea to test everything after an update just to make sure all is well. ASRock recently released version 1.92 for the Steel Legend X570 which was supposed to "Fix CPU Power consumption report." After this BIOS update, my 3600X would only boost to 3GHz on all core and 3.2GHz on single core with Ryzen Master reporting tons of erratic voltage/current behavior; reverting back to 1.9 fixed the issue and clocks, voltage/current are all back to normal values.