IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

[WilliamM2]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

I have a Asrock Fatality P67-Performance and an i5 2500K. I updated the bios twice with the newer Ivy bridge versions well over a year ago. No issues at all.
ASRock > Fatal1ty P67 Performance

The first update (2.10) I did using a USB stick, by the time the second update was available (2.20), the only available updates were the Windows flash version.

When this was going on over a year ago, it seemed the issue was people not updating the bios correctly (removing the usb stick too soon). I think this may be why they removed the usb instant flash versions.

If you search posts from last year, several other users also reported no issues. At least with P67 boards, the boards are still compatible with Sandy Bridge.

[parsec]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

I have a Asrock Fatality P67-Performance and an i5 2500K. I updated the bios twice with the newer Ivy bridge versions well over a year ago. No issues at all.
ASRock > Fatal1ty P67 Performance

The first update (2.10) I did using a USB stick, by the time the second update was available (2.20), the only available updates were the Windows flash version.

When this was going on over a year ago, it seemed the issue was people not updating the bios correctly (removing the usb stick too soon). I think this may be why they removed the usb instant flash versions.

If you search posts from last year, several other users also reported no issues. At least with P67 boards, the boards are still compatible with Sandy Bridge.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your post!

THAT is the information I (we) have been looking for! As you may know, you are the first person in this thread that verified for us that this is the case, that it is possible to use the IVB compatible BIOS/UEFI on a SB chipset board, while still using a SB CPU. I've never done this myself on an ASRock board, so I need input from others to make sense of this.

But I must ask, do you OC your CPU at all? Do you change your BIOS settings much? Problems with OC settings in the BIOS are one of the supposed side effects of using the IVB BIOS with a SB CPU. Issues like that have already been reported with the IVB-E compatible BIOS when used on X79 boards with SB-E CPUs, but if that is just an update failure, we'd like to know.

Plus as you say, we have many flavors of chipsets, although they really should not be that different from one another.

[WilliamM2]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

Yes I overclock. I still have all overclocking options that I had before the updates, and I still run the chip at 4.5 on stock voltage. I can go higher by upping the voltage, but would rather the chip stays nice and cool.

It may be different with the X79, since it runs different CPU's on a 2011 socket. Seems like an update failure would cause the system not to boot, not just remove overclocking features.

[parsec]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

My term "update failure" is too general, since I'm including in that the failure of the IME firmware and software update that is part of the update. That occurs when the USB flash drive is removed to early, as you mentioned.

These updates have three components:

• BIOS/UEFI update
• Intel Management Engine firmware update
• Intel Management Engine software update

All three are critical for the update to be completed correctly.

So we have a report of this update working correctly, and OCing the SB CPU works fine.

I wonder why ASRock was replacing CMOS/BIOS chips on these boards as a fix, rather than having the user perform the update again, correctly?

[WilliamM2]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

Actually, step three isn't needed. That's a function in Windows, and will have nothing to do with whether the flash is successful or not. Or whether overclocking features would disappear. I have never installed the IME software.

I think they were replacing chips for people that wanted to go back to an older bios. In the case of my board, all older versions were removed from the download page. Like I said, I'm not sure the missing overclock features were due to a bad flash.

[parsec]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

Well, regarding the IME software, I am biased towards the later 7 and 8 series Intel chipset platforms, where without the IME software there are errors in Device Manager, and all the chipset features are not functional without it. Some of the new IVB features are part of the CPU itself, so the IME software may be necessary.

Since all the steps are part of one update, how do you prevent the IME software from being installed, but allow the IME firmware to be installed?

But you are correct IIRC about IME software and the 5 and 6 series chipsets, it is not required. The firmware is another story.

As you said, all the earlier BIOS versions are removed once the IVB compatible BIOS is made available, on all the boards this applies to.

I agree about the missing/malfunctioning OC features, the exact reason for that occurring is not clear.

[WilliamM2]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

Since all the steps are part of one update, how do you prevent the IME software from being installed, but allow the IME firmware to be installed?

The IME software is installed in Windows, it's a separate download. Not sure what you mean about preventing it from being installed? I believe with the P67 board, there is an option in the bios to disable IME, which takes care of the device manager issue. Not sure, it's been quite a while since I installed Windows, and I did update the bios first, so maybe Win 7 installed it's own driver.

[WilliamM2]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

Checked out the bios when I got home tonight, it was "Intel Smart Connect" that I disabled in the bios to remove an unknown device in device manager, nothing to do with IME. There is an Intel Management Engine driver in device manager, dated 10/17/2010 (v 7.0.0.1144), I believe Windows 7 SP1 installed this by default. I know Win 8 has a built in driver as well, as I have installed that for testing before. If I reload the image I will check the version.

Maybe the new driver is only needed if you actually use an IVB cpu.

[parsec]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

You're right about the IME software, I'm getting carried away here... only the IME firmware is updated with the BIOS/UEFI update.

As I said earlier, the device I'm referring to is found on Intel 7 and 8 series chipset boards, P67 and other 6 series chipsets don't. Not the same as Smart Connect, which is a native feature of your board and BIOS.

Windows 7 will perform automatic software and driver installations and updates by default, although you should have the option during the installation to set that as desired. If the boards driver CD was used, IME is a part of that.

Another thing to consider is, the IME software package for 7 and 8 series chipsets contains an IME firmware update/recovery service that runs on a schedule. Don't recall that existing on 6 series chipset boards.

A BIOS option to disable IME is pretty strange if true, not in ASRock Z77 and Z87 boards UEFI/BIOS.

[WilliamM2]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

A BIOS option to disable IME is pretty strange if true, not in ASRock Z77 and Z87 boards UEFI/BIOS.

Correct, like I said, there were no options in the bios for IME.

[Danni Capion Rasmussen]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

I have ASRock Intel Z68 Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 with Sandy Bridge and ive updated my BIOS. I havent experienced any problems - It works fine! :-)

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Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

Great, thanks for the information.

It looks like you don't OC your CPU, which is fine, but some users have problems with their OC if the IVB compatible BIOS update is not done correctly.

Do you use any non-default BIOS settings? How long have you had the 2.10 BIOS version installed?

Did you do the update as the instructions said, by leaving the USB flash drive in the PC after it restarts into Windows, to complete the IME firmware update?

[Danni Capion Rasmussen]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

Great, thanks for the information.

It looks like you don't OC your CPU, which is fine, but some users have problems with their OC if the IVB compatible BIOS update is not done correctly.

Do you use any non-default BIOS settings? How long have you had the 2.10 BIOS version installed?

Did you do the update as the instructions said, by leaving the USB flash drive in the PC after it restarts into Windows, to complete the IME firmware update?

Ive thought about OC my CPU but at the moment its all set to default.
(Im not sure when i change the cpu clock if i also have to change the voltage? but thats for another Thread )

Ive had the new bios only 2 days now.

Yes i followed the instructions and left the USB flash drive in the PC after it restarted into windows!

Will all problems disappear if i get ivy bridge?

[parsec]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

That new BIOS should work perfectly with IVB processors, including any OC.

I'm not saying that it is a given, or absolutely true, that you will have issues if you try to OC your Sandy Bridge processor with that new BIOS.

If you perform the BIOS update correctly, you should have no problems with a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge processor. That is the position I am taking now, since we have never been told otherwise.

Do you have problems now, I thought your PC was fine with the new BIOS?

[dodgery]

Re: IMPORTANT BIOS Update Information For ASRock Intel 6 Series and X79 Chipset Mother Boards

For reference, my CPU is a sandy bridge i3 2100 running on an Asrock Z68 E3G3 mobo. It was running on BIOS version 1.30 until I updated, which I will state later in this post. I am not an expert at computer troubleshooting, so this post is meant to be a call for assistance as much as it is a heads-up to whoever might find themselves in a similar situation.

Before I begin, I have to state first that a couple of months earlier, my rig suddenly decided it had a floppy drive out of nowhere. Yesterday, I was using my rig and it decided out of nowhere to just shut down for no reason. It did not reboot, but the indicator on the power button stayed on. I turned it off from the PSU so I can power it on again. This time, it was able to boot up to the BIOS splash screen, but it did not boot into my OS. I suspected the BIOS might have decided it was booting from the phantom floppy drive for whatever reason, so I went and checked but instead, what I found was the BIOS was not detecting the drive connected to the first SATA3 port (but 3rd on the boot priority was the stupid floppy drive).

Again, I am not an expert at this, but to my best of my judgment, I thought it was a problem with the BIOS, and my best option was to update it. I have meant to update it ever since the phantom floppy drive appeared; when I first tried to get rid of it, I thought it was a problem with Windows, but everything I googled says it's something tweaked from the BIOS. Either the 1.30 BIOS did not have this option, or it did but did not help - regardless, I thought it would be a good idea to update the BIOS to a newer version, where hopefully I could toggle it off for good, but I decided not to pull the trigger when the whole update to 2.xx was too shady. But when it came to the point where my rig was shutting down for no good reason, I thought I have to take the risk this time.

At this point, I downloaded the update from the Asrock website, flashed the BIOS, and pressed any key to reboot when the screen prompted that flashing was complete. This is where I'd like to give people the heads-up - my rig did not boot to anything when I was expecting to see a newly flashed BIOS version. The only clue I had was a 32 on the Dr. Debug LED, but my monitor stayed in power saving mode. I thought I had bricked my mobo, so I reached for the manual to see what options I have at this point. I decided I can try the clear CMOS button, so I did. When I fired it up this time, it showed that it was doing the BIOS flashing again, then pressed any key to reboot when prompted again. This time, it booted successfully to the new BIOS version. I turned the thing off, reconnected the data cables to my HDDs (I had them disconnected just to make sure I can keep the problem within the mobo), fixed the boot order in the new BIOS (where I also made sure to find and toggle off the floppy drive), and thankfully, booted back into Windows successfully. This was version 2.10, so when I got back into the OS I thought I'd flash into 2.30 while I'm at it for good measure. Downloaded 2.30, reset the BIOS to default settings, flashed 2.30, redid my BIOS settings again, and got back to Windows safely again.

I've only had the 2.30 for less than a day, but so far, so good. However, considering that I do not understand what exactly is going on, I'd like to know if there's anything I have to watch out for. Does the phantom floppy drive mean the version 1.30 was faulty? Now that I think about it, it might also mean that my SATA port was failing, but I'm not sure if that's how it works. And what is this Intel ME that I've read in the first post? The last time I encountered it, was when I first bought this rig, and I more or less decided it's not for me and opted out of it by not bothering to install it on Windows Update. I did not encounter any indicator that says IME was updating after the BIOS update. Is that something I should be worried about?

One last note, I've always kept my Intel graphics driver up to date by downloading from the Intel website, even while I was on BIOS 1.30. Unlike IME, it is way more likely that I might have to use it in the future. I have not tried to run the onboard graphics ever since the BIOS update, though.