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

[parsec]

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

Thanks for your information, I just noticed your post here, sorry not to reply sooner.

I assume you understand that you have updated your BIOS to the Ivy Bridge CPU compatible version, 2.10, and beyond.

The Intel Management Engine (IME) software has evolved over time, meaning from one CPU and chipset generation to the next, and has become more important and necessary during that evolution. Your Sandy Bridge era CPU and chipset (6 series chipsets like Z68) is not as dependent on the IME software as current generation (Haswell) or previous generation (Ivy Bridge) systems are today.

There are really two components to the IME software, the IME software that is installed with Windows, and the IME firmware, which is stored with and is part of your board's BIOS image/file.

So the IME component that was updated during your BIOS flash was the IME firmware. You most likely won't see any message or indication that the IME firmware is being updated, but as you may have read in my first post, it is part of these special BIOS updates, and is mentioned in some of the BIOS update instructions.

There are multiple components that are part of a BIOS image/file that are not known to many PC users, called option ROMs. In general there is one for the SATA, Network, and Video interfaces that are built into a mother board. Any of these could be updated in a BIOS update and you'd never know it, unless you know how to check the versions. IME firmware is not an option ROM, but I'm just giving examples of BIOS components that exist and can be updated without one's knowledge.

Don't forget that the onboard video driver you mentioned is not the same as the video option ROM. I imagine you mentioned that due to the 2.10 BIOS update warning that you need a new video driver. That should be for those using an Ivy Bridge CPU, that uses a different graphics processor than Sandy Bridge CPUs. You can update to the new Intel video driver, since it will support your CPU's video processor too. The drivers are backward compatible, but the older ones won't be forward compatible, or won't enable any new features in the newer video processors.

Your phantom floppy disk could be caused by several things, including what you mentioned, and could have happened after a Windows update that was automatically installed, if you do it that way.

You most likely don't need the IME software, since you did not install an Ivy Bridge processor. The only issues seen when using Sandy Bridge CPUs with the Ivy Bridge processor compatible BIOS is when over clocking the CPU, which I don't think you can do with your processor.

[basco]

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

hi long time no see,
just purchased a bargain x79 ex9 and 3930k-c2 and all is well and this is with 3.60 bios
only prob was booting with 4 sticks of psc(corsair gt 16000cl9-8-9) was a nogo after clrcmos(showed debug-67).had to boot with 2 sticks in a1+b1-reboot-then 1 stick in c1 reboot and last d1+reboot.
only purchased this for benching and will report back how this bios behaves under cold if someone is interested.

one question:would it be possible to downgrade bios to 3.43a from 3.60 ?? from 4 diff opinions it should be the best for oc.(suggestions?plz)

have a good day all of ya

[slayer68]

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

I have a X79 Extreme 9 - I7 3930K and just updated to BIOS 3.90 from 3.60 (which was also reported as being compatible with IVB-E). I now cannot OC anything even 1 multiplier will result in a black screen requiring a CMOS clr to restart the system. Guess I'll be contacting support as I wasn't going to change CPU's until after the new year.....This is ridiculous that a BIOS is not backwards compatible. Never in my 20 years of building PC's have I seen this. Hopefully I can go back to 3.60

EDIT: After a few hours of trying different things I've found the culprit on my system. XMP profiles are causing the black screen. Something must be different between SB-E and IVB-E or there is a coding error in the BIOS itself. If I manually set the memory the system is bootable again running some stability tests now.

if anyone else has this problem can you try turning off XMP and report back?

[parsec]

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

If you performed the BIOS update correctly, you now also have IVB-E Intel ME firmware on your board, you previously have SB-E IME firmware.

OC problems are the most common issue when using the IVB-E compatible BIOS with a SB-E processor. Are they compatible, officially? We don't know, I can't find an official statement about it.

The BIOS update you performed is not your typical addition of new CPUs of the same generation, so backwards compatibility may not be a given.

[svl7]

X79 Extreme6 - serious issues with 2.50 & 2.80

New here, hi guys!

On my search for users that experience the same issues as I do I came across this thread. Maybe someone of you has an idea or sees something I might be missing.
It seems that there has been some uncertainty about the compatibility of the more recent BIOS updates that introduced Ivy-E support as well as a new ME firmware. To put it simply, the new ME firmware and Ivy-E support is no reason at all for SB-E CPUs not to work. In fact, I've been running on L2.45 for quite a while and didn't notice any issue so far.

However, that's merely a side note and not the reason for me posting here. When BIOS 2.50 got released it appeared to me that it was mostly a final release of 2.50, at least according to the change log. When I flashed 2.50 all I got was a loop of several POST errors:

00 10 19 d6 b0 b7 b9 5A 32 4f (stays at that for a while before looping back to the start).

It should be noted that the system worked perfectly fine on L2.45, and I didn't change any hardware while going to 2.50. I even stripped down my system and removed anything that could possibly have been causing this behavior, with no change to the result at all.

To my astonishment I realized that AsRock doesn't describe any recovery method at all for this board. I guess there is one but I haven't seen any documentary about it.
Anyway, since I have a flash programmer recovery was easy enough. Since I couldn't find anything to solve this issue I decided to skip 2.50 and wait for a newer version.

When I learnt about 2.80 being released I flashed it and ended up with a direct d6 error code at POST.


My conclusion so far is that starting with 2.50 there is something pretty messed up in the Bios of that board, I have no other explanation. It's all working fine up to L2.45, and then the issues appear. (Well, not sure anymore about 2.40, I don't think I ever flashed that one, I might test it.)
All my attempts at contacting AsRock did not result in any useful reply. In fact, I never got any reply on my two online submissions, and the guy on the phone simply ended up telling me to use an older Bios version (without actually being able to tell me how to flash back when the system won't even POST). AsRock support is de facto inexistent.


Is anyone else experiencing similar issues? Or does anyone have suggestion to solve this?


Here are my specs:

Board: AsRock X79 Extreme 6
PSU: Corsair AX860i
RAM: Corsair 4x4 kit (CMD16GX3M4A2666C11) - officially on the supported list and works great on the other Bios versions
CPU: i7 3930k
GPU: GTX Titan
Disk: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (and several HDDs)


I might need to add that I tried several things to rule out single components. Board got tested with an AMD 7770, with the same results, I removed all unnecessary devices step by step, tried different PCI-e slots, booting with only one RAM stick etc. Resetting the var storage before and after flashing was done as well.
Also I want to emphasize once more that L2.45 is working nicely.


Thanks for reading, hope anyone has some valueable input.

[svl7]

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

Problem solved, I'm now running on 2.80. Got 2.50 to work as well.
Seems the bios update has some issues on initialization. I disabled all the devices I don't need, then flashed the bios without clearing the CMOS var storage and it booted just fine.
I guess this won't work if the firmware gets flashed the regular way with the built-in update utility since it seems to clear the vars automatically...

[nalott]

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

Hi. I updated to version 2.2 more than a year ago, keeping my Sandy Bridge 2600K@4500MHz. Until now (when I came accross this thread) I had no information that something could be wrong. I have problems with USB3 but as far as I remember, they had also showed before the upgrade. Now, when I know this, I'll probably start being more sensitive to very slight problems which occur here and there (like application crashes). These most likely have no connection to BIOS upgrade but to my rather old Win7 installation or not so conservative OC itself.
To conclude, I'm considering myself a successful upgrader to a IVB BIOS with a SB CPU.

[parsec]

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

Problem solved, I'm now running on 2.80. Got 2.50 to work as well.
Seems the bios update has some issues on initialization. I disabled all the devices I don't need, then flashed the bios without clearing the CMOS var storage and it booted just fine.
I guess this won't work if the firmware gets flashed the regular way with the built-in update utility since it seems to clear the vars automatically...

Sorry but I just noticed your post today, a week later...

Thanks for relating your experience. You are using the IVB-E compatible BIOS with a SB-E processor, which I agree should work fine. Add one more to the correctly executed BIOS update procedure results in no issues tally.

If I understand your earlier issue, after you flashed to 2.50, the first thing you did was clear the CMOS afterwards, is that correct? If so, yes that will cause problems, I've seen ASRock state that before but I can't locate an example now, of course... All the ASRock UEFI/BIOS updates clear/reset all the options to default values and remove any saved profiles you have (had.) I have seen other board manufacture's BIOS updates not always do that on every update IIRC. I'm torn about what is better, starting with a clean slate, or the lazy way of the least user intervention. I know the former is safer.

Questions for you, did you change to the IVB-E compatible versions of the Intel IME software, INF file installer, and the ASRock AXTU software, if you use it?

Do you OC your CPU? You haven't noticed any issues since the update to 2.80?

[parsec]

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

Hi. I updated to version 2.2 more than a year ago, keeping my Sandy Bridge 2600K@4500MHz. Until now (when I came accross this thread) I had no information that something could be wrong. I have problems with USB3 but as far as I remember, they had also showed before the upgrade. Now, when I know this, I'll probably start being more sensitive to very slight problems which occur here and there (like application crashes). These most likely have no connection to BIOS upgrade but to my rather old Win7 installation or not so conservative OC itself.
To conclude, I'm considering myself a successful upgrader to a IVB BIOS with a SB CPU.

Thanks for posting your experience with this UEFI/BIOS update.

May I ask what board you are using?

You obviously are able to OC your i7-2600K fine with the IVB-E compatible BIOS. Did you update the versions of the Intel IME software, INF files, and AXTU software after updating to version 2.20?

[nalott]

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

Thanks for posting your experience with this UEFI/BIOS update.

May I ask what board you are using?

You obviously are able to OC your i7-2600K fine with the IVB-E compatible BIOS. Did you update the versions of the Intel IME software, INF files, and AXTU software after updating to version 2.20?

My board is the original Z68 Extreme4. I updated everything (Intel IME, INF files, AXTU), I simply followed the UEFI update instructions, not knowing anything could go wrong. Nothing changed for me regarding the achievable OC with the IVB update. I've been running stable at 4500MHz with a very conservative voltage adjustment (which I don't rememeber now).

[parsec]

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

nalott, thanks for the reply. We were looking for positive experiences with details about those updates, since initially all we had were people posting issues about these updates. It is clear now that any issues after the update are caused by not following the instructions, just leave the USB flash drive in the PC until Windows boots!!!

Following the instructions, or looking for and reading them seems to be more than some people are willing to do. I will say that these updates should have been labeled more clearly and the instructions made very easy to access and consistent for all boards. Given the only real difference is leaving the USB flash drive in the PC after it restarts upon completing the BIOS update, I assume this was taken for granted.

[svl7]

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

You are using the IVB-E compatible BIOS with a SB-E processor, which I agree should work fine. Add one more to the correctly executed BIOS update procedure results in no issues tally.

If I understand your earlier issue, after you flashed to 2.50, the first thing you did was clear the CMOS afterwards, is that correct? If so, yes that will cause problems, I've seen ASRock state that before but I can't locate an example now, of course... All the ASRock UEFI/BIOS updates clear/reset all the options to default values and remove any saved profiles you have (had.) I have seen other board manufacture's BIOS updates not always do that on every update IIRC. I'm torn about what is better, starting with a clean slate, or the lazy way of the least user intervention. I know the former is safer.

No, when I flashed 2.50 the first thing I did was nothing. It came up with the mentioned POST error after flashing. Clearing the CMOS didn't do anything.
A BIOS update doesn't necessarily require to clear the cmos storage, it depends on what changed in the update.

Questions for you, did you change to the IVB-E compatible versions of the Intel IME software, INF file installer, and the ASRock AXTU software, if you use it?

Yes, with L2.45 and newer I've been using the latest MEI software, chipset drivers as well as AXTU.

Do you OC your CPU? You haven't noticed any issues since the update to 2.80?

Yes, and I haven't noticed a difference so far. Well, I got one BSOD recently, but I haven't investigated so far. OC on air seems to be the same as on the earlier BIOS versions, I mostly use some tweaked EZ OC settings.
When it comes to extreme overclocking (dry ice) the board I have seems to suck, it had issues booting at overclocks that work fine on air, certain BIOS settings seem to simply result in crashes, no matter which bios version. I tried 2.20 and earlier as well as 2.80. One of the settings that seemed to cause issues is the loadline calibration, if set to the most extreme level.

[parsec]

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

svl7, thanks for the further information, quite helpful.

[Gordon68]

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

I'll add another successful update to the list, after taking in all the good advice and warnings from parsec I upgraded the bios on my Extreme7 Gen3 from 1.30 to 2.10 today. I am running my Sandy Bridge 2700K at 4800MHz and my pair of 1333MHz mixed with my pair of 1600MHz G.Skill DDR3's running at 1866MHz, all as they were before.

The only issue I'm having is that a drive I connect through external SATA for backups is causing Acronis True Home 2012 to report that the Disk doesn't have BIOS number. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix that please let me know.

Tomorrow I'm updating to 2.30.

[parsec]

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

Gordon68, thanks for the info and your kind words.

Rather off topic, but...

About your drive issue, is the drive connected via eSATA new, never used before? Or recently wiped with a diskpart clean command? Can the drive be seen in the BIOS if it is connected and you restart the PC? Hot plug enabled for the eSATA port? Initialized in Windows?