ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

[lotuspro]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

Thanks for the reply and info, I figured it had to be something like that. Yes, Secure Boot sets CSM to disabled, it must be for Secure Boot to work. Also yes, setting Fast Boot to Ultra Fast (and possibly Fast) will cause the CSM option to disappear. That is done so you can't enable CSM with Fast Boot enabled, but there are better ways all that could be done IMO.

You seem to have confirmed that the ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 board can boot from an XP941 SSD, even when Legacy/BIOS booting. With the storage OROM policy set to Legacy, other boards should fail booting an XP941. I have not identified the Legacy storage OROM (Intel of course) yet, the UEFI OROM is 13.0.0.2075.

Lessons for the day:

* You don't need to use Secure Boot to enable UEFI booting, given you have access to the CSM option. My secure boot is set to disabled.

* A Windows UEFI booting installation (which uses the EFI boot loader) with a GPT partition table, also contains a MBR partition table (and has the MBR boot loader available), just like a standard "Legacy", "BIOS booting" installation. That means you can boot that installation either way, BIOS or UEFI, just by changing CSM. You've done that already. It should be slower with the Legacy OROM, BIOS booting. Windows 8 makes a big difference.

We are spoiled by UEFI booting Windows 8 with a SSD OS drive. I did a standard (Legacy booting) Windows 7 installation on a SanDisk Extreme II SSD (same as I use in my Z97 board, Win 8, UEFI booting) and the boot time is soooooo slow in comparison. I've used Win 8 for so long now that I forgot what Win 7 is like, plus Legacy booting.

Question for you, what did you use for your Windows 8 or 8.1 installation media? Meaning a Win 8 disk, or ISO, etc, on a USB flash drive? Just trying to confirm something about that, and need your data point.

Thanks for your further comments.
I am starting to feel confident about my system, now. Slightly shaky start though, with the 1.30 BIOS non-load and a missing SM Bus Controller driver in Device Manager. The latter was solved by another TweakTown post so apparently all good now, although I still have the side cover off my Fractal case, because over many years of assembling PCs, I have found that putting the cover back on too soon is asking for some sort of problem!!
My Windows 8 Pro came from a disk, back in the day when Microsoft were offering cheap upgrades from Windows 7 through local retail outlets. About $AUD59 I think. Windows 8.1 was a free download via the App Store, about 3.4Gb. I am still considering buying an upgrade disk though as it is a bit of a pain doing fresh installs as I have done twice during setting up my Asrock Z97 Extreme6. I have learnt another thing from all this, that some utilities provided by Asrock and Asus for that matter seem to be a bit buggy or cause unexpected/unwanted issues when in place. So no installed Asrock utilities at this stage. For example, I found that the UEFI Boot app seemed not to let my computer stay in sleep mode. It would sleep, but at some point would actually shut down. This changed when I uninstalled it. The same thing happened with A Tune. Both issues may be related to my set-up, but I don't need the apps so am avoiding the hassle.

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

Curious, I'm trying to understand how you seem to have a UEFI booting Win 8.1 installation from an App Store download. Or did you save the download as an ISO, or ESD image, and install it yourself?

You lost me on the "UEFI Boot app", not sure what that is or what you mean. Do you mean Restart to UEFI?

A-Tuning can change the Windows Power Plan with an ASRock defined plan, but I've never heard of one doing what happened in your case. One thing I don't suggest is setting A-Tuning to Auto Run, and I also remove it from the Windows automatic startup lists.

IMO, our board's version of A-Tuning is better than those used on earlier ASRock boards I have. It does not have the bugs in OC Tweaker that I identified in the version used by the Z77 Extreme 4 (which were pretty bad, sorry to say), or the couple mislabeled voltages displayed in the version used by the Z87 Extreme 6 board. System Info is much faster than in previous versions. I don't use it very often, but it does display a few things that nothing else will.

I use Restart to UEFI and love it, never had any strange behavior related to it. Windows 8 itself can do the same thing, which may be all that Restart to UEFI uses.

But I agree about the buggy nature of mobo utility programs, don't get me started about ASUS...

The Windows 8 fast startup feature can cause strange side effects if it fails, and it does rather regularly for me. IMO, it needs work.

[lotuspro]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

Curious, I'm trying to understand how you seem to have a UEFI booting Win 8.1 installation from an App Store download. Or did you save the download as an ISO, or ESD image, and install it yourself?

You lost me on the "UEFI Boot app", not sure what that is or what you mean. Do you mean Restart to UEFI?

A-Tuning can change the Windows Power Plan with an ASRock defined plan, but I've never heard of one doing what happened in your case. One thing I don't suggest is setting A-Tuning to Auto Run, and I also remove it from the Windows automatic startup lists.

IMO, our board's version of A-Tuning is better than those used on earlier ASRock boards I have. It does not have the bugs in OC Tweaker that I identified in the version used by the Z77 Extreme 4 (which were pretty bad, sorry to say), or the couple mislabeled voltages displayed in the version used by the Z87 Extreme 6 board. System Info is much faster than in previous versions. I don't use it very often, but it does display a few things that nothing else will.

I use Restart to UEFI and love it, never had any strange behavior related to it. Windows 8 itself can do the same thing, which may be all that Restart to UEFI uses.

But I agree about the buggy nature of mobo utility programs, don't get me started about ASUS...

The Windows 8 fast startup feature can cause strange side effects if it fails, and it does rather regularly for me. IMO, it needs work.

A couple of things to clarify. Firstly, I did mean 'restart to UEFI' and secondly, the free download of Windows 8.1 comes from Windows Store and this link explains the process: Update to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8 - Windows Help
The download does not give an option to save to disk as an ISO or ESD. It runs the complete installation from download to install and setting up, automatically. It works pretty well, but as I said, it is slow and a pain if you need to do a second or more fresh install. (our broadband speeds here are still pretty much dictated by copper cabling although, fibre is being progressed as a $AUD40 billion government project which will eventually enable much quicker download/upload speeds, nationally).
I too like what 'Restart to UEFI' does, but the issue i have with it is that it puts my PC into a strange sleep configuration. When I touch the mouse or keyboard, it will wake as normal, but instead of going back to where I left off, it then proceeds to reboot as in a normal start-up, so any open documents/programmes/browsers are no longer present on the screen. As soon as I un-install Restart to UEFI, normal services resume. I get exactly the same symptoms from A-Tuning. I will play around some more and see if i can be more specific, but coming off a dislike of ASUS utilities I thought 'here we go again'!!
Thank you again for your comments, I will try a few more things based on these comments and with one change at a time will see if i can regain confidence in the Asrock utilities.

[vleesjus88]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

The update to 1.30 finished normally, prompted me to press enter to restart, which I did.

That is the point when things went wrong. The PC would start for about one second, then turn off for about two seconds. It would then start again for one second, and again turn off. It continued in this cycle endlessly, the Boot Failure Guard option having no affect. I can't call this behavior a boot loop, since the PC was no where near booting. So this "POST loop" behavior continued over and over, until I switched off the PSU with its power switch. When I switched the PSU on again, and pressed the PC's power button, the one second on, two seconds off behavior started again. I never touched anything on the PC besides the PSU's power switch as I described above. I did not clear the UEFI/BIOS, as that is not the correct procedure when updating the UEFI.

I've had the exact same problem with the 1.3 update for the Z97 extreme 4. Right after the update everything was fine except i had a corrupted raid 0 thanks to the update. So i was not quite happy with that. I let the pc reinstall all my steam games back to the raid0 while i was away. When i came back i rebooted the pc to make sure my cpufan was okay. and after that i got the problem of being stuck in the bootloop:

I was getting a code 63 error. Managed to get in the bios by switching the psu off and back on again while it gave me a 63 error and then pressed the power button to boot the pc. Then flashed 1.2 back and i finally got back in windows and found the files in my system(ssd) disk to be missing. So thank you Asrock for this great update... not.
I'm running the i7 4790k btw :)

[lotuspro]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

Hi vleesjus88
I too had the 'boot loop' problem after updating my BIOS from 1.20 to 1.30 via A-Tuning. In my case, I was able to stop the loop by holding down the power button for 5 seconds, then starting up again with F2 held down. i confirmed that the BIOS update had taken place and then proceeded to a normal Window's boot via Windows Boot Manager.
I have however been unable to update to 1.33, recently released. Everything seemed to go ok with the 1.33 attempt with normal sort of update screens, but after the 'boot loop' problem and a check on BIOS version, I found i was still on 1,30.
The upgrade from 1.20 to 1.30 was however something of a revelation for me though, as you will note from earlier posts, that I had previously been unable to do this. The one significant difference between the successful update to 1.30 and earlier unsuccessful attempts was that it came after a fresh install of Windows 8.1 which I did for other reasons.
Imo, the BIOS update process is buggy and despite the partial recent success, I have no confidence that it will work every time as it should.

[vleesjus88]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

Well, after i went back to 1.2 everything ran fine again. So i think i'll stay with 1.2 as long as possible. Computer is running great now after i reinstalled everything last night(all parts back in the pc case & windows 8.1 reinstall)

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

I've had the exact same problem with the 1.3 update for the Z97 extreme 4. Right after the update everything was fine except i had a corrupted raid 0 thanks to the update. So i was not quite happy with that. I let the pc reinstall all my steam games back to the raid0 while i was away. When i came back i rebooted the pc to make sure my cpufan was okay. and after that i got the problem of being stuck in the bootloop:

I was getting a code 63 error. Managed to get in the bios by switching the psu off and back on again while it gave me a 63 error and then pressed the power button to boot the pc. Then flashed 1.2 back and i finally got back in windows and found the files in my system(ssd) disk to be missing. So thank you Asrock for this great update... not.
I'm running the i7 4790k btw :)

Thanks for posting your experience vleesjus88, although we have slightly different boards, and your problem was different, at least at first. I've noticed one thing that you, me, and lotuspro all have in common, we use Windows 8.1.

I wouldn't think that an OS would somehow (IF it does) interfere with a BIOS/UEFI update, particularly since I use the Instant Flash method for updating the BIOS, which is done in the BIOS UI. We only have three ASR board users with Win 8.1 posting about problems with this update, so might just be a coincidence. I'm not ready to say yet that Win 8.1 is not related to this problem yet. In my case, I tried updating to 1.30 with the CSM option enabled, and it made no difference, I still had the start up on and off problem. I've tried to update to 1.30 four times now, and one attempt at 1.33, all failed.

Your problem with your RAID 0 array is interesting, I doubt you forgot to reset your SATA mode to RAID after the update to 1.3, since it would be set to the default of AHCI after any BIOS update. I'm using RAID mode too, but I don't have any RAID arrays in this PC.

I never checked the debug code when I had the start up problem with BIOS 1.30, I wish I did now! Code 63 is a Chipset initialization error. Please press reset or clear CMOS. It is not recommended to clear the CMOS right after a BIOS update, and I'm pretty sure I pressed Reset at some point during the start up problem.

I could try disconnecting my OS drive and then try the 1.30 update, but I'm not thrilled about going through the recovery process yet again if it fails.

[lotuspro]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

Thanks for posting your experience vleesjus88, although we have slightly different boards, and your problem was different, at least at first. I've noticed one thing that you, me, and lotuspro all have in common, we use Windows 8.1.

I wouldn't think that an OS would somehow (IF it does) interfere with a BIOS/UEFI update, particularly since I use the Instant Flash method for updating the BIOS, which is done in the BIOS UI. We only have three ASR board users with Win 8.1 posting about problems with this update, so might just be a coincidence. I'm not ready to say yet that Win 8.1 is not related to this problem yet. In my case, I tried updating to 1.30 with the CSM option enabled, and it made no difference, I still had the start up on and off problem. I've tried to update to 1.30 four times now, and one attempt at 1.33, all failed.

Your problem with your RAID 0 array is interesting, I doubt you forgot to reset your SATA mode to RAID after the update to 1.3, since it would be set to the default of AHCI after any BIOS update. I'm using RAID mode too, but I don't have any RAID arrays in this PC.

I never checked the debug code when I had the start up problem with BIOS 1.30, I wish I did now! Code 63 is a Chipset initialization error. Please press reset or clear CMOS. It is not recommended to clear the CMOS right after a BIOS update, and I'm pretty sure I pressed Reset at some point during the start up problem.

I could try disconnecting my OS drive and then try the 1.30 update, but I'm not thrilled about going through the recovery process yet again if it fails.

Interesting observation re Windows 8.1 Parsec.
It would almost be worthwhile doing say a Windows 7 fresh install which may prove the issue one way or another.
It would also be interesting to hear from other Z97 board owners who already have Windows 7 or 8 installs re their BIOS update experiences??

[vleesjus88]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

SATA mode was indeed back to AHCI, but after setting it back to raid my controller only recognised 1 disk from the array. The other one was not part of the array anymore which is quite problematic for a raid 0 setup ;-)

Having updated from 8.1 is quite an interesting fact indeed. I downloaded the bios from the website (windows version) and ran the file. The pc rebooted, updated the bios and ran fine afterwards(except the missing raid disk) only after a second reboot i got the bootloop.

[BFBCIE2]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

I seem to be having to exact same issue as you, parsec. my only difference is that im running a 4790k and my board never operated normally and correctly like yours did. i just built my pc last tuesday and fired it up for the first time only for it to go into a boot-loop(which was almost exactly like you explained in your first post). it takes about 5-7 tries for me to somehow make it into the BIOS and then from the BIOS it will boot to windows every time. i checked my bios version and it was 1.2, which supposedly doesnt support Devil's Canyon properly. so, after getting it to boot somehow i went to asrocks site, downloaded 1.33 and instant flashed it onto my pc. i was so certain that it would fix all of my problems but i noticed zero change after updating, it was still looping. my BIOS said 1.33 but i still had to take a few tries to get it into the bios just like 1.2. i checked all my settings in the bios and I saw that my CPU input voltage was at 1.7 volts. i know that running your cpu at 1.7 volts is an extremely bad thing but CPUZ tells me its at 1.25 and i was told that the "input" voltage is fine at 1.7. Once i get it to the bios it'll go to windows and then its perfect, ive played about 10 rounds of battlefield 3 on it and it seemed perfect. my only problem is the boot loops and the fact that it doesnt boot to windows on the first try. Do you think its a bad mobo? a bad psu? ive checked all my connections and they seem fine, except for my 8pin cpu power(the rad is close to it so i cant really see if its completely plugged in correctly). Any help is appreciated, i just want my PC to work as soon as possible.

[BFBCIE2]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

I seem to be having to exact same issue as you, parsec. my only difference is that im running a 4790k and my board never operated normally and correctly like yours did. i just built my pc last tuesday and fired it up for the first time only for it to go into a boot-loop(which was almost exactly like you explained in your first post). it takes about 5-7 tries for me to somehow make it into the BIOS and then from the BIOS it will boot to windows every time. i checked my bios version and it was 1.2, which supposedly doesnt support Devil's Canyon properly. so, after getting it to boot somehow i went to asrocks site, downloaded 1.33 and instant flashed it onto my pc. i was so certain that it would fix all of my problems but i noticed zero change after updating, it was still looping. my BIOS said 1.33 but i still had to take a few tries to get it into the bios just like 1.2. i checked all my settings in the bios and I saw that my CPU input voltage was at 1.7 volts. i know that running your cpu at 1.7 volts is an extremely bad thing but CPUZ tells me its at 1.25 and i was told that the "input" voltage is fine at 1.7. Once i get it to the bios it'll go to windows and then its perfect, ive played about 10 rounds of battlefield 3 on it and it seemed perfect. my only problem is the boot loops and the fact that it doesnt boot to windows on the first try. Do you think its a bad mobo? a bad psu? ive checked all my connections and they seem fine, except for my 8pin cpu power(the rad is close to it so i cant really see if its completely plugged in correctly). Any help is appreciated, i just want my PC to work as soon as possible.

Ill be taking it completely apart this weekend and basically starting over to see if that will help. if it doesnt, ill most likely be RMA'ing the mobo.

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

I seem to be having to exact same issue as you, parsec. my only difference is that im running a 4790k and my board never operated normally and correctly like yours did. i just built my pc last tuesday and fired it up for the first time only for it to go into a boot-loop(which was almost exactly like you explained in your first post). it takes about 5-7 tries for me to somehow make it into the BIOS and then from the BIOS it will boot to windows every time. i checked my bios version and it was 1.2, which supposedly doesnt support Devil's Canyon properly. so, after getting it to boot somehow i went to asrocks site, downloaded 1.33 and instant flashed it onto my pc. i was so certain that it would fix all of my problems but i noticed zero change after updating, it was still looping. my BIOS said 1.33 but i still had to take a few tries to get it into the bios just like 1.2. i checked all my settings in the bios and I saw that my CPU input voltage was at 1.7 volts. i know that running your cpu at 1.7 volts is an extremely bad thing but CPUZ tells me its at 1.25 and i was told that the "input" voltage is fine at 1.7. Once i get it to the bios it'll go to windows and then its perfect, ive played about 10 rounds of battlefield 3 on it and it seemed perfect. my only problem is the boot loops and the fact that it doesnt boot to windows on the first try. Do you think its a bad mobo? a bad psu? ive checked all my connections and they seem fine, except for my 8pin cpu power(the rad is close to it so i cant really see if its completely plugged in correctly). Any help is appreciated, i just want my PC to work as soon as possible.

Thanks for posting your experience with BIOS 1.30 and 1.33. So you still get the boot loop problem every time you turn on your PC? I haven't heard that one before, but it seems some users of this board and 1.30 or 1.33 have different issues.

ASRock states you must have at least BIOS 1.30 for a DC processor, but according to Intel all 9 series chipset boards (like a Z97) should work with Haswell Refresh processors out of the box. If DC processors are different, then how are you supposed to update to 1.30 if a DC is all you have?

FYI, Haswell processors are different than all other Intel processors, they have voltage regulators on the CPU itself, called the FIVR (Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator). The only voltage inputs to a Haswell CPU are the CPU Input voltage, and memory voltage. So the 1.7V CPU input voltage is normal and fine, actually 1.8V is normal and can be set up to 2V.

IMO, if you've played that amount of games, then I don't think you have a hardware problem with your build that is causing the boot loops. You should check the connection of the power switch to the board, the switch itself, and if the wires seem fine. If the eight pin connector was not connected right, you couldn't boot or load the CPU as much as you have.

One thing to try when the PC boot loops, press the reset button on your PC case. Might seem ridiculous, but try it.

[BFBCIE2]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

Thanks for posting your experience with BIOS 1.30 and 1.33. So you still get the boot loop problem every time you turn on your PC? I haven't heard that one before, but it seems some users of this board and 1.30 or 1.33 have different issues.

ASRock states you must have at least BIOS 1.30 for a DC processor, but according to Intel all 9 series chipset boards (like a Z97) should work with Haswell Refresh processors out of the box. If DC processors are different, then how are you supposed to update to 1.30 if a DC is all you have?

FYI, Haswell processors are different than all other Intel processors, they have voltage regulators on the CPU itself, called the FIVR (Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator). The only voltage inputs to a Haswell CPU are the CPU Input voltage, and memory voltage. So the 1.7V CPU input voltage is normal and fine, actually 1.8V is normal and can be set up to 2V.

IMO, if you've played that amount of games, then I don't think you have a hardware problem with your build that is causing the boot loops. You should check the connection of the power switch to the board, the switch itself, and if the wires seem fine. If the eight pin connector was not connected right, you couldn't boot or load the CPU as much as you have.

One thing to try when the PC boot loops, press the reset button on your PC case. Might seem ridiculous, but try it.

Yes, the problem happens every time I press the power button on the front of my case, I've tried versions 1.2 and 1.33 with no noticeable difference.

What connector exactly are you talking about when you say "you should check the connection of the power switch to the board, the switch itself, and if the wires seem fine"? The 24pin power? The power button from the front of the case?

ill try hitting reset :) I appreciate your help

[parsec]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

Yes, the problem happens every time I press the power button on the front of my case, I've tried versions 1.2 and 1.33 with no noticeable difference.

What connector exactly are you talking about when you say "you should check the connection of the power switch to the board, the switch itself, and if the wires seem fine"? The 24pin power? The power button from the front of the case?

ill try hitting reset :) I appreciate your help

I mean the power on/off switch on the PC case. Just the two wires from the switch on the case that connect to the mother board header, the plugs on those two wires, and if you can access it, the switch itself.

So you have the boot loop problem with BIOS 1.20? There is a recent thread where the guy has the same board and CPU as you (i7-4970K) but did not say he had any problem with BIOS 1.20:

http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/5...fter-boot.html

He does have a problem with 1.33, but he does not have the problem that you do.

Have you tried clearing the BIOS/CMOS? You can do that easily with the small button on the board's IO panel, above the red eSATA jack. The PC must be shutdown and the PSU must be turned off and unplugged from AC power before pressing that button. When you boot after that, you will be asked if you want to just use default BIOS settings, or go into the BIOS to change things. If you use any particular settings, you'll need to set them all up again after the BIOS clear.

So you just built the PC, some info about your hardware might help, like what drives you use, video source, and what OS you use. How did you install the drivers for the board, from the disk in the box?

When you first installed your OS, did you have the boot loop problem at that time too? I mean has the board done the boot loop thing since the first time you started it?

[BFBCIE2]

Re: ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 New UEFI/BIOS Version 1.30 Not Working For Me

I mean the power on/off switch on the PC case. Just the two wires from the switch on the case that connect to the mother board header, the plugs on those two wires, and if you can access it, the switch itself.

So you have the boot loop problem with BIOS 1.20? There is a recent thread where the guy has the same board and CPU as you (i7-4970K) but did not say he had any problem with BIOS 1.20:

http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/58186-z97-extreme6-windows-8-1-1-sleep-after-boot.html

He does have a problem with 1.33, but he does not have the problem that you do.

Have you tried clearing the BIOS/CMOS? You can do that easily with the small button on the board's IO panel, above the red eSATA jack. The PC must be shutdown and the PSU must be turned off and unplugged from AC power before pressing that button. When you boot after that, you will be asked if you want to just use default BIOS settings, or go into the BIOS to change things. If you use any particular settings, you'll need to set them all up again after the BIOS clear.

So you just built the PC, some info about your hardware might help, like what drives you use, video source, and what OS you use. How did you install the drivers for the board, from the disk in the box?

When you first installed your OS, did you have the boot loop problem at that time too? I mean has the board done the boot loop thing since the first time you started it?

Alright i will examine those wires and see if theyre good.

Yes i have the bootloop problem on bios 1.2 asx well as 1.33

I have tried clearing the CMOS, but i didnt see any improvement really. but i can try again and i probably will. would it hurt anything if you were to accidentally hit it and the psu wasnt unplugged or off?

Yes i just built it, im using a 250gb samsung 840 evo ssd and a 1tb seagate abrracude hdd, and evga gtx 770 sc, windows 8.1. i installed the drivers from the asrock website ( ASRock > Z97 Extreme6 ) but some of them didnt want to install.

yes the board has boot looped since the very first time i started it, i just had to manually turn it off and keep trying for it to get into the bios.