970 Pro3 R2.0 unsupported CPU after firmware updat

Hello,

today after updating the firmware version of this motherboard a message is displayed after boot process saying that my CPU is unsupported. The latest firmware that I update is version 2.80, the firmware version I was using was 1.80.

Then I tried to download the oldest firmware version provided by the official website on asrock.com. The version provided is 2.60, so I tried to update via InstantFlash utility, the process was fine but my CPU is still unsupported.

I'm writing this post since I want to rollback to the previous firmware version I was using back then, the version 1.80, but I cannot find anywhere. It would be nice if anyone can give me a download link to firmware version 1.80 so I can rollback using InstantFlash utility. Also it would be nice to know why updating the firmware version to its new yields my CPU unsupported. My CPU is AMD-FX 9370.

EDIT: I've been able to rollback to 1.80 since I've found it in http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/BIOS/Asrock/ASRock-970-Pro3-R20-BIOS-180.shtml. Everything is working fine again, but the question is still opened because I still don't know why new versions of the firmware yield my CPU unsupported (maybe microcontroller code update). I'll keep trying newer versions until It doesn't work again, since security is one of my priorities with this kind of issues.

Kind regards!


Edited by kub0x - 13 Mar 2017 at 7:22pm

Thanks for your reply. I understand the Asrock policy about this issue since it could harm even more hardware pieces from the end-users. I was thinking that the uncompatibility was caused by other issue.

Do you know which is the latest firmware version of this board that supports FX 9k series? Currenty I'm using 1.80, but it'd be nice to update it to a newer one that is compatible and doesn't harm any hardware piece.

Regards.

What Xaltar said covers the FX-9000 series usage on any AM3+ board very well.

Any FX processor whose TDP is north (or is that south?) of 140W is considered not supported by any AM3+ board whose CPU VRM stage is not robust enough to provide the power they need easily.

The 220W TDP of the FX 9000 series qualifies them as not supported on boards like yours, with its 4 + 1 phase CPU VRM design, without a heat sink. One of the times when AMD's "anything goes on any board" way of doing things came back to haunt them, sorry to say.

AMD added their minimum requirements for using an FX 9000 series processor at some point, which you can see on the information page of this board, scroll down to find it:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/990FX%20Extreme9/index.asp

Also check the VRM specs for this board, as an example.

The message is a warning, removing it does not change anything regarding a board's inability to properly support an FX 9000 series processor adequately. I suggest you have adequate air movement across the board in the area around the CPU socket, as noted in the CPU support list for your board:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970%20Pro3%20R2.0/?cat=CPU

The answer to your question about which firmware version supports the FX 9000 series is none of them.


Edited by parsec - 13 Mar 2017 at 10:20pm

The issue came down from AMD, this is what Parsec was referring to. At the time these and many other 970 boards (from all manufacturers) were designed they were designed to AMD's stipulated power requirements which were supposed to be compatible with even the FX 9k series. AMD later discovered that these specs were not adequate and board partners were forced to take action. ASRock removed support from boards that had the "specified power design" from AMD. Some boards may have had beefier power systems and not been effected but support was pulled from all the standard spec models.

Edited by Xaltar - 14 Mar 2017 at 3:35am

list of compatible boards are here for the 9370 and 9570

Edited by mgrandy@hotmail.co.u - 14 Mar 2017 at 5:50am