ASRock Z87 EXTREME4 won't restart - debug code 4F

tempy wrote: According to this forum post, 4F is a faulty BIOS Chip. Temporary solution would be to switch BIOS A with BIOS B, and acquire a new one online to replace BIOS B. Tried it on mine and it worked, and it happened right when I attempted System Restore on Windows 7, thought I corrupted the OS on my SSD but no, I figured a mobo code has nothing to do with SSD filed being corrupted. https://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/62764-asrock-error-code-4f.html

Greetz
I know this is nearly necro but I'm still using my Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 for my Main and it has served me quite well for years but I have much older PCs that work just fine. I'm a bit peeved at this issue for such a ridiculously small thing to make my whole system unreliable. Here's my exact deal.

It began slowly and escalated. First 3 quick beeps followed by a pause and another set of 3. Since that is supposed to be memory issue and I spent a lot extra for Corsair Vengeance hi performance ram, naturally I ran Memtest+ for many hours - No errors. It was common that after a Reset pulse or 3 it would boot and run for months (up 25/7) just fine. Since I have a 1KW UPS it has never suffered spikes or a bad shutdown.. but it kept getting longer (more cvcling, more beeps) any time I did have to reboot. It would, like everyon's here, pause at 4F and recycle... for very long times.

Finally one day the Reset button stopped working altogether! so I cleared CMOS (removed battery too) and then just let it run for around an hour till it finally came up and I successfully Instant Flashed a newer BIOS version. RESET is fixed but that is ALL!

I don't see anything in my Manual about Backup BIOS nor any chips marked so on the board. I don't know how to swap for Backup despite having experience at Hot Swapping BIOS chips back in the day.

TLDR - Where do I find and/or how do I swap for Backup BIOS?

Is it necessary to buy a new CMOS chip?

Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Your BIOS is socketed not soldered so you may be able to get a new BIOS chip from Asrock support. Go here: http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=5265&title=howto-contact-tech-support
However being near 7 years old it may be more than the BIOS that has gone bad.

Hi, i am leaving this here if anyone else now or in the future has the same problem.

I had the exact same issue with my PC what was mentioned, Error Code 15,40,4F. I had a lot of issues with electricity, daily 5-10 power-outfall. I also connected my PC to an Back UPS (APC brand) but i guess it was too late and this sudden powerloss corrupted the BIOS Chip.
I resetted every memory stick, my GPU, only had just the drive connected which has the OS. In my case i has an PCI-E to M.2 SSD adapter(Axagon), with the M.2 NVMe Samsung EVO 1TB SSD.

So, i tried out everything like above mentioned, resetted the CMOS memory, changed the battery too, but it did not solved in my case.

The solution was actually really easy at the end. I placed the BIOS jumper from A to B. After that my PC could boot normally. In the Boot Menu under Tool there is that line "Secure Backup UEFI (B->A)". I clicked on it and wrote that after a restart (which occurs automatically) will start the copying process. After the buckup, I resetted the BIOS jumper from B back to A and it started normally as it should. I also made a BIOS Update because of teh mentioned OS drive is an NVMe drive, just the newer 3.40 version has NVMe support, so after I updated that too, everything is fine. I ordered a new BIOS Chip just in case but eventually it turned out that my BIOS Chip did not die.

Have a nice day guys.

Tamas


1. Boot Menu --> Tool


2. Backup Process