Z270 Supercarrier 09/d0, can't go to backup BIOS

I have read all the interest so in the pursuit of information, I have run the following test:

I have gskill trident 3200 8gb x 4

Taichi z270 + 7700k + titan x + 960 pro + 960 pro

ver 1.30 bios, everything great

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ok, here goes the testing.

upgrade to 1.33, debug codes.
bios b2a, bios update
remove jumper
debug codes

remove all ram but 1 + remove evga card
no debug codes
boot to win

add 1 ram back
no debug codes
boot to win

add 1 ram back (3 now)
debug codes

add 1 ram back (4 now)
debug codes

go back to 2 ram only (2 out, 2 in) + evga card
no debug codes
boot to win

remove all ram but 1 + remove evga card
bios b2a, updates
remove jumper
NO DEBUG CODES
CONFIRMED 1.30 (stock) bios back

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it seems that the memory is causing the bios to fail the "backup"

so interesting results, I know in no way scientific but there's more for the pile. :)

kartik_subbarao wrote: Yes -- precisely correct. The two pins highlighted in red are the ones that I jumpered to switch to BIOS B. Looking at it more closely, J1 is printed in a slightly larger font than the LED labels. Perhaps J1 is referring to that entire bank of 5 jumpers. BIOS_A_LED1 and BIOS_B_LED1 may be nothing more than labels for the LEDs that are right above that area. LED019 may just be referring to another LED nearby. Which leaves D_BIOS_TEST1 referring to the two pins above CHA_FAN3.

I found this on the Z270 Gaming K6 board, below the yellow sticker, does it look familiar?



We can also see a two pin jumper on the right side of the yellow sticker (covering the BIOS chips) which I assume must be the pins to switch to the backup UEFI/BIOS. I must point out that my Z270 Gaming K6 board is a pre-production model, so the two pin jumper seen above may not be found on the retail versions of this and other boards.

You simply shorted those two points on your board temporarily, to change to the backup UEFI/BIOS, correct? But later on you said that did not seem to work, so I'm confused about what happened.

When the ASRock Kaby Lake Intel 200 series chipset boards were released, they included a change in the way the dual BIOS system worked. That was apparently related to another situation with the BIOS chips on the new boards. In the past, ASRock used BIOS chips that were socketed DIP chips, that could be replaced by the user if necessary. That style of chips are no longer available from the BIOS chip manufactures. The Intel 200 series chipset boards now use surface mount BIOS chips, no longer in sockets.

On earlier ASRock dual BIOS chip boards, the main and backup BIOS chips worked like this, from an ASRock Z170 board manual:

This motherboard has two BIOS chips, a primary BIOS (BIOS_A) and a backup BIOS (BIOS_ B), which enhances the safety and stability of your system. Normally, the system will work on the primary BIOS. However, if the primary BIOS is corrupted or damaged, just flip the BIOS Selection Switch to B, then the backup BIOS will take over on the next system boot. Ater that, use Secure Backup UEFI in the UEFI Setup Utility to duplicate a working copy of the BIOS iles to the primary BIOS to ensure normal system operation. For safety issues, users are not able to update the backup BIOS manually. Users may refer to the BIOS LEDs (BIOS_A_LED or BIOS_B_LED) to identify which BIOS is currently activated.

This procedure has been changed on the Intel 200 series chipset boards, since we no longer have a dedicated switch to select the main and backup BIOS chips. This is the new description from the Z270 SuperCarrier manual:

This motherboard has two BIOS chips, an active BIOS (BIOS_A) and a backup BIOS (BIOS_B), which enhances the safety and stability of your system. Use Secure Backup UEFI to duplicate a working copy of the BIOS files to the active BIOS to ensure normal system operation. Normally, the system will work on the active BIOS. However if the active BIOS is corrupted or damaged, after several failed boot attempts, the backup BIOS will take over. For safety issues, users are not able to update the backup BIOS manually. Users may refer to the BIOS LEDs (BIOS_A_LED or BIOS_B_LED) to identify which BIOS is currently activated.

The UEFI/BIOS of the SuperCarrier should have the Secure Backup UEFI feature in the Tools screen. Given this description, why your board did not switch to the backup UEFI/BIOS chip automatically, I don't know. Possibly the number of failed POST/boot attempts was not enough, the Boot Failure Guard feature ASRock boards have set the number of attempts to three in the past.

As said in the description, it is not possible to update the backup UEFI/BIOS version.

The procedure described by UltimateInternet above seems to be similar to the original dual BIOS chip backup method, initiated manually by jumping pins on this header rather than with a switch.

Regardless, we still are pursuing a full official description of how this header works.

ultimateinternet wrote: just fyi: chat with asrock is now there 1900EST.

Just to confirm, are these the jumper pads you needed to short to initiate the backup?

Xaltar and others, this is the best picture I could find so far. If you left click on the image and select View image, and click on it again to zoom in, it helps somewhat:



Still hard to read the text below and to the left of the jumper pins, but we have this from an earlier post thanks to kartik_subbarao:


I've never seen anything like this on any ASRock board, so can't comment on it yet.


Edited by parsec - 24 Feb 2017 at 11:11am