H170A-X1 BIOS Update Help

TeamMineAsh wrote: I have a H170X1/3.1 Motherboard and I want to use it with a Intel Core i5 7600K. I know that I will need a BIOS update for the Mobo to run Kaby Lake processors, but does it need a Skylake processor to update the BIOS? I have tried researching and looked through the manual but it does not say. If I do need a Skylake processor to update the BIOS, is there a cheaper way to do it other than buying a $50 Celeron? Thanks!

You are in luck today! Normally you would need a Skylake processor to update the UEFI/BIOS to a Kaby Lake compatible version. But your board still has the replaceable UEFI/BIOS chip in a socket. That chip is in socket just to the right of the boards battery.

There is no soldering involved. You use a small, thin flat screwdriver to carefully pry the chip out of the socket. Or you can find chip removal tools that are like a large tweezers to remove the chip.

If you feel up to doing this, or know someone that can do it for you, you can order a new chip from ASRock, which will have the Kaby Lake compatible UEFI version already installed. You might need to pay a small charge for the chip, I'm not 100% certain what the current policy will be.

You can order the chip using the form on the Repair/RMA page for your area of the world. On ASRock's website, at the top of the page click on Support. You may need to select your region of the world, since you are in Canada. Regardless, you then click on Repair/RMA, and send an email to the email address shown for End Users.

Describe the situation as you have in your post, including your full mother board model name, and serial number of the board. The serial number is on the board's box, or some programs like AIDA64 and HWiNFO64 can display the serial number. This is a fairly common request, so they should understand the situation and your request.

Otherwise, using a Skylake CPU is the only other way to update the UEFI.