[SOLVED] X399 Pro not booting after BIOS update

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   Hello,
I recently got the X399 Fatal1ty Professional Gaming motherboard to build a new Threadripper system.

Before putting everything inside the case I decided to do an open-air test with just the bare minimum:

* TR1950X
* 64GB of HyperX 2666 MHz memory (4x16 GB)
* Radeon RX580
* WD Black 512GB NVMe SSD (M.2)

The system booted up perfectly all the way to the desktop (KDE on Arch Linux) on the first power-up. I then decided that I wanted to update the BIOS before proceeding any further so I downloaded the latest version from the ASRock website (2.00), extracted to a USB stick and rebooted into BIOS. From there I used the Instant Flash option to start the update. Everything seemed to go fine (the progress bar got to 100%, I got a "Press Enter to reboot" message) but upon rebooting the system never came back up.

I am now stuck in the following scenario:

* the red LEDs under the chipset slowly pulsate/blink on/off
* the Dr. Debug display is off, no code displayed. After the reboot done at the end of the BIOS update there was some activity on this display but at some point it went offline and the chipset LEDs have been stuck on blinking red
* powering the board with just the 24 pin plugged in will get the CPU fan to start up but nothing else (chipset LEDs still blinking, PSU seems to provide power but its fan isn't spinning, Dr. Debug still doesn't show anything).
* powering up the board with any additional power cable connected (24+8+4, 24+8, 24+4) results in nothing coming online when I press the power button (no fans spin for PSU, CPU, graphics card)

What I have tried so far:

* BIOS Flashback seems to work so I tried that (the button blinks green for 2-3 minute, I can see the USB stick being accessed - it has an LED on it that indicates reads/writes, a green LED lights up on the board between the CPU socket and the top PCI-E connector). I tried flashing versions 1.50, 1.80 and even going back to 1.30 multiple times but it didn't seem to make any difference. I even tried this after removing everything off the motherboard and powering it on with only the 24 pin power connected
* I tried clearing CMOS a bunch of times by pressing the Clear CMOS button, no apparent result
* I tried removing the CMOS battery and leaving the board unplugged for ~10 minutes, no apparent result
* re-socketed the CPU 3 times
* re-seated memory multiple times
* removed the M.2 SSD
* moved the graphics card to all PCI-E slots
* tried to boot without graphics card

I now have the board stored away for the night with the CMOS battery removed, I'm going to try again in the morning to see if maybe this will make it budge.

I'm pretty ready to just return the board, but any suggestions as to what I might try are very welcome.

Edited by gargltk - 05 Apr 2018 at 8:26am

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gargltk Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18 Mar 2018 Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote gargltk Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: [SOLVED] X399 Pro not booting after BIOS update Posted: 18 Mar 2018 at 6:01am
	Hello, I recently got the X399 Fatal1ty Professional Gaming motherboard to build a new Threadripper system. Before putting everything inside the case I decided to do an open-air test with just the bare minimum: * TR1950X * 64GB of HyperX 2666 MHz memory (4x16 GB) * Radeon RX580 * WD Black 512GB NVMe SSD (M.2) The system booted up perfectly all the way to the desktop (KDE on Arch Linux) on the first power-up. I then decided that I wanted to update the BIOS before proceeding any further so I downloaded the latest version from the ASRock website (2.00), extracted to a USB stick and rebooted into BIOS. From there I used the Instant Flash option to start the update. Everything seemed to go fine (the progress bar got to 100%, I got a "Press Enter to reboot" message) but upon rebooting the system never came back up. I am now stuck in the following scenario: * the red LEDs under the chipset slowly pulsate/blink on/off * the Dr. Debug display is off, no code displayed. After the reboot done at the end of the BIOS update there was some activity on this display but at some point it went offline and the chipset LEDs have been stuck on blinking red * powering the board with just the 24 pin plugged in will get the CPU fan to start up but nothing else (chipset LEDs still blinking, PSU seems to provide power but its fan isn't spinning, Dr. Debug still doesn't show anything). * powering up the board with any additional power cable connected (24+8+4, 24+8, 24+4) results in nothing coming online when I press the power button (no fans spin for PSU, CPU, graphics card) What I have tried so far: * BIOS Flashback seems to work so I tried that (the button blinks green for 2-3 minute, I can see the USB stick being accessed - it has an LED on it that indicates reads/writes, a green LED lights up on the board between the CPU socket and the top PCI-E connector). I tried flashing versions 1.50, 1.80 and even going back to 1.30 multiple times but it didn't seem to make any difference. I even tried this after removing everything off the motherboard and powering it on with only the 24 pin power connected * I tried clearing CMOS a bunch of times by pressing the Clear CMOS button, no apparent result * I tried removing the CMOS battery and leaving the board unplugged for ~10 minutes, no apparent result * re-socketed the CPU 3 times * re-seated memory multiple times * removed the M.2 SSD * moved the graphics card to all PCI-E slots * tried to boot without graphics card I now have the board stored away for the night with the CMOS battery removed, I'm going to try again in the morning to see if maybe this will make it budge. I'm pretty ready to just return the board, but any suggestions as to what I might try are very welcome. Edited by gargltk - 05 Apr 2018 at 8:26am

Xaltar Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 16 May 2015 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 22748	Post Options Post Reply Quote Xaltar Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 18 Mar 2018 at 6:54am
	Clear CMOS and flashback. You have your bases covered. See if the longer clear works in the morning. If not, try another flashback to whatever version the board shipped with (should be on a sticker on the BIOS ROM chip). If all that fails, return the board. I hope it doesn't come to that, good luck.


gargltk Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18 Mar 2018 Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote gargltk Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05 Apr 2018 at 8:24am
	In the end it turned out that the motherboard I got originally was defective after all. I returned it and got my replacement today. So far so good - managed to update BIOS to the latest version (though I didn't update straight to 2.00 like I did last time, instead I downloaded all available versions and updated incrementally until the last version), Windows/Linux boot without any issues, everything seems to be working fine on it.