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Fraxlin View Drop Down
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    Posted: 06 May 2018 at 6:36pm
Hi all,
I was thinking about updating my motherboard (Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4) BIOS.
I have done this 2 times in the past: the first when I bought the motherboard (from 1.60 to 2.40), and the second time when I was hoping to fix a problem I wrongly thought might be due to the BIOS (from 2.40 to 3.10).
Now I'm fine, but I saw many BIOS coming out meanwhile, and having a Ryzen 1700X CPU, I heard there could be performance/stability improvements in updating the BIOS. I was thinking to update to v3.50, and wait several months until the 4.xx branch will ironed out ... but right now my system is just fine, and I'm afraid something might go wrong if I proceed and that if everything works well now it might be a stupid risk to take.
How stable is updating BIOS via Instant Flash (obviously resetting BIOS to defaults before and with a FAT32 formatted USB stick)? If anything goes wrong and I'm trapped in a boot loop or RAM incompatibility or something similar, is there a plan B? I heard of an ASRock feature called Crashless BIOS or something like that, but I don't find anything in the official user manual of this board.

Thank you Smile


Edited by Fraxlin - 06 May 2018 at 6:37pm
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datonyb View Drop Down
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simple answer is

what you have already said

YOUR BIOS IS WORKING FINE !

do not update unless you really have to, in your case if and when you buy a ryzen 2xxx cpu
[url=https://valid.x86.fr/jpg250][/url]

3800X, powercolor reddevil vega64, gskill tridentz3866, taichix370, evga750watt gold
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SoniC View Drop Down
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If ain't broke - don't fix it.
The BIOS/UEFI Flashing is relatively safe process (matured since early BIOSes A LOT), bridge bios (3.5) seems fine, however further AGESA changes (mainly to introduce APU and RyZEN 2xxx support) have still a lot of bugs.
Like I've said - if you are clocking your RAM to the specs and are satisfied with your rig, do not touch it :)
P.S. ASRock flashback feature is not a part of your board, sorry.
Crashless BIOS is only a safety feature if you overdo with the settings - after x unsuccessful POST (x can be changed in the UEFI) it will revert back to default values (similar to clear CMOS). However it does not protect you against errors during the flashing.
-=SoniC=-
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Thanks guys for the answers Smile
Just one more (and last) question: I have a 2x8 Corsair 2666Mhz DDR4 RAM (CMK16GX4M2A2666C16R). Since I bought my PC 1 year ago, this RAM was always recognized by default at 2133Mhz. I read on BIOS changelog that in version 3.30 "With JEDEC 2666MHz DDR4 module, default set DDR4 frequency to 2666MHz. Test with SANMAX SMD4-U8G48MH-26VR and SMD4-U16G48MH-26VR."
Does it mean there might be a chance that with new version of the BIOS these modules will work by default at 2666Mhz? Just asking for curiosity, right now I still prefer stability over anything else Wink

Thanks!!
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JohnM View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Fraxlin Fraxlin wrote:

I have a 2x8 Corsair 2666Mhz DDR4 RAM (CMK16GX4M2A2666C16R). Does it mean there might be a chance that with new version of the BIOS these modules will work by default at 2666Mhz?

No. The highest JEDEC profile they support is the 2133 MHz one, as you've seen. If you want to use their full potential you need to enable XMP and then select the 2666 MHz profile. I'm using a Raven Ridge processor whose default memory speed is 2933 MHz and I'm able to overclock my DIMMs to that frequency by selecting the 2933 MHz profile instead, and they are stable at the default 1.2 volts. YMMV. (I understand the only difference between my DIMMs and yours is that mine have black heatsinks.)
ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 ITX P4.90, AMD Ryzen 5 2400G, 2x8GB Corsair CMK16GX4M2A2666C16, 250GB Samsung 960EVO, 500GB Samsung 850EVO, 4TB WD Blue, Windows 10 Pro 64, Corsair SF450, Cooler Master Elite 110
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datonyb View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Fraxlin Fraxlin wrote:

Thanks guys for the answers Smile
Just one more (and last) question: I have a 2x8 Corsair 2666Mhz DDR4 RAM (CMK16GX4M2A2666C16R). Since I bought my PC 1 year ago, this RAM was always recognized by default at 2133Mhz. I read on BIOS changelog that in version 3.30 "With JEDEC 2666MHz DDR4 module, default set DDR4 frequency to 2666MHz. Test with SANMAX SMD4-U8G48MH-26VR and SMD4-U16G48MH-26VR."
Does it mean there might be a chance that with new version of the BIOS these modules will work by default at 2666Mhz? Just asking for curiosity, right now I still prefer stability over anything else Wink

Thanks!!


have you tried just clicking the xmp 2666 in the bios ?
[url=https://valid.x86.fr/jpg250][/url]

3800X, powercolor reddevil vega64, gskill tridentz3866, taichix370, evga750watt gold
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Fraxlin View Drop Down
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Points: 5 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Fraxlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 May 2018 at 1:30pm
I'll give it a try this weekend Smile ... I knew about this, but I didn't touch anything until now hoping a BIOS update would solve this, but this is not the case Tongue

Thanks again Wink


Edited by Fraxlin - 10 May 2018 at 1:31pm
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