Which BIOS update should I use?

Your IBuyPower PC has an ASRock Z170 Extreme4 board in it, right?

You think you have BIOS/UEFI version 1.00 in it now, correct?

Your board has dual BIOS chips, so if one is corrupted, you can recover with the backup BIOS. That means if you have an update problem, you can get back to normal using the backup BIOS.

The Instant Flash method is the safest and most dependable method you can use to update the BIOS.

Your board's BIOS has a feature called Internet Flash, which you can use to update your BIOS with the least amount of work on your part. This feature or tool automatically downloads the latest Instant Flash BIOS update file for you, and runs the BIOS update.

Are you using a standard Internet connection? Just asking to see if the Internet Flash feature will work for you.

Do you know if you use any non-default BIOS settings, like RAID or anything else? If you do, you will need to manually reset those things after the BIOS update. After any BIOS update, all the BIOS options are set to their default values.

Have you ever used the BIOS UI on your board? Do you know how to start the BIOS UI?

Your board has a Windows program you can download and install called Restart to UEFI. You simply click on its shortcut, click two things on its screen, and the PC will restart into the BIOS UI for you automatically. That program is on this page, or you can download and install it with the APP Shop program, if you have it installed. Scroll down to the bottom of this page to find both programs:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&os=Win1064

If you want to try the Internet Flash method, I'll describe that now.

When using Internet Flash, ASRock suggests you put a USB flash drive (it only needs to be 1GB or even less) into one of the USB ports on the board's IO panel on the back of the PC, to store the Instant Flash file in case of a problem. Then the automatic recovery feature will use the USB flash drive as a source for the BIOS file, which will be automatically copied to the flash drive by the Internet Flash tool.

To use Internet Flash, you go into the BIOS and select the Tools screen. You'll find an entry for Internet Flash, just click on it and follow the prompts. Be careful to not click on Instant Flash, which is also on that screen. If you did it would just fail and end, since it could not find a BIOS update file.

The BIOS update file will not take long to download, and you'll see messages like, "Processing crashless feature", which is good, and then the actual BIOS update being done. That takes about a minute or two. Just watch it happen, and don't click on anything while it is running, I doubt you'll be able to anyway.

When the update is complete, you will be prompted to press Enter to restart the PC. The PC may shutoff immediately, which is fine, it will start up again on its own. Don't remove the flash drive until you either boot into Windows, or go into the BIOS if you choose to do that. This is not critical at all, but better safe than sorry.

When the PC restarts, you will see a screen that states all the BIOS options have been reset to their default values. A timer is running that gives you time to press the Del or F2 keys to get into the BIOS. Or just sit back and use the default values, the timer will expire and Windows will boot.

If you hear the fans in your PC suddenly running very loud, that is because their settings in the BIOS were changed. Nothing to worry about, just something to fix in the BIOS.

If you want to use the manual Instant Flash method, let me know and I'll describe that to you

I spoke too soon. I plugged in a flash drive, and then used the Restart to UEFI program. Once in the UEFI, I clicked Internet Flash, but after a few minutes, it said there was some kind of "Internet connection error". 

Edited by trog69 - 22 Feb 2016 at 6:51am