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Bought a CPU thats supported but bios not up2date

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marcus556 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 26 Aug 2015 at 9:57am
I bought a i7 4790s to put in my asrock extreme 3 z87 board and i believe the bios is not up2date to support the bios at the current moment. Is there any way i can update the bios without putting a supported CPU in the socket?

Thanks!

Marcus
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parsec View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Aug 2015 at 12:51pm
Unfortunately no, sorry to say.

The Z87 chipset was released over a year before the i7-4790s became available. The i7-4790s is a "Haswell Refresh" series processor, that were known to need a UEFI/BIOS update in order to work with the Intel 8 series chipsets, like a Z87.

All the Haswell Refresh processors require the version 2.40 UEFI/BIOS, and some need version 2.50. Haswell Refresh processors require a CPU microcode update from Intel that was not available until just before these processors were released. All mother board manufactures had to issue BIOS updates to accommodate these processors on their Z87 boards.

The CPU support list for your board can be found here:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20Extreme3/?cat=CPU

Your board should have a sticker on the UEFI/BIOS chip with the version installed at the factory. That chip is just below the lowest SATA port, in the lower right hand corner of the board. What version is on that chip?

I assume you get no POST and cannot get into the BIOS UI with your CPU, correct?

The best you can do is either borrow a pre-Refresh Haswell processor to use so you can update the UEFI/BIOS, or buy a cheap processor to use for that purpose.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote marcus556 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Aug 2015 at 8:51pm
Originally posted by parsec parsec wrote:

Unfortunately no, sorry to say.

The Z87 chipset was released over a year before the i7-4790s became available. The i7-4790s is a "Haswell Refresh" series processor, that were known to need a UEFI/BIOS update in order to work with the Intel 8 series chipsets, like a Z87.

All the Haswell Refresh processors require the version 2.40 UEFI/BIOS, and some need version 2.50. Haswell Refresh processors require a CPU microcode update from Intel that was not available until just before these processors were released. All mother board manufactures had to issue BIOS updates to accommodate these processors on their Z87 boards.

The CPU support list for your board can be found here:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20Extreme3/?cat=CPU

Your board should have a sticker on the UEFI/BIOS chip with the version installed at the factory. That chip is just below the lowest SATA port, in the lower right hand corner of the board. What version is on that chip?

I assume you get no POST and cannot get into the BIOS UI with your CPU, correct?

The best you can do is either borrow a pre-Refresh Haswell processor to use so you can update the UEFI/BIOS, or buy a cheap processor to use for that purpose.



I figured all this out late last night and thank you for your response. Im going to buy a cheap Pentium processor to get me over the hump. I havent checked the version on the sticker but I bought the board on Jan 29th 2014 and the bios update that allows me to use the CPU I have was released on the 27th of that same month and year. So, its a pretty good assumption that I need to update my bios first before I will be able to use the CPU I have.

Just out of curiosity, does ASRock have any boards that allow you to flash without having to be in the actual bios? I have a Asus board that I can plug a flash drive in and hit a button and it will flash the bios without even having to turn the computer on. Its a really nice feature, partly because of my stupidity and my current situation haha but a nice feature indeed.

Thanks for your help!

Marcus
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cmezza Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Aug 2015 at 12:46am
The same thing happened to me about a year and a half ago (other brand and Xeon CPU, but nevertheless). What I did is order from Amazon an older compatible CPU. I took great care of it, and put it back in the box before returning it to Amazon.
Total cost: 0 (euros).
A bit ashamed, but that solved my problem and allowed the system to boot with the intended processor....
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Aug 2015 at 1:09am
Originally posted by marcus556 marcus556 wrote:


I figured all this out late last night and thank you for your response. Im going to buy a cheap Pentium processor to get me over the hump. I havent checked the version on the sticker but I bought the board on Jan 29th 2014 and the bios update that allows me to use the CPU I have was released on the 27th of that same month and year. So, its a pretty good assumption that I need to update my bios first before I will be able to use the CPU I have.

Just out of curiosity, does ASRock have any boards that allow you to flash without having to be in the actual bios? I have a Asus board that I can plug a flash drive in and hit a button and it will flash the bios without even having to turn the computer on. Its a really nice feature, partly because of my stupidity and my current situation haha but a nice feature indeed.

Thanks for your help!

Marcus


No, not that I am aware of. To have the UEFI/BIOS UI available, takes a processor and memory to be functioning on the board. I know that some Asus boards had that capability, which is done by having an extra chip on the board that acts as a CPU, but on a limited basis. A nice feature, but adds cost to the board.

I would think that given all the technology available today, chips like that would be fairly common. But implementing it into the rest of a board, and getting it to turn on and off correctly, etc, may not be worth it when it is not used 99.9% of the time.

About the UEFI/BIOS version in your board, that depends on when the board was manufactured, and how old the stock of boards the retailer had was. That will be all chance and luck. Ermm


Edited by parsec - 27 Aug 2015 at 1:13am
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