Upgrading the CPU on an Asrock MOB IMPORTANT LESSION LEARNED!

[ttguy99]

Upgrading the CPU on an Asrock MOB IMPORTANT LESSION LEARNED

I am sitting here with a computer that I built 6-7 years ago. The current CPU is a Ryzen 7 1077X, an OK CPU 7 years ago. The MOB is a Fatality X370 professional gaming series. So, I decided to upgrade the CPU to a Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The MOB being so old I thought for sure I would have to do a bunch of Bios updates. Sure enough, going to the Asrock site there were about 15 Bios updates for the MOB that had not been performed up to that time.

To make a long story short I ended up having to Asrock tech support (called at about 3 PM EST the wait time for a tech was less than 1 minute!) in CA. I explained what was going on and that I was having trouble installing one Bios update.

One of the first things the tech asked was what CPU was planning to upgrade to.

Here is the lesson when I started, I assumed that I needed to install all the Bios’ upgrades on their site for this MOB. That is not the case. Instead of loading fifteen updates I only needed to load three. That is because many of the Bios’ updates are for specific CPU core types (like summit ridge or others). That is why the tech asked me what CPU I was going to install. The bios’ updates vary from one CPU model to another. Call tech support for guidance for your new CPU and Bios' updates.

Also note that once you perform the three updates the MOB will no longer support the original processor so you need to be ready to do the processor swap to get back to an operational MOB.

I hope this is helpful,

Mike

 

[Brian Boru]

Good info Mike, thanks for the PSA

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I would have assumed you just need to load the latest BIOS, so good to know. I guess the extra steps are because X370 wasnt initially supposed to be backwards compatible with 5000 series.

 

[ttguy99]

I would have assumed you just need to load the latest BIOS, so good to know. I guess the extra steps are because X370 wasnt initially supposed to be backwards compatible with 5000 series.

That would be my thought as well

 

[Colif]

Here is the lesson when I started, I assumed that I needed to install all the Bios’ upgrades on their site for this MOB. That is not the case. Instead of loading fifteen updates I only needed to load three. That is because many of the Bios’ updates are for specific CPU core types (like summit ridge or others). That is why the tech asked me what CPU I was going to install. The bios’ updates vary from one CPU model to another. Call tech support for guidance for your new CPU and Bios' updates.

There are some boards that require specific versions be installed before you go to the latest. Its normally shown on the BIOS update page for the motherboard.

Some boards remove support for older CPU when they add new ones, but thats mainly Asrock for some reason. They don't have enough ram in the bios to support them all. Tech may have asked to make sure BIOS supported CPU. They rarely release a BIOS just for one CPU, but they will release updates to support newer ones. AS stated, Asrock more likely to remove old ones when they start supporting new ones. I assume its not the case here... update bios to find it no longer works with the old CPU.

In most cases you can just install latest though. NO need to go through all the steps. Most new boards let you reflash the BIOS if it goes wrong anyway.