asus support recommended upgrading BIOS build 1 by 1 vs. jumping from oldest to newest build

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JediFonger

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is this legit?

i supposedly bricked my Q170C-M by upgrading from 070x to 2003 build...

they dont have release notes detailing pre-reqs like the Dells/Lenovo/HP folks.

am i just missing a huge piece of this puzzle? did you all know this?

another words.. if a motherboard has 15 BIOS updates... and you are stuck on the oldest.. you are supposed to update 15x until you get to the latest.

sounds like BS to me
 
Update to the latest, reset the BIOS to defaults, then reconfigure if needed.
 
bios stuck in ez flash tool loop

already shorted jumper pin bios reset and unplugged cable.

i just took out cmos battery waiting now...
 
These days you should be fine by moving to latest BIOS. I have encountered only once/twice having to stairstep the BIOS updates and flash a certain version then to the newest. No idea why LOL.
 
took battery out and put it back in after hrs.

in all my years in IT i just never heard of it.

i cant seem to downgrade now either. rebooting means bios gets back into ez flash utility saying i have to select the bios files
 
I don't see the need to flash each one, since you are flashing a complete bios image into the eeprom.

I just did my Sabertooth 990FX from 07XX to 1604 the other day with no issues as well as my Sabertooth Z97 from 1008 to 2702.
 
i know right? anyways that was the official answer from their escalated dev team folks apparently. my board is stuck in infinite loop and i cant even downgrade
 
did you put the jumper on BIOS recovery and not put it back (if it has that option?)

Or do you have a BIOS flashback button the rear IO and maybe it got stuck?
 
i've unplug power, shorted for a full minute and then power it back on. no dice. very unusual problem

edit: there is just the two pins i used a screwdriver and other metal things to short it
 
rma'd the board. nothing else i can do. v. unusual. of the many boards i've owned i've only hd to send board back maybe once or twice before ever and usually cap-related and not bios corruptions. guess there's a 1st for everything
 
Asus support is insane, flashing is inherently risky and telling people to do a dozen middle steps is batshit.

If there is a regression or redesign where you have to stop at 1 version before going to any newer ones then that particular one should be clearly noted on the site.
 
I could see the potential maybe that a particular newer bios might need updated EZ flash code to correctly update, so needing to do a middle-step. Updating each version one after the other seems ridiculous though.
 
JediFonger said:
is this legit?

sounds like BS to me
Click to expand...

It is BS. The only time it wouldn't be is when your current bios is predates the point when they changed their bios structure, but that was a couple years ago. And in that case, you had to convert the old bios software to the new version, then you could flash the latest bios. Even still after conversion, you don't have to do one at a time, that is still BS.
 
What the heck.. I upgraded my Z170 Pro from the firmware that shipped (0224 dated 2015/09/28) to the latest (2202 dated 2016/10/04) in one go and didn't have any problems.
 
Jedifonger, same happened to me, flashed to latest bios and it got stuck in a ezflash loop and when turning the pc on it would ask for bios files.

Resetting bios didnt do shit, shorting pins didnt do anything, everything i did always ended up with the bios asking for bios files when i turned the pc on. finally used a different pc and downloaded a copy of the bios from asus website onto a usb stick and when the bios on the borked board asked me for the bios files I just pointed it to the usb stick, once found it automatically verified the flash and bingo everything worky again.

My problem was because I used the inbuilt bios flash tool in asus bios, the one that says flash bios via the internet. I will never pick that option again or if i do i will have a copy of the upgraded bios on a usb drive so it can be verified and finish the flash process.
 
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EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Jedifonger, same happened to me, flashed to latest bios and it got stuck in a loop and when turning the pc on it would go into the bios and ask for bios files.

Resetting bios didnt do shit, shorting pins didnt do anything, finally used a different pc and managed to get a copy of the bios onto a usb stick and when the bios on the borked board asked me for the bios files I just pointed it to the usb stick, once found it automatically verified the flash and bingo everything worky again.

My problem was because I used the inbuilt bios flash tool in asus bios, the one that says flash bios via the internet. I will never pick that option again or if i do i will have a copy of the upgraded bios on a usb drive so it can be verified and finish the flash process.
Click to expand...

Yea, using the usb stick option is best.
 
i thought so. i used it on another q170
and it worked fine but i was going from 1'step to another. used internet function.

meanwhile on the board i had sent back... i did also attempt that trick but that didntnwork in my situation.

no matter what variation usb stick i used (any size or fat vs fat32) and download re dl from any asus mirrors the result was always bios cap file unrecognized
 
Updated my Z170 pro a few times already and even skipped one without issue. EZ flash is pretty damn easy actually.
Flashing with 3.5 could be tricky.
 
got my board back now. i think it was more the updating using internet directly. gonna stick to pre-dl updates instead

i was able to update to the latest 3016 without any issues... but i had to use USB stick reformatted to fat32.

EZ flash wouldn't even read .CAP file from HDD.

weird
 
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