Question Anyone here speak ASRock? Haswell ASRock board and BIOS updates

[mikeymikec]

I wanted to update the BIOS of a customer's ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 P1.70 board. I presume the '1.70' refers to the BIOS version, but when I looked up that board on the ASRock page:

ASRock > H81M-DGS R2.0

Supports New 4th and 4th Generation Intel Xeon / Core™ i7 / i5 / i3 / Pentium / Celeron Processors (Socket 1150); 100% All Solid Capacitor design; Supports Dual Channel DDR3/DDR3L 1600; 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x1; Graphics Output Options: D-Sub, DVI-D; Realtek Gigabit LAN; 5.1 CH HD Audio...

www.asrock.com

There is no v1.70 version

The 'Internet flash' feature in the BIOS claims I don't have an Internet connection either. Does ASRock have a tendency to produce a beta BIOS then abandon that version number altogether?

The CPU support page refers to BIOS versions with a 'P' prefix so I think I'm on the right track there.

I wanted to fix a problem with the computer coming out of sleep mode, starting with the most passive / least destructive methods first, but a BIOS update when I'm not completely sure I've downloaded the correct image increases the risk factor somewhat!

 

[RLGL]

There should be a sticker on the bios chip indicating the version number it was released with. Use cpuid to get it. Internet flash.......forget it.
Use a USB stick.

 

[mikeymikec]

P1.60. I wonder if there's any chance that the person who built it flashed the board with the non R2.0 BIOS (as that board has a P1.70 BIOS to download)?

If so, I'm surprised it didn't cause a bigger problem.

- edit - the BIOS date (according to CPU-Z anyway) doesn't match what's on the ASRock website. Hum.

 

[Tech Junky]

I've noticed that sometimes they release something and then later on take it off the download page. Whether it was meant to be a hot fix or something entirely different it's hard to say. In running an update from a few months ago that is no longer listed and that's how I noticed that happening.

 

[mikeymikec]

Hopefully I'm on the right track with the sleep mode problem so hopefully I won't have to mess with the BIOS. It's been BSOD'ing 100% of the time coming out of sleep mode, and always with a "this is totally RAM" code (including some I hadn't heard of like CACHE_MANAGER). A couple of passes with memtest86 didn't show anything so I pulled both modules and chucked in a spare one, no BSOD. I'm now going to test each original module with sleep mode and hopefully narrow it down to one module.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Some motherboards had bugs around RAM timings / voltage and sleep-mode transitions. Heck, I think AM5 did/does still.

 

[tcsenter]

Still on the download server: https://download.asrock.com/BIOS/1150/H81M-DGS R2.0(1.70)ROM.zip