BIOS update is taking 45+ minutes.....

[thatsright]

I just got the MSI Z170A-G45 board (it doesn't have dual BIOS) and it came with the original bios version. I downloaded the latest to a thumb drive and went into M-Flash in the Bios. It started to update the bios, but it has been sitting at 77% for over 45 minutes now. Is this normal? Doesn't seem so. Did I just brick the board before I've even done anything yet? What is the longest time it could/should take?

 

[tcsenter]

Way too long. Our Blu-Ray player which has like 64MB firmware ROM only takes about four minutes to program.

 

[thatsright]

Options? Or is it now an ornament?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Figures it is an MSI board. Heard nothing but bad juju about their BIOS updates. Forget whether their Windows' flash program, or if it was the BIOS M-Flash program that was "bad". Maybe both.

Good luck.

Maybe, if it hasn't screwed up the Bootblock, then you could reset, and attempt a re-flash / recovery flash. Read your manual to see if it can, and if so how, to do a recovery flash. (Flash from USB stick, when mainboard BIOS is corrupted.)

 

[JasonCoder]

You just got it... I'd RMA that bitch.

 

[nerp]

The board might not be dead. But after 45 minutes, I'd be feeling pretty grim. Hard to pull the plug, but it might be at that point.

If you manage to get the board to function and didn't brick it, try installing the bios updates sequentially instead of skipping a pile of them, if there are more than one. Otherwise, bleh. Sorry man.

 

[LTC8K6]

Do you possibly have a CPU in there that the original BIOS does not support?

 

[DigDog]

i had one bios hangup with my DS3-965p, after 15 minutes accepted the fact and rebooted, no harm was done. re-tried the update and it worked. my guess is that until the file is ready for update, the original bios doesn't get overwritten.

 

[thatsright]

I pulled the plug and miraculously it booted back into the Bios. But...it showed me Zero for the total amount of RAM on the board. Then when I tried to click on 'Hardware Monitor,' it didn't actually do anything. Pretty grim. So I thought maybe the bios file I got was just corrupt. I d/l again and tried again with the same version that hung and it did the upgrade in maybe 30 seconds. Then I went back in and everything was working and normal.

Dogged a bullet on that one!! WHOOT!

 

[pcgeek11]

You are one lucky so and so....

 

[nerp]

I pulled the plug and miraculously it booted back into the Bios. But...it showed me Zero for the total amount of RAM on the board. Then when I tried to click on 'Hardware Monitor,' it didn't actually do anything. Pretty grim. So I thought maybe the bios file I got was just corrupt. I d/l again and tried again with the same version that hung and it did the upgrade in maybe 30 seconds. Then I went back in and everything was working and normal.

Dogged a bullet on that one!! WHOOT!

Nice. Good news, glad to hear it.

Now you're going to be reallllly careful next time a new BIOS comes out. It just takes one near-death experience to be afraid.

To be honest, I feel that modern board have more resiliency for this stuff. Back in the day you'd be toast but more and more I think (aside from dual BIOS setups) manufacturers are making measures to prevent total failure when a BIOS update goes wrong.

 

[Indus]

Very lucky indeed. I had an MSI bios update nightmare that cost me $130 for a replacement a while ago.

I stay the hell away from MSI now. Even their video cards have died on me.

 

[RaistlinZ]

 

[LTC8K6]

Never update the BIOS unless there is a problem that requires a BIOS update to fix.

 

[bonehead123]

I've updated the bios 4 times since January on my Gigabyte Gaming 7 nottaproblemo using both the q-flash utility and the windows app after having downloaded the updates to an empty flash drive.

None of them took more than 60 seconds start to finish including the reboot.........

Why you may ask ?

1) Cause I wanted the latest nvme support to be 100% native for my Evo 950's.

2) Cause I like to keep my rigs as up to date as possible, bios or otherwise....

3) See above

 

[nerp]

Generally BIOS updates are to be avoided unless to fix specific things and that is good advice but when it comes to these newer Skylake motherboards, I think it's a good idea to go ahead and do them. The platform is new and many of these boards are dramatically better after a few revisions than when they were first released. My recommendation is to give the BIOS a few weeks in the wild before flashing just to make sure that there aren't any major problems.

 

[tcsenter]

Never update the BIOS unless there is a problem that requires a BIOS update to fix.

Bah it's not 1998, anymore. Firmware flash is pretty reliable these days.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I just updated the BIOS on my ASUS X99 Pro for the first time a few days ago. I had been using the very first release BIOS up until now. I only did it to support Broadwell-E should I decide to upgrade.

But generally... if your rig is stable, leave the BIOS alone.

 

[LTC8K6]

I've updated the bios 4 times since January on my Gigabyte Gaming 7 nottaproblemo using both the q-flash utility and the windows app after having downloaded the updates to an empty flash drive.

None of them took more than 60 seconds start to finish including the reboot.........

Why you may ask ?

1) Cause I wanted the latest nvme support to be 100% native for my Evo 950's.

2) Cause I like to keep my rigs as up to date as possible, bios or otherwise....

3) See above

Uh huh:

http://www.gigabyte.com/webpage/20/HowToReflashBIOS.html

 

[Puffnstuff]

One thing is to never flash unless your pc on a battery backup just in case of a power interruption.