- Aug 26, 2014
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My HTPC runs an AMD A8-7600 and 8GB G.Skill DDR3-2133 on an ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ board. It's been mostly problem free for the year or so that I've had it, except for a few nagging issues (most notably: HDMI not waking from sleep).
Due to the aforementioned issues, I upgraded the BIOS last week from v.3.0 to 3.4 through the in-BIOS direct download feature. This is when the trouble started. After the upgrade, first the computer refused to load Windows. I'm not sure if other BIOS settings were retained, but at least one thing changed: my boot drive (850 Evo) and one of the HDDs (4TB WD RED) were now labeled as SATA rather than AHCI in the boot order. My two 2TB WD Green backup drives were still labeled AHCI. I was completely unable to change this (there are no per-drive settings for anything like this). In the end I lucked out and found a "fix": the drive type designation was changed back to AHCI when I entered the boot menu (F11) directly after booting, rather than entering the BIOS. After this, the ACHI designation stuck, in the BIOS boot menu as well. "Phew, glad that's over with," I though.
Not so fast. Two days later, the computer entirely refuses to boot. It powers on, all internal components get power, but there is no display output (tested HDMI, DVI and VGA outputs), and I'm not able to remote in (leading me to think that it hasn't entered Windows). I don't have a spare graphics card, so I wasn't able to determine if it simply had disabled the iGPU, for example. From what I can tell, USB devices are not getting power (no numlock light on the keyboard I plugged in for troubleshooting). After resetting CMOS, display output is back, but the SATA/AHCI drive mislabeling returns. Same workaround, ten minutes later the computer is up and running. Three days later, the same thing happens again. Only this time, the boot selection workaround doesn't work. In the end, I get it working, but only after several reboots, changing all kinds of BIOS settings, restoring defaults, changing some more - finally the motherboard correctly recognizes my drives. Also, for some reason now my RAM is set to 1333MHz rather than its JEDEC 1600MHz speed (which has always been recognized by the BIOS). For now, I'm rather scared of powering off the PC again.
The only conclusion I'm able to reach is that this BIOS build is seriously wonky. So: can I roll it back somehow? If so, how? I haven't had time to contact ASRock about this yet, but I obviously will.
One thing perhaps worth mentioning: my RAM is not on the QVL list for this motherboard. It has, however, been running problem-free for a year or more, at XMP settings, requiring no tweaking whatsoever. Several other G.Skill RAM kits (even at higher speeds) are on the list. I've also run a slight OC on the iGPU (from 720 to 847MHz), which should be nowhere near pushing it.
Due to the aforementioned issues, I upgraded the BIOS last week from v.3.0 to 3.4 through the in-BIOS direct download feature. This is when the trouble started. After the upgrade, first the computer refused to load Windows. I'm not sure if other BIOS settings were retained, but at least one thing changed: my boot drive (850 Evo) and one of the HDDs (4TB WD RED) were now labeled as SATA rather than AHCI in the boot order. My two 2TB WD Green backup drives were still labeled AHCI. I was completely unable to change this (there are no per-drive settings for anything like this). In the end I lucked out and found a "fix": the drive type designation was changed back to AHCI when I entered the boot menu (F11) directly after booting, rather than entering the BIOS. After this, the ACHI designation stuck, in the BIOS boot menu as well. "Phew, glad that's over with," I though.
Not so fast. Two days later, the computer entirely refuses to boot. It powers on, all internal components get power, but there is no display output (tested HDMI, DVI and VGA outputs), and I'm not able to remote in (leading me to think that it hasn't entered Windows). I don't have a spare graphics card, so I wasn't able to determine if it simply had disabled the iGPU, for example. From what I can tell, USB devices are not getting power (no numlock light on the keyboard I plugged in for troubleshooting). After resetting CMOS, display output is back, but the SATA/AHCI drive mislabeling returns. Same workaround, ten minutes later the computer is up and running. Three days later, the same thing happens again. Only this time, the boot selection workaround doesn't work. In the end, I get it working, but only after several reboots, changing all kinds of BIOS settings, restoring defaults, changing some more - finally the motherboard correctly recognizes my drives. Also, for some reason now my RAM is set to 1333MHz rather than its JEDEC 1600MHz speed (which has always been recognized by the BIOS). For now, I'm rather scared of powering off the PC again.
The only conclusion I'm able to reach is that this BIOS build is seriously wonky. So: can I roll it back somehow? If so, how? I haven't had time to contact ASRock about this yet, but I obviously will.
One thing perhaps worth mentioning: my RAM is not on the QVL list for this motherboard. It has, however, been running problem-free for a year or more, at XMP settings, requiring no tweaking whatsoever. Several other G.Skill RAM kits (even at higher speeds) are on the list. I've also run a slight OC on the iGPU (from 720 to 847MHz), which should be nowhere near pushing it.
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