Question PROBLEM SOLVED! Stupid question...or stupid for most of youse

[BoomerD]

I've been trying and trying to update the BIOS on my ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4 motherboard. I've followed the directions as posted by ASRock here:

ASRock - BIOS Upgrade Instruction Guide

But all I get is "image not found."
Thumb drive is formatted to FAT32 per directions. Downloaded the official BIOS update (going from v.1.0 to v.1.30 for starters...will finish going to v.4.40 once I get the 1.30 done. (I presume this is an incremental thing...I can't just jump from 1.0 to 4.40 in one step...no info on it from ASRock)

WTF am I doing wrong? (or just not doing)

Thanks...this is something I haven't done in...10 years, and never on an ASRock board with UEFI BIOS.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are you putting the ZIP file that you downloaded onto the USB (bad), or are you double-clicking the ZIP file on your HDD/SSD, and then clicking "Extract All...", and then copying the extracted .BIN file to the ROOT directory of the USB (needs to be FAT16/32, and 16GB or smaller).

Read ASRock's BIOS download page for your board, it may have one or more "bridge BIOS" that must be flashed in order like stepping-stones, before flashing the most recent.

BIOS system, hit DEL/F2, go to BIOS, hit F6 to go to advanced, navigate to Tools / InstantFlash, should be straightforward from there.

 

[BoomerD]

Are you putting the ZIP file that you downloaded onto the USB (bad), or are you double-clicking the ZIP file on your HDD/SSD, and then clicking "Extract All...", and then copying the extracted .BIN file to the ROOT directory of the USB (needs to be FAT16/32, and 16GB or smaller).

Read ASRock's BIOS download page for your board, it may have one or more "bridge BIOS" that must be flashed in order like stepping-stones, before flashing the most recent.

BIOS system, hit DEL/F2, go to BIOS, hit F6 to go to advanced, navigate to Tools / InstantFlash, should be straightforward from there.

D/L the file to my desktop, extracted the file contained to the USB drive. Tried going to the first available BIOS version. (1.20) Same thing. There IS a v.1.10 that I can try next I guess. HWMonitor shows mine as L.0.01...not even showing on the BIOS list. Maybe 1.10 would be the logical place to start.

 

[VirtualLarry]

D/L the file to my desktop, extracted the file contained to the USB drive.

I don't think that will leave the .BIN in the root directory, if you do it that way.

 

[BoomerD]

I don't think that will leave the .BIN in the root directory, if you do it that way.

Not sure how else to do it. (BoomerD is stupid)

Choose the desired downloaded BIOS version file/r-click file/choose extract all/choose location/ (get the same results whether I choose the thumbdrive or my desktop folder) move extracted contents to thumbdrive.
No Image Found.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Then you're either downloading the BIOS for the WRONG BOARD, or, your USB drive is "incompatible" (happens).

Don't you have an OEM system from Costco?

 

[RLGL]

the extracted file should be similar to "Z39PG4_4.40"

 

[BoomerD]

Then you're either downloading the BIOS for the WRONG BOARD, or, your USB drive is "incompatible" (happens).

Don't you have an OEM system from Costco?

Yes, and it turns out, IBuyPower has BIOS for the board...I'm going to try those next.

the extracted file should be similar to "Z39PG4_4.40"

Z39PG4_1.10 is the oldest one I can get from ASRock. Doesn't work. Going to try the IBP BIOS starting with Z39PGIB_4.01. That's the oldest from them.

We'll see.

 

[BoomerD]

That might have been the problem. So far, it's working. ( Stupid OEM builders making me feel like a maroon)

Edit. V4.01 done, 4.20, 4.32, working on 4.33. That's their latest.

SUCCESS! Updated as far as possible.

Thanks everyone.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, the "OEM" boards might be identical to their retail counterparts, but they annoyingly usually have a different internal "board id", and such, they take a parallel set of BIOS updates as compared to the retail version.

TL;DR: If you have an OEM board, use BIOS updates from the OEM mfg; retail board BIOSes probably won't work.

 

[BoomerD]

Yeah, the "OEM" boards might be identical to their retail counterparts, but they annoyingly usually have a different internal "board id", and such, they take a parallel set of BIOS updates as compared to the retail version.

TL;DR: If you have an OEM board, use BIOS updates from the OEM mfg; retail board BIOSes probably won't work.

yeah, dammit. I SHOULD have known better. I had a Sony back in the mid-90's that came with its own brand of BIOS...and many other drivers as well. For some reason, it just never dawned on me to check.

 

[VirtualLarry]

For some reason, it just never dawned on me to check.

You did fine, I'm not chastising you. Just pointing out the obvious for why your initial attempts didn't work, for our Google readers.

Someone might read this in 2030 (*might be you, too. ) , and go, "I should have known!".