Question B450 Tomahawk BIOS Flashback not working

[CelticCaleb]

So I'm trying to use the Bios flashback button to flash the bios so I can install a ryzen 7 3700x cpu, the issue I'm running into is that when I press the button, there is no led that turns on and the board itself does not do anything, and before you ask, yes I followed the steps of the instructions to the letter, the power supply 24 pin atx power and 8 pin cpu power are all that is connected to the mobo, the flash drive is a brand new 16gb formatted FAT32 with MBR, all that is on it is the MSI.ROM file, I just need to get the button itself to work, could someone please help

 

[boju]

Did you power up the psu? Connect case power button. Put usb stick in designated usb port and turn PC on. Then follow the flash back procedure.

 

[CelticCaleb]

Same issue, the board is powered on now, with the red CPU debug led on as there is no cpu connected, but when I press the bios flashback button, it doesn't do anything

 

[boju]

MSI.ROM file in the root directory, no folders? Press button and wait. See video below.

Try both powering and not powering up PSU.

Could be the USB stick as well the motherboard isn't agreeing with.

 

[CelticCaleb]

Just doesn't want to do anything, I've tried psu on, psu off, different usb, different port, just nothing makes that little led do anything

 

[boju]

There's only one usb port for flash back. It'll be described which one to use in the manual.

Try a different usb stick. Possibly Sandisk.

 

[CelticCaleb]

Yeah, different usb isn't doing anything either

 

[boju]

Ok so is this board from a prior system of yours or did you buy it with the 3700x?

 

[CelticCaleb]

It's from a prior system of a friends, it worked just fine before, but he had a 2700x in it, so he didn't have to update the bios for the Gen 3 CPUs

 

[boju]

Should be working. Try clear cmos.

Instructions on clearing cmos is in the manual.

 

[boju]

You've assembled the board in the case correctly on standoffs yeah? Or on a non conductive surface?

 

[CelticCaleb]

Clearing CMOS isn't doing anything, I have it set up on the motherboard box right now

 

[boju]

If your PSU is modular, check cpu 8pin is connected properly to the PSU.

Not sure what else to suggest besides getting hands on help from a computer store.

 

[boju]

Just checking. You downloaded the latest bios file 7C02v1D.zip, extracted/copied E7C02AMS.1D0 file to the usb stick and renamed it to MSI.ROM?

 

[boju]

Also try an earlier Bios revision when Gen3 support was added.

 

[Colif]

how big is the USB drive? One solution I found mentioned using a bigger stick

See best answer here https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=321422.0

 

[CelticCaleb]

I've tried a 1gb, 16gb and 128gb stick, it just doesn't want to start the process, I'm taking it into my local computer repair place today to see what they can do

 

[boju]

Please let us know what's going on with it. Good luck.

 

[drea.drechsler]

One other thing I've read helps is to remove absolutely everything unneeded for the actual flashback. That is: no CPU, no memory, no drives, no GPU. Just the 24pin and (if needed) the CPU +12V connectors from the PSU.

The flashback feature was originally intended for updating boards from stock and so would not have anything at all installed. So this makes sense.

 

[boju]

That's the tricky part, he's got the motherboard on the box with just those cables connected 🥴

 

[Darkbreeze]

Do you have a CPU installed while trying to flash?

 

[CelticCaleb]

Update: I took it and had the computer repair place update the bios since the flashback button just doesn't function as far as I'm concerned, now it's all put together and running smoothly