Question Can I Downgrade BIOS?

[JudithWright]

I have the AsRock A320M-HDV R4.0 motherboard and when I try using the AMD Athlon X4 950 CPU, the system will not boot.

I temporarily changed the CPU to the AMD Athlon 3000g, and this does boot.

I am confused, because when I look at PCPartPicker, it seems that both of these CPUs require the same BIOS version (4.0).

Right now, the system BIOS is 7.10.

Can I change the BIOS version to 4.0 ? Would that be the best option for the system?

Another reason I am confused, is because when I look at the AsRock BIOS page (https://www.asrock.com/mb/amd/a320m-hdv r4.0/index.asp#BIOS) it seems to say:

"ASRock do NOT recommend updating this BIOS if Pinnacle, Raven, Summit or Bristol Ridge CPU is being used on your system."

Isn't the Athlon 3000g Raven? Isn't the Athlon X4 950 Bristol Ridge?
Which version of the BIOS should be installed?

 

[JudithWright]

I have the AsRock A320M-HDV R4.0 motherboard and when I try using the AMD Athlon X4 950 CPU, the system will not boot.

I temporarily changed the CPU to the AMD Athlon 3000g, and this does boot.

I am confused, because when I look at PCPartPicker, it seems that both of these CPUs require the same BIOS version (4.0).

Right now, the system BIOS is 7.10.

Can I change the BIOS version to 4.0 ? Would that be the best option for the system?

Another reason I am confused, is because when I look at the AsRock BIOS page (https://www.asrock.com/mb/amd/a320m-hdv r4.0/index.asp#BIOS) it seems to say:

"ASRock do NOT recommend updating this BIOS if Pinnacle, Raven, Summit or Bristol Ridge CPU is being used on your system."

Isn't the Athlon 3000g Raven? Isn't the Athlon X4 950 Bristol Ridge?
Which version of the BIOS should be installed?

 

[lvt]

*** User will not able to flash previous BIOS once upgrading to this BIOS version

You already have the answer for your question.

You can't downgrade to 4.0 from 7.10, not even to 7.0

 

[JudithWright]

You already have the answer for your question.

You can't downgrade to 4.0 from 7.10, not even to 7.0

What is the solution for this situation?
How can I run the Athlon X4 950 CPU in this system?

 

[SkyNetRising]

What is the solution for this situation?
How can I run the Athlon X4 950 CPU in this system?

You can't.
After updating BIOS to version 7.0 or later, you can not use Bristol Ridge cpu on this board anymore.
BIOS downgrade is not permitted.

Solution?
Get a new board. Or get a new cpu.
Athlon X4 950 is not a very good cpu anyway.

 

[lvt]

What is the solution for this situation?
How can I run the Athlon X4 950 CPU in this system?

Once you upgraded the Bios to 7.x or higher, your motherboard won't support that CPU, it's stated here.

ASRock > Motherboard Compare Result

www.asrock.com

,

You should use other CPU instead.

Never try to downgrade the Bios unless the manufacturer has an official tool for the task.

 

[drea.drechsler]

What is the solution for this situation?
How can I run the Athlon X4 950 CPU in this system?

There is a way...but you'll have to locate a shop that is experienced with this sort of thing. Actually, there are a couple of ways: they could use a UEFI command line flash program to revert the BIOS to an earlier version -- which is done all in software -- or an in-circuit FLASH programmer which requires specialized hardware.

The UEFI command line is probably the more likely to be successful but either way, if done improperly, could leave the board completely bricked even for a CPU the current BIOS does support. At the price of A320 boards buying a new one will probably be cheaper than a shop employing techs with these kinds of skills.

 

[punkncat]

What are you using that will boot or how is it that you know what BIOS revision it is on?