Question Flash BIOS Update taking forever

_kendos

Honorable
Nov 14, 2017
13
0
10,510
Ok so I was building my new PC today and when I connected all of the components I plugged in a USB drive that had the correct BIOS version I needed to run my CPU. I waited around 5 minutes which I heard was how long it would usually take until I flipped the switch on my power supply and repeated this process again until I decided to disconnect all of the other components from the motherboard except for the power supply and tried flashing it again. It has been 2 and a half hours since then and I have not touched anything because I found out after that I wasn't suppose to power it off while updating and it is still flashing and I honestly have no idea what to do or how much longer I can wait. What can I do about this?

CPU - i7 13700K
Motherboard - MSI MPG Z690 EDGE WIFI DDR4
BIOS Version (on USB flash drive) - 7D31v17
 
Last edited:

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
The key thing in a BIOS update process, is that;
a| you have the right BIOS version. The wrong BIOS version can lead to a dead motherboard
and
b| you're patient. Impatience has led to bricking a motherboard as well.

Did you follow through page 38 of your motherboard manual;
https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/MPGZ690EDGEWIFIDDR4.pdf
?

For the sake of relevance, which BIOS version did you source and is the BIOS file in root directory of your USB pen/thumb drive?
 
Last edited:

_kendos

Honorable
Nov 14, 2017
13
0
10,510
The key thing in a BIOS update process, is that;
a| you have the right BIOS version. The wrong BIOS version has lead to a dead motherboard
and
b| you're patient. Impatience has led to bricking a motherboard as well.

Did you follow through page 38 of your motherboard manual;
https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/MPGZ690EDGEWIFIDDR4.pdf
?

For the sake of relevance, which BIOS version did you source and is the BIOS file in root directory of your USB pen/thumb drive?
I've got BIOS version 7D31v17 which was the one it said to use on PcPartPicker
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
I've got BIOS version 7D31v17 which was the one it said to use on PcPartPicker

Both parts of the question were important. Was it in your root directory? And was the BIOS file properly renamed to MSI.ROM? Was the flash drive used in the specific Flash BIOS port?

It's not the cause of the problem, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to upgrade to the BIOS update from nearly a year ago rather than the most recent one, with nearly a year of fixes and updates. Though you have a bigger problem to unwind first.
 

_kendos

Honorable
Nov 14, 2017
13
0
10,510
Both parts of the question were important. Was it in your root directory? And was the BIOS file properly renamed to MSI.ROM? Was the flash drive used in the specific Flash BIOS port?

It's not the cause of the problem, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to upgrade to the BIOS update from nearly a year ago rather than the most recent one, with nearly a year of fixes and updates. Though you have a bigger problem to unwind first.

I followed a tutorial from the following link https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ0X-QFSD1w and did exactly what was done during the USB setup part so yes, I did have it in my root directory, I did properly rename it to MSI.ROM and I plugged the USB into the specific Flash BIOS port, and I wasn't sure what to do since PcPartPicker listed that specific BIOS version and the description of that version specified that it was 'Next gen CPU ready' while the most recent ones didn't so since I wasn't too sure I used the older one just to be safe.
 
The bios update for 13th gen was released in June 2022.
Motherboards are released from manufacturing with the latest available bios.

Unless you bought really old stock, your bios level should be sufficient for your processor.

Have you simply installed the processor and tried to boot to bios?
I would try that first.

The flash w/o cpu process does work, I tried it on a similar motherboard.
It is kind of scary, hoping that the led blinks are correct.

But, if you can boot to bios and get a display, you can get better information of what is going on.

Normally, one does not update a bios unless there is a fix for a problem that is impacting you.
But, for a new build, I do update since a failure so early in the build process is not so impactful.
 

_kendos

Honorable
Nov 14, 2017
13
0
10,510
The bios update for 13th gen was released in June 2022.
Motherboards are released from manufacturing with the latest available bios.

Unless you bought really old stock, your bios level should be sufficient for your processor.

Have you simply installed the processor and tried to boot to bios?
I would try that first.

The flash w/o cpu process does work, I tried it on a similar motherboard.
It is kind of scary, hoping that the led blinks are correct.

But, if you can boot to bios and get a display, you can get better information of what is going on.

Normally, one does not update a bios unless there is a fix for a problem that is impacting you.
But, for a new build, I do update since a failure so early in the build process is not so impactful.
I tried putting all the components back together to see if it would boot normally and it wouldn't even power on so my guess is that I've bricked my motherboard and will probably have to request an RMA.