Question Flashing Bios - Continuously blinking (MSI B550 Gaming Plus)

[JamesAtari]

I've tried to flash the bios with a correctly formatted USB.

All seemed okay until the bios LED stayed blinking far past the usual 5-7 minutes, I know I likely need to try a different USB but I'm wondering how I go about cancelling the current attempt?

The LED is still flashing, am I okay to just switch off the PSU and try again with a different USB or could switching off the PSU cause any damage to the board?

 

[stuff and nonesense]

As I dont know wat bios is currently installed, do you thin it might be worth trying to flash the original bios (7c56v10) and see if it allows me to work my way up from there?

I’d burn the £30 for a 3100 cpu and try to flash from within the installed bios. Assume bios flashback is a bust.

Assuming no errors in how you have been preparing the memory stick and that it is plugged into the port immediately adjacent to the flash button then it’s possible that the motherboard has a problem.

Once the 3100 cpu is installed you will be able to check to see if the board boots.
If it boots you will be able to check the usb ports and assuming that the ports check out as ok then flash the bios via the installed bios.

You won’t know till you can boot the board.

 

[JamesAtari]

just reset bios and start the PC see if it starts with factory bios. If not there is something else wrong. YOu only have to remove it for like 10 sec and press the cmos reset button on the mainboard.

I've already tried to post and it didnt work.

I know the board is likely running a pre-5000 series bios, so I can't get into bios at all until its flashed/I buy a compatible chip.

 

[PiersPlowman]

Did you do this?

Updating BIOS with Flash BIOS Button
1. Please download the latest BIOS file that matches your motherboard model from the MSI® website.
2. Rename the BIOS file to MSI.ROM, and save it to the root of the USB storage device.
3. Connect the power supply to CPU_PWR1 and ATX_PWR1. (No need to install CPU and memory.)
4. Plug the USB storage device that contains the MSI.ROM file into the Flash BIOS Port on the rear I/O panel.
5. Press the Flash BIOS Button to flash BIOS, and the LED starts flashing.
6. The LED will be turned off when the process is completed

...

I assume the USB stick has to be formatted FAT32.

 

[JamesAtari]

Did you do this?

Updating BIOS with Flash BIOS Button
1. Please download the latest BIOS file that matches your motherboard model from the MSI® website.
2. Rename the BIOS file to MSI.ROM, and save it to the root of the USB storage device.
3. Connect the power supply to CPU_PWR1 and ATX_PWR1. (No need to install CPU and memory.)
4. Plug the USB storage device that contains the MSI.ROM file into the Flash BIOS Port on the rear I/O panel.
5. Press the Flash BIOS Button to flash BIOS, and the LED starts flashing.
6. The LED will be turned off when the process is completed

...

I assume the USB stick has to be formatted FAT32.

Yes I followed the above steps.

I tried several USBs, all formatted correctly and all different sizes/manufacturers.

I have decided to purchase a 3000 series chip and update the bios that way.

Once the 3100 cpu is installed you will be able to check to see if the board boots.
If it boots you will be able to check the usb ports and assuming that the ports check out as ok then flash the bios via the installed bios.

As I dont know what bios the board is currently loaded with, do you think I could just use the 3100 to flash the most recent bios? I've checked to see if any of the bios updates require a specific bios to had been updated previosuly but I cant see any mention of that requirement anywhere on the MSI product page.

So do you think I can go ahead and flash the latest bios? (I will likely be jumping quite a few updates this way).

 

[stuff and nonesense]

As I dont know what bios the board is currently loaded with, do you think I could just use the 3100 to flash the most recent bios? I've checked to see if any of the bios updates require a specific bios to had been updated previosuly but I cant see any mention of that requirement anywhere on the MSI product page.

Possibly, I’d update to the first 5000 series compatible bios first and then try the latest with the 5000 series cpu installed.

This all assumes that the motherboard is good.

 

[stuff and nonesense]

A complete aside, the latest MSI bios for my motherboard has a new setting. That being ”Optimised Hynix settings” or something very similar.
The memory in my PC is Corsair DDR 5 6000 CL 40. Using this setting HWinfo is reporting CL32. Free memory tuning! The Expo and XMP settings are greyed out when this option is selected.

Have to see if it’s stable.

 

[JamesAtari]

UPDATE:

I added a 3000 series cpu that should be supported since day 1 bios.

Everytime I try to post, the CPU debug LED is white and I get no display. I have tested with 1 RAM stick in A2/B2, tried the other RAM stick also but no luck. Any idea what this could be?

 

[stuff and nonesense]

What does your motherboard manual say about debug LED states?

UPDATE:

I added a 3000 series cpu that should be supported since day 1 bios.

Everytime I try to post, the CPU debug LED is white and I get no display. I have tested with 1 RAM stick in A2/B2, tried the other RAM stick also but no luck. Any idea what this could be?

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...-cpu-led-on-first-boot.3717154/#post-22411922

 

[Zerk2012]

Unfortunately the board is second-hand

I would say bad board.
You are using a video card right?

 

[JamesAtari]

What does your motherboard manual say about debug LED states?

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...-cpu-led-on-first-boot.3717154/#post-22411922

CPU debug LED - indicates no CPU detected or fail
Don't think it's a cpu issue as the issue persists with a brand new 5600 and 3100.

I would say bad board.
You are using a video card right?

Display is connected to a video card yes.
I didn't want to conclude a bad board but it might be the case unfortunately.

 

[stuff and nonesense]

The questions arise:

can you check your CPUs in a different board? I know that having 2 bad CPUs would be a big coincidence but it’s worth checking. Assuming they are good then the motherboard is indicated to be bad.

Can you see if the local pc store can flash the bios? And how much does it cost? A new motherboard from Amazon is up to $160. I know that it isn’t cheap but it may be the way forward. If the local store couldn’t flash the bios would they still charge you? (I don’t want to spend your money, however you go forward is up to you).

The link in my previous post was a solution from a few years ago. I have no idea if it will help but the problem seemed similar to yours.

Good luck either way.