[SOLVED] Installed the wrong bios

[optane]

So I recently got a new cpu (r5 3600) with my msi a320 pro-e motherboard which needs a bios update to work with r5 3600. I'm not really good at building pc's nor replacing parts, So i gave the pc to someone to replace it for me. After I got my pc back, I've realised that I couldn't enable xmp and windows was kind of buggy. It turns out they installed the wrong update. They installed the one for a320m water plus or something (E7A36AMS.H4M), not for the Pro-E ones. I'm thinking of installing the right one, my question is will it work/will i have any issues if I put the update file in a usb and do the same steps as you'd do normally to update a bios?

 

[CountMike]

So I recently got a new cpu (r5 3600) with my msi a320 pro-e motherboard which needs a bios update to work with r5 3600. I'm not really good at building pc's nor replacing parts, So i gave the pc to someone to replace it for me. After I got my pc back, I've realised that I couldn't enable xmp and windows was kind of buggy. It turns out they installed the wrong update. They installed the one for VD/S boards, not for the Pro-E ones. I'm thinking of installing the right one, my question is will it work/will i have any issues if I put the update file in a usb and do the same steps as you'd do normally to update a bios?

You can certainly try.

 

[optane]

You can certainly try.

I won't break my motherboard right?

 

[CountMike]

I won't break my motherboard right?

Not if it's right one and it gets accepted.

 

[optane]

Not if it's right one and it gets accepted.

Wait I think I've found out that E7A36AMS.H4M is already the one for pro-e

 

[CountMike]

Wait I think I've found out that E7A36AMS.H4M is already the one for pro-e

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/A320M-PRO-E
7A36vH4U(Beta

 

[optane]

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/A320M-PRO-E
7A36vH4U(Beta

Yes, but when it installs it says that in the bios

 

[joeblowsmynose]

Yes, but when it installs it says that in the bios

It looks like the actual bios name stays the same through revisions, just the extension and version name changes.

So it seems to me that 7A36vH4U is the version name and E7A36AMS.H4U is the bios name.

Confused yet? I checked two samples of MSI bios for this board and the other one had the same bios name in the zip file, except for the extension.

The txt file in the version 7A36vH4U indicates that the bios is for both the Pro-e and the H20 (water plus).

So it looks like you have the right bios.

I will say though that the updated bioses (the ones that support 3rd gen Ryzen) on MSI "3" series boards are super cut down because MSI didn't leave enough storage to handle the proper bios needed for 3rd gen Ryzen. So MSI and AMD worked out a hacked down bios version that would allow 3rd gen Ryzen to work on MSI "3" series boards. With those changes - you lose features.

How do I know? The same thing happened to me. My bios is now 100% text based, and OCing is a massive pain. All the XMP profiles are gone (those took up space in the bios and were likely removed completely) and the GUI is gone .... sound familiar?

So, as mentioned, I'm pretty sure you have the right bios ... its just that it had to be crappy in the OC arena to even make the situation work. I think RAID is completely broken as well on the beta bioses.

At the end of the day though you had no choice for Ryzen 3xxx and that board.

You'll have to manually adjust ram speeds and timings, etc. from here on until you get a new mobo. There's lots of good guides on this for Ryzen fortunately. (Learn how to reset bios first (cuz you'll need it at some point if OCing) and read some guides if you are a newbie in this area - ram tweaking is trickier than CPU tweaking)

Bugginess may be related to previous settings in bios or I don't know, but it might be related to ram speeds / timings, but you'd have to be way more specific.

 

[optane]

It looks like the actual bios name stays the same through revisions, just the extension and version name changes.

So it seems to me that 7A36vH4U is the version name and E7A36AMS.H4U is the bios name.

Confused yet? I checked two samples of MSI bios for this board and the other one had the same bios name in the zip file, except for the extension.

The txt file in the version 7A36vH4U indicates that the bios is for both the Pro-e and the H20 (water plus).

So it looks like you have the right bios.

I will say though that the "beta" bios on MSI "3" series boards are super cut down because MSI didn't leave enough storage to handle the proper bios needed for 3rd gen Ryzen. So MSI and AMD worked out a hacked bios version that would allow 3rd gen Ryzen to work on MSI "3" series boards. With those changes - you lose features.

How do I know? The same thing happened to me. My bios is now 100% text based, and OCing is a massive pain. All the XMP profiles are gone (those took up space in the bios and were likely removed completely) and the GUI is gone .... sound familiar?

So, as mentioned, I'm pretty sure you have the right bios ... its just that it had to be crappy in the OC arena to even make the situation work. I think RAID is completely broken as well on the beta bioses.

At the end of the day though you had no choice for Ryzen 3xxx and that board.

You'll have to manually adjust ram and timings from here on until you get a new mobo. There's lots of good guides on this for Ryzen fortunately.

Bugginess may be related to previous settings in bios or I don't know, but it might be related to ram speeds / timings, but you'd have to be way more specific.

Thanks soo much for informing. Sounds %100 similar. All I can do is to manually do everything I guess. The only thing I was surprised of was the fact that no tutorials on using Zen 2 cpu's on a320m boards mentioned that XMP won't work. Anyways, can you link me some good guides for oc'ing the ram for noobs?

 

[joeblowsmynose]

Thanks soo much for informing. Sounds %100 similar. All I can do is to manually do everything I guess. The only thing I was surprised of was the fact that no tutorials on using Zen 2 cpu's on a320m boards mentioned that XMP won't work. Anyways, can you link me some good guides for oc'ing the ram for noobs?

Make sure you know how to reset the bios settings before starting - it might be a button or probably a jumper you need to short - your mother board manual should be able to point out how to do that. Ram tweaking can easily get you into a no post situation if you set something wrong.

If you can figure out what the XMP settings you were previously using, you can just dial those in manually and give it a try. Voltage might need a bump as well, but you also might be able to find that (XMP will often do that as well so it might be listed a s setting).


For absolute best ram performance you also need to tune subtimings, which can be tedious and a bit complex.

Here's a guide on how to do that: View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/clbvod/guide_overclocking_your_ram_from_one_noobie_to/


Its actually not hard as someone created a tool to figure all the best timings out for you, but this involves several pieces of 3rd party software one of which can damage you stuff if not used properly.


I don't know any simpler guides off hand, but you can try search youtube or google for "Ryzen Ram OC for noobs" or something similar - or you could start a new thread called "help me tune my ryzen RAM" or something. I'm sure someone will be willing to help you out.

Basically you just need to figure out your old XMP settings and apply those manually again - that's really what you are after and its fairly simple.

 

[optane]

Make sure you know how to reset the bios settings before starting - it might be a button or probably a jumper you need to short - your mother board manual should be able to point out how to do that. Ram tweaking can easily get you into a no post situation if you set something wrong.

If you can figure out what the XMP settings you were previously using, you can just dial those in manually and give it a try. Voltage might need a bump as well, but you also might be able to find that (XMP will often do that as well so it might be listed a s setting).


For absolute best ram performance you also need to tune subtimings, which can be tedious and a bit complex.

Here's a guide on how to do that: View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/clbvod/guide_overclocking_your_ram_from_one_noobie_to/


Its actually not hard as someone created a tool to figure all the best timings out for you, but this involves several pieces of 3rd party software one of which can damage you stuff if not used properly.


I don't know any simpler guides off hand, but you can try search youtube or google for "Ryzen Ram OC for noobs" or something similar - or you could start a new thread called "help me tune my ryzen RAM" or something. I'm sure someone will be willing to help you out.

Basically you just need to figure out your old XMP settings and apply those manually again - that's really what you are after and its fairly simple.

Can you please inform me a bit about what POST means, is it like booting? And does resetting the CMOS do the same thing with clicking on the reset button? Can I potentionally harm any of my components if I do something wrong? Which settings should I be really careful setting? Is voltage hard to set? Btw I'll def check that guide out.

 

[joeblowsmynose]

Can you please inform me a bit about what POST means, is it like booting? And does resetting the CMOS do the same thing with clicking on the reset button?

"post" is when the computer boots into bios when it first starts. There will be a motherboard splash screen when your PC starts up and then you press "delete" to enter bios. So once you get that splash screen and are able to enter your bios, your computer has "posted".

A "no post" scenario means you can't even get to bios. So then the bios will need to be reset to defaults to get it to post again.

Some mother boards these days (probably most) do have a retry system for no-post due to ram error, and it will retry a few times then reset itself automatically. I have the B350 Mortar, which is a couple steps up, and mine will reset its settings after 5 failed tries (or used to when I had the old bios, lol, not sure if it still does - I think so)

Yours probably will do this also, but every once in a while, usually when you really accidently set the ram settings too far out, it just won't recover from this and won't post. At that stage you need to do a "bios reset". Your reset button on your case is not the same.

mine was a jumper, so I imagine yours is too. You would have to take off the panel, find the right two pins, and short them with some metal, (like a screwdriver tip, or an actual pin jumper if the mobo came with any) - this resets the bios.

Once you know how to do this, you can recover if you screw something up and can't get it posted into bios.

MSI has a guide with a quick video here: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=31222.0

After you feel you know what to do or can access that guide with your computer off, you can feel a bit more confident about the ram tuning.


What RAM do you have specifically (brand / model) ? I might be able to suggest some settings to try ...

 

[optane]

"post" is when the computer boots into bios when it first starts. There will be a motherboard splash screen when your PC starts up and then you press "delete" to enter bios. So once you get that splash screen and are able to enter your bios, your computer has "posted".

A "no post" scenario means you can't even get to bios. So then the bios will need to be reset to defaults to get it to post again.

Some mother boards these days (probably most) do have a retry system for no-post due to ram error, and it will retry a few times then reset itself automatically. I have the B350 Mortar, which is a couple steps up, and mine will reset its settings after 5 failed tries (or used to when I had the old bios, lol, not sure if it still does - I think so)

Yours probably will do this also, but every once in a while, usually when you really accidently set the ram settings too far out, it just won't recover from this and won't post. At that stage you need to do a "bios reset". Your reset button on your case is not the same.

mine was a jumper, so I imagine yours is too. You would have to take off the panel, find the right two pins, and short them with some metal, (like a screwdriver tip, or an actual pin jumper if the mobo came with any) - this resets the bios.

Once you know how to do this, you can recover if you screw something up and can't get it posted into bios.

MSI has a guide with a quick video here: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=31222.0

After you feel you know what to do or can access that guide with your computer off, you can feel a bit more confident about the ram tuning.


What RAM do you have specifically (brand / model) ? I might be able to suggest some settings to try ...

I have the 8GB Corsair Vengeance 3000MHZ. Will I also be resetting bios if I remove the CMOS battery and put it back?

 

[joeblowsmynose]

I have the 8GB Corsair Vengeance 3000MHZ. Will I also be resetting bios if I remove the CMOS battery and put it back?

CMOS battery removal for 10 seconds should reset bios settings as well. If that's easier you can try that. Not sure with Ryzen.

Are you able to tell me the current speed the ram is running at and the current timings from the bios?
Or ... can you install and run CPU-z and screen shot the 'memory' tab? Not required, but it might help me give more specific advice.

Anyway, the important parts are your ram speed divider (controls the speed it runs at ) and the timings for:

CAS
tRCD
tRP
tRAS
CMD

CAS and CMD are probably the two main ones that make the most performance difference - the rest can stay on auto.

CMD should be at 1, unless it just won't work on 1, then 2 , but you really want 1.
CAS for that ram is most likely 16 in the XMP timings.

So maybe even just getting it set to 3000mhz in the divider, setting CAS to 16 (it may already be) and ensuring CMD is set to 1 is all you need to really do. Anything beyond that and its chasing diminishing returns, or takes a lot of time to tweak properly. If it doesn't run like that, try CAS 17, or try moving the divider down one level.

EDIT: I just checked your mobo specs and I think the ram needs to be set to 2933mhz, for 3000mhz ram - not sure if you have 3000 specifically as a setting in bios.

You'll need to familiarize yourself with the text based bios, if you are used to the old GUI one, and find these settings. The value next to the label should be the current value, and there should be a field to the right of that for setting, using the up and down arrow keys to change the values. Something like that.

You can always exit bios without saving, if needed.

Let me know if that info helps you any.