Build Complete My 2 cents on MSI Bios update

[CalScot]

After putting my build together over many days...

ThermalTake Core V21 (Only came with two standoffs, had to request more.)
MB:MSI B550M Pro VDH Wifi
Corsair DDR4 2x8 GB
CORSAIR MP600 PRO XT Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 SSD 2TB
Power Supply: GIGABYTE GP-UD750GM 750W
Ryzen 5 5600G
WIN 11

Came the fateful moment, switched it...and crickets..nothing on screen. However I noticed the case and cpu fan came on, whisper silent. Also a white LED on the MB.
Therefore power was going to something.
I did some reading, especially about the importance of BIOS updates.
So that became another headache as I couldn't boot to the BOIS onscreen.
On further reading I learned that on the rear of the MB there's a 'Flash BIOS' button which allows you to update the BIOS from an inserted thumb drive.
(The details are in the manual.)
However even though I carefully followed the instructions, the process kept failing. pretty frustrating. There's a flashing red LED that indicates the update is processing but even after leaving on all night it was still flashing next day.

Eventually I repeated the process with many thumb drives, old and new and then one of them displayed the correct flashing sequence. The computer was off, albeit plugged in to the mains, and after about 10 mins the computer came on itself and the monitor was displaying the BIOS window. Yay!

I've since installed Win 11, MS Office, Adobe Suite, and various utilities. The build seems to be solid, it works very smoothly, and continues to be silent.

Cheers

 

[Lafong]

However even though I carefully followed the instructions, the process kept failing. pretty frustrating. There's a flashing red LED that indicates the update is processing but even after leaving on all night it was still flashing next day.

Eventually I repeated the process with many thumb drives, old and new and then one of them displayed the correct flashing sequence.

That's disgusting. Was there anything different about the thumb drive that worked? What brand, model and size eventually worked? USB 2.0?

Were you left thinking it was just random luck that it worked with that thumb drive?

I assume you had no other way of updating BIOS without using a flash drive

 

[CalScot]

Lexar, FAT 32, 64 GB, USB 3.0
I feel things were random.
It was the only way I had to update the BIOS.
Now I know.

 

[Lafong]

Lexar, FAT 32, 64 GB, USB 3.0
I feel things were random.
It was the only way I had to update the BIOS.
Now I know.

I guess that means you have no confidence that same thumb drive would work next week. Understandable.

Not comforting. All the more reason not to get in the position where you need it to work.

I can just see me going through 50 thumb drives trying to get lucky. I'd throw the entire PC into the trash.