[SOLVED] PC won't POST after updating BIOS ?

[YukihanaZ]

Hello,
I'm brand new to PC building and I just built my first PC about a week ago. At first it was working fine except for having to choose which Windows installation to use every time I turned the PC on. It would ask me whether to choose the Windows installation on my SSD or HDD as I hadn't wiped my HDD beforehand (I had it installed in the rig for storage) and it started having issues after I turned off the option to choose which Windows Installation to boot. It would start but then instead of booting Windows it would black screen and only boot into Windows after doing automatic startup repair. When attempting to select my SSD as a boot drive it would tell me to select a valid boot drive, so I thought that updating my BIOS might help fix my issue. After downloading the BIOS update from the manufacturer's website I used M-Flash to update my BIOS and now it no longer POSTs. When I turn it on, my keyboard and mouse RGB flash for half a second and nothing appears on the monitor whatsoever.

I'm worried the issue is that I updated my BIOS to a later version that dropped support for my CPU. Is there anything I can do to fix my problem without having to replace my motherboard or CPU?

I've tried:

• Running with only 1 stick of RAM installed
• Swapping RAM sticks
• Unplugging both my SSD and HDD
• Taking the CMOS battery out for 15 minutes
• Shorting the JBAT1 header to clear CMOS
• Using a stock keyboard and mouse
• Resetting BIOS without anything being displayed on the monitor
• Plugging in an HDMI cable instead of a DisplayPort cable

My Specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon X4 950 @ 3.50 GHz
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 460
RAM: OLOy DDR4-3000 16GB (2x8GB)
Motherboard: MSI A320M-A PRO
PSU: EVGA BR 450W

 

[General Kenobi]

Hello,
I'm brand new to PC building and I just built my first PC about a week ago. At first it was working fine except for having to choose which Windows installation to use every time I turned the PC on. It would ask me whether to choose the Windows installation on my SSD or HDD as I hadn't wiped my HDD beforehand (I had it installed in the rig for storage) and it started having issues after I turned off the option to choose which Windows Installation to boot. It would start but then instead of booting Windows it would black screen and only boot into Windows after doing automatic startup repair. When attempting to select my SSD as a boot drive it would tell me to select a valid boot drive, so I thought that updating my BIOS might help fix my issue. After downloading the BIOS update from the manufacturer's website I used M-Flash to update my BIOS and it no longer started. When I turn it on, my keyboard and mouse RGB flash for half a second and nothing appears on the monitor whatsoever.

I'm worried the issue is that I updated my BIOS to a later version that dropped support for my CPU. Is there anything I can do to fix my problem without having to replace my motherboard or CPU?

I've tried:

• Running with only 1 stick of RAM installed
• Swapping RAM sticks
• Unplugging both my SSD and HDD
• Taking the CMOS battery out for 15 minutes
• Shorting the JBAT1 header to clear CMOS
• Using a stock keyboard and mouse
• Resetting BIOS without anything being displayed on the monitor
• Plugging in an HDMI cable instead of a DisplayPort cable

My Specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon X4 950 @ 3.50 GHz
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 460
RAM: OLOy DDR4-3000 16GB (2x8GB)
Motherboard: MSI A320M-A PRO
PSU: EVGA BR 450W

You should have read the BIOS description the BIOS version 7C51V16 removes CPU compatibility for your generation of processor, rolling back the BIOS is the only way you can fix it.

 

[YukihanaZ]

You should have read the BIOS description the BIOS version 7C51V16 removes CPU compatibility for your generation of processor, rolling back the BIOS is the only way you can fix it.

Is there any way to roll back the BIOS without BIOS flashback or would I just have to replace the motherboard?

 

[DavidM012]

Up the creek without a paddle sometimes. Seems like the days when you could easily pull the bios chip and put a new one in are gone. On this board the bios is soldered on to the board apparently and in any case if you were to buy a new bios chip it could well be pre programmed with the most recent bios too so it'd be going around in circles.

What does the manual say?

https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/M7C51v1.0.pdf

Page 16
Resetting BIOS

You might need to restore the default BIOS setting to solve certain problems. There are several ways to reset BIOS: ∙ Go to BIOS and press F6 to load optimized defaults. ∙ Short the Clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard.

Nothing about reloading a backup bios


Looks like your Athlon has been unceremoniously retired so maybe the cheap quickie sol'n is to plop an entry level ryzen in it and call it an upgrade, hopefully the memory will be compatible. Would MSI be bothered to reload the old bios if you sent it back? Maybe they have a service for a fee or maybe they are hard to reach... either way spending for a fix is likely to be near to the entry level ryzen price so might as well, no? PIA, deprecating compatibility with older cpus seems like a new hurdle on the course or moving the goal posts annoyingly but looks like you're stuck.

Try ranting at MSI? Will they listen? Get past the ansafone the vague contact details for the sake of a cheapo board... try to explain the unacceptable issue all over again to an apathetic helldesker...

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is there any way to roll back the BIOS without BIOS flashback or would I just have to replace the motherboard?

Get a new CPU instead. Good reason to upgrade.
Ryzen3 1200 or Ryzen3 4100.

Without a compatible cpu you can not do bios flash.
And it may not allow updating to previous BIOS versions.

 

[General Kenobi]

Is there any way to roll back the BIOS without BIOS flashback or would I just have to replace the motherboard?

No you'll have to contact MSI and check if they can help.

 

[DavidM012]

MSi deprecated the Athlons to make room in the bios for more recent cpu ids.