Z68 Ext 7 Gen 3 Bios problems - please help

[tipes]

Hope somebody can help me, as I am having huge problems with my Asrock Extreme 7 gen 3 board.
Everything was going fine until I finally gave in and updated my bios to vers 2.30. All initially seemed ok,
but then I noticed that only half of my G skill F3 12800 CL9D memory was being recognised.This was not the only problem:-

No XMP for memory in bios - so only have a choice of 1066 or 1333, neither is correct.
None of the pre overclocks can be applied and cpu multi is only available from 16 to 39 on my 2700K sandy
Unable to set cpu multi any higher than 39 with or without turbo.
So at present I am unable to overclock at all, and only half my ram is available - only 1 bank works at a time - despite
the fact that all memory slots work - hope this makes sense?

What I have tried:-
Memory timings are actually set correctly in bios - the only thing it has got right!!!!
Tested, memory,cpu and mobo under diagnostics at dos level (PC check) all fine.
Can only flash version 2.3 or vers 2.22 - won't allow me to flash back to any 1 series bios.
Tried cmos reset, and battery out, loading defaults, all to no avail.
I very much suspect that somehow the bios has become unreliable - despite the fact it still works otherwise.
Anybody got any ideas how I can solve this issue - Asrock Emily perhaps?
Any one found a reliable way to flash back to earlier 1 series bios - as no dos flash utility seems available for these boards????
Help please!!!!

Mark

[MarkJohnson]

I had similar problems flashing my bios to 2.1 and had to purchase a CMOS chip from biosdepot and they put on BIOS 1.3 for me as that is what my board came with.

BIOS CHIP:ASROCK Z68 Extreme7 GEN3 | eBay

Luck
-=Mark=-

[kudlaty]

Hi Tipes.
Please read these threads, maybe it can help you.
RAM isn't recognized correctly after bios update to 3.10 (Asrock p67 pro3)
beta bios asrock p67 fatality mulpilier issue i5 2500k

[odiebugs]

Version 2.10, states not to flash back to older, so flashing to this might be ok, as I see you said version 2.22 and 2.3 .

Don't think it would work but you can try and name the old version the new version and try, if the BIOS see's the version inside of it, you can ask on the Gigabyte modded bios thread, if ACEBMXER can change the version number in the older 2.10 to a newer BIOS version, or try in the ASRock mod BIOS thread.

From what I read it sounds like you had a 1. version, but the oldest posted is 2.10.

You should differently send ASRock support an e-mail and consider what MarkJohnson said, they aren't expensive and its a good idea.

Sorry if any of this doesn't help.

[tipes]

I had similar problems flashing my bios to 2.1 and had to purchase a CMOS chip from biosdepot and they put on BIOS 1.3 for me as that is what my board came with.

BIOS CHIP:ASROCK Z68 Extreme7 GEN3 | eBay

Luck
-=Mark=-

Hi,

Thanks for that if all else fails !!!!

[tipes]

Version 2.10, states not to flash back to older, so flashing to this might be ok, as I see you said version 2.22 and 2.3 .

Don't think it would work but you can try and name the old version the new version and try, if the BIOS see's the version inside of it, you can ask on the Gigabyte modded bios thread, if ACEBMXER can change the version number in the older 2.10 to a newer BIOS version, or try in the ASRock mod BIOS thread.

From what I read it sounds like you had a 1. version, but the oldest posted is 2.10.

You should differently send ASRock support an e-mail and consider what MarkJohnson said, they aren't expensive and its a good idea.

Sorry if any of this doesn't help.

Hi,

Nope unable to flash vers 2.10 - despite it being on the stick - it wont even allow me to choose it. Tried renaming - no go.
Have contacted support - will see if they bother to get back to me - if not may have to puchase a new bios as suggested above.

Thanks for your help

Mark

[parsec]

You might be able to get a BIOS chip from ASR, with an earleir BIOS on it. I've seen that happen at least once in posts in this forum. That may be your only option. If ASR recognizes 2.3 is bad, they may send it for free.

[odiebugs]

Sorry, I figured no harm taking a shot. I noticed after changing ROM's when checking the BIOS with a hex, the version is listed, and I have no clue how to change that. Somewhere in the firmware their must be a cat and config page that holds the version, wish it was easy to change and could have helped. Hope a new chip works out for you.

[tipes]

You might be able to get a BIOS chip from ASR, with an earleir BIOS on it. I've seen that happen at least once in posts in this forum. That may be your only option. If ASR recognizes 2.3 is bad, they may send it for free.

I will wait and see if support get back to me - but a new bios maybe the only solution. Lets hope Asrock realise the problem and fix it soon.

Mark

[parsec]

I think the new BIOS chip with an earlier BIOS version is the best solution.

I get the feeling the the newest UEFI/BIOS versions that have been changed to allow the Intel 6-series chipset boards to work with Ivy Bridge CPUs, screws it up for Sandy Bridge CPUs. You can find posts in other mother board forums where all kinds of weird problems happen when users updated their 6-series chipset boards to UEFI/BIOS that accomodate Ivy Bridge CPUs. I have an ASUS P67 board with an i7-2600K, and I won't touch the newest UEFI versions, at least until they get them right, if possible.

IMO, there are to many features that are different between SB and IB to allow one UEFI to accommodate both CPUs. Such as, IB is compatible with XMP 1.3, where SB is 1.2. Multipliers are different, memory speed capabilities are different, and I just read that IB is not compatible with Vista. Not a big deal for most users, but still seems very strange.

Using an IB CPU in a SB board (6-series chipset) makes no sense. You won't get all the features of the 7-series chipsets (mostly worthless anyway) and SB overclocks better than IB, and at lower temps. If you like to OC as high as possible, stick to SB, since IB hits the wall at ~4.6GHz.