Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

[Tacho56]

Hey guys. after bouncing round forums for a few days reading up on and understanding my hardware, now its time to post my problems!
While having a read about overclocking tips with the asrock board I saw someone mention "make sure you always update your bios!"
so I thought "Ah! good idea, I've had no worries doing the windows flash in the past so ill do that."
about 3 seconds after running, system reset... no clue what caused it as it has been running completely stable no matter what I throw at it.
Anyway, this is quite an unsavory situation. No post beep or flicker on the screen, just powers up and sits there. Dr. Debug gives me an error F1 followed by F2 then just sits on that.
Am I down to ordering a new bios chip/trying to get it programmed? Isn't there a backup with these? been using dual bios boards for so long I didn't even think they made single bios anymore!
anyway, any ideas would be greatly appreciated, now I'm off to bed like I should have done 30 seconds before I attempted that.
Thanks!
TL;DR Bad flash, error F1, F2, any backups or anything?

[Paul_Mac]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Hi Mate,
I'm new to this UEFI bios and my manual only gives this cryptic sequence as a clue to what it's maybe searching for:
0xF1 Recovery condition triggered by user (Forced recovery)
0xF2 Recovery process started
0xF3 Recovery firmware image is found
0xF4 Recovery firmware image is loaded

Perhaps a copy of the bios vers. you saved before flashing?

Have you tried clearing the cmos?
I'd try removing the power cord then the battery wait a few seconds then replace it and power up, maybe the UEFI will reload.
Sorry I can't be more help,
Cheers,
Mac

[Tacho56]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Thanks for the reply mate. I tried using the clear cos button, but I suppose ill give it a more thorough go when I finish work.
When I tried searching up the error code I couldn't find anyone with the same problem. only results Google gave me were people listing the codes and meanings, but I still don't understand what it means. is it trying to reload after a cmos clear? or is it attempting to restore the bios?

[kraijeck]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Hi
I have problem after flash bios from 1.7 to 1.8

After completed , push enter and system restart.......

It just power up and no more, Fan still on, can open DVD , Debug show "00" ?, reset button not work, no signal Video on board (I didn't have Video Card Install)



Before, Flash bios 1.3 to 1.7 success with no problem

i7-2600k

[CRRacer]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

I'm keeping an eye on this, still running bios 1.3. I didn't update to 1.7 cuz I saw issues someone had with that bios and the GTX 560 Ti from EVGA and they couldn't get it going until going back to bios 1.3.

I didn't even know 1.8 was out yet!

[CRRacer]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Gonna give the 1.8 a try this evening, I see it specifically addresses discrete GPU issues. Looks like they pulled 1.7

[Paul_Mac]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Gonna give the 1.8 a try this evening, I see it specifically addresses discrete GPU issues. Looks like they pulled 1.7

I Flashed to 1.80 from the 1.3 my new board [Extreme 4] came with.
When I install Catalyst 12.4 for my Gigabyte HD7770C card the system hangs on reboot with BSOD.
I went to safe mode and deleted the AMD driver [regained a screen under the Intel 4000 graphics] and am now about to instal their Beta 12.6 drivers.
Fingers crossed.
Mac
[I'm using my old Athlon to send this]

Edit:
No luck, same result, HD7770C only recognised as a PCIe 2 card "with problems" when in Intel graphics.
Deleted all the Catalyst programs, pulled the card, going with the Intel 4000 graphics for now.
Can't waste any more time on this until later, system works perfect until I install the Catalyst drivers to activate the HD7770C.
Hope AMD and ASRock are working on a solution.
Cheers,
Mac

[Tacho56]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Quick update guys, after trying everything I can find I settled on the fact that asrock removed any hope of recovery because they couldn't fit it with the bios (honestly? Nothing!?)
so I'm now waiting for a new chip I bought on ebay, comes with bios 1.8. Fingers crossed this will be the end of the problem.
but now that I know that asrock doesn't support any kind of recovery other than a socketed chip, I'll think twice before I buy their brand in the future.

[CRRacer]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

They've still got Discrete GPU issues with version 1.80

Earlier I updated from my 1.3 bios which is what my board shipped with, to 1.8. I tried to update the bios from the instant flash utility from a USB flash drive, but every time I selected the file, the screen would go black except for the mouse cursor. I could move the mouse cursor, and it was like using MS paint and erasing the black uncovering what was below, which was just the UEFI background, with the ASROCK at the top of the screen and the time bar at the bottom, and the time was stopped.

I ended up updating through the windows installer. After configuring my UEFI, I auto OC'd to 4.4, when I got to windows I ran the WEI and it locked up during the initial video card test. I set the auto OC to 4.2 and it completes the test, set it manually to 4.3 and it completed the test as well. set it to 4.4 and it locks up.

I had previously ran WEI with bios 1.30 up to auto OC 4.6 without issue. I reflashed the bios with 1.30 and am back to being able to complete WEI up to 4.6 OC setting. I've never tried anything higher than 4.6.

Guess I'll stay with 1.30 until they get this straightened out.

[CRRacer]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Paul_Mac, I've had various issues with 12.4 Catalyst with my ASRock A55M-HSV and the A8-3870K. I've got the best performance with the catalyst drivers install from the DVD that came with the board. I'm the type to want to stay current on drivers so I updated from the DVD drivers to 12.4, had some issues with the catalyst program itself and done a little digging and found the beta. Installed it, it was worse for me. So... I uninstalled and reinstalled the original version that came with my motherboard. I don't recall what that version was and I'm not at that PC to find at but will be sometime this weekend.

[Paul_Mac]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Paul_Mac, I've had various issues with 12.4 Catalyst with my ASRock A55M-HSV and the A8-3870K. I've got the best performance with the catalyst drivers install from the DVD that came with the board. I'm the type to want to stay current on drivers so I updated from the DVD drivers to 12.4, had some issues with the catalyst program itself and done a little digging and found the beta. Installed it, it was worse for me. So... I uninstalled and reinstalled the original version that came with my motherboard. I don't recall what that version was and I'm not at that PC to find at but will be sometime this weekend.

Thanks for the thought.
I just now installed their beta 12.6 Catalyst and more importantly, I suspect, updated the VGA driver available from ASRock downloads, went to only a DVI cable and now have a HD7770C being recognised. It seems to be working but not as the main source.

I still can only boot with the UEFI set to onboard graphics but I'm working on that.

It seems the blue screen was actually the drivers locking on to a non existent second screen, not happening now...so far.

Haven't had the problems with flashing that the OP and others have had, all of that went very smoothly.

Cheers,
Mac

[Paul_Mac]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Tacho56,
I'm still running Bios ver 1.80 and seemed to have overcome the driver clashes which plagued my Gig. HD7770C by using Driver Cleaner then reinstalling Catalyst 12.4.

The video driver may not be what you need but I just wanted to tell you that Bios Ver 1.80 that your chip is coming with seems pretty stable through many many reboots. Though the testing period has been very short. LOL

Hope the new chip gets you sorted because overall I'm delighted with the board and graphics card when the two work as advertised.

Cheers,
Mac

[Tacho56]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Thanks, mac.
Good to hear this should be the end of my bios woes!
I heard yesterday that it is indeed possible to recover the bios using the flash drive method. Does anyone have any experience with this on the newer boards? The post stating asrock removed recovery was from '06, and clearly there would have been some big changes since then. I would still like to recover my chip now instead of waiting another week for delivery =P
cheers guys.

[Paul_Mac]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Thanks, mac.
Good to hear this should be the end of my bios woes!
I heard yesterday that it is indeed possible to recover the bios using the flash drive method. Does anyone have any experience with this on the newer boards? The post stating asrock removed recovery was from '06, and clearly there would have been some big changes since then. I would still like to recover my chip now instead of waiting another week for delivery =P
cheers guys.

The ASRock Extreme 4 downloads site has this info. on DOS method using bootable flash drive. [Hope this link works]
ASRock > Products > Motherboard > Z77 Extreme4 > Download

I have a utility to make a DOS bootable [FAT32] flash drive called "bootable_USB_drive_HP_223.RAR", from Major Geeks IIRC.
A search should find it though.

As an aside, given CCracer's issues with CAT 12.4, I'm keeping 12.6 in reserve.
Most of my probs went away when I upgraded my HD7770C graphics card bios to 'F5' and updated to the latest m/b VGA driver from ASRock.

Stock standard the 'Windows Experience' is 7.8, I'm very happy with that.

If the above link doesn't work go to
ASRock > Products > Motherboard > Z77 Extreme4 > Download
And read the Howto on the bios upgrade for DOS

Cheers,
Mac

[Tacho56]

Re: Asrock z77 extreme4. Bios flash failure.

Fixed!!
now so no one else has to go through that, here's what I did.
throw all the bios files on a bootable thumb drive (cheers mac!) (I think it was the instant flash files that did it, not dos.) and run that in a usb 2.0 port. it cycles through more Dr. debug messages and voila!
Thanks heaps for the help!