AMD AGESA is a mess. Please allow us to flash back.

[yennic]

I have a X470-i with 5900X, it worked fine, never crashed once on me during a lot of stress testing using 4007 (AGESA 1.1.8.0). I was actually shocked at how stable it was. I then updated to 4204 (AGESA 1.2.0.0), nothing but problems since. Mainly, it's no longer stable on load (CBR20 is hit and miss to randomly reboot my machine, Prime95 hard locks immediately). Same with the release I'm on now, 4301 (1.2.0.1). AGESA 1.2.0.0 and newer has AmdSpiRomProtectDxE to prevent read/writes. I couldn't even take a backup my current BIOS using FlashRom.

I'd like to be able to flash to that older UEFI BIOS firmware that worked for me while AMD sorts out their AGESA bugs. I really need to go back to 4007.
I don't have an Asus Flash Back board not because I'm cheap or stupid, but because I own the only available mITX board when I bought it.

I blame these issues on AMD's AGESA because I pushed this system a lot harder on 4007 / 1.1.8.0 and never had a single issue. I started chronicling things that I've run into here. https://www.overclock.net/threads/asus-x470-i-with-ryzen-5900x-power-deviation-25-overreported.17774...

Troubleshooting: Deep CMOS reset, optimized defaults, multiple combos of BIOS options to resolve
GPU: GF1060 FE 6GB
CPU: RYZEN 5900X
Motherboard: Asus X470-i (running all stock settings except XMP / DDR4-3200, with Noctua D15)
BIOS Version: 4301 (AGESA ComboAM4v2 1.2.0.1)
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL14 Memory
PSU: Corsair SF 600 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply
Operating System & Version: WINDOWS 10 PRO 19042.804
GPU Drivers: 461.72

[Kelutrel]

Sir, I don't know if I can be of any help because I have a different board, but if you go into your UEFI BIOS and in the "Tool" menu' there should be the "Asus EZ Flash" utility that should allow you to flash any bios you like after placing it on a usb key.

You can find the available bios files in the support website for your motherboard, I verified that there is version 4007 there.

[yennic]

Kelutrel wrote:
Sir, I don't know if I can be of any help because I have a different board, but if you go into your UEFI BIOS and in the "Tool" menu' there should be the "Asus EZ Flash" utility that should allow you to flash any bios you like after placing it on a usb key.

You can find the available bios files in the support website for your motherboard, I verified that there is version 4007 there.

Thanks for the response, but if you read my link, you'll see I've already tried flashing back. The AGESA 1.2.0.0 releases have read/write locks so you can't roll back once you install one. Requires a Flash Back board. Not all of us were able to choose one of those, even the new X570-i doesn't have it.

Asus needs to put up the old 1.1.8.0 and 1.1.9.0 releases that a system with their latest will recognize and flash.. or just remove the BIOS lock. This was the wrong time to put those in, as ComboAM4v2 is pretty buggy.

[Kelutrel]

yenic82 wrote:
Thanks for the response, but if you read my link, you'll see I've already tried flashing back. The AGESA 1.2.0.0 releases have read/write locks so you can't roll back once you install one. Requires a Flash Back board. Not all of us were able to choose one of those, even the new X570-i doesn't have it.

Asus needs to put up the old 1.1.8.0 and 1.1.9.0 releases that a system with their latest will recognize and flash.. or just remove the BIOS lock. This was the wrong time to put those in, as ComboAM4v2 is pretty buggy.

I understand. Sorry, I didn't know.

Then you may want to try to stabilize it. I would try to do it by setting "0MHz" boost in PBO2, disabling "PSS Support" in the "CPU Settings" submenu, and changing "CPU Power Duty Control" to "Extreme" in "External Digi+ Power Control".

These settings would reduce the stress on the VRMs and the CPU electric subsystem and may easily stabilize a temperamental mb/cpu, at least until you find a solution to flash back your previous bios.

[yennic]

Thank you. Those are actually good suggestions. I was able to make some progress. I reflashed the latest BIOS (4301 / AGESA ComboAM4v2 1.2.0.1), set optimized defaults, touched nothing else, and P95 no longer crashes, but did this- https://youtu.be/TpqaXvzvta0

I was able to clear that device detection issue by unplugged all USB devices except my mouse. I haven't been able to reproduce it again.

So I did my next step that I've gotten used to doing with system, I cleared the CMOS RAM and will now format. While I've done plenty of chipset driver installs/uninstalls over the course of my troubleshooting and tests, and I think it's only fair to give this system a format and clean Windows 10 install before I order an Intel to replace it. This Windows install has seen a lot of AGESA versions, and had a 2700X in it before.

AMD AGESA is so quacky though, that I'm afraid to set my usual BIOS settings (no overclocking, just disable lights etc) before the install.. or if I should leave it as-is, format, then set my settings. I think it's best to do my changes first, because Windows often sets values that are harder to change without a format (like BIOS vs UEFI boot).

I have enabled PSS in the past, it seemed like something I'd want to have enabled, but I will leave that off.

It's entirely possible that the latest BIOS for my board is fine, IF you have EVERYTHING reset. CMOS RAM reset, fresh Windows install, etc. I've noticed that my boosts/voltages aren't quite right, and I've seen reports from other users that a format resolved that for them, as strange as that is. Good old AMD..

[yennic]

I pinpointed what is causing the instability. I did a CMOS RAM clear, and a format to test to be sure. If I set my memory to Zen2 spec, 3200MHz (my RAM is G.Skill F4-3200C14D-32GVK Ripjaws V DDR4-3200MHz CL14-14-14-34 1.35V 32GB (2x16GB)), Prime95 crashes my machine immediately with different memory errors each time. If I leave it on auto (2133), it works as intended. Even at 2133, it sometimes does this with my USB devices- https://youtu.be/TpqaXvzvta0

This was not a problem on AGESA 1.1.8.0 (Asus's X470-i 4007 release), I ran P95 constantly as that was the first BIOS that I had my 5900X running on after I bought it. I never had a single issue on that release.

The problem remains, I can't flash back. Asus/AMD chose to put AmdSpiRomProtectDxE in this firmware. I was unable to even back up my current BIOS using Flash Rom. Using Flash Rom to go back also doesn't work any longer.

I suppose my choices are wait a year to get back to stability with AGESA fixes, or, go back to Intel.

[BuddyW]

yennic wrote:
I pinpointed what is causing the instability. I did a CMOS RAM clear, and a format to test to be sure. If I set my memory to Zen2 spec, 3200MHz (my RAM is G.Skill F4-3200C14D-32GVK Ripjaws V DDR4-3200MHz CL14-14-14-34 1.35V 32GB (2x16GB)), Prime95 crashes my machine immediately with different memory errors each time. If I leave it on auto (2133), it works as intended. Even at 2133, it sometimes does this with my USB devices- https://youtu.be/TpqaXvzvta0

This was not a problem on AGESA 1.1.8.0 (Asus's X470-i 4007 release), I ran P95 constantly as that was the first BIOS that I had my 5900X running on after I bought it. I never had a single issue on that release.

The problem remains, I can't flash back. Asus/AMD chose to put AmdSpiRomProtectDxE in this firmware. I was unable to even back up my current BIOS using Flash Rom. Using Flash Rom to go back also doesn't work any longer.

I suppose my choices are wait a year to get back to stability with AGESA fixes, or, go back to Intel.

Hello....did you ever get your problem resolved?

I just wanted to say you might could 'force-flash' the update using an EFI flashing tool. I had the same issue on another board and I used it and it worked just great.

[yennic]

I tried all the force flash options in both software packages that I tried (AFUDOS and FlashRom) with no success. Maybe there's something out there that I missed? I referenced the win-raid forums as well and it seemed there was no way around it.

My fix ended up being buying an 11900K and Asus Z590-i board. I just had a ton of problems with my Ryzen systems over the years and I'm done. Sticking with Intel. I think they really messed up supporting all these different chipsets, they just aren't capable of providing good AGESA releases, and Asus and the other vendors apparently don't want to do the QA testing for them (which they should also care, but that's never here nor there).

[BuddyW]

yennic wrote:
I tried all the force flash options in both software packages that I tried (AFUDOS and FlashRom) with no success. Maybe there's something out there that I missed? I referenced the win-raid forums as well and it seemed there was no way around it. .....

It might be getting the right combination of switches (with AFUDOS) that forces it to burn. I've used it to burn modded BIOS's that the motherboard mfr. didn't want you to.

But yeah, AMD's probably not going to support so many processors on the same platform in the future. They'll have to go more like Intel and lock us into buying new motherboards for upgrades. At least people are used to that kind of abuse as they've grown comfortable with it.

[yennic]

BuddyW wrote:
It might be getting the right combination of switches (with AFUDOS) that forces it to burn. I've used it to burn modded BIOS's that the motherboard mfr. didn't want you to.

But yeah, AMD's probably not going to support so many processors on the same platform in the future. They'll have to go more like Intel and lock us into buying new motherboards for upgrades. At least people are used to that kind of abuse as they've grown comfortable with it.

As long as it works though! I spent a lot of time on the issues created from putting in my 5900X. A ridiculous amount of time in fact, I really wanted it to work. You could probably blame both Asus and AMD, as they both are responsible for how well a given board works with supported CPUs. If it doesn't pass testing, then don't let it out the door. There's probably cost-savings pressure, competition pressuring by releasing AGESA updates that support new CPUs, and probably some bitterness from not being rescued by AMD and cutting off support for older boards.
It also seems clear from the USB/mem controller issues with Zen3 that a 600-series chipsets should've been released.

But yeah, much happier now, everything just works with my 11900K.. and I took benchmarks that I should share.. it ended up being faster in single threaded performance to my 5900X system and just barely behind in multithreaded.