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BIOS 3901

JohnAb
Level 17

I haven't tried the 3901 beta yet, because 3802 didn't work for me on Z690/12th Gen, the first ever BIOS that left me with blank screens and slow boots. So I have some questions:

1. Can it definitely be rolled back? 2. Is it even supposed to work with 12th Gen?

I believe that the recent microcode updates are really for 13th & 14th Gen, but there is no guidance in the BIOS release notes for 12th Gen users. At the end of the day, Z690 (and hence any BIOS release) is supposed to support 12th, 13th and 14th Gen right?

Have any 12th Gen users tried it yet on Z690? I have a lot of work on right now and if it doesn't work and can't be rolled back, then I'm in trouble. Thanks. 

 

Z690 Hero, 12900K, BIOS 4001, MEI 2433.6.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.32.2473, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.
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39 REPLIES 39

Nate152
Moderator

Hello JohnAb

It will say in the bios description that the bios can't be rolled back past a certain version. I can roll back as far as bios 2305 on the ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi, I suspect you should be able to roll back as far as bios 2305 as well.

My pc has been happy with bios 2802 and is what I'm currently on.

Bios 3901 is listed for me as a beta version with an update to the Intel microcode and the removal of the C1E setting in the bios. It should work with 12th,13th and 14th Gen cpu's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Nate, I'm just nervous after my 3802 experience. Yes, I agree, 2305 is the earliest I can roll back as well. I do remember some BIOS versions from a long time ago that couldn't be rolled back and it wasn't stated initially. Hence another reason why I'm being cautious 👍

Z690 Hero, 12900K, BIOS 4001, MEI 2433.6.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.32.2473, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.

I would also be hesitant to update with a beta BIOS.  I'm going to wait for whatever comes after 3901 for a non-beta BIOS and wait for an "all clear" from the community, as I don't care to have my workload interrupted either.

Have a Good One! 😎
Rooke

Same thoughts here, thank you. 

Z690 Hero, 12900K, BIOS 4001, MEI 2433.6.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.32.2473, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.

Nate152
Moderator

3DG
Level 10

Hello JohnAb and other ROG friends!

I'm sorry for everything you're going through JohnAb, I know how painful it is to go through this, even more so when we use our equipment for work and with delivery responsibilities. I'll follow this closely here, it was a good open thread BIOS 3901. I read your reports about BIOS 3802 and your MEI and ME Firmware update.

Chapter I: I have been living a nightmare since 05/09/24, my computer quickly froze the mouse pointer and restarted, the only change from early morning 5:30 was the update from Fan Control V199 to V200 and at 8:45 I had the reset. After that I contacted Microsoft who did a remote access and evaluation of the system and thought it best to reinstall Windows 11 Pro For Workstation keeping all the programs and everything seemed fine until a few hours later I had another reset.

Chapter II: Then I evaluated the Samsung 870 EVO SSD which is my "E:" and found a cluster with defects, I removed it, I evaluated the M.2 XPG Gammix S70 Blade of 1TB where I have partitioned the "C:" and the "D:" with chkdsk and there was no error, note here that not even the SSD 870 EVO chkdsk reported errors, so I used ADATA's own program indicated by XPG and it started and went up to 60% of the evaluation in the basic evaluation mode and crashed and I had to reset. So I decided to remove the XPG and install a new Kingston Fury Renegade PCI 4.0. I put the last working image where everything was fine from 08/18/24 made by AOMEI Backupper, I left the computer without internet and worked from 9 am to 5 pm without resets. I connected to the internet at 5 pm, updated Fan Control and AV Kaspersky and left for half an hour and on the way back the computer had reset itself again. So I thought it was Windows Update. I did everything again and blocked Windows updates and again reset, so I turned off the computer a week ago and I don't have the courage to do anything else... But I need to move forward because I have work to be delivered. I also subscribed to the most professional version of ESET thinking there was something wrong in boot/UEFI and found nothing.

Tests I intend to do: Go back to the image again, leave the Fan Control on V194 of 18/08/24 and see if the computer resets, if reset I will pause AV Kaspersky and see if it resets.

JohnAb, I have the formatting and Drivers of 05/2023, you, MoKiChU and Jesse taught me how to do the clean formatting of Windows (no internet), followed by all the Drivers updated at that time of MoKiChU in a logical sequence and installation efficiencies and all this I have documented and everything worked perfectly until 05/09/24. Yes, I have the same BIOS 2204, same Firmwares and Drivers as 05/2023. MoKiChU indicated me to do an update of all drivers and go to BIOS 3802, but when reading what you and other ROG friends are going through, I still didn't have the courage. But I have to move, because staying like this is not possible...

My thoughts are, that if I have to update all the drivers and Firmwares, it would be to keep the BIOS at 2204 but I don't know if that will solve the resets and my biggest fear is having other problems like you are having JohnAb and others and not being able to go back, be it the Firmware or BIOS... I keep thinking that ASUS has to position itself correctly on all this, because Intel's imposition to give a little more stability and life to 13 and 14th generation processors, in my view is causing problems for everyone... and Intel must be doing the same with Microsoft, imposing updates and bringing problems to people, I have friends with 13th generation notebooks that are having resets and several BIOS updates in less than a month, their performances are dropping. Very sad all this! As Rooke said, we hope that an "All Clean" BIOS will come soon and that they will preserve those who have the previous generations of processors.

JohnAb and ROG friends, if you have ideas you can write, I will do one slow step at a time, starting by saving all the screens of my BIOS 2204, then keeping the Fan Control on V194, then disabling AV KS and if nothing solves then updating all the Drivers and my biggest question is what Firmware to use to keep the BIOS on 2204 yet? And if there's nothing else to do, then do a clean install from scratch again and use the latest versions of everything... I am very sad for these difficult we are living... let's talk here, hug ROG friends!

Z690 HERO \ I9-12900K \ BIOS 2204 \ MEI V2251.4.2.0 \ Firmware V16.1.27.2176 \ CASE Corsair 7000X Black Full Tower \ FAN 7x NOCTUA NF-A14 Ø140mm IndustrialPPC-3000RPM + Fan Control \ PSU Corsair HX1200 80 Plus Platinum \ ASUS ROG Strix Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 24GB OC \ 2x32GB Corsair Vengeance 5200MHz \ Rog Ryujin II 360 \ M.2 NVME Kingstom Fury Renegade 2TB \ 2X 2xDell UltraSharp 27" 4K U2723QE 3840x2160 \ Windows 11 Pro For Workstation \ System Temperature +/- 30°C \ UPS EATON DX 2KVA ON-Line

Difficult to advise, but I will say that you are using a very old BIOS now. The most recent (good) BIOS that I have used is 3701. However, I don't think your old BIOS will be causing the resets directly, but perhaps it could be related to older versions of ME firmware and MEI drivers causing trouble with Windows updates. That said, if all you did was to upgrade your fan control software, then that might be the problem? I have no experience of Win 11 Pro workstation. This is what I would do: 

1. Go back to your image with the old fan control software and test

2. I assume that AV KS is your anti-virus software. I don't know that software, but I use Bitdefender and find it to be excellent. You can buy a genuine key from a reseller on eBay like Aquareefer (in the UK)  and that will work on the official Bitdefender site when you enter the code. About half the price. 

3. Run extensive RAM tests to be sure you have stability

After that, if all is OK and you have important work to do then leave it for now.

4. When you can do it safely, I would then upgrade to 3701 with the ME firmware version that comes with it. If that doesn't help you will be able to roll back as far as 2305, so you have a few BIOS options. 

5. Keep your existing OS image backup safe, just in case and then reinstall Windows from scratch using all of MoKiChU's drivers. They all work perfectly for me. I don't use anything from the Asus support page any more (apart from the BIOS) and many of them are also much older than MoKiChU's drivers. I do use Armoury Crate, always been OK in my experience, but you can turn off that option in BIOS if you don't want it installed automatically. 

Below is a list of all the drivers I have installed from MoKiChU. We have the same motherboard and CPU and I'm not having any  problems on 3701 with Win 11 Pro (not Workstation, but I assume it's basically the same? Please be sure to check before you use the drivers below) - you can find them on his motherboards downloads section. The only thing I don't install any more is the Realtek USB audio drivers, the Windows drivers work fine for me. 

JohnAb_0-1728171878597.png

 

Good luck

 

 

Z690 Hero, 12900K, BIOS 4001, MEI 2433.6.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.32.2473, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.

I forgot to say, I basically use the BIOS on defaults. The only things I do are reduce the PCH voltages to 0.92V and 0.76V to keep the PCH temp a little lower. Then I enable XMP, GNA and DTT. I don't overclock, I find performance to be good anyway. 

I've noticed that we both have almost identical builds, even our RAM (you have 2x more) and cases are the same, lol 😁

Z690 Hero, 12900K, BIOS 4001, MEI 2433.6.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.32.2473, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.

Final Word, it's a good idea to turn off XMP before updating the BIOS. That should provide maximum stability during the process. I've never bothered, but it's a good idea. 

Z690 Hero, 12900K, BIOS 4001, MEI 2433.6.3.0, ME Firmware 16.1.32.2473, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.