Maximus VI Hero Fails to post after BIOS update crash

[Chris_McMahon]

I was checking the Hero's Download page when I notice there a newer version of BIOS out. Two in fact, 0711 and 0804. My Hero was still running it's original BIOS version, 0224. (So much for AI Suite telling me there's a new one! It never did.)

So I also see there's a new version of AI Suite 3, well I better download the current version too, just to be sure, (2013.08.20 update) and installed it.

I then downloaded "MAXIMUS VI HERO BIOS 0804", unzipped it, quit all other programs and told AI Suite to upgrade to the new BIOS.

Naturally the progress bar gets about 1/3rd of the way, and my system locks up. Completely frozen. Even Crtl-Alt-Del does nothing. So I give it another 5 minutes just in case, but it's still frozen. No mouse pointer movement, no clock time update and no change of the progress bar.

So I hit the power switch and reboot. Fans all go to 100%, no display. No BIOS boot screen. Nothing. Wait several minutes again (system normally boots to desktop in <30 seconds). Still no change. Monitor is in sleep mode - no signal. Great. :mad:

So it looks like AI Suite has stuffed the BIOS update and corrupted the BIOS in the process.

Time to try out the Flashback feature. I get a USB key. Format it as FAT32 (on another PC - hence why I can write this), copy the "MAXIMUS-VI-HERO-ASUS-0804.CAP" file onto the root directory. Insert the USB key into the white surrounded USB port next to the Flashback button on the back of the motherboard. Make sure the PC has standby power. Press the Flashback button for 4 seconds. It starts to blink. 1. 2. 3. 4. It stops blinking after about 5 seconds and turns solid blue.

That's not what's supposed to happen according to this:
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?1142-How-to-use-ASUS-ROG-USB-BIOS-Flashback
That takes several minutes of flashing, not 5 seconds. :mad:

I give it 5 minutes just in case it's working and I don't know it. I turn the PC on. Again, fans to 100%, no video, no POST. I wait a couple of minutes and no change. I turn the system off. Unplug it from the wall and wait 10 minutes.

I repeat the Flashback procedure again. No change.

I then try the alternative Flashback option of putting the motherboard driver CD into the optical drive, instead of using a USB key (manual page 3-55). The optical drive light flashes for 1/4 second, then nothing. Fans still at 100%, no video display, no POST.

So I try clearing the CMOS. I unplug the power supply and move the CLRTC jumper from 1-2 to 2-3. Wait 10 seconds. Move it back. Plug it back in boot and... same thing. No POST.

I then give flashback another try with a different USB key. No change.

Now what? Suggestions?

My PC is a high-end custom built order from speciality gaming PC dealer (I live in a regional area, with no decent local dealers or parts availability) and I'll cost me ~$140 in freight and insurance to send it back. If I remove the motherboard myself, I'll void the (dealers) warranty, not to mention have to uninstall and reinstall a custom water-cooling setup (that I don't really know what I'm doing with) that was the reason why I paid to have it built for me in the last place.

The Q-code display says "06" (microcode loading?) or is it "0b" (cache initialization?) the 2nd digit is either a 6 or a lower-case "b", ie top left segment, bottom left, bottom centre, bottom right, middle centre.

There's also a red light next to CPU_LED on the Q LED section in front of the ATX power connector. Everything was working fine before the failed BIOS update. I can't see how a failed BIOS update can damage a CPU (if that's what the red light means). I haven't touched the CPU/waterpump before or after. Could corrupted data have sent a voltage spike or something and fried the CPU?

I followed ASUS' flashing directions exactly, and now I'm left with a 3 month old $3,500 paper weight. :mad:

[HiVizMan]

I am sure you are quite tense with things right now but it is not lost.

Have a look at the link in my sig about how to do a USB flash back, that guide you posted to is a bit out of date. You will have to rename the bios file too.

And for the future could you not use the OS to flash the bios. It is not a good idea at all. I will check back in a little while to see how it goes.

[Chris_McMahon]

Do you mean this guide?

I don't see the Maximus VI Hero mentioned anywhere. What should I rename the file to?

[HiVizMan]

Yeah that is it just use the same rename protocol as per the guide so for your board it should be

M6H.cap

Give it a try and lets see how it goes yeah.

Oh and I have a plan B too. So seriously no worries here at all.

[Chris_McMahon]

Ok renaming the BIOS file to M6H.CAP worked...it accepted the USB key and flashed the BIOS. Thanks.

Unfortunately, it appears to have completely destroyed my 8TB RAID array in the process. The 2x individual 4TB disks now appear in windows as 2x single unformatted 4TB volumes and the 64GB cache (using Intel's SRT) for the array (a partition of my 256GB SSD) is "disabled". Going into the RAID setup (Crtl-i during POST) only gives the option to create a new RAID array. Also my main boot SSD has converted itself into a AHCI drive from it's original (and required for Intel's SRT to work) RAID format.

I tried setting my SSD back to RAID in BIOS but then it wouldn't boot at all saying no OS found.

I'm not in as bad a position as I was (no PC at all), but losing 8TB of data isn't exactly back to normal. I've got about 4TB backed up, but the rest (mostly Steam, Gamersgate, Origin etc games) will have to be downloaded again on my 250GB/month account - over a year's worth!

I hope someone knows of some trick to magically restore the RAID array? I mean the data should all still be there right?

[HiVizMan]

Pleased you no longer have a $3500 paperweight.

Depending what kind of RAID you had for the two mechanical drives and on what controller they were created, they should still be there. Did you change the cables or not set RAID as your mode of SATA controller after the flash? Because nothing changed when you did the BIOS flashback mate. All that changed was the bios updated, the rest is all up to user input.

What you can do is list all your hardware, and include which ports you have which hard drives connected to, and how each drive is controlled or set up.

[Chris_McMahon]

HiVizMan wrote:

Depending what kind of RAID you had for the two mechanical drives and on what controller they were created, they should still be there.

I had 2x 4TB drives in RAID0 with a 64GB cache on my boot SSD. Connected to the on-board Z87 Intel RAID controller.

Did you change the cables or not set RAID as your mode of SATA controller after the flash?

No. When the flash failed I was locked out of the BIOS completely. So I couldn't change anything if I wanted to. I never touched any cables or drives.

Because nothing changed when you did the BIOS flashback mate.

Unfortunately it did. When the re-flash with the name-changed CAP file finally worked, the first successful boot was in a "factory default" mode. Every BIOS setting I had was reset back to defaults. My memory speed was 1333Mhz instead of the XMP 1600 setting. Fastboot was turned on (I have it turned off) etc, every setting was back to default.

All that changed was the bios updated, the rest is all up to user input.

Unfortunately not. On the first boot, with absolutely no input from me, except pressing the power button, my system booted Windows, flashed a quick "installing drivers" message BEFORE the desktop, then when the desktop did load, I got another "installing new hardware" pop-up.

I immediately noticed most of my icons (all of my games, music, video, and several apps) were now displaying that "missing" graphic instead of their normal icon. Opening Windows file explorer showed my previous 2 drive icons (C:SSD and 😧 8TB raid-array) were replaced with C:SSD, D:Unformated Drive, and E:Unformatted drive.

I then tried to open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology application (it creates and manages RAID arrays on Z87 chipset MBs) and got an error message that the service was not started, and the app wouldn't load at all.

It was then that I shutdown windows and rebooted into the BIOS to see what was going on. That's when I saw that my boot SSD was set as AHCI instead of RAID, and also explains that "installing new hardware" message before the desktop loaded. I saved that change and also turned off fastboot and similar settings so that I could see what was going on during boot, and rebooted.

Then I noticed the RAID boot screen had the cache for the previous RAID array marked as "disabled" and instead of showing a 7.2TB (8TB) RAID array, it was showing 2x 3.6TB single non-RAID drives. :mad:

Hitting Ctrl-I to open the configuration screen only gave me the option on creating a new RAID array. There was no sign of my previous array. So I left everything as is, so as not to potentially complicate getting my array back.

Continuing on with the boot process, Windows popped up a text screen saying there was no OS found and did I want to install, repair etc. WTF? It was just there 2 minutes ago. I changed the drive back to AHCI in BIOS and Windows booted (albeit still missing my 8TB array), just like the first boot after the BIOS loaded from the USB key. I rebooted again and changed the drive back to RAID - no OS found!

Now I've been running my drives in RAID mode (as required to use Intel's Rapid Response Technology, ie drive caching) for months without issue. Why not now? Because on that first boot, when the BIOS defaulted to ACHI, and Windows auto-installed the ACHI drivers it must have auto-uninstalled the RAID drivers. At least I think that's what happened based on the evidence.

So I reboot, again, and go back into the BIOS, again, and give it a through look. I notice more evidence of a "auto-reset" is everywhere. My fan settings are back to default ("normal" from my preferred "Turbo"). Memory speeds are default. Fan monitoring is at 600rpm instead of my setting of 400rpm. And... I found several settings relating to Intel's SRT - all of them turned off, buried in a submenu on the Advanced configuration screen when you scroll right to the bottom of one of the pages. I'm currently ~20 hours into a ~2 day restore and don't want to abort it, otherwise I'd go into BIOS and tell you the exact names.

I turn them all back on and but my drives back in RAID mode and reboot. Windows again "installs new hardware" and boots to desktop. I'm finally back in RAID mode, but the array is still showing as separate unformatted drives in Explorer.

Now however Intel's Rapid Storage Technology application would run properly. I could see that the cache partition was still there but the RAID0 array of the two 4TB drives was gone. Only the 2 separate 4TB drives were visible. Faced with the almost certainty that the data was forever lost, I decided to try recreating the array in the app. The array created fine and now appeared as a single 7.2TB volume. I tried to access it in Windows, but the Storage module of Windows' Computer Management program said it was an unformatted volume and asked if I'd like to format it. :mad:

So the data's gone. The BIOS lost my working settings and loaded default (incompatible) ones, which, combined with Window's auto-install / auto-uninstall lost the partition information with no help from me.

I chose to format the array and then assigned the cache partition to it and rebooted.

I'm now back to how my system was 24 hours ago, before I decided to trust ASUS and their AI Suite to upgrade my BIOS, minus of course my 8TB worth of data lost from the array.

I have a backup on my music and video files, but my digitally distributed games will have to be downloaded and installed again. And any game that kept it's save files in it's own directory (vs using say C:/user/Saved Games/ or C:/user/appdata) will be lost.

I'm currently restoring the 4TB or so of data that was backed up, with an estimated total time of ~2+ days @ 26MB/s network copy speed.

It'll take me ~ 16 months, give or take, to re-download my 4TB games with my current 250GB/month internet account. I might upgrade it to 500GB/m to shorten that to 8 months (at extra cost).

What you can do is list all your hardware, and include which ports you have which hard drives connected to, and how each drive is controlled or set up.

Here's what it looks like now (and what it looked like before this all started).

SATA Port 1: Blu-ray Drive
SATA Port 2: 250GB Samsung SSD - Two partitions 1)Boot 174GB 2) cache 64GB for RAID0 array
SATA Port 3: 4TB Seagate HDD - RAID0 Array Drive 1
SATA Port 4: 4TB Seagate HDD - RAID0 Array Drive 2

Drives set to RAID mode in BIOS. Hot swapping turned off.



Now, after all this I have the following thoughts:

Why doesn't ASUS implement a dual BIOS system like Gigabyte?
My previous MB had dual bios so if anything corrupted one BIOS, (not that it ever did in 4+ years, including updating the BIOS from Windows - it seems Gigabyte figured out how to do this safely a long time ago) I could switch to the other one.

What's up with ASUS' Windows BIOS updating program?
This whole thing happen because it locked up 30% of the way through flashing the BIOS. Why isn't there some type of safe-guard in it that it only implements a new BIOS when it passes a CRC check or something similar.

What's up with AI Suite 3 ignoring 2 BIOS updates, and ignoring a new version of AI Suite?
I had it set to check for new version every day, and manually went into the updater at least once a week and clicked on "check for new updates" but still it never told me of a new update.

What's up with ASUS' naming policy on BIOS files?
It shouldn't take multiple google and forums searches to find out what you need to rename the file. Hell, why do we need to rename it at all? Can't you just code it to read the first few bytes of the file and tell if it's the right one? This seems wacky to me.

This whole experience as left a bad impression of ASUS for me. I've been using their products for over 10 years. I followed ASUS' instructions for updating the BIOS to the letter, and their instructions for recovering from a failed BIOS update, and ended up here. It seems their software is buggy at best and downright dangerous at worst. They might have decent hardware, but like a lot of hardware-focused companies, their software guys are really letting the side down.

[HiVizMan]

Nothing changed in your RAID arrray when the bios flash was completed, of course the BIOS is going to be at factory defaults and you would need to set your mode of SATA as RAID on first boot in any case. That is a given with any bios flash even in OS.

Unfortunately not. On the first boot, with absolutely no input from me, except pressing the power button, my system booted Windows, flashed a quick "installing drivers" message BEFORE the desktop, then when the desktop did load, I got another "installing new hardware" pop-up.

After a bios flash you return to the bios each and every time. So what you describe above has never happened in my experience, not even once. It it did happen as you say then it is a first.

May I give you some advice, if your data is precious as it obviously is you never and I mean never use a RAID 0, in fact it is not even a true RAID as there is no redundancy built in. RAID 1 at the very least offers protection if a hard drive goes down, RAID 0 none at all. I understand that you are less than happy right now but I do hope that next time you do not flash your bios via the OS there is such a considerably greater risk involved, and there is always risk involved when you flash a bios. It is for that reason I urge members to only update bios if you are fixing a problem. If your system works then let it be.

[Nodens]

I would like to add something to this.

The BIOS/UEFI does not store any information about your RAID arrays. The controller itself writes a few bytes on the drives, on an unused part of the drive (usually towards its end), when they are made members of an array. This is called RAID metadata. All kinds of controllers, including software RAID, work this way. When a controller is in RAID mode, it examines all drives during drive discovery at the specific offset where it saves its RAID metadata. When it finds metadata entries, it enumerates the drives as part of an array according to what exactly is written in the metadata.

No amount of windows device driver (re)installations for the controller (RAID mode, AHCI mode) can do anything to the metadata on the drives. What happened to you is either the metadata got erased somehow or what's most likely they got corrupted. This can happen due to unstable overclocking OR RAID controller OROM/UEFI driver incompatibility.

In any case your data are still there, or rather were still there until you decided to format the drives. If you haven't written to the array yet, your data is still there after formatting the drives as well.

If you had just added the drives back to the array with the exact same configuration, without initializing them, they would be as they were because the controller would have written new identical metadata fields and everything would still be in place. In case the partition table was eaten as well (in case you initialized or formatted the array) there's a tool called Testdisk that you could use normally on Windows since it was not a system drive array , that can repair the partition table for you. If it was a system drive you'd have to use the tool under a linux live cd.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Unless the drives actually malfunction, if they drop out of the array via metadata corruption or deletion, all your data are still there.


EDIT: As a last note. Those driver installations you saw wat because Windows detected an AHCI controller (it was a RAID one previously) after flashing. Once you went back to RAID mode, it did so again because the AHCI was gone and RAID was now there.