AMD revives free boot kit offer for struggling Ryzen 3000 owners

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Boot kit includes Athlon 200GE processor and thermal solution with pre-paid return shipping.

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Read more.

It is quite nice that AMD is offering this but I feel that USB BIOS flashing should be pretty much standard by this point.

Yes, IMO retailers should just do it. CCL have the right Idea. I Still cant boot with my 3600 and GT7, Tried everything and Scan don't like returns sooooooooo.

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Originally Posted by PC-LAD

Yes, IMO retailers should just do it. CCL have the right Idea. I Still cant boot with my 3600 and GT7, Tried everything and Scan don't like returns sooooooooo.

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Had you just bought the GT7?

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Originally Posted by Tabbykatze

It is quite nice that AMD is offering this but I feel that USB BIOS flashing should be pretty much standard by this point.

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Doing that without a working CPU is quite tricky, if it adds a quid most people probably won't want it.

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Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix

Doing that without a working CPU is quite tricky, if it adds a quid most people probably won't want it.

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Damn those finicky customers!

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Originally Posted by Tabbykatze

It is quite nice that AMD is offering this but I feel that USB BIOS flashing should be pretty much standard by this point.

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If people are just upgrading the CPU, then update the BIOS before removing the old CPU. It's not difficult.

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Originally Posted by PC-LAD

Yes, IMO retailers should just do it. CCL have the right Idea. I Still cant boot with my 3600 and GT7, Tried everything and Scan don't like returns sooooooooo.

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I built the wife a new PC last year, using an R5 2600 and discovered it would not boot, not even to the BIOS. I checked the CPU support list for the motherboard, ordered another CPU supported by a very early BIOS from Amazon. After flashing the problem was solved and I sent the extra CPU back for a full refund.

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Originally Posted by Friesiansam

If people are just upgrading the CPU, then update the BIOS before removing the old CPU. It's not difficult.

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That's not in question here and people whom are used to building their own PCs and are just upgrading would not be the ones having the issue here. The problem is when you buy a new 3xxx series Ryzen as well as an 3-series or a 4-series chipset board new, that is the correct perspective for this thread.

I remember when I ordered parts for a new pc many years back, Scan offered to update the BIOS for me (for free) before sending it out, as I had picked a newly launched CPU that wasn't supported on early versions of the motherboard. I assume when they sell the cpu/motherboard/ram bundles that they pre-assemble, they probably have the BIOS updated too, since it says they test them.

I thought this was going to be a red-branded set of brushes, cloths and some Kiwi polish...

I just bought an X470 board and a 3700X. It would've been nice if it was made more obvious that you need an old CPU to update the BIOS. Luckily I had a friend with an old Ryzen APU, but it would've been really annoying if not.
Not sure why not all BIOS chips are socketed, sending out a tiny chip is easier than shipping mobos and/or CPUs around.

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Originally Posted by Tabbykatze

Had you just bought the GT7?

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No, I've had it since December. Got the latest Bios, I've had another (forum) post on it. But I just cant get it to post at all, I wouldn't have bought a bio-star board if i'd have know what their support was like.

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Originally Posted by Jonatron

Not sure why not all BIOS chips are socketed, sending out a tiny chip is easier than shipping mobos and/or CPUs around.

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Or simpler yet, as Tabbykatze mentioned, enable them to be flashed from USB without needing a CPU with recognisable microcode.

You would think they would be able to do this already. All they need is a fallback mode (that prevents booting, but allows posting) where the BIOS can at least make certain baseline, absolute bare-bones assumptions about the CPU to at least allow it to get that far.

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Originally Posted by afiretruck

You would think they would be able to do this already. All they need is a fallback mode (that prevents booting, but allows posting) where the BIOS can at least make certain baseline, absolute bare-bones assumptions about the CPU to at least allow it to get that far.

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POSTing involves working RAM, and working RAM involves understanding the memory controller, which requires an up to date BIOS as they change a lot.

Flashing with no CPU at all "only" requires a embedded controller that can hijack one of the USB ports and the flash chip with enough intelligence to understand how to program the flash chip, how to enumerate and drive USB interfaces and memory sticks and how to understand fat32 to read the file. Easy ;)

Edit: I did use to think that chipsets should have something like a Jaguar core embedded in them so the motherboard could always work. That would have been easier in the days when the chipset drove the memory, but now that hangs off the CPU it would be hard to multiplex that and becomes difficult.

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Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix

POSTing involves working RAM, and working RAM involves understanding the memory controller, which requires an up to date BIOS as they change a lot.

Flashing with no CPU at all "only" requires a embedded controller that can hijack one of the USB ports and the flash chip with enough intelligence to understand how to program the flash chip, how to enumerate and drive USB interfaces and memory sticks and how to understand fat32 to read the file. Easy ;)

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Could literally do that with an ATmega328P which cost buttons!