Downgrading bios on asrock A320 board

[io-waiter]

Hi

I have this board https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/A320M Pro4-F/
Unfortunately it ha the latest bios since it was paired with an old 3700X, but now I want to use it with an 2700(I could swap the CPU’s but not if avoidable). It works well with the older CPU but lacks any multiplier settings and ECC that I think it once had… and since downgrading of BIOS isn’t possible trough the bios menus…and I want more functionality back, well would this work? https://botflakes.de/asrockwiki/guides/afuWin/ or would there be layout issues and bricking ahead?

some risk is accepted in this projekt, but I’d rather not brick anything if possible

advice is much appreciated

 

[Magic Cube]

Avoiding bricking motherboard: First thing is make a backup of current bios->Save it to cloud and usb stick->multiple places.
Secondary: I would get somekind of bios flasher tool(CH314 or RPI and Chip programming clip) just for backup. When board is bricked, restoring it atleast booting state is done with the Flashing tool.

You could try your suggested afuWin route or flash bios with Flashing tool and program.

I did look both bios files(Latest and the first one). I did not see much difference in bios settings. What ECC needs to work is unbuffered ECC-memory sticks, ECC compatible motherboard->Board's Memory QVL says ECC sticks would work.

Also just interested what happens if you press CTRL+Q in bios. I don't know if Asrock has hidden settings on desktop boards. Asrock Mini-PC's get more settings shown when you press CTRL+Q in bios.

 

[Bones]

Avoiding bricking motherboard: First thing is make a backup of current bios->Save it to cloud and usb stick->multiple places.
Secondary: I would get somekind of bios flasher tool(CH314 or RPI and Chip programming clip) just for backup. When board is bricked, restoring it atleast booting state is done with the Flashing tool.

You could try your suggested afuWin route or flash bios with Flashing tool and program.

I did look both bios files(Latest and the first one). I did not see much difference in bios settings. What ECC needs to work is unbuffered ECC-memory sticks, ECC compatible motherboard->Board's Memory QVL says ECC sticks would work.

Also just interested what happens if you press CTRL+Q in bios. I don't know if Asrock has hidden settings on desktop boards. Asrock Mini-PC's get more settings shown when you press CTRL+Q in bios.

I second this for the reasons said above and also that some boards can be a PITA to back-flash to an older BIOS version.
A programmer will let you flash it to whatever BIOS version you want, without back-flash lockout getting in the way of things if your board happens to be one that wants to give you grief over getting it done.

If the flash goes bad you can use it to recover and proceed as said in the previous post, so it's a good investment to just get one and learn how to use it anyway as part of your PC tools set.

 

[io-waiter]

I have a clip and a rPi somewhere that was setup for moving an old Lenovo notebook to an open source bios, but rather not end up there

thx, will report back later

 

[A Computer Guy]

Hi

I have this board https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/A320M Pro4-F/
Unfortunately it ha the latest bios since it was paired with an old 3700X, but now I want to use it with an 2700(I could swap the CPU’s but not if avoidable). It works well with the older CPU but lacks any multiplier settings and ECC that I think it once had… and since downgrading of BIOS isn’t possible trough the bios menus…and I want more functionality back, well would this work? https://botflakes.de/asrockwiki/guides/afuWin/ or would there be layout issues and bricking ahead?

some risk is accepted in this projekt, but I’d rather not brick anything if possible

advice is much appreciated

That would be unusual for ECC to not work from UEFI updates if it was already working before. What I know has happened overtime with UEFI updates at least on all of my AM4 AsRock motherboards are the following...

• Over time UEFI updates MemTest86 error injection feature for testing ECC was blocked for non-Pro CPUS. At one point it was working for Zen+ CPU's but never worked for Zen2 and greater CPU's. However, the OS does continue to recognize ECC memory operation and testing via RAM overclocking confirmed logged error correction was working.
• ECC RAM compatibility was improved

CPU's I've used with ECC...

• 2600
• 2700
• 3800x
• 3950x
• 5950x
• 4650g pro (memtest86 error injection working)
• 4750g pro (memtest86 error injection working)

Asrock Motherboards I have used with ECC...

• Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac
• X470 Master SLI/ac (ATX)
• Fatal1ty X470 Gaming-ITX/ac (mITX)
• B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax (mITX)
• X570 Taichi (ATX)
• X570 Taichi Razer Edition (ATX)

 

[io-waiter]

I’d also really love to get the CPU to 3,8 it does that (but no more) at stock.
I now the ECC has worked on both that board and by the looks of it it still does, but almost all settings are gone under CBS and PBS as well as the multiplier drop down.

I’m leaning more towards doing this more for the fun of it than the 10% lower civ turn time, so some reasonable amount of research on modding the bios has been added to the project

 

[A Computer Guy]

I’d also really love to get the CPU to 3,8 it does that (but no more) at stock.
I now the ECC has worked on both that board and by the looks of it it still does, but almost all settings are gone under CBS and PBS as well as the multiplier drop down.

I’m leaning more towards doing this more for the fun of it than the 10% lower civ turn time, so some reasonable amount of research on modding the bios has been added to the project

In the past people have commented Asrock sometimes has options in the UEFI/BIOS that don't actually do anything but also I think some options only present themselves with particular CPU's. For example the X CPUS vs. non-X CPUs vs. G CPU's vs. Pro CPU's. I can't recall what they might have been but I've seen options change after swapping CPU's as well as options being removed or changing location over time from UEFI/BIOS updates.

Do you still have the overclocking menu and/or PBO settings?

Also just interested what happens if you press CTRL+Q in bios. I don't know if Asrock has hidden settings on desktop boards. Asrock Mini-PC's get more settings shown when you press CTRL+Q in bios.

I totally forgot about that, thanks for the reminder!

 

[io-waiter]

Do you still have the overclocking menu and/or PBO settings?

No, I can adjust voltages, ram, p-states. No multiplier, power or boost settings. I’ve reflashed with the same (last) bios with the 2700 and it changed nothing, even saved profiles was kept.

 

[io-waiter]

I gave up on this, not worth the effort and other things became more fun

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I’d also really love to get the CPU to 3,8 it does that (but no more) at stock.
I now the ECC has worked on both that board and by the looks of it it still does, but almost all settings are gone under CBS and PBS as well as the multiplier drop down.

I’m leaning more towards doing this more for the fun of it than the 10% lower civ turn time, so some reasonable amount of research on modding the bios has been added to the project

I've had an A320 Asus board. They are completely stripped of nearly all features. It won't matter what bios you install.

You won't be able to modify the bios. Its encrypted. At best unlock features that are hidden. For OC there are none.

A series chipset is the next best thing to buying a OEM Dell motherboard. If you want any type of OC features, buy a B series or X series chipset instead.

GL!