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r/ASRock•
SkipFreethrow

BIOS Update 3.20 AMD AGESA Combo-AM4 V2 1.0.8.0 Serious Issues

Tech Support

I have an X570 Phantom Gaming 4 motherboard. I have 2x8 GB G.Skill DDR4 3200 memory. My DDR4 memory has problems booting if I use the XMP profile in the BIOS. I used the Ryzen DRAM Calculator to make a custom DRAM profile in the BIOS. The motherboard has been stable using BIOS 3.10.

I upgraded the BIOS to 3.20. I am having all sorts of issues like USB ports not working to random reboots in Windows 10. I have since flashed the 3.10 BIOS back to my motherboard and the system is stable again. Is anybody else having issues with the 3.20 BIOS for this motherboard?

Posted Sep 30, 2020, 3:50 AM UTC · edited

517
Consistent-Ad6683•

I have the same board with 3200 cl14 ram. I'm on bios 2.60 as I find it to be the most stable. Have yet to find a bios that'll let me run 3600 ram but 3200 cl14 is fine at xmp. Boost clocks on my 3900x are pretty good on 2.60. 4.6 easy.

3
SkipFreethrowOP•

XMP profile doesn't work for me with this G.Skill DDR4 memory. It will boot sometimes, but other times the BIOS resets to defaults (2133 Mhz). I used the Ryzen DRAM Calculator and it seems stable for me with BIOS 3.10.

1
Consistent-Ad6683•

Weird. Mine is G.skill as well. Have you tried 2.60? What cpu are you running?

2
nothingbutt•

I have exact same experience -- stable up to 3.10 but with 3.20 I get random black screen reboots (I didn't notice other issues but didn't look for them either as was focused on this hard reboot issue).

I too am using G.Skill DDR4 memory but it's 3600 CL16. I have this exact kit:

F4-3600C16D-16GVKC

https://www.gskill.com/specification/165/184/1562831134/F4-3600C16D-16GVKC-Specification

(interestingly, on the QVL list at the above link, it says Asrock Phantom Gaming 4 is QVL for 3000 series CPUs)

If I update the BIOS to 3.20 with no other changes except loading XMP, I have random hard reboots (black screen reboot, not any errors/exceptions from the operating system). They seem to come during heavy gaming but then again I'm usually testing out gaming after updating so it could just be random.

I posted a thread here about my issue a month ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/ASRock/comments/iheik4/reboot_issue_amd_agesa_comboam4_v2_1080/

Another user posted a solution thread however I found it was not a solution in my case: https://old.reddit.com/r/ASRock/comments/iivrp8/solution_bios_update_amd_agesa_comboam4_v2_1080/

Build details:

  • Asrock Phantom Gaming 4 x570
  • Ryzen 5 3600
  • above mentioned G.Skill memory
  • Windows 10 latest version with all the patches
  • Corsair CV650 power supply (wish I had a top tier PSU to try it out just in case there is some kind of power issue but supposedly this PSU isn't horrible)

What CPU are you running? Guessing 3000 series, right? Also please report this as a bug to Asrock as they probably need multiple reports to take it seriously (or at least escalate the issue if they are already tracking it internally -- I did report it as a bug a when I ran into this too but haven't heard anything back). You can report bugs here: https://event.asrock.com/tsd.asp

2
SkipFreethrowOP•

Thank you for your response! It confirms my suspicion that something is wrong with BIOS 3.20! I have almost identical hardware: ASRock Phantom Gaming 4 X570, Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB (2x8 GB) G.Skill 3200 DDR4, Windows 10 fully updated, EVGA 650 GQ 210-GQ-0650-V1 80+ GOLD 650W Modular PSU.

I have since reported the issue to ASRock tech support using your link. I am back on BIOS 3.10 and it is 100% stable! I hope they take this seriously!

2
SkipFreethrowOP•

(I didn't notice other issues but didn't look for them either as was focused on this hard reboot issue).

I had a strange issue using BIOS 3.20 where multiple USB ports on the motherboard (both front panel and rear) didn't work in Windows 10. I had to plug my keyboard and mouse in different ports for them to work. All my USB ports are working again after flashing back to BIOS 3.10.

It seemed the USB ports not working was an issue related to my custom DRAM profile. Switching to DDR4 2133 Mhz or XMP profile seemed to fix it, but I still experienced hard reboots in Windows 10 using BIOS 3.20. All those problems are non-existent using BIOS 3.10.

1
nothingbutt•

I decided to try 3.20 again after reading more about XMP and realizing it's not really a "done deal" that the XMP profile is going to be 100% stable. I guessed maybe this newer AGESA is more particular about RAM voltages. My G.Skill 3600 CL16 RAM has an XMP profile with 1.35v. So I tried bumping that up to 1.4v and so far the system has been rock solid for 8+ hours. This is longer than before with BIOS v3.20. Not 100% sure it's solved but so far, I think this might have been my root issue.

edit: See later reply if reading this via google/whatever -- turned out that the reboot was less frequent after bumping up the memory voltage but it still had a black screen reboot. Maybe there is more to tweak with voltages that would make the system stable with 3.20 but I'm giving up for now.

2
SkipFreethrowOP•

I'm still on BIOS 3.10 on my ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4. I used Ryzen DRAM Calculator software to set the DRAM timings in the BIOS and saved the profile. Using XMP profile for me causes POST issues (BIOS resets to defaults and DRAM timings get reset to 2133 Mhz). It has been 100% stable for me since.

1
nothingbutt•

Oh, interesting -- I was having some BIOS resets on memory too but it was erratic and doesn't seem to happen as much anymore (hasn't happened in a while, I'm hoping with this voltage tweak it's a solved problem too).

I did download Ryzen DRAM Calculator but wasn't sure about it -- now I'm running it again and it's showing me more to tweak. I think I'll try some of these settings. I know 1.4v is safe but it might work at say 1.37v particularly if I also tweak the SOC voltage and other voltages as the calculator recommends.

Thanks for pointing out the calculator. I think the first time around, I was a bit unsure how necessary it was but now I see it's a much more refined way of doing what I'm trying to do.

You might try BIOS 3.20 and if you have problems, slightly bumping up the voltages. That is if you want to deal with it -- I got annoyed and left it alone for a while (stayed with 3.10) as I just wanted to use the system but curiosity won out in the end :).

2
nothingbutt•

So it did crash again on my (same black screen reboot). It took much longer to do it but it did happen so I rolled back to 3.10. Just figured I would mention it. Not sure what the deal is but I'm done with version 3.20!

2
ChrisTheCuckSlayer•

If you update your bios you HAVE to manually set your memory timings again. It is possible to LOAD them from your previous bios saves but it will make a mess of the ram timings. I went through this before.

2
SkipFreethrowOP•

I loaded the saved DRAM timings after flashing a new BIOS and compared them to the "Ryzen DRAM Calculator" screenshot I took. The saved DRAM profile timings are identical to the screenshot, unless I am overlooking something.

1
ChrisTheCuckSlayer•

Yes they may be the same, but there may be extra/wrong/not enough data stored to different places. Clear cmos, then enter everything manually.

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SkipFreethrowOP•

I entered the DRAM timings again manually and saved it. It seems to be a lot more stable now. Thanks for the tip!

1