How to Update BIOS Without CPU 

obviously I have done this but most of time I done it in windows and it works and or I had a bad flash that renders computer unusable

No I smash my bios 😂 and I flash the like button

Updating the BIOS is tricky enough, why would you do this?!

I have done bios many times but always on mobo with code display led I am about to do this on an aorus b550 pro with not displays. I hadnt noticed the light next to the qflash button so thank you saves me an anxious time.

Gigabyte Aorus Pro AC B550 with Ryzen 5 5600x G.Skill 3600mhz CL16 Memory RTX2080ti. I did exactly as you instructed using the BIOS version that gave support to the motherboard for the new Ryzen 5000 CPUs from the manufacturer website. Q-Flash Plus light flashed for a couple minutes, then stopped entirely. I let it sit for 5minutes in total and checked that the PSU fan was off(not sure it ever came on as it's a Seasonic 850W that seems to not spin the fan unless it needs to for heat reasons). Anyway, I powered it off, removed the USB stick, powered it back on and now it's just cycling through the POST lights going through CPU quickly, onto DRAM for a little bit, then onto VGA and it hangs there. I never get a video output at all. It just keeps cycling like this endlessly. I know the GPU works as I've removed it repeatedly and placed it in my old 8700k machine with no issues. I'm at a loss as to what it could be at this point. I may try some other sticks of memory if I can find some. Any tips would be appreciated though. Thanks.

Glad to help!

So the mobo needs the flash in order to do this, thats the only way correct? I'm looking at building a pc from scratch with Zen 3, so this is imperative to me.

Came for the exact same reason, praise the lord :D

@@samuelvallecabrera8286 Hey bro, the mobo I'm looking at is a Gigabyte Auros Pro which has "Q-Flash" its an X570 board. With a USB you can flash the bios without ram, cpu or gpu. I confirmed this, gl.

Zen 3 is the latest Ryzen 5000 series.

Yeah, it can come in handy.

Was the deciding factor on what mobo I bought to be honest.

Asus has this for years.

@@OXyGeNe8DJ I know. Just saying all of them need it

Yeah it baffles me that most MB don’t have this feature. If anyone bought a Ryzen 3 series and a motherboard that was designed 1 or 2 years earlier they’re pretty much screwed if they don’t have a compatible CPU for the update. I hear AMD has a service where they send you a kit to update your bios but I don’t know the details and will find out tomorrow when I call them up. Hopefully their customer service is good.

Lol :(

So true

yeah it works well, bit more risk involved because of no process bar on monitor, but as long as you don't shut pc down, it wont matter.

How do you know what to rename your file, I can’t find it anywhere. My motherboard is an B550I Aorus Pro Ax.

Hey man I have my pc fully build. Is it safe to do this with the cpu and my cooler installed?! I’ll unplug the cooler power but leave it on top of the cpu so I don’t have to do the thermal paste again

@@PhilonPrim CPU and fan was installed, GPU, RAM and storage was not installed. No issues on my side with the beforementioned configuration. Good luck!

What B550 board did you go with? I just picked up the Asus B550 E gaming for my first build👌🏼

@@kanethomo2483 I’m going with the rog b550-a. Tryna go for that clean white build

Look at the manual of your motherboard, do what it says, maybe yours doesn't need rename or needs something else to do

Someone said you need to read the readme.txt

I too want to know this

Thanks

have you found a fix?

I'm also wondering this.

@@vincenteriksson5651 yep, tried it on a B550M DS3h with a 5 5600x, cooler, ram and ssd connected. It worked, now i m up and running

Yes, I did it with everything installed.

Am I able to do this if I have my CPU installed or do I need to take it out? I've been trying for a day or two, took everything apart but kept my CPU in, BIOS never actually started flashing

@@bigal5760 hold the button for 3 seconds with power in but not on. No need to remove CPU

if anybody had the same problem as me then try updating drivers to older ones before the latest release

Have you found a fix?

@@ellisonfloyd7775 Hi, here from future, so I just gave the pc to a service and they updates the BIOS somehow

@@kampfpanzer-703 thanks for the update

I found out what it means, it just means that theres an error in the USB drive and you can't install the bios since it isn't working. I forgot to put the actual bios in the drive hehe.

Gaucho lol

I have the same B550 and I'm waiting for my processor too, is a 5600X. I hope your update work well, please reply when you try.

@@arnoldlopez4917 Received my gpu some days early so I already completed my build. I DID THE BIOS FLASH WRONG. After installing everything the system didn't post, it got stuck on the vga red led. At first I tried different things that didn't work, and then thought maybe it was bios, so I watched some more guides about it and discovered I did it wrong, I managed to actually make it work: 1. I actually had all the pc built and connected, even the monitor and peripherals. 2. Rename the bios file to "GIGABYTE.bin". Put it in a FAT32 flash drive. 3. Shut down the system (but leave the power supply ON). 4. Put the flash drive in the white usb port. 5. Press and hold the q flash plus button until the orange led next to it starts blinking. 6. After some time of blinking rapidly, the orange led will stop for a second and then start blinking again but slowly, some red leds on the mobo may also light up. You have to keep waiting! (this was my error). The slow blinking means that it's still flashing, and it can take long (~10 min). 7. After some time, when the bios flashing actually finishes, the system will power up normally by itself, you'll see the whole orange led stripe on the mobo light up, and if you have a monitor connected you can go into bios etc...

Did you already have a CPU like 3700 in the system when you did this or everything brand new and no windows installed yet?

@@PhilonPrim Everything was brand new, no windows installed yet or anything.

I have the same question

@@Finlandiiish I successfully flashed the bios today! Took out CPU, RAM and un plugged everything. Better safe than sorry!

Did it work, im going to be doing this to my b550 f gaming wifi board for a 5000 series amd and I'm crapping myself.

@@darkghost5770 I have the same board and im gonna try it after work. Lets hope it'll work out for us!

Have any of you guys figured it out, same thing happening with me.

I have the same board and same problem, did you figure it out?

@@mr9oh939 nope. I installed everything else and am now realizing that none of my USB’s have power either. And I don’t have a graphics card so I can’t see if the system boots or not. I’ll let you know if I figure it out.

@@mr9oh939 solved it! The solition was pretty specific to my situation though. I was trying to download the update from a chromebook, and it wouldn’t let me change it from a .ZIP file to a .CAP file. Then I did it on a windows computer and it updated first try

I am using a Linux laptop to do the update, I will use a windows laptop and see if that helps, thanks!

@@mr9oh939 use windows laptop 😁👍

Also having this rn...

Asus, MSI and Gigabyte have the ability to do this.

I have an MSI and never bothered looking there 😂 Keep on the good work

No. Not all. I just bought a Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H revision 2. That does'nt have the switch/button on the back. So I can't update the bios that way. It was a complete waste of money because now I have to buy 2 processors, 1 so I can update the bios and the other is the one I want to use. Should have checked first.

You probably lost 10% of processing power by adding Spectre and Meltdown

@@Britec09 The laptop still feels snappy enough to me

hi before this issue was ur pc running just monitor was no signal ?? because i’m trying to figure if that’s y my display isn’t showing i need to update bios

@@v4adriana i have exact same thing. No display and not keyboard lights, the MOBO was damaged before so maybe it made short circuit and damaged the CPU. Tomorrow I'm sending the CPU for claim

did you use the hdmi or display port on the motherboard or gpu?

@@anklebully7128 hi iam wondering if the pc displays if I put the hdmi or dp on the motherboard because my gpu has not arrived yet i just want to know if i updated right

@@mouradak7ay185 what’s ur cpu? You only put hdmi or dp on motherboard if the cpu has integrated graphics

@@anklebully7128 hi My cpu is ryzen 5 5600x

@@mouradak7ay185 you will need to wait for ur gpu then

I don't update like this, bit more of a risk involved

Yes

it does not，the rrason u have ntfs is you have a too big drive. The thumb drive which is bigger than 32gb will be NTFS！ so make sure u have a 32gb one or less

U have discord, I’ll help u see if u want?

@@elitesym1778 I did the flash by myself with this guidance. It worked pretty well and all is set up now! Thanks for offering help 😀

have you found a solution i have the same problem

its safer to flash bios where you can see the flashing process, this can be more risky in my opinion

@@Britec09 This would come in handy, especially now, for when you need to flash the bios to get support for new AMD CPU.

Me too, upgrading from 2500k to 5600x. One of the main reasons that I decided to get the AORUS B550 Pro was this Q-Flash Plus feature.

@@williamzu I haven't decided on a motherboard just yet. I gotta start looking at some with that Flash feature. How much did you get the B550 Pro for?

@@AggBaddieI paid 199 CAD (U$152) on mine (AORUS B550 Pro AC version, with Wifi). Unfortunately, I still have to wait for my 5600x, I placed a back order today at Canada Computers

No

Have you already done it? I'm going to buy the same

@@ettoref2712 Not yet. I only purchased the PSU, a new case and NVME for now. I will probably go with the MSI B550 Gaming Plus now because according to some benchmarks, it has slightly colder VRM but otherwise it's basically the same board, except that it looks slightly better too. But I'm waiting with the purchase as I wait for G.Skill to update their Reverse QVL list. I want to be very sure that the RAM is tested to work with the board and CPU, especially with 3600Mhz XMP profile. As soon as I find tested 2x16gb CL16 RAM, I gonna buy the board. They haven't tested the kit I am looking for yet. I want a 5600x and it's sold out in Germany, so I can wait anyway. My personal plan is to finish the rig before February... I am patient and do it step by step.

And what about the power supply fan? Does that have to be rotating during the BIOS updating process? The LED associated with the BIOS button (after the button was depressed) began to pulsate indicating it was getting power, but the power supply fan wasn't whirling, indicating maybe no power from the ps was being generated. I panicked, and pulled the plug to the ps. Maybe the power used by the BIOS upgrade process was so small that insufficient heat was generated to signal the fan to turn on? Need more clarification on this point before trying a second attempt at BIOS upgrading.