Motherboard Group Buy/Crowdfunded Modded BIOS for the Asrock A300m (Deskmini A300)

[gustav]

Does anyone know what the exact changes were from BIOS 3.50 to 3.60 on the A300?
ASRock site only says "Improve system compatibility" .

Having a couple of issues with occasional random crashes and peripherals not being recognised on boot and wondering whether a BIOS upgrade will solve.

Running:

Linux Mint 20 Ulyana | DeskMini A300 with A8-9600

It will be hard to track the changes. Resion 3.60 implies AGESAv1 and/or AGESAv2 AMD-stack. Try to track your branches using often mentioned jz-shop and official AsRock site. As long as I know, Revision 3.60 has never left the BETA-stage, does not matter on which branch.

If you want us to help more, describe your problem / your expectance / your logs

 

[Danlopez1222]

Would be interesting if someone with a flasher could try doing so directly, if that would effectively change the board to an X300.

Taking a gap year cause of covid- Will be flashing the my A300 with the X300 bios later this week via flashcatUSB.

 

[majksner]

I've tried 3.60R but I had very weird graphical glitches both Linux (Pop!_OS) and Windows 10. I've reverted to "official" beta from AsRock website.

 

[gustav]

I've tried 3.60R but I had very weird graphical glitches both Linux (Pop!_OS) and Windows 10. I've reverted to "official" beta from AsRock website.

I'm also on 3.60R, experiencing no glitches at all. Guys, please, can you provide your RAM speed infos also VID settings? Much appreaciated.
A300, 3.60R, Ryzen 2400G, RAM@XML(CL18,18,18,43,1T), VID=1,13750V, Vega 11 Windows 10 2004 Version: 26.20.15029.27017, No problems at all.

 

[majksner]

I'm also on 3.60R, experiencing no glitches at all. Guys, can youprovide your RAM speed infos also VID settings? Much appreaciated.
A300, 3.60R, Ryzen 2400G, RAM@XML(CL18,18,18,43), VID=1,13750V, Vega 11 Windows 10 2004 Version: 26.20.15029.27017, No problems at all.

I'm using Ryzen 3400G with XMP 2.0 Profile 1 (DDR-4-3200 16-18-18-36) 1.35V. VID set to auto.

 

[gustav]

Try lowering your timing to more relaxed state from 16-18-18-36 to 18-18-18-43 (This is what I know at least works) OR go @3000MHz RAM to check wheather the problem still exists. VID should be enough, I would lower that to 1.20V , more to 1.125V. I'm looking forwand to your reply.

Edit: I used somewhere to read that 1.15V or 1.2V on the SOC VID can be considered s "safe" voltage. But don't set me fix on that point.

How to Kill Your CPU with “Safe” Voltages | Raven Ridge SOC Voltage Guidelines

Even when using supposed “safe” voltages as a maximum input limit for overclocking via BIOS, it’s possible that the motherboard is feeding a significantly different voltage to the CPU. We’ve demonstrated this before, like when we talked about the Ultra Gaming’s Vdroop issues. -

www.gamersnexus.net

When we talk damage with parts, we’re talking long-term degradation. Some easy examples would be the System Agent voltage for Intel CPUs (VCCSA); increasing VCCSA to, for example, 1.4V is inadvisable for modern platforms, and will inevitably damage the IMC. For AMD, we might instead talk about SOC voltage – that’s our topic today. Increasing SOC voltage beyond recommended settings, discussed below, would have the effect of damaging the IMC and the APU GFX component’s overclocking ability. When we talk damage with parts, we’re talking long-term degradation. Some easy examples would be the System Agent voltage for Intel CPUs (VCCSA); increasing VCCSA to, for example, 1.4V is inadvisable for modern platforms, and will inevitably damage the IMC. For AMD, we might instead talk about SOC voltage – that’s our topic today. Increasing SOC voltage beyond recommended settings, discussed below, would have the effect of damaging the IMC and the APU GFX component’s overclocking ability.

 

[majksner]

Try lowering your timing to more relaxed state from 16-18-18-36 to 18-18-18-43 (This is what I know at least works) OR go @3000MHz RAM to check wheather the problem still exists. VID should be enough, I would lower that to 1.20V , more to 1.125V. I'm looking forwand to your reply.

Edit: I used somewhere to read that 1.15V or 1.2V on the SOC VID can be considered s "safe" voltage. But don't set me fix on that point.

How to Kill Your CPU with “Safe” Voltages | Raven Ridge SOC Voltage Guidelines

Even when using supposed “safe” voltages as a maximum input limit for overclocking via BIOS, it’s possible that the motherboard is feeding a significantly different voltage to the CPU. We’ve demonstrated this before, like when we talked about the Ultra Gaming’s Vdroop issues. -

www.gamersnexus.net

I've tried all combinations you mentioned, but the problem still exists.

 

[gustav]

I've tried all combinations you mentioned, but the problem still exists.

I'm out of ideas. Did you try to run the RAM in 2400MHz mode and then going higher to 3000MHz?
If there's faulty, but yet unknown faulty to a memory chip, you may need to run Memtest86+

Otherwise, if you know your RAM DIMMs are fine - I don't know what to say

What is your workload? What is the app, you're trying to run?

 

[majksner]

I'm out of ideas. Did you try to run the RAM in 2400MHz mode and then going higher to 3000MHz?
If there's faulty, but yet unknown faulty to a memory chip, you may need to run Memtest86+

Otherwise, if you know your RAM DIMMs are fine - I don't know what to say

What is your workload? What is the app, you're trying to run?

I've tried lowering the RAM to @3000 MHz, no luck. I would say it's a BIOS issue for sure because as soon as I revert to "offical" beta bios from AsRock website I don't have any problems. Will wait for the official release.

 

[ramalhais]

I have a 3400g and updated the BIOS to 2.60R.
It's going well so far and i even got higher memory speeds.
Before, with 2 modules of Gskill F4-3000C16-16GRS, i could only set it to 3200Mhz and CAS18.
I'm now running at 3266Mhz and CAS16.

 

[ramalhais]

I have a 3400g and updated the BIOS to 2.60R.
It's going well so far and i even got higher memory speeds.
Before, with 2 modules of Gskill F4-3000C16-16GRS, i could only set it to 3200Mhz and CAS18.
I'm now running at 3266Mhz and CAS16.

Forgot to mention that it seems like i now get lower CPU boost clocks
Maximum i get is 3.95Ghz, which seems like fake advertising on AMDs part.
This CPU should go up to 4.2Ghz right?
Is anyone getting similar results?

 

[TomHC81]

Forgot to mention that it seems like i now get lower CPU boost clocks
Maximum i get is 3.95Ghz, which seems like fake advertising on AMDs part.
This CPU should go up to 4.2Ghz right?
Is anyone getting similar results?

With A300 on 3.60R BIOS and 3400G I'm getting 4.2 GHz without issue. With non-beta 3.60 only 3.95 GHz.

 

[ramalhais]

With A300 on 3.60R BIOS and 3400G I'm getting 4.2 GHz without issue. With non-beta 3.60 only 3.95 GHz.

Thanks!
I thought i could just run prim95 on one core and expect top boost to be reached, but it doesn't.
I figured out i need to let hwinfo run about 30mins, during normal usage, until one of the cores reaches top boost.
If i let it run enough time, eventually all the cores will have reached top boost, around 4192Mhz. Tested with 3.60S.

 

[ermac318]

Thanks!
I thought i could just run prim95 on one core and expect top boost to be reached, but it doesn't.
I figured out i need to let hwinfo run about 30mins, during normal usage, until one of the cores reaches top boost.
If i let it run enough time, eventually all the cores will have reached top boost, around 4192Mhz. Tested with 3.60S.

Understand that depending on what Prime95 you are using, you may be doing an AVX workload and those tend not to push MHz to maximum because of power reasons (AVX instructions are extremely power intensive).

 

[takisha_wan]

Unboxing DeskMini X300 (Mandarin Chinese)
I can't tell what are the differences between A300 and X300 motherboards.

 

[ramalhais]

Unboxing DeskMini X300 (Mandarin Chinese)
I can't tell where are the differences between A300 and X300 motherboards.

Thanks!
Also found this video but there are no subtitles:

 

[takisha_wan]

Thanks!
Also found this video but there are no subtitles:

He puts lot of puns in his scripts. The essential information are what you see, but not what you hear. So, don't worry.

 

[Danlopez1222]

Good news and bad news:

Good news is that I flashed the x300 bios onto my a300 without any problems, and all of the overclocking features reappeared: it looks just like the original bios that the a300 shipped with.

Bad news is that none of the overclocks actually do anything and ryzenmaster still doesn't work, just like the original bios that the a300 shipped with.

I'm going to see if there are any differences between the p1.40 for X300 and p1.40 for the a300.

 

[Curiosity]

It's good news it works, that makes me think future updates will also be functional and it'll be easy to find bios' that support renoir vs going through non asrock websites

 

[Danlopez1222]

I'm able to run my Gskill Ripjaws F4-3200C18-8GRS kit at native 3200 xmp (1.35V) with the x300 bios, something I have never been able to do before. However, AMD CBS and AMD PBS are not visible under the "advanced" settings tab in the bios.