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

gustav

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2020
193
90
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 :)
 

majksner

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
May 23, 2020
4
2
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

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2020
193
90
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

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
May 23, 2020
4
2
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gustav

gustav

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2020
193
90
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.

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.
 
Last edited:

majksner

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
May 23, 2020
4
2
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.

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

gustav

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 18, 2020
193
90
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

Minimal Tinkerer
New User
May 23, 2020
4
2
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gustav

ramalhais

Trash Compacter
Nov 15, 2019
36
36
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

Trash Compacter
Nov 15, 2019
36
36
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

Trash Compacter
May 21, 2020
44
19
www.sitepoint.sk
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

Trash Compacter
Nov 15, 2019
36
36
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

King of Cable Management
Mar 10, 2019
655
510
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).
 
  • Like
Reactions: ramalhais

Danlopez1222

Average Stuffer
Apr 5, 2019
63
101
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

Too busy figuring out if I can to think if I shoul
Platinum Supporter
Bronze Supporter
M...M...M...M...Multi-Tier...Subscriber...
Apr 30, 2016
708
827
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

Average Stuffer
Apr 5, 2019
63
101
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Curiosity