How to Know Which BIOS Version to Use?

[JudithWright]

My PC will not shutdown in Windows (it restarts automatically).

The fixes I have seen for this have not worked, and I read that updating the BIOS might be a solution.

--

I have the Ryzen 3 1200 CPU and Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO WIFI-CF motherboard.

 

How do I know which BIOS is the best / most efficient version?

I am worried about installing the wrong version and then having the entire system stop working...

 

Right now, I have BIOS Version F51.

Is it safe to install BIOS version F63c ?

[Needfuldoer]

Install the latest version the manufacturer has released specifically for your motherboard.

 

Unless it was just released, within the last week or two. In that case, wait a little bit to see if any game-breaking bugs get reported.

 

In general you shouldn't have to worry about skipping versions. That's more of an issue with servers and professional workstations that have out-of-band management controllers. Read the release notes for the BIOS version you plan to install though, just in case.

[Eigenvektor]

Unless the BIOS is marked as "alpha", "beta" or similar, or was released very recently, it is generally fine to update to it. There can be exceptions where newer BIOS version drop support for older CPUs, but if so that should be clearly marked on the download page.

 

Keep in mind that flashing a new BIOS is somewhat risky, if power in your area is unstable. In that case you might want to use a UPS to ensure power isn't lost while the update is ongoing.

[merco]

Keep in mind that sometimes there are specific instructions, like for example upgrading to a certain BIOS might need a different certain BIOS installed first. Usually the manufacturer will tell you right beside the bios as a note like this:

 

 

since yours is more recent it doesn't look like there is a problem since everything after F51 has no such note. 

[-rascal-]

51 minutes ago, JudithWright said:

My PC will not shutdown in Windows (it restarts automatically).

The fixes I have seen for this have not worked, and I read that updating the BIOS might be a solution.

--

I have the Ryzen 3 1200 CPU and Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO WIFI-CF motherboard.

 

How do I know which BIOS is the best / most efficient version?

I am worried about installing the wrong version and then having the entire system stop working...

 

Right now, I have BIOS Version F51.

Is it safe to install BIOS version F63c ?

 

Did this problem JUST started happening, or it's been happening for a long time now?

Double check to make sure the front panel connections are correct -- e.g. power switch and reset switch is hooked up correctly.

 

The latest version would be best, since the AGESA updates provides stability + compatibility updates for RAM, CPU, etc.

As you can see, BIOS version F62 (an newer) fixes a vulnerability problem, too.

 

 

47 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Install the latest version the manufacturer has released specifically for your motherboard.

 

Unless it was just released, within the last week or two. In that case, wait a little bit to see if any game-breaking bugs get reported.

 

In general you shouldn't have to worry about skipping versions. That's more of an issue with servers and professional workstations that have out-of-band management controllers. Read the release notes for the BIOS version you plan to install though, just in case.

 

Well, 300-series and *some* 400-series motherboards you need to be careful.

Some of the motherboards use a 128Mb (16MB) BIOS chip vs 256 Mb ( 32MB).

Those affected motherboards, beyond a certain BIOS version Ryzen 1000-series and 2000-series support was dropped, to support 3000-series and 5000-series.

The BIOS chip simply did not have enough flash to hold all the microcode for Ryzen 1000-series --> 5000-series, PLUS a UEFI BIOS interface.

However, in this case, the B450 Aorus Pro WiFi does not seem to have this issue.... at least, Gigabyte does not mention it.

 

From a different Ryzen 5000-series supported motherboard: