Just updated my BIOS and I'm worried....

tonythenottiger · May 13, 2023

A few weeks ago I decided to jump on the microcenter combo deal for a 7700X + 32g RAM + MSI B650P WIFI. I know it seems to be mostly the X3D chips having overvolting issues, but I seem to recall Steve (GN) in his first or second video saying it may not be limited to them? So to be safe I just updated my BIOS from the release v1.4 to beta v1.53 (released May 12)

Here's the problem: before updating, I was getting ~1.25-1.3v in the BIOS, but after updating and booting to Windows, HWinfo was reading nearly 1.5v on some cores, and around or over 1.3 on most of the other voltage numbers. I've seen some sources, including the original AMD marketing, claim the chip can handle up to 1.475v, but I was still nervous, so I rebooted to BIOS to undervolt. I think this was the right move, because the BIOS was still showing 1.3v+ and froze up before I could do much. I shut down the computer and haven't turned it on since (why I don't have screenshots or more accurate numbers). I don't even have EXPO turned on, but after seeing those high voltages and the BIOS crashing, I'm not sure of the safest way to continue. I thought about contacting MSI directly but I refuse to make an account on their site just to get customer service. Any recommendations?

Edited May 13, 2023 by tonythenottiger
grammar

RONOTHAN## · May 13, 2023

9 minutes ago, tonythenottiger said:

in his first or second video saying it may not be limited to them?

It isn't.

10 minutes ago, tonythenottiger said:

HWinfo was reading nearly 1.5v on some cores, and around or over 1.3 on most of the other voltage numbers.

That should be safe, the CPU VCore isn't what is killing the CPUs, it's the VSOC rail that's dangerous and what the new BIOSes are trying to limit. The core voltage hasn't been shown to damage the CPU by itself. The only time the voltage damages the CPU is after the SOC rail blows up the CPU, the VCore rail will start dumping current into the CPU and eventually overheat and blow up the substrate. The CPU is already dead by that point, only difference is it might kill the motherboard as well, and personally I wouldn't trust a motherboard where the CPU died in it no matter what so I wouldn't say it's that big a deal.

The BIOS just randomly crashing is more than likely because it's a beta release and hasn't had all the kinks worked out of it yet (these hot fix BIOSes were rushed out very quickly and didn't have the chance to be fully beta tested, hence why the stability on them is questionable). I'd get it you wanted to roll back to the latest non-beta BIOS and manually undervolt the SOC, that might be the best option, though you could just run the new BIOS as is and update the BIOS as new ones come out. Both are valid options and it depends on you which you think is better. I'd probably keep running the beta out of laziness (plus my experience with beta MSI BIOSes has been pretty good in the past) until a newer non-beta BIOS comes out, but it's up to you which you want to do.