BIOS Update - Blank Screen

[HardDrinkingPope]

Gigabyte ab350m Gaming 3

Ryzen 1400 (upgrading to 5800X3D)

8Gb x4  3200 RAM

Intel NVME SSD boot drive

Windows 10  64bit

 

In order to upgrade to the 5800X3D, I needed to flash the BIOS, which I hadn't updated at all yet, due to risk vs reward. Perhaps wisely, because this has been a nightmare.

 

My current attempt - 

Flashed BIOS to v25, then to v31 (prerequisite for any version beyond that). Ran the Gigabyte EC FW tool (which I understand to ensure dual-channel RAM functionality with newer BIOS versions. I don't know how to verify that it did what it was supposed to, but it appeared to be successful. Then, flashed BIOS to v51 (most current version). This is the recommended procedure as I understand it. Here is where the issue appeared. The BIOS flashing to v51i was completed (or very nearly completed?) when the screen went blank. Not off, just showing black. It's worth saying that my machine is powered through a solid PSU unit, so there was no interruption of power or anything. 

 

Reading the experiences of others, I learned that sometimes any of these BIOS versions will sometimes not recognize the NVME boot drive, or will have some surprise RAM incompatibility, etc. So I have tried switching my monitor to the mobo HDMI port, removing the NVME drive, booting from a Windows repair drive, removing one or more sticks of RAM, even clearing the CMOS. No progress with any of these methods. Sure, it's possible that the mobo is bricked, but the examples I've found from so many others gives me reason to believe that there is likely to be some kind of glitch or incompatibility that, once resolved, would put me back on track. Some reported that rolling back the BIOS version is what helped them, but I confess I have no idea how to do that without visuals, since this mobo doesn't have a handy BIOS button (which I regret, but I was pretty poor when I first built this thing many years ago). I know that the 5800X3D is supported by two versions previous (v51g) to the current, so if I can roll back and update to one of those, there is a chance one of those may not cause the issue I'm currently having (since neither v25 or v31 cause it either). Thoughts? I'm really at the end of my knowledge here, and I'm tempted to just buy a b550m mobo and take a hammer to the old ab350m, Office Space style. 

[Sjaakie]

Did you already install the 5800x3d? Could be that the new bios dropped support for the 1400.

[HardDrinkingPope]

4 minutes ago, Sjaakie said:

Did you already install the 5800x3d? Could be that the new bios dropped support for the 1400.

Oh, that's a really good thought, which I hadn't considered. I'll look into that. I haven't even taken the 5800X3D out of the package yet, because enough has gone wrong in this process so far that I'm taking zero chances. Thanks for giving me one more thing to try, and the hope that comes with it. 

[HardDrinkingPope]

On 1/7/2024 at 11:22 AM, Sjaakie said:

Did you already install the 5800x3d? Could be that the new bios dropped support for the 1400.

The documentation seems to say that the new version didn't drop support for anything. But I went ahead and tried this, with no success. Thanks for your thoughts! It gave me a little hope.