Do I need to Flash Bios to get to work and does a 24 pin connector really need all 24 pins?

[surfnoob]

Hello, 

 

First time building a PC and shucks perhaps didn't go with an easy one in an itx build.  Nonetheless the included power supply and cables at the ready was appealing, not to mention the design of the In Win B1.  While I was connecting all the cables up using the manuals and videos I came across what seemed a bit odd.  The 24-pin connector has one of the metal pins missing or gone completely.  Is this normal?  When it came to start, after pushing the ON button I get the front led to light and the fans to run.  Only problem is the BIOS screen doesn't come on and I cannot use the ON switch to turn the power OFF so have to unplug from the wall outlet.  I thought perhaps it might be the M.2 SSD as it doesn't seem to fit flush horizontally when installed even though the connection into the motherboard seems good and this allows the heat sink to rest on top.  Yet I re-installed on the back of the motherboard and the startup issue persists.  

 

Here's my setup:

AMD Ryzen 7 5700G 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor

Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard

TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory

Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive

In Win B1 Mini ITX Desktop Case w/200 W Power Supply

 

I plan on picking up a USB drive this week to update/Flash the Bios to F13 as says the motherboard will need this to recognize the CPU.  However, the motherboard claims to be able to flash the Bios without need for CPU, RAM, or GPU installed.  Thus shouldn't the BIOS screen come on my Dell peripheral even if it isn't updated yet to the latest version?

 

Would be grateful for any assistance possible,

Thanks

 

[RONOTHAN##]

6 minutes ago, surfnoob said:

The 24-pin connector has one of the metal pins missing or gone completely.  Is this normal?

Yeah, that's normal. That pin is missing on all power supplies I've used, and all the ATX pinouts I've found have it listed as N/C (no connection). 

 

8 minutes ago, surfnoob said:

However, the motherboard claims to be able to flash the Bios without need for CPU, RAM, or GPU installed.  Thus shouldn't the BIOS screen come on my Dell peripheral even if it isn't updated yet to the latest version?

No. The way the BIOS flash procedure works is that you have to setup the flash drive in a very specific way, then have then press a button on the motherboard that will cause the board to read that very specific place for the BIOS file and then flash that file. The system will not boot up or show a screen during any part of that process. 

 

10 minutes ago, surfnoob said:

I plan on picking up a USB drive this week to update/Flash the Bios to F13 as says the motherboard will need this to recognize the CPU.

Just saying, it's F13 and later that will work, not just F13. I'd jump straight to the latest BIOS rather than try and update to the minimum supported BIOS. 

 

 

A BIOS update would be my first step for troubleshooting after verifying all power connections were made properly. If you're going to be buying a USB drive specifically for updating the BIOS, I would suggest getting the worst USB drive you can possible find (small capacity, USB 2.0 or slower speeds, etc.) as higher capacity and higher speed drives can give issues with some BIOS Flashback implementations. Some motherboards are pickier than others, but these old drives always work while my more modern drives only work sometimes (unfortunately I haven't had to use Gigabyte's modern BIOS Flashback setup, so can't tell you how picky it is, but it's worth keeping in mind). 

[GuiltySpark_]

In addition to the above: 

 

 

[mariushm]

The missing pin/wire was for -5v which is no longer used by modern computers.  There's also a -12v wire which may as well be missing, as it's only used by serial ports (if your motherboard doesn't have headers for serial ports you can be sure that voltage isn't used)

 

-5v was needed by very old memory sticks (before SDram) and by some logic chips up to maybe 386 time.

 

 

[surfnoob]

Thanks for all the help.  Wheehh I was really worried about the 24-pin connector.    Really good to know.  

 

Hoping Gigabyte is the exception to your experience with flashing BIOS as didn't see the replies till today and already ordered 2 3.0 flash drives.  Crossing fingers.