ASRock issues BIOS update to address Ryzen 9 9800X3D failures, warns of 'misinformation' about failures

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

ASRock has issued a BIOS update for its AM5 Motherboards, aiming to resolve "CPU boot issues" with systems using the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor. ASRock's 3.20 beta BIOS has been issued to resolve a "minority proportion" of affected boards. The company also warned that "misinformation is spreading" about the reported failures.

In a news release shared by ASRock, the manufacturer states that the new beta BIOS update was issued in response to "reports on Reddit from users experiencing unexpected boot issues and error codes when using ASRock AM5 motherboards paired with minority proportion of AMD Ryzen™ 9000 series processors".

The statement issued by ASRock only specifies error codes and boot issues, not wholesale CPU failures.

Problems surfaced yesterday when a megathread on the ASRock subreddit revealed that users were faced with seemingly dead 9800X3D CPUs when placed in AM5-based ASRock motherboards. The thread detailed over 40 reports of the CPU seemingly giving up the ghost, with 32 reports stating that failures occurred on ASRock motherboards.

One fix that users found was to roll back to an older ASRock BIOS if they were experiencing issues. Reports claimed that some chips were failing during boot, or after several weeks of functioning normally.

9800X3D Hero — Reports affect the Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU exclusively. (Image credit: AMD)

Other users RMA'd non-functional CPUs, and put them back into an affected ASRock motherboard, and the system booted successfully, indicating that there may be something deeper going on.

ASRock Japan disclosed further details in in a post on X, claiming the CPUs themselves were not failing, but that they were tied to memory issues.

An excerpt from the Japanese language social media post (translated via DeepL) reads: "I will issue an official release with more details later, but I would like to say a few words since misinformation is spreading! As it turns out, it is not broken. It is an issue of some CPUs not booting due to memory compatibility issues."

The BIOS revision that ASRock was using may have caused issues with specific memory configurations. This could be why we did not see all users reporting issues with ASRock motherboards.

It is possible that the 3.20 beta BIOS update could potentially resolve these issues on the ASRock motherboards. However, it remains to be seen just how the new beta BIOS update will impact 9800X3D users.

Tom's Hardware has reached out to ASRock for further comment.

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Sayem Ahmed is the Subscription Editor at Tom's Hardware. He covers a broad range of deep dives into hardware both new and old, including the CPUs, GPUs, and everything else that uses a semiconductor.

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12 Comments Comment from the forums

bolweval

Remember when computer hardware companies used to do in-house beta testing?
Reply
txfeinbergs

bolweval said:
Remember when computer hardware companies used to do in-house beta testing?
The problem is that things are so complex now and power hungry that we are pushing the bounds of what a consumer PC can handle (seriously 1000 watt power supplies required now). Honestly, if you get a good solid PC, stick with it as long as you can since you might end up with a really fast dud instead.
Reply
derekullo

txfeinbergs said:
The problem is that things are so complex now and power hungry that we are pushing the bounds of what a consumer PC can handle (seriously 1000 watt power supplies required now). Honestly, if you get a good solid PC, stick with it as long as you can since you might end up with a really fast dud instead.
I'd actually say the opposite.
Upgrade every 6-8 years.
Eventually every part will fail.
I'd rather do a planned replacement rather than have an "O Crap boot device not found" moment.

Data backups are important, but a failed hard drive/ssd still leaves you with a hopefully full backup on an external drive and a computer that won't boot.

This also lets you keep your old computer as a functional backup computer in case something happens to the new one.
Reply
Alex/AT

If "dead CPU" boots with older BIOS, it's not "dead CPU". So ASROCK may be right, we'll see.
Reply
rambo919

derekullo said:
I'd actually say the opposite.
You would be surprised how long hardware can last if you don't cheap out, take care of it and don't overclock it.

The only internal hardware that have ever actually failed me is storage, PSU's and cheap motherboards. Never ever give in and get a cheap motherboard they ALWAYS give problems eventually.
Reply
rambo919

Memory issues are actually much more common it seems to me than they used to be..... unless I am forgetting due to past trauma or something you never needed to do a RAM-shuffle to get to the mobo properly recognizing it.

In the IDE days there was the HDD-shuffle though, damn that was annoying.
Reply
Loadedaxe

rambo919 said:
You would be surprised how long hardware can last if you don't cheap out, take care of it and don't overclock it.

The only internal hardware that have ever actually failed me is storage, PSU's and cheap motherboards. Never ever give in and get a cheap motherboard they ALWAYS give problems eventually.
and Power Supply (never cheap on PSU or MB)
I agree, if you do your research when you buy your parts, your PC can and will last a long time. I still have my old 6700k system from 2015, still works and boots with Windows 11 just fine. Its a second PC for my grandkids to play on while they visit.

On topic, anecdotal yes, but I used Asrock once, never will again.
Reply
rambo919

Loadedaxe said:
and Power Supply
In theory yes but I have never been able to afford anything other than noname PSU's so I really won't be able to tell you the difference personally.... and because I never had top of the line GPU's or CPU's it's never been an issue. But then also it helps to overbuy. With my 700W current PSU I never draw more from the socket than 300W.... which I only found out when I got a killawatt to test it myself.
Reply
rambo919

Loadedaxe said:
On topic, anecdotal yes, but I used Asrock once, never will again.
My first experience with Asrock was when I recently got one for a family member (5700X3D), the only complaint is the arrow on the socket was so tiny I had to doublecheck with the manual to make sure I actually was seating the CPU correctly. Not really a common brand in my country until recently but the other boards available at the price point was terrible.
Reply
Loadedaxe

rambo919 said:
In theory yes but I have never been able to afford anything other than noname PSU's so I really won't be able to tell you the difference personally.... and because I never had top of the line GPU's or CPU's it's never been an issue. But then also it helps to overbuy. With my 700W current PSU I never draw more from the socket than 300W.... which I only found out when I got a killawatt to test it myself.
Yep, me too. Mine at the wall never pulls more than 390W under load, and PSUs work best at 40-50% load.
Reply

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