Issues with 5600X upgrades
Issues with 5600X upgrades
Hi, four years ago I assembled a mid-range gaming setup with plans to upgrade as new components came out. Then COVID hit, and MSI B450 Tomahawk Max paired with AMD 2600X, G-Skill FlareX RAM, 3200NVIDIA GTX 1070 Ti, Gigabyte P650B power supply, WD Blue 1TB SSD, and a WD Black 2TB HDD connected via HDMI for couch gaming. Windows 10 was fully updated. A few years later, it still works well for my games—Fallout 3, NV, 4, Skyrim, Enderal, Dragon Age, and more. Recently, I noticed the 5600X dropped below $200 on Newegg (about $198), so I bought one. I updated the BIOS to version 7C02v3B, which seemed stable. Booting into BIOS worked without issues, and running with the 2600X was smooth. Then I installed the 5600X, but something strange happened: after booting, the BIOS screen shifted to a smaller 9x9 layout instead of the usual 16x9, and it displayed a mix of English, Japanese (Chinese?), and Spanish text. If I don’t exit within roughly 30 seconds, the system freezes. Once I exited, I saw the MSI Boot Screen, Windows loaded, then a BSOD appeared (“unreadable boot device”). After restarting, I went through the recovery process, ran “Fix Boot,” but it reported an error and refused to see the drive. Eventually, I removed the 5600X and swapped in the 2600X. After resetting the BIOS, it worked—displayed correctly and started Windows without issues. Still confused. When I tried booting from a Live Linux USB (Lubuntu 16.04), it worked fine and seems stable. Now I’m trying to figure out what’s going on: is it the CPU? Should I give up and return the unit? Is the BIOS corrupted? It flashed without problems and performed okay with the 2600X. Since flashing can be risky, I’d rather avoid bricking the board by reflashing. If I decide to reflash, should I reinstall the 2600X? Would a fresh Windows installation help? I was planning a system refresh anyway, but the odd BIOS behavior is raising concerns. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I’d go ahead and replace it with the previous chip. It might be a good idea to reinstall Windows if you’re experiencing issues.
Thanks for the feedback. Here’s a revised version of your notes:
The system has been updated to the 2600X and still starts in BIOS and Windows without problems. The BIOS was re-flashed to 7C02v3B, and the process completed successfully, running about 10 minutes longer than before. After that, it booted into BIOS and then Windows smoothly. I also reinstalled the 5600X, which reset everything and improved performance—boot time dropped from over 10 minutes to under 5 minutes.
During the process, I encountered some issues:
- Removing the CMOS battery and waiting 10 minutes before replacing it caused a boot delay.
- After resetting, the system booted into BIOS but remained unresponsive for a short time, requiring a forced shutdown.
- When trying to boot into Windows, it failed initially, returning to the BIOS screen.
Additional observations:
- Initially, the BIOS defaulted to CSM/UEFI with Legacy mode. Switching to UEFI caused boot failure. Resetting BIOS resolved the issue.
- I’m considering reformatting and reinstalling Windows in UEFI mode, as it seems more stable.
- Setting up Secure Boot in Legacy mode isn’t possible, so Windows 11 won’t work.
- There’s a concern about potential motherboard issues with certain CPUs, especially the 5000 series.
Would it be worth trying a different BIOS version? From what I understand, updates after 7C02v3B often introduce bugs. Or could the CSM problem be the main cause of the boot distortion and lockup?
I might consider one of the earlier versions if you're willing to roll back. UEFI should work since Windows 10 relies on it. If you set up Windows using CSM and it doesn't start properly, the problem might lie there. I'd revert to a simpler BIOS, reinstall from a USB with UEFI turned on, and continue from there.
Thanks for your patience. I updated to 7C02v3A, which seems to be the first BIOS for this board that supports 5000-series CPUs—though I might be mistaken. The flashing went smoothly with the 2600X. Then things got more complicated. I was planning a clean Windows 10 install in UEFI mode. If I switch to UEFI, the system won’t boot, even though I have a brand-new NVMe M.2 drive and a Windows installer USB. It just shows a black screen. I thought it might be a graphics card problem because the LEDs on the board were acting up, so I tried using a 660ti instead, which at least displayed a message (the card doesn’t support GOP, so switching to CSM mode helped). I suspect the 1070ti is facing the same issue but isn’t showing the error screen. Since I bought it used, I’m wondering if a previous owner installed a custom BIOS or if something corrupted it. I haven’t flashed any video BIOS myself, so I need to research that. This might also explain why my 5600X is having issues. It seems the 2600X worked fine before, but now it’s not. Ultimately, I’m trying to figure out how to reflash the 1070ti without damaging it. Ugh, this wasn’t supposed to be a hassle.
Updated #3: ReFlashed video bios on 1070ti. It seems to work now, and the card still operates. According to NVFlash, it already had identical bios as the one I obtained from Tech PowerUp. No changes detected; it still restarts to a black screen after switching to UEFI mode, with no video output. The warning message doesn’t appear. It looks like either the 1070ti has issues in UEFI mode or the MSI Tomahawk Max is interfering with reading the GOP info in the bios. Possibly something else could be causing the 5600X problems too. Or it might just be unrelated noise. I’ll try another run with the 5600X and downgraded motherboard bios after installing fresh Windows 10 in CSM mode (no option). If that fails, I might be stuck with a 2600X setup. I could end up needing a new motherboard if that’s the case. Hate having to replace the main board just to use the 5600X.
Needed a break for some time. Last update: no changes with 5600X and downgraded motherboard BIOS. Still experiencing issues with the BIOS display. Unable to perform any advanced BIOS tweaks. In a panic, upgraded to 7C02v3E, which is the latest version (May 2022). This wasn’t ideal—it won’t work with either the 2600X or 5600X. I can’t access M-Flash to revert changes, and Flashback won’t function. It seems the BIOS isn’t supporting downgrades. I discovered a BIOS flashing tool on the MSI forum. Running it downgraded me to 7C02v39—the first BIOS that supports the 5000 series on the B450 Tomahawk Max. Worse, with the 5600X there’s no BIOS access at all. It looks like something is faulty—probably the 5600X, the motherboard, or the 1070ti. I tested four different BIOS versions, none worked properly. Eventually, I flashed to 7C02vB. Now I can make small tweaks in basic mode only (switching modes lock bios after seconds), and I change one thing at a time, saving and rebooting. Oddly enough, it now shows as UEFI instead of CSM, but since I can’t access the advanced settings, I’m unsure what’s wrong. I’ll try Ryzen Master to see if it’s in Precision Boost mode. At least XMP is active, keeping memory at 3200, not 2100. I plan to test it with the 5600X and see how it performs. If problems arise, I’ll revert to the 2600X. Without buying a new motherboard or GPU, or sending the rig to a repair shop, figuring out the problem feels impossible.
Consider turning on the CMOS on your board without caring about the BIOS you have installed. It’s best to use the newest BIOS and then apply a jumper to reset your CMOS before restarting your computer. I know you can restore to the original settings in your BIOS, but that won’t match clearing the BIOS completely with a jumper. Try it. The following step involves using just one RAM stick; I don’t think your memory modules are the issue. Another tip is to verify you’re running the right BIOS—this refers to the exact motherboard version you have. You might have installed a BIOS for a different board.
He seems to refer to clear CMOS rather than flashing, as updating BIOS usually involves flashing instead of changing settings