stm said: I too need to update the BIOS as I get a Graphical Output Protocol error whenever I boot the PC. Has something to do with UEFI mode. PC will still boot after the error. As otheres have mentioned, the z490 board we have is different than the ones on the MSI USA website, but can we use that BIOS update? I am sure our rtx3070 will perform better with the newest BIOS update. Anyone that has updated the BIOS on this chinese version of the board please let us know which update you used.
TSMikeW said: @fracture96 @DMA Please download the motherboard driver package here: http://powerspec.com/support/files/psdriver_19s.zip There will be a mystic light folder in the package with an installer for the RGB software. That should work just fine for you. If you're having issues installing it, let us know and we can work through them with you.
fracture96 said: I am almost at the point of just buy a new mother board to fix the issue. I have other problems with this computer and am starting to feel like I got ripped off. I spent a lot of money on the G436, you would think they would put real parts in it. for example the motherboard, ram and the AIO do not exist when you search for them. I probably will have to spend 500 dollars+ just to fix microcenters mistake(or scam).
fracture96 said: downloading the motherboard driver package does not work for me it says dragon center not installed
TSMichaelB said: stm said: I too need to update the BIOS as I get a Graphical Output Protocol error whenever I boot the PC. Has something to do with UEFI mode. PC will still boot after the error. As otheres have mentioned, the z490 board we have is different than the ones on the MSI USA website, but can we use that BIOS update? I am sure our rtx3070 will perform better with the newest BIOS update. Anyone that has updated the BIOS on this chinese version of the board please let us know which update you used. Welcome to the community forum. I know a few of you in this thread have inquired about BIOS updates for the MSI Z490 Plus motherboard used in our PowerSpec G436 and have been unable to find the board on MSI's website. This is due to the fact that the board itself is not a "retail" motherboard. This board is sold exclusively to system integrators for mass production and doesn't have end-user support from MSI on their official support pages.With that said, your specific error is definitely a concern I would like to address as it should not be present with how the hardware is configured on this system. Typically you would only see this error if you are attempting to use a graphics card that lacked UEFI support on a BIOS with CSM Legacy OP ROM options disabled. Our BIOS has CSM disabled by default, meaning only UEFI devices are supported, however the RTX 3070 graphics card that ships within your system should function perfectly fine with this configuration. If you can provide any details as to when this error started occurring and any changes that may have taken place around the time the error started to appear, we can work together to get to the bottom of it.As for those of you looking for BIOS updates, I do not anticipate that a BIOS update will be available for this board unless one is required to address a specific security or compatibility issue with the board. For boards like these, we go through a very strict qualification process to make sure everything is working perfectly (USB ports are mapped correctly, secure boot functions properly with/without keys loaded, TPM functions, board/chipset features perform as advertised, etc) and BIOS updates can often break these functions inadvertently.With that said, I am happy to work with any of you to address any concerns you may have. Should a BIOS update be required to address any concerns, we will explore those options as they come about.
stm said: TSMichaelB said: stm said: I too need to update the BIOS as I get a Graphical Output Protocol error whenever I boot the PC. Has something to do with UEFI mode. PC will still boot after the error. As otheres have mentioned, the z490 board we have is different than the ones on the MSI USA website, but can we use that BIOS update? I am sure our rtx3070 will perform better with the newest BIOS update. Anyone that has updated the BIOS on this chinese version of the board please let us know which update you used. Welcome to the community forum. I know a few of you in this thread have inquired about BIOS updates for the MSI Z490 Plus motherboard used in our PowerSpec G436 and have been unable to find the board on MSI's website. This is due to the fact that the board itself is not a "retail" motherboard. This board is sold exclusively to system integrators for mass production and doesn't have end-user support from MSI on their official support pages.With that said, your specific error is definitely a concern I would like to address as it should not be present with how the hardware is configured on this system. Typically you would only see this error if you are attempting to use a graphics card that lacked UEFI support on a BIOS with CSM Legacy OP ROM options disabled. Our BIOS has CSM disabled by default, meaning only UEFI devices are supported, however the RTX 3070 graphics card that ships within your system should function perfectly fine with this configuration. If you can provide any details as to when this error started occurring and any changes that may have taken place around the time the error started to appear, we can work together to get to the bottom of it.As for those of you looking for BIOS updates, I do not anticipate that a BIOS update will be available for this board unless one is required to address a specific security or compatibility issue with the board. For boards like these, we go through a very strict qualification process to make sure everything is working perfectly (USB ports are mapped correctly, secure boot functions properly with/without keys loaded, TPM functions, board/chipset features perform as advertised, etc) and BIOS updates can often break these functions inadvertently.With that said, I am happy to work with any of you to address any concerns you may have. Should a BIOS update be required to address any concerns, we will explore those options as they come about. Thank you for the response. I first encountered the Graphical error when I rebooted my PC after owning it for a week. I did not experience it on the initial boot when I first purchased the system. I usually put the PC to sleep and then press the power button to wake. The very first time I rebooted I encountered the issue and have not been able to replicate it again. When it happened my monitor lost connection when the PC power came back on. I had to press and hold the power button multiple times to shut it down, turn it back on, and repeat. After doing this several times I was presented with the Graphical Error. If I encounter the issue again I will report back.
Kenjori said: I thought I'd report how things are going. I got the motherboard drivers and installed those and after that the mouse has been found on boot.Before I got things settled I did try the Dragon Center stuff. It was doing this odd thing where it would set some graphic preferences so everything was really dark. You could see it come up normal and then get darker as it started. I read around and that software doesn't seem to be perfect. I uninstalled that and just ran just the light program to control that. Since then, things have been great.I am just a customer, but I understand the frustration of having things not work. Do know that it can work just fine and the machine is really fast.
Jcwillis4 said: First, Thanks to the OP and to the MC folks who have been so active on this thread. It's great to see active support in a retail tech forum. I came here because I wanted to find out if I had the latest BIOS, and was glad I didn't end up downloading the wrong stuff since the Z490 gaming plus does have new BIOS from Dec and I didn't want to brick my rig. I don't recall ever owning a PC that didn't have BIOS updates at least once a year, so I find it strange MC doesn't expect there to be any. But I don't buy a lot of prebuilt, so that could be it.In the spirit of feedback and answering some questions others have posted in the thread, here's my experience. I bought this PC in late Nov, and I've had no issues with the setup out of the box. However, I also wanted to get Dragon Center working, modify/spruce up the PC, and try some gentle overclocking. I've run across a few things here and there.Dragon Center (working, but what a pain). Needed Dragon Center in order for Razer Chroma to connect to Mystic light. The first install stalled out on first load, I'm thinking because some of the components are already installed by the standalone Mystic Light software. Doing an uninstall did not remove all the Dragon Center files, SDK, or registry keys. You have to go uninstall the MSI SDK shown in the add/remove programs menu specifically in order to remove it. In my case, even that wasn't enough to get rid of all the files, so I had to use Revo uninstaller (free trial) to nuke the program by pointing it at the MSI\One Dragon Center folder and having it scan everything that refers to it (there was a lot). Once I did that, I installed the most recent Dragon Center (2.0.96.0) from MSI with zero issues. It does connect to Razer synapse as it's supposed to and works ok, but you have to play with it to get it just right (MSI/Razer clunky software, not the hardware). Dragon center also boosted my performance by hitting their Extreme Performance user scenario (just turn off software fan control in DC or it will run fans at 100% ALL THE TIME), which got me a few hundred extra points in the 3dMark benchmark.BIOS screen changed on me (not a big deal). I popped in an additional 32GB of ram (video editing and I needed some sweet sweet RGB) from GSkill, matching the speed and timings. The Ram works great, but the American Megatrends splash screen that loads during bios phase of startup has been replaced with a simple text that says PowerSpec ever since I put the Ram in. Don't think there's any real impact, but what's up with that?Feedback - The PC is really good, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. It's the first pre-built I've bought in 15 years simply because I couldn't get the card otherwise and I really needed an overall upgrade to my gaming rig. I had Cyberpunk in mind when I bought it, and it's handled it pretty well out of the box, and even better than that after some tuning via MSI afterburner. I've been running it at 4K with DLSS and RT on and I'm very happy. I've gotten it up to 14,275 points on the 3dMark TimeSpy benchmark, which seems really decent for the specs in this PC.Parts sheet. This thing is built to look like a gaming PC and specifically has one of the hardest to get graphics cards out there, plus it's water cooled with a GIANT CLEAR WINDOW on the side. A lot of the customers buying it are likely going to be enthusiast gamers who want to open the hood and start making changes, or at least learn about what they have. It would be super helpful to have a full spec sheet listed somewhere/in the box so we can refer to things like model numbers for the AIO or case fans if we want to upgrade. I've gone crazy adding RGB stuff just because, including some ram, LED strips, and I'm thinking about swapping the fans for something addressable. It would be great to know the details about what I have in here in a quick reference.Modular PSU. In the theme of making the looks better, I wanted to change out the rainbow power cables for something all white to let the lights pop, but the power supply isn't modular for the main CPU cables. It's such a simple upgrade that shows off your PC if the PSU is modular, and I'd highly recommend using fully modular PSU's in future gaming PS PCs.The case could be prettier. This one is the most boring of the Lian Li 205's in my opinion. The flat black front just makes me sad vs all the stuff going on behind it. The 205 mesh from the same line would have been so much prettier and shown off the case fans. I'm actually going to reach out to Lian Li to see if I can cheaply buy one of the mesh fronts for the 205 mesh if it will fit just to pretty up the front of the case. If not, my wife's vinyl cutting will come to the rescue.No bloatware! Thanks for not making this a bloatware monster. Other than the antivirus spammer (which I understand), it was a very clean install.Lastly, I've been primarily a Fry's shopper for years because MC was just a little bit farther away from wherever I happened to be living. Fry's is a ghost town these days and looking really sad, so I gave MC a shot for the first time in probably 10 years. I've been in the store probably 4 times since Nov because of the selection and the people. Terrific work, thanks!-John
So this may seem annoying but I believe it is relevant, I have the G436... No Driver or bios updates from the manufactures(Other then from nvidia)...? Thats crazy, and microcenter dosent think their will be any in the future.. So question wen the new 11th gen or for that matter the 12th gen la112 socket upgrade how will update the BIOs to accomidate new generations of CPU?
Hello, as Michael states above "I do not anticipate that a BIOS update will be available for this board unless one is required to address a specific security or compatibility issue with the board."
If there are indeed any updates when/if that time comes, information will be surely posted to here or on the Micro Center / PowerSpec websites about it.
OK, how about Resizable BAR Support for the included graphics card that supports it?
This is a good question.
I am going to quote myself from a different thread for a different model, but the context is quite similar:
This feature in and of itself would not warrant the request and requalification of a new BIOS as the feature cannot be utilized without also flashing the VBIOS of the video card which is currently unavailable at this time with no real ETA as to when we will actually see a VBIOS update. Some GPU board partners have started rolling them out (Gigabyte & Galax being the most notable) but so far no word from others yet.
The big concern with having to update a VBIOS to make use of this feature is the risk of bricking a card during the process. Unlike traditional motherboard BIOS updates, NVFlash does not have a "crash-less" feature. It's done live in the OS through a flashing utility, and anything that can interrupt the process will result in a bricked card. This wouldn't be too much of a risk for cards with dual-VBIOS support, but the cards we ship in the G436 do not have dual-VBIOS support. Once the VBIOS is flashed, it's done.
Lastly, I want to talk about the motherboard BIOS in general. Retail MSI motherboards have access to the M-Flash utility for BIOS flashing, but System Integrator boards with SI BIOS support does not use M-Flash natively. If we were to release a BIOS update for these boards, they would have to be flashed via EFI which can be incredibly risky. EFI flashing does not offer any write protection, meaning the BIOS will flash whatever is on the drive that you point it to. The risk of bricking the board increases exponentially in this scenario. I won't rule out the idea of releasing a BIOS update for aforementioned stability/security or compatibility issue with the board, but I do not anticipate releasing a BIOS update to accommodate new features in GPU technologies, especially when they are still ironing out the support for those technologies across other platforms.
I hope this answered your question. As always, if you have any additional questions, please let us know!
Hi, I have an RTX3070 and the Powerspec B745 with same "Chinese"MSI motherboard. I definetely want Resizable BAR Support and Nvidia has released an VBIOS firmware update for the RTX3070 Founders Edition. Please update your motherboard!
As stated previously, I do not anticipate going through qualification efforts for a new BIOS for this feature. I can understand the desire for it, but it's currently not in a state that is finalized across all vendors nor would it be feasible to introduce a flashing method for the cards we've included with our systems without the potential to brick the graphics cards, rendering them inoperable.
There is also the risk with performing a BIOS update on these particular boards, as it's not a simple M-Flash update. It requires performing an update with write protection disabled, which dramatically increases the likelihood of something going awry during the flashing procedure and resulting in a bricked board.
Our priority for our systems is to make sure that the systems are completely stable and operating as designed in their original hardware configuration. Releasing BIOS updates for third party hardware/software support sounds great, but the amount of time required to qualify and get these BIOS's up to our standards would hinder future product development, especially if it were done across all of our product models. BIOS qualification is not as simple as replacing the splash screen with our PowerSpec logo, it involves tedious testing that includes but isn't limited to:
That's just a very short list of what actually goes on during our BIOS qualification efforts, but it's required for every single BIOS update. It also ignores the quirks we run into sometimes that need to be addressed. Those can include RGB color assignment being completely backwards (red = green, green = red), XMP context menu not functioning at all (lets you load XMP, but saving settings doesn't actually do anything or commit any changes for XMP) or Secure Boot's menu prompting you to discard changes the moment you change the secure boot status. Some of these quirks actually find themselves in live BIOS updates which is why we often recommend not to update the BIOS unless absolutely necessary.
Make no mistake, I do understand the frustration of everyone here when it comes to this subject. It's an unfortunate side effect of prebuilt systems when it comes to future upgradability & expandability, but that is one of the benefits of custom built PC's that we often struggle to emulate in this industry. Many of our other PowerSpec models offer the option to use vendor-supplied BIOS updates (albeit without the benefits of our custom efforts as described above) but those systems do not use System Integrator boards. The G436 and B745 are unique as they use System Integrator boards designed for use in mass production and are not sold in retail stores like the boards we use in our other systems. This allows us to meet the demand for these systems when board supply is a bottleneck, but it does come at a cost of future support for those that would choose to use a vendor BIOS over our own, as there are no vendor BIOS updates available for this SI board that we are aware of.
While I cannot promise support for third party hardware & features with our system, I can promise that they will be free of defects and issues during the warranty period of the system. Even beyond that period, I can promise that we will be here to answer any questions and provide support for issues you encounter with your system that is preventing it from operating as it was originally shipped.
"Our priority for our systems is to make sure that the systems are completely stable and operating as designed in their original hardware configuration. Releasing BIOS updates for third party hardware/software support sounds great, but the amount of time required to qualify and get these BIOS's up to our standards would hinder future product development"
In other words: As a Power Spec buyer, you should be aware that we don't support anything beyond the original hardware and firmware configuration and that the motherboard, even though we advertise it as a mainstream motherboard, is in fact a somewhat inferior board and you cannot upgrade as if it were a retail board.
You should make your customers aware of this instead of somewhat clouding the issue by stating in the specs that this is a MSI Z490 Plus, which obviously it is, but we as a purchaser of this computer won't realize this until we get it home and sometime later wish to make use of the MSI bios update and by then realize our Z490 Plus is nothing like the ones on the manufacturers website.
Many, if not most of us only bought this system because we couldn't get our hands on a new generation GPU. I tried for six months to obtain an RTX3000 series card to build my own system and finally gave up and bought the pre-built G436. But I was very disappointed to find a non-retail MOBO that will not be able to take advantage of new features going forward.
I hear you loud and clear on this, and it's definitely feedback I'll be passing along to the rest of my team. The most difficult part of this hardware shortage in general is trying to figure out a way to get people the hardware they are looking for and figuring out where best to compromise in order to do so. Compromising on GPU/CPU performance is often a no-go as that's often the two components most directly involved with ones gaming performance, but compromising on the platform itself can also impact the future upgrade potential of those very components, so it can be a tedious balancing act to maintain. The G436 as configured allowed us to get a lot of these highly sought after cards into the hands of a lot of customers while providing excellent performance as a whole.
At the end of the day, customer feedback is our best shot at improving our products. It's why we take our product reviews seriously and why we enjoy interacting with you all on this forum. If there are areas that we still require improvement on for our PowerSpec systems, we would like to hear about them so that we can better improve our products going forward. Trust me, we'll be keeping an eye on these threads and we always take everything into consideration.
"Compromising on GPU/CPU performance is often a no-go"
Your statement above is in direct opposition to Micro Center's action. As by not updating the BIOS to take advantage of new GPU features you are in fact "Compromising on GPU performance".
Furthermore, I for one would have been more than happy to have paid the extra cost for a "Retail" board that received manufacturers support going forward than to have to depend on Micro Center alone for support, only to find out later that there is none. I doubt many of the buyers of Power Spec computers are even aware of this. I am sure it will only be a matter of time before I have to replace this inferior board with a retail version.
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