Subject: ASRock X99-WS BIOS Upgrade to 3.x Fails
Posted: 15 Sep 2016 at 6:37am
Thanks very much for the comprehensive post Parsec.
Yes, there is a lot of info there as I tried to explain allof the steps that I went through. The consistent thing I found is that 3.10, 3.20,3.30 (not Beta) all failed to boot Windows Server 2012R2. I didn't know aboutIntel IME. I checked and I have version 10.0.25.1048 installed, not the version11.0.4.1186 which you point out is necessary. So, from your explanation and myobservation that the failures I see are all in the startup of Windows, thissounds like a good explanation to me.
It does leave me with a further question though, before I proceedwith it. How can I boot the Windows installer ISOs after going to 3.x? I don't wantto be unable to boot the setup ISO. Is it possible perhaps to supply the IMEdriver using the "F6" option during install that is usually used for additional RAIDdrivers? Note that I did try booting WindowsServer 2016TP4 with one of these 3.x UEFIs and that didn't work either, so theupcoming 2016 Server distro might not boot for me if I update BIOS to 3.x.
The way you describe the release process for the new CPUs and UEFI/BIOS support sounds like a nightmare. I guess this would result in a lot of mobos being RMA'd if they can't boot with the latest CPUs on sale at any given time. Naturally the mobos on sale would have been produced a while ago and have old BIOS. Mine is not very old and has a 1.30 version sticker.
ANyway, my system is running now on 2.10 UEFI, although there are acouple of niggles*. I'm pleased to say the NVMe SSD is working (as a data drive) thanks to yourhelp 
. I intend to make it boot drive later. Also I do have the Xeon Phi working! That needed not only the "4Gb" PCIe option enabled, but also the sub menu of this (something about a patch/fix).Without the latter the system would lockup or immediately blue-screen Windows. Thewhole system takes a long time to shutdown and boot now.. perhaps this as goodas it will get.. early days.
* USB keyboard does not always initialise duringstartup, preventing F2, F11 etc
* Boot order was being corrupted. Seems to be OKnow after resetting CMOS.
Edited by CMG - 21 hours 51 minutes ago at 6:57am