Cannot update BIOS

[maurora]

Hello forum,

I've spent a few hours on this today but cannot work it out.

I have an ASUS x99-E WS motherboard that was bought and built by SCAN computers back in 2014... It's still a pretty decent machine with 32GB of RAM and a 8core i7-5960X 3GHZ.

I decided to update the BIOS to the latest version but cannot seem to sort it.

I've formatted a USB stick as FAT32 and I've saved the latest X99-E-WS-ASUS-4001 BIOS from the ASUS website and I've renamed it to X99EWS.CAP as instructed.

First I tried to do it via F7 and the EZ option. I can see the USB drive but I can't select it.

I've tried the Flashdrive method - attached but the BIOS is still showing as 0801.

Any ideas? Should I select an older BIOS and do it in increments?

As a loss 😕

Any help would be much appreciated

Cheers

Andy

[maurora]

OK... I've managed to upgrade from 0801 to 1201, then to 1301 and then to 2009 but that's at the point that I cannot upgrade anymore... I've renamed the file to X99EWS.CAP and the EZ update no longer works. It sees the file, it allows me to choose a splash screen and then it shuts down, but does not restart and perform the update as it did before...  Is my motherboard too old to update past this point?

The software and website seems to indicate I can update to BIOS 4001

Cheers

Andy

[maurora]

OK so I sorted it... Anything pre 2009 BIOS would accept an image of 640x480 as a splash screen. Anything post 2009 won't. I've tried jpg png bmp 640x480 - 672x378 24 bit BMP and i've extracted the Asus RAW file from the .CAP file and had a look at that at around 878 x 868 pixels but couldn't get it to work.

Tried 3201 BIOS without splash screen image and it worked, so tried 3901 BIOS and it worked then finally updated to 4001 BIOS but sadly, without a custom splash screen...

[Jiaszzz_ASUS]

Hello @maurora 

Thank you for reaching out to us.
Given that your BIOS version 0801 is significantly earlier than the latest version 4001, we recommend updating incrementally in smaller steps to reach the latest version.

Additionally, please refer to page 3-66 of the X99-E WS user manual to ensure that all update steps and procedures align with the provided instructions.

Based on your latest update, it seems that you are currently on BIOS version 3901 and unable to upgrade to 4001. Aside from ensuring that all hardware firmware versions are also updated accordingly, you may try flashing the 4001 version multiple times.
If you are still unable to successfully update to the latest BIOS, it may be necessary to consider arranging for repair assistance through a service center.

Thank you.

[maurora]

Hello,

I managed to update to 4001... Just cannot do it with a custom splash screen for some reason.

Obviously it's an old board now, so no real issue, just wondered if there was a reason or a way around it.

Thanks

Andy