Holy fuck, I don't think we appreciate just how fucked software development is right now. Today I decided to update my BIOS, because last week Gigabyte dropped a new BIOS update and I've been running on an unstable beta BIOS since the Ryzen 5000 launch.
By now I figured it would be safe. BIOS update went well, system rebooted but something was off.... my CPU fans had stopped spinning and the AIO pump had stopped too
Gigabyte software is kinda messy, so first I figured that perhaps I needed to update the Aorus Engine which controls the fan speeds and pump in Windows. I noticed that the fans would start when I booted but stopped in Windows, so that made sense.
I installed another CPU temp monitor... 50 C... ok, that's doable. Let's update the Aorus Engine.
It took 30 minutes.... and every minute the CPU went up 1 C... as a sort of ticking timebomb. Phew, that's done. Rebooted the PC and... nothing. No spinning, CPU idle at 60 C by now.
Oof yikes, this was getting dangerous. When your CPU hits 120+ C it's bye bye and you better start calling the fire brigade.
Removed the panels put it on its side, Loaded up the BIOS. CPU FAN FAILURE..... ooh shit. SYS FAN failure... oooooooh shit...
Manual controls didn't work, removing some HDD's and other devices to save some power didn't work.... CPU idle at 80C... 90C.... 100C.... FUCK
Pulled out an old 10 year old university laptop, downloaded another BIOS and put in on an USB. Apparently they had pulled this one but not for every region.
Some guy on Tweaktown has access to pretty much all Gigabyte BIOS versions and beta's. As I knew F10 was also broken and I had just tried F11... F11p seemed to be the best fit.
But stressing the CPU too much without cooling would obviously melt it....
Removed the panels, put 2 fans next to the PC. Opened all the windows, turned off any heating in the room. Ambient temperature 5 C... ok, let's do this.
Flashed it... took forever... PC rebooted, update bar slowly filled up... no CPU fan activity. Update done, another reboot.
bzzzzuuuuwwwwwmmmmmm. Back in business with a more stable BIOS and a mild heart attack.