Josh Weston
New member
Just a quick guide to show how to easily update the BIOS file of your MSI Z77A Motherboard. There are features such as Live Update which advertise a simpler way of doing things, but I prefer to do it this way - less things to go wrong.
First you'll need a USB flash drive formatted to FAT-32. For those of you who don't know how to do that I'll cover that too.
With the flash drive inserted navigate to the Start menu. Right click the 'Computer' option on the right hand side and click 'Manage'.
Now you're in Computer Management you'll see a 'Storage' option on the left hand side. Under Storage there's another option called 'Disk Management' - click on that.
Your flash drive should being showing by now. You can see that there's a column called 'File System' which tells you what your drives are formatted to. In this case, my flash drive, 'Wadup, yo.', is NTFS - no good at all.
Right click the flash rive and click 'Format'.
A window pops up with the options to rename your new volume, choose its format, and do some other stuff that doesn't really make a difference.
Name it what you wish, set the File System to FAT-32, leave the Allocation Unit Size to default (unless you know better than I do), and make sure it's going to be a quick format.
Press OK.
Don't format your drive if it has loads of important stuff on it. I'll only laugh at you.
Bingo. FAT-32 all day, er'day.
Find the downloaded BIOS files (you should have done this already) and make sure they're unzipped. Go into the folder and select the file with .A80, or similar, as its extension. This is not the file which is labelled a Text Document or an Application.
Copy that file and paste it onto your flash drive. No extra folders are needed, but they don't seem to hinder anything either. This means that if your flash drive was already FAT-32 and you have a load of work on there, there's no need to get rid of everything. Just pop it on and you'll be able to find it in the UEFI later.
Now, with the file successfully placed on your flash drive, restart your system and mash the Delete key to enter the UEFI.
You should see a screen looking mighty similar to this.
On the right hand side there's a tile labelled UTILITIES - click on that.
Click on M - Flash.
Click on Update BIOS.
Select one file to update BIOS.
The new window shall display the name of your flash drive. Double click.
And there's the BIOS file that we put on the flash drive earlier. Double click that and let it Flash itself.
Sorted.
Note:
1) Flashing your BIOS will get rid of any preconfigured settings that you had. This includes overclocks, fan profiles, and RAID settings. After you've flashed the BIOS you'll need to set everything straight.
2) Flashing your BIOS has got a lot easier over the years, but things can still go wrong. As the BIOS is flashing itself do NOT turn off your computer for whatever reason.
3) This one's a new one to me, as I've only just discovered it. Do NOT attempt to take a screenshot of the UEFI as the BIOS is flashing. It freezes everything and you give yourself a small heart attack.
Hope this helps some of you.
First you'll need a USB flash drive formatted to FAT-32. For those of you who don't know how to do that I'll cover that too.
With the flash drive inserted navigate to the Start menu. Right click the 'Computer' option on the right hand side and click 'Manage'.
Now you're in Computer Management you'll see a 'Storage' option on the left hand side. Under Storage there's another option called 'Disk Management' - click on that.
Your flash drive should being showing by now. You can see that there's a column called 'File System' which tells you what your drives are formatted to. In this case, my flash drive, 'Wadup, yo.', is NTFS - no good at all.
Right click the flash rive and click 'Format'.
A window pops up with the options to rename your new volume, choose its format, and do some other stuff that doesn't really make a difference.
Name it what you wish, set the File System to FAT-32, leave the Allocation Unit Size to default (unless you know better than I do), and make sure it's going to be a quick format.
Press OK.
Don't format your drive if it has loads of important stuff on it. I'll only laugh at you.
Bingo. FAT-32 all day, er'day.
Find the downloaded BIOS files (you should have done this already) and make sure they're unzipped. Go into the folder and select the file with .A80, or similar, as its extension. This is not the file which is labelled a Text Document or an Application.
Copy that file and paste it onto your flash drive. No extra folders are needed, but they don't seem to hinder anything either. This means that if your flash drive was already FAT-32 and you have a load of work on there, there's no need to get rid of everything. Just pop it on and you'll be able to find it in the UEFI later.
Now, with the file successfully placed on your flash drive, restart your system and mash the Delete key to enter the UEFI.
You should see a screen looking mighty similar to this.
On the right hand side there's a tile labelled UTILITIES - click on that.
Click on M - Flash.
Click on Update BIOS.
Select one file to update BIOS.
The new window shall display the name of your flash drive. Double click.
And there's the BIOS file that we put on the flash drive earlier. Double click that and let it Flash itself.
Sorted.
Note:
1) Flashing your BIOS will get rid of any preconfigured settings that you had. This includes overclocks, fan profiles, and RAID settings. After you've flashed the BIOS you'll need to set everything straight.
2) Flashing your BIOS has got a lot easier over the years, but things can still go wrong. As the BIOS is flashing itself do NOT turn off your computer for whatever reason.
3) This one's a new one to me, as I've only just discovered it. Do NOT attempt to take a screenshot of the UEFI as the BIOS is flashing. It freezes everything and you give yourself a small heart attack.
Hope this helps some of you.
