New "Windows 11 ready" BIOS updates for Z590 boards

citay

citay

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MSI has released a new BIOS for the Z590 mainboards which turns on the firmware TPM / fTPM (called PTT on Intel boards) by default:

MSI_SnapShot_10 TPM.png


Thus, one only has to enable Secure Boot to make the system fully Windows 11 ready. https://www.msi.com/blog/Windows-11-guidance
But Windows 11 can be installed even with Secure Boot off.
I think they couldn't turn on Secure Boot by default, because there is an extra step required upon enabling it, and it also depends on the other hardware such as the graphics card.

The new BIOS also includes the Intel microcode update revision 44 (with an 11th gen CPU), which can be checked in HWinfo64 under System Summary:

Microcode.png


This can improve things like boosting behaviour or other CPU-related functions. It's basically a code update for the CPU.

Check your board's MSI support site for the newest BIOS from September with the following changelog:
- Windows 11 Supported.
- Improved compatibility for Intel Thunderbolt devices.
Click to expand...

Update how-to:
1) Get the latest BIOS. It's the topmost one on the MSI support page for your board.
2) Extract the file and you will get a text file and the BIOS file. Put the BIOS file into the root folder of a USB stick/drive.
3) Enter the BIOS by pressing DEL during boot, go to "M-FLASH" in the BIOS.
4) Once M-Flash (the updater) is loaded, it will show a list of your drives. Select the USB stick and select the previously extracted BIOS file on there.
5) It will ask for confirmation and then update the BIOS. It's fully automatic from there, takes about two minutes.
 
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mnemonic said:
You are right, something is off with the bios fan settings, the values don't seem to correlate, i think the graph lines are reversed where temp should be fan speed percentage and vice versa.
Click to expand...
My concern was with the first two points changing to unrealistic values of 0C and 20C, instead of where those points used to be which was around 40C and 55C. I have no idea if maybe they are working on what had been reported about how CPU fan ramp up time could total something more like 10 seconds rather than one-tenth second.

As you describe, it can be confusing to look at the axis. When just looking at it, the vertical axis seems to be meant for the graphing of sensor temperature (left side) and fan RPM (right side), with a curve over the center with implied relationship to those axis (until you study it closely). Only when you click on a point does the curve get proper axis where the temperature is along the horizontal and the fan speed percentage is along the vertical. No idea why they choose such inconsistent UI, but you can see it in the picture(s) in citay's fan curve guide.
 
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My fan graph does not have a left and right but instead a vertical for temps and a horizontal for the rpm's. And they do appear wrong, since vertical is indicated as temp but when adjusting it turns out to be rpm and the horizontal became temp instead of the indicated RPM. I have not even noticed this before (previous bios) where it seemed to be the correct way around.
Doesn't matter much to me since i set them equal at each point anyway, 25% at 25 degrees, 50% @ 50 degrees and so on.
 
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mnemonic said:
My fan graph does not have a left and right but instead a vertical for temps and a horizontal for the rpm's. And they do appear wrong, since vertical is indicated as temp but when adjusting it turns out to be rpm and the horizontal became temp instead of the indicated RPM. I have not even noticed this before (previous bios) where it seemed to be the correct way around.
Click to expand...

I think we are saying the same thing since surely both our Z590 Tomahawks do the same thing with .25; we are just struggling over why the curve is superimposed over those axis. Looks like the picture in citay's guide when not clicking a point to adjust it. That picture shows RPM at the lower right (which is for the right side axis) and temperature at the lower left (which is for the left side axis) - those axis make sense for the ongoing sensor temp/fan speed but not for the displayed curve.
citay's guide does not show how the axis of graph changes as you click to adjust a point on the curve, which for mine becomes fan percentage (not RPM) along the left vertical axis (fan icon at lower left) and temperature along the bottom horizontal axis (temperature icon at lower right).

Or maybe I've just been looking at it too long, while fixing up my Win11Pro activation.
 
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Installed 7D09v15 on my Z590-A PRO with no issues other then a little weirdness with fan settings as previously posted above.
Only loaded up Windows 10 so far. Tomorrow I will try booting up to my Windows 11 install and see if it kicks activation on me.

peace
obscure
 
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Everything appears to be working fine on my end. No Windows 11 activation promt up. Though I have notice on MSI Center the program didn't show there was a bios update. I had to manually download the bios from the web site itself. Which was odd.
 
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A lot of good info in this post, thank you.
I installed 7D06v16 BIOS in my Z590 Gaming carbon wifi (Intel 10850K) and I see 7D06v17 is there now, is it advisable to install this newer version? Has anyone done so?
BIOS updates are not good for my heart lol
 
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milaaaan_63 said:
the z590 is optimized for a 11 gen so with the 10 gen it doesnt matter which bios is installed there.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's optimized for 11th gen, but the conclusion is not fully correct. You may not benefit from a newer Intel microcode, but you have to remember that they fix a lot of other things as well (which are not listed in the changelogs). The 7D06v17 fixes a couple known bugs, not least the annoying "Aut" instead of "Auto" on many options in the BIOS, as well as seemingly better RAM support. So i would update to this. There is almost no risk involved, as the Z590 Gaming carbon wifi has the Flash BIOS Button as a safety net.
 
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Quick update.
Loading up my Windows 11 install after applying bios 7D09v15 on my Z590-A PRO did not cause any problems with activation.
Set bios to defaults and then turned on TPM and Secure Boot before booting 11 up and everything seemed to work just fine.
After running my machine for a little over a week, so far I am not seeing any problems related to using the latest bios.
Seems a keeper.

peace
obscure
 
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can i ask if the users without windows activation issues are running a local or microsoft account?
I suspect re-activation is only needed when using a microsoft account with windows and not when using a local account.
It would be interesting to know if this would be the cause of reactivation being needed. It would mean something gets wiped by flashing bios that is put there by microsoft when using a MS account, or not. Thx in advance.

I have noticed that with the new microcode the 11th gen cpu's no longer report a 0° on coretemp (hwinfo64), this issue is fixed now also.
 
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My Machine with local account no reactivation needed.
Same machine with dual boot to OS with Microsoft Account, no activation issue, but it did prompt me to change my PIN for login as "security settings have changed."
 
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changing PIN is the same deal, it re-activates windows (account). I had to change PIN also and the procedure mentioned this re-activation.
It so far only happens when using microsoft account and not on local accounts. I guess Microsoft has this kind of check to see if it is really the genuine account user and not some hacker or thief.
Most likely due to the usage of TPM which is wiped when flashing bios. When authenticated, microsoft stores some key in the TPM it uses on every login.
This must be a new feature then since it didn't happen on previous bios/microcode update.
 
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Greetings! I've got the same problem with Win activation after BIOS update on z590 gaming edge wifi to ver 1.5. Microsoft Tier 2 tech support asked me to wait for a few days, because they dont know what to do with it and believe that problem would magically solve itself somehow
 
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They have released 7D09v161(Beta version) for my Z590-A PRO board and dated 2022-05-18.
I flashed it from the root of my sata storage drive and it posted right up with no known issues so far.
The most obvious changes include FTPM and Secure Boot are both enabled in the bios by default.
Perhaps this will stop the people with MS account sign in from having activation issues with Windows 11.

peace
obscure
 
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Obscure said:
They have released 7D09v161(Beta version) for my Z590-A PRO board and dated 2022-05-18.
I flashed it from the root of my sata storage drive and it posted right up with no known issues so far.
The most obvious changes include FTPM and Secure Boot are both enabled in the bios by default.
Perhaps this will stop the people with MS account sign in from having activation issues with Windows 11.

peace
obscure
Click to expand...
Unlikely since the unactivated windows issue occurred after the bios was set correctly on first boot after flash, so it never saw windows boot until after the settings were set correctly like that.
 
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