PRO Z690-A DDR4/WIFI Owners Thread

[kogos121f0297]

Update.

Received the board back from service. Missing CMOS reset button. Part of it just wasn't there anymore. DOA.

RMA'd the board back to MSI. Got it back just a couple days ago. Installed and it seems to work fine, but....
As soon as I try to press the cmos clear button, it literally falls apart. Button doesn't work.
I can pull the battery and clear it that way, but that involves pulling the GPU to get at it.

I can seriously not recommend this board. I don't know if other MSI products are like this or if I just got lucky.
I don't plan to purchase anything from MSI again. Do you hear me MSI. Either this board has bad quality control
or your service department is not doing their job.

I think you are missing something here. There is NO clear cmos button on the MSI Z690-A board. There is clear cmos jumper that you have to short for 5-10 secs. It has a flash bios button though, that is used in a different way

 

[stacey.brewe157a02e3]

The flash bios button is what is missing. When I pushed it, the plastic part fell completely out.

The first board was functional in that respect as I tried multiple versions of the bios trying to resove the issues I was having.
So I did use the flash bios button a lot with that first board.

The last two board were either missing the plastic part of the button, or it fell apart on first use.

I can remove the battery to clear the cmos.

 

[pman62]

what's up with the slow response to get the fan to spin up?

When using MSI Center, manual fan mode, it takes 7 seconds to even start spinning.

Why such a long delay?

normally, my fan does not spin under idle low temperatures. I have set it this way.

 

[SmiimS]

With the latest bios 7D25v17, has anybody observed their CPU losing overclock settings (mainly core clocks) after resuming from sleep (ACPI S3)?

EDIT: it seems the issue is Linux-specific; it doesn't happen on Windows.
So the motherboard is not to blame here.

 

[nikonj156302dd]

what's up with the slow response to get the fan to spin up?

When using MSI Center, manual fan mode, it takes 7 seconds to even start spinning.

Why such a long delay?

normally, my fan does not spin under idle low temperatures. I have set it this way.

Why not, if you keep your fans at minimum, of course if you have decent cooler, it is nearly impossible to hear them. I have Noctua NH-U12s with extra fan on my 12700K, 4 case fans, and bellow 600rpm it is impossible to hear them even at nigh in quite room.
But yes this board have a problem with slow spin up times specially on AIO coolers and there is basically nothing you can do beside considering my recommendation.

 

[ymmv912d602af]

With the latest bios 7D25v17, has anybody observed their CPU losing overclock settings (mainly core clocks) after resuming from sleep (ACPI S3)?

EDIT: it seems the issue is Linux-specific; it doesn't happen on Windows.
So the motherboard is not to blame here.

There's a new BIOS out now (7D25v18), you could try that one.

 

[SmiimS]

There's a new BIOS out now (7D25v18), you could try that one.

Already tried that. I confirmed it's an OS-related issue as engaging the sleep mode in Windows does not trigger a change in core clock settings (when overclocked) after waking the computer back up.

 

[nikonj156302dd]

I have strange problem with new bios (7D25v18) and in old version 17 it all worked ok. So I have set undervolting by 0,120 and with old BIOS it all worked ok, I have lost minimum performance but system was cooler by almost 20C. With new bios whatever I do undervolting just doesn't stay. I even tried to disable undevolting protection in bios but in that case cpu stucks at 3,6Ghz and it doesn't want to go higer than it. If I enable it than it jumps back to normal turbo boost freq.

 

[onurcetinko154902d5]

I have strange problem with new bios (7D25v18) and in old version 17 it all worked ok. So I have set undervolting by 0,120 and with old BIOS it all worked ok, I have lost minimum performance but system was cooler by almost 20C. With new bios whatever I do undervolting just doesn't stay. I even tried to disable undevolting protection in bios but in that case cpu stucks at 3,6Ghz and it doesn't want to go higer than it. If I enable it than it jumps back to normal turbo boost freq.

I have come to this forum with a similar issue. I previously used a -0.100 offset, but with the new bios this doesn't seem to be working. I can't remember the exact voltage values, but they seem high right now and cpu is 15-20 degress hotter. I might go back to previous one.

 

[kogos121f0297]

Anyone paired this board with a 13700k? I am planning of getting one soon. Will it work or VRMs are gonna get toasted under load? I know that 13700k will require more power than my current 12700k, but i don't know if MSI z690 pro VRMs are up to the task.

Also, MSI Center is no longer available on the mobo's support page. It is on the non-wifi mobo support page though. Weird.

 

[kogos121f0297]

Populating at least one nvme in m2_2, m2_3 or m2_4, which are the m2 slots served by the z690 chipset, greatly increases chipset temperature. Not in dangerous levels, it's still in accepted values... but still. From ~50C, it went up to ~62C with just one additional nvme. Tried it in all slots, with a very good airflow case, and fans at normal speed and 100%.
However, running Cinebench, playing games or even benchmarking the disk under heavy load, will not increase chipset temperature. It is high, but not dangerously high... and it's not getting any higher.

Also, there is a typo in latest BIOS 7D25v192 Hardware Monitor, that i use to setup fan curves. On the lower part that monitors temperatures, and on the upper part, labeling is wrong:

I should have been like this (taken from older bios version):

P.S.: I will throw a 13700K in a week or two on the MSI Z690 PRO-A and see how that mobo behaves with Rocket Lake's high power demands

 

[ymmv912d602af]

Hmm... MSI took down BIOS 7D25v192 from the support site. The most recent BIOS for the Z690-A is now once again 7D25v18 .

 

[kogos121f0297]

On the MSI Z690-A WIFI support site, they took down 7D25v18 version. 7D25v192 is the latest, and 7D25v17 is the version before that.
On the MSI Z690-A (non-wifi)support site, they took down 7D25v192 version. 7D25v18 is the latest.

 

[TENPATROL]

New BIOS available
7D25v19
- Update CPU Micro code.
- Enhanced memory compatibility.

 

[nikonj156302dd]

They took down 192 because it was beta and they replaced it with 190 which is stable, a bit weird naming structure but.... it is what it is.
Wondering if anyone knows the difference between 192 and 190? Did they fix the undervolting issue?

 

[TENPATROL]

Did they fix the undervolting issue?

Undervolting issue?

 

[glenntidbur156f02e4]

Undervolting issue?

There's a setting in advanced cpu settings that pertains to undervolt protection.... in some bios versions it was enabled by default, meaning that any undervolt set was not applied.

If this current version is the same as three ddr5 equivalent (which I have), then it is now set to auto by default and if you set an undervolt, the undervolt protection shows as disabled on grey next to the auto setting.

So in short, yes, it's fixed and undervolt works fine.

 

[kogos121f0297]

I confirm it's working now with latest 190 version... The typo error in hardware monitor that i wrote in a previous post remains... but it's just a typo... Readings are correct

 

[jmucha8159c02ea]

Hello guys. I have a strange problem on my Z690-A Pro D4. Recently updated CPU from 12600k to 13600k. With Alder Lake-S I had no issues whatsoever, both at stock and after OC worked like a charm. However, Raptor Lake gives me low values in synthetic tests, e.g. Cinebench R23 ~21k points in multithread test. The most recent bios is present (190), everything is at default settings, only XMP profile activated for my RAM (Patriot Viper Steel 4000 cl19). Also, I notice ridiculously high VCore spikes during benchmark run (>1.45V) which causes CPU to boil (95-97°C). I was thinking that perhaps water block from AiO (Alphacool Eisbear 420) is not correctly installed, but that was not the case. I double checked thermal paste, pump and fans but all works as expected. Any ideas / suggestions?

 

[kogos121f0297]

try to reset everything to default in bios, and check to see that undervoltage control in cpu setting is disabled (mine is set to auto on 13700k and bios is setting it to disabled). Also, try to set limit to air cooler, then run a test like cinebench, then reset to bios and switch back to liquid cooler.

On my MSI z690 pro-a wifi ddr4, vcore never goes more than 1.290v, everything set to default, except XMP, and thermals are set to liquid (i got arctic liquid freezer II 280). On idle, it stays to 35-38C, on cinebench load it goes up to 85-90C max, and 243Watt peak consumption (~230watt most of the time). By the way, cinebench score is 30000+.

Let us know how that went.