Unable to update PRO B550M-VC WIFI BIOS

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supercompma15e002e5

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I recently purchased a MSI PRO B550M-VC WIFI motherboard. Using an AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D CPU, when powering on this motherboard, the EZ Debug CPU LED is lit and the computer does not boot. I have also tried to use an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X CPU with the same results. I have verified that both CPUs funtion in a different AM4 socket motherboard. I assumed that this may be caused by an outdated BIOS, so I cleared the CMOS and attempted to update the BIOS using the Flash BIOS Button. With both CPU_PWR1 and ATX_PWR1 connected to the power supply and the system powered off, using a FAT32 formated USB flash drive containing the latest BIOS file named MSI.ROM plugged into the Flash BIOS USB Port, I pressed the Flash BIOS button and the BIOS flash LED starts flashing slowly. After a few seconds, the motherboard powers on, the EZ Debug CPU LED is lit, and the BIOS flash LED begins flashing quickly but never stops flashing. After letting the LED flash for several hours, the BIOS flash LED never turns off and the update does not complete. I have tired this with six different USB flash drives all 32 GB or smaller, with CPU, RAM, and video card installed (all functional in other motherboards), as well as with no components installed in the motherboard and the result is always the same. Are there any other things that I can attempt to get this motherboard to successfully update to the latest BIOS and boot?
 
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You don't need any components really, other than the PSU of course (which PSU model is it?). Then regarding the flashing process, it needs to flash for about 5-8 minutes and then the board reboots. Under a minute of flashing, or more than ten minutes, and it didn't work. After ten minutes it will never finish, you can just turn it off then.

Usually, the key is to try with different USB sticks, the boards can sometimes be annoyingly picky in which one they will accept for flashing. Often times, the older and smaller the USB stick, the better for this function. We've had people have success with some really old and small ones, like some ancient 4 GB one for example.

Try flashing the latest 7C95vHF1(Beta version). Of course it needs to be extracted first, then the E7C95AMS.HF1 file is the one to be renamed to MSI.ROM, but hopefully you were aware of this.
 
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Thanks for the recommendations and clarification on the flashing process. I'm using a XFX P1-850B-BEFX 850W power supply. I was aware of which file to rename to MSI.ROM and copy to the drive, and I had read several other places about how fickle it can be about the drive being used. I've tried six drives so far, one is even an ancient 256 MB drive, but still no luck. I have tried manually formatting the drives with different cluster sizes, but that didn't change anything either. I have a couple more drives arriving tomorrow to try, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
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That PSU was released 13 years ago. XFX don't even offer PSUs anymore. It seemed to have been a decent model at the time, however, it only had two years warranty, which was not ideal even back then. And at over ten years of age, any PSU becomes somewhat suspicious.

Do you have another PSU to test with, one that is known good, not too old (preferably still within its warranty period), and of decent quality? Because the CPU LED refers to a problem very early in the checks, it can even mean that the board is unhappy with what the PSU is providing. So with a PSU this old, you should definitely test with a different, more recent one, to make sure it's not that.
 
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Ok. Then it's back to the USB drives. What's slightly concerning though, the 5700X should be supported with a BIOS version from mid-2022, and for sure the factory-installed BIOS version would be newer than that. Now, the 5500X3D, yes, it needs a much later BIOS from 2025 or newer, but it's odd that the 5700X doesn't make it work. But yeah, the best idea now is to try to get a successful BIOS flash done.
 
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Yeah, I have to agree. I certainly would have expected the 5700X to have worked with the motherboard straight away. Unfortunately, after trying both of the 4 GB flash drives I just purchased (making for a total of eight different drives I've tried), neither seems to be able to flash the BIOS properly. The flash BIOS light flashes for about 30 seconds or less depending on the formatted cluster size, then the board turns on but doesn't POST. So I feel like I'm kind of out of options at this point, which is unfortunate.
 
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Well, technically, the BIOS could still be flashed using an external flash programmer like a CH341A, this kind of method (bit more info here). The programmer is cheap and that method writes directly to the BIOS chip, so that's a guaranteed way to get the latest BIOS on there.

Of course, it shouldn't have to come to this in the first place, and there might be something wrong with the board overall. So it's up to you wether you want to attempt this or not. It's probably easier to just get the board replaced. I mean, you ruled out the other components by trying different PSUs and CPUs, so...
 
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Very good point. I've written several EEPROMs for other projects/old motherboards, but it never crossed my mind to do it for a modern motherboard. Looking at the board though, the only place where I would have expected there to be a flash chip, the board is bare. There's solder on the pads, but no chip. I certainly hope I've overlooked something.
PXL_20260526_142948988.jpg
 
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Under the M.2 heat sink on M2_1
1779814850584.jpeg


Still browsing around the board looking for a flash chip. As an aside, I received a response from MSI's help desk regarding this issue and the response mentioned that the USB drive should be NTFS formatted. I suspect that their AI went rouge... Still, I gave it a shot, with no improvements.
 
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I tried to find decent photography of this board model and found this Youtube video, where at 4 mins the camera pans across the board and reveals the same empty spot that you have found. You can see the same PCB traces underneath as on your photo. So the BIOS chip is somewhere else.

Now, as to where they put it, I'm not sure, normally it's a rectangular MXIC or Winbond chip somewhere near the CMOS battery and/or the JTPM1 header. The empty spot would fit it. But it's possible that they even put it on the rear of the board. Maybe there was something wrong with the intended placement in the front, some mistake in the design, and the best way they could fix it without a redesign of the front was to put it on the rear. I don't know. This board model isn't so common, so it's not easy to find good footage.

BTW, you don't actually need to find the chip, if you program it via the JTPM1 header instead, which connects to the pins of the BIOS chip, also see here.
 
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