AMD will give Ryzen APU customers a free processor to help flash their firmware

[Polycount]

AMD's highly anticipated Ryzen + Vega APU chips launched earlier this week to a fairly positive critical reception. Our own Steve Walton gave the chips in question -- the Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G -- a collective 90/100 score, praising the hybrid chips for their value and exceptional budget motherboard support.

However, not everybody has had an easy time making use of AMD's new budget friendly APUs. As Steve noted in his review, memory speed is important for the chips and current DDR4 RAM pricing may prevent many users from taking full advantage of them.

Furthermore, although AMD's new APUs are naturally compatible with socket AM4 motherboards, you'll need to perform a motherboard firmware update to support the new chips.

This requirement is nothing new in the industry and the only recourse most consumers have is to go out and pick up the cheapest processor their motherboard can support to perform the necessary firmware flash. Naturally, this situation is far from ideal for customers who may have a tighter budget.

According to an Ars Technica report, however, AMD is switching things up. A support page on the company's website says AMD will send you a "boot kit" to help you flash your firmware. This kit consists of the bare minimum you'll need to get your system up to speed - a dual-core A6-9500 APU.

...AMD will send you a "boot kit" to help flash your firmware.

AMD isn't being entirely altruistic with this move, of course -- users do need to send the chip back when they're finished with it -- but it's still a surprisingly consumer friendly move Intel hasn't matched yet.

If you want to take advantage of AMD's boot kit offer, simply visit the company's warranty claim page, fill out the information and enter "boot kit required" in the "Problem Description" field. Once AMD receives your request, they'll ship a kit out to you free of charge.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/73334-amd-give-ryzen-apu-customers-free-processor-help.html

 

[Kotters]

....This is pretty awesome, actually.

 

[JaredTheDragon]

A very bold move. I don't think we've really seen anything like this before. Good show AMD!

 

[newbpwnr]

....This is pretty awesome, actually.

not awesome. I have a brick on my desk right now and have to go back to the store to convince them to update my brand new hdw. or I can wait until some unspecified time for asus to ship out some old chip.

awesome would be them selling a product that works out of the box. this would be absolutely unacceptable in any other industry.

 

[Kotters]

not awesome. I have a brick on my desk right now and have to go back to the store to convince them to update my brand new hdw. or I can wait until some unspecified time for asus to ship out some old chip.

awesome would be them selling a product that works out of the box. this would be absolutely unacceptable in any other industry.

...I really don't know what to say to a post like this. I can feel my IQ dropping just attempting to understand it.

 

[newbpwnr]

They knew that this was going to happen. I have built hundreds of pcs and have never encountered this.

 

[newbpwnr]

...I really don't know what to say to a post like this. I can feel my IQ dropping just attempting to understand it.

and insulting people with zero facts to back it up = you a troll

 

[cliffordcooley]

and insulting people with zero facts to back it up = you a troll

Wouldn't they need to understand in order to know which facts to present? You didn't explain why this topic was related to your dilemma. You made it sound as if you was sold a brick. That is not relevant to this topic. If you was sold a brick take it back to where you bought it. They will deal with the topic at hand and should have done so before selling the machine.

I will ask for clarification. Did you or did you not use one of these chips to update you BIOS? And now your machine is bricked.

BTW it is AMD not ASUS that would be sending you the chips.

 

[oldikes]

....This is pretty awesome, actually.

not awesome. I have a brick on my desk right now and have to go back to the store to convince them to update my brand new hdw. or I can wait until some unspecified time for asus to ship out some old chip.

awesome would be them selling a product that works out of the box. this would be absolutely unacceptable in any other industry.

They sold a perfectly functional product. its up to you to do the research.

 

[ZackL04]

....This is pretty awesome, actually.

not awesome. I have a brick on my desk right now and have to go back to the store to convince them to update my brand new hdw. or I can wait until some unspecified time for asus to ship out some old chip.

awesome would be them selling a product that works out of the box. this would be absolutely unacceptable in any other industry.

Do some research, this happens all the time. Ivy on a Sandy board or Kaby on a Skylake board.

I guess not everyone can build a pc

 

[hahahanoobs]

Would make more sense to make USB bios updating sans CPU standard on motherboards.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Would make more sense to make USB bios updating sans CPU standard on motherboards.

If the CPU is not recognized, the system will not boot. A USB stick will not help, until the BIOS is updated to support the CPU. I'm assuming that is where this CPU comes in, making it easier to update the BIOS. Once the BIOS has been updated, your new CPU can then be installed and the system will in theory finally boot.

If you do not have booting issues, a USB BIOS Updater would be perfect.

 

[hahahanoobs]

....This is pretty awesome, actually.

not awesome. I have a brick on my desk right now and have to go back to the store to convince them to update my brand new hdw. or I can wait until some unspecified time for asus to ship out some old chip.

awesome would be them selling a product that works out of the box. this would be absolutely unacceptable in any other industry.

Do some research, this happens all the time. Ivy on a Sandy board or Kaby on a Skylake board.

I guess not everyone can build a pc

Except this isn't an issue with using old chips. It's an issue with FIRST GEN AM4 APU's DESIGNED for FIRST GEN AM4 motherboards that should have support out of the box on day one. This is simply AMD dropping the ball yet again with a Ryzen chip. The first was/still is the poor memory support.

And THAT my friend, is why Intel and NVIDIA are big dogs, and further proves it can pay off to pay a little more for a stable product. Waiting months for proper drivers and hardware support and optimizations are not acceptable to the majority of people. It's simply common sense that consumers shouldn't be inconvenienced like this.

TL;DR
Techies have patience. The remaining 80% of consumers don't.
Products that work out of the box will be recommended over ones that don't.
#commonsenseworks

 

[hahahanoobs]

If the CPU is not recognized, the system will not boot. A USB stick will not help, until the BIOS is updated to support the CPU. I'm assuming that is where this CPU comes in, making it easier to update the BIOS. Once the BIOS has been updated, your new CPU can then be installed and the system will in theory finally boot.

If you do not have booting issues, a USB BIOS Updater would be perfect.

Many motherboards allow updating without a CPU installed....
All should, or AMD should get it right the first time.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Many motherboards allow updating without a CPU installed....

That's new to me. I'm not doubting you, but do you have a link to help me read up on it.

 

[hahahanoobs]

That's new to me. I'm not doubting you, but do you have a link to help me read up on it.

https://rog.asus.com/technology/republic-of-gamers-motherboard-innovations/usb-bios-flashback/

 

[cliffordcooley]

USB BIOS Flashback, that is so cool.

 

[MaikuTech]

Well mister huang didn't show the end results of the motherboard powering on with the cpu.
Besides you would really want to put your hope and faith into asus mobos anything ? O_o
If it breaks don't ask me to trouble shoot it call asus technical support and have tylenol.

 

[Lounds]

They knew that this was going to happen. I have built hundreds of pcs and have never encountered this.

I have with the intel Core 2 duo E8400 and a P35 motherboard I think, on the box it said supports latest 45NM processors... It didn't and the only way I could flash it was by floppy disk. So yeah this **** happens with intel.

 

[ZackL04]

Except this isn't an issue with using old chips. It's an issue with FIRST GEN AM4 APU's DESIGNED for FIRST GEN AM4 motherboards that should have support out of the box on day one. This is simply AMD dropping the ball yet again with a Ryzen chip. The first was/still is the poor memory support.

And THAT my friend, is why Intel and NVIDIA are big dogs, and further proves it can pay off to pay a little more for a stable product. Waiting months for proper drivers and hardware support and optimizations are not acceptable to the majority of people. It's simply common sense that consumers shouldn't be inconvenienced like this.

TL;DR
Techies have patience. The remaining 80% of consumers don't.
Products that work out of the box will be recommended over ones that don't.
#commonsenseworks

Lol 1st gen AM4 APU’s are Ax 9xxx series, nice try fanboy.

Hate AMD all you want, but this thread should be all applause, they are borrowing chips for free to support socket carry over. They could be like Intel and just change the socket every two years. Maybe they will, but for now they are going out of their way to help people like you.

 

[Jroc187]

The title of this article should read AMD will lend Ryzen APU customers a temporary processor to help flash their firmware

 

[mbrowne5061]

....This is pretty awesome, actually.

not awesome. I have a brick on my desk right now and have to go back to the store to convince them to update my brand new hdw. or I can wait until some unspecified time for asus to ship out some old chip.

awesome would be them selling a product that works out of the box. this would be absolutely unacceptable in any other industry.

Do some research, this happens all the time. Ivy on a Sandy board or Kaby on a Skylake board.

I guess not everyone can build a pc

Except this isn't an issue with using old chips. It's an issue with FIRST GEN AM4 APU's DESIGNED for FIRST GEN AM4 motherboards that should have support out of the box on day one. This is simply AMD dropping the ball yet again with a Ryzen chip. The first was/still is the poor memory support.

And THAT my friend, is why Intel and NVIDIA are big dogs, and further proves it can pay off to pay a little more for a stable product. Waiting months for proper drivers and hardware support and optimizations are not acceptable to the majority of people. It's simply common sense that consumers shouldn't be inconvenienced like this.

TL;DR
Techies have patience. The remaining 80% of consumers don't.
Products that work out of the box will be recommended over ones that don't.
#commonsenseworks

So... an OLD motherboard should support a state-of-the-art CPU out of the box? AMD was supposed to know years ago what the this CPU would need in terms of BIOS, and installed it years-in-advance? That is what you are saying.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Lol 1st gen AM4 APU’s are Ax 9xxx series, nice try fanboy.

Hate AMD all you want, but this thread should be all applause, they are borrowing chips for free to support socket carry over. They could be like Intel and just change the socket every two years. Maybe they will, but for now they are going out of their way to help people like you.

Oh you got me. I just read about that old chip that is being used JUST to update a board that should have been compatible from day one ESPECIALLY considering the ongoing Ryzen memory fiasco. That's not exactly how a company you love so much attracts customers that aren't also techies, which is more than 80% of the planet. AMD doesn't even want the heatsink back when you return the kit, which tells me it's just around as a band-aid. Yea, maybe Intel has done this before, but I always upgrade CPU with motherboard, because overclocking exists. On Intel silicon anyway.

AMD doesn't force you to update motherboard, because wait for it... they don't/didn't have a new chipset to warrant a new motherboard. Unlike AMD, Intel wasn't rebranding the same chipset year after year.
Thanks for playing!

 

[hahahanoobs]

So... an OLD motherboard should support a state-of-the-art CPU out of the box? AMD was supposed to know years ago what the this CPU would need in terms of BIOS, and installed it years-in-advance? That is what you are saying.

Or wait for it... they could have worked with mobo vendors and had a BIOS ready in time! Imagine that! But hey, after the Ryzen memory compatibility crap, what consumer wouldn't mind bringing a system home only to find out later they they have to request hardware be mailed to them before they can do anything with it.

Hey cool, Intel does/did this too. I see that brought up. Well guess what? When AMD was bragging about how you didn't need a new motherboard to support their new chips, they also didn't tell you the chipset supporting those chips were rebrands so a new mothboard wouldn't even make sense. A LOT of people don't think about that. It's really really sad to be honest.

Most consumers buy prebuilt, and Intel has a far better reputation than AMD, so compatibility isn't such an issue compared to a company that is struggling as hard as AMD is with Ryzen CPU's and APU's. Think about it. No. THINK!

 

[ZackL04]

Oh you got me. I just read about that old chip that is being used JUST to update a board that should have been compatible from day one ESPECIALLY considering the ongoing Ryzen memory fiasco. That's not exactly how a company you love so much attracts customers that aren't also techies, which is more than 80% of the planet. AMD doesn't even want the heatsink back when you return the kit, which tells me it's just around as a band-aid. Yea, maybe Intel has done this before, but I always upgrade CPU with motherboard, because overclocking exists. On Intel silicon anyway.

AMD doesn't force you to update motherboard, because wait for it... they don't/didn't have a new chipset to warrant a new motherboard. Unlike AMD, Intel wasn't rebranding the same chipset year after year.
Thanks for playing!

?

And who said I love AMD? I roll with whatever, have had A10 6800k, FX-6300, Ryzen 1600, 2130, 2310, 2500, 2500k, 2600k, 3470, 3570k, 3770, 3770k, 4130T, 4360, 4670k, 4770k, G4560, havent dabled in anything above Haswell as the price/performance isnt there for me IMO. I build a PC from craigslist deals everytime I turn around.

I agree they had launch high speed memory support issues yes. But your complaing about AMD trying to help moronic people?? Go away