Motherboard

BIOS Update / Flashing

• Updating your BIOS can be *very* dangerous. Don't touch a working system; a bad BIOS flashing can result in a computer not rebooting.
• If something goes wrong with the BIOS update, be very careful. You can repair the motherboard by removing the BIOS chip and replacing it with a new one.
• You must never remove the plastic around the BIOS chip. *Only* the BIOS chip. If you remove the plastic it'll be next to impossible to replace it and your motherboard will become junk.

Motherboard issues

AsRock Phantom Gaming B850I Lightning WiFi

• AsRock official page claims that the BIOS / firmware can be updated on this motherboard without any CPU or RAM connected, but it does not work. At least a connected CPU is needed; I was never able to use their flashback feature (when you theoretically don't need to access the BIOS/UEFI interface).
• Since my Crucial DDR5 RAM did not work with the stock BIOS of the board (version 3.15), I had to connect other RAM sticks to get the PC to boot, then I was able to upgrade to a BIOS version recent enough to use my RAM.
• Updating the BIOS can only be done sequentially, version after version. Ie, you cannot upgrade straight from 3.15 to 3.25, you must upgrade to 3.20 first.
• One of the disadvantage of this card is that it does not have any status LED when POSTing. This makes debugging difficult, those were quite useful on ASUS boards.

ASUS ROG Strix Z590-I

• The ASUS ROG Strix Z590-I motherboard is quite fragile. If it refuses to boot, often the issue can be fixed by removing one of the RAM memory sticks. It will then boot, and you can put back the stick right after that. Note that the yellow (orange) light on the motherboard will often be lit up if there is an issue with the RAM. Such issues usually happen after any hardware modification (switching from Intel built-in GPU to a external nvidia one, unplugging the computer and moving it, etc).
• Make all hardware modifications with this motherboard with the computer turned off (it's very important!), and even better, with the power cable removed from the computer.
• This motherboard had a built-in backplate (for the CPU cooler or AiO pump) on the back of the motherboard. It's not tightly screwed and can feel like it's loose, it's normal. It's holding only via the other side of the motherboard, the front side, when you screw the pads needed for the cooler.

Clearing CMOS

• Once I had an Asus motherboard (ROG Strix Z590-I model) that suddenly refused to boot. Clearing the CMOS (check the manual to know how to do that) fixed the issue.

Setting up your own box

• Motherboards usually come with their own I/O panel - a metal shield that should be put at the end of the computer case. To fix it, push it from the inside of the motherboards while applying pressure simultaneously at all 4 angles.
• Motherboards don't contain a lot of cables - those come from either the power supply block or the case itself (cables are needed to link the USB ports in the front of the case for instance).
• You need to connect the 8 pin power supply cable to the motherboard in order to power the CPU. The 24 pin cable to the main motherboard header is not enough.

Screwing the motherboard to the case

• Be very careful - do not bend the motherboard in any way! Never. Some of the holes in the motherboard may align with holes in the case where there is not any preinstalled "brass standoffs". In that case, you must first install those brass standoffs, and only then attempt to place your motherboard on those brass standoffs.

Mini-ITX motherboards

• Mini-ITX motherboards are great for SFF (Small Form Factor) PCs. Be careful about the external power supply adapter that those boards need; they usually require a 7.4 outer diameter coaxial cable. That's the case of the Asus Pro H410T.

Identifying your motherboard model

• On Linux just run dmidecode. It will give your motherboard model.