ASUS Sabertooth Z77 new 1015 BIOS - WARNING - disables PCIe devices!

[Brat Gvidon]

I just updated my ASUS Sabertooth Z77 0906 BIOS to 1015. The procedure went fine, but my PCIe slots stopped working. I had X-Fi in one of them and it disappeared! I thought I messed something up in software or services and spent an hour trying different PCIe slots for my X-Fi card to no avail. At first I thought X-Fi died... Eventually, I thought "maybe BIOS did that" and flashed back and voila! - X-Fi is back!

So, just a warning to someone who wants to update BIOS. I did it via ASUS utility in Win7 64bit, but I did load BIOS defaults before doing that, so I don't think my procedure caused it. I think the new 1015 BIOS is broken.

EDIT: Another new BIOS came out - 1206 and it had the same issue, which was really a non-issue.

I found out that it was Creative's fault and a Windows 7 issue. There is a Creative product ID installer (same Creative support page where you download the latest drivers) that allows proper X-Fi Titanium PCIe detection in Windows 7 if your Creative X-Fi card disappeared/no longer detected or was not detected in the first place. So, now I can flash to any new BIOS and still have my X-Fi card detected. Because of the original X-Fi now being a phantom device, the new detection renamed my X-Fi to X-Fi 2, but it all works like it should. New BIOS improved memory bandwidth for me (outside of error margin) and improved CPU benchmark scores.

Just thought this info would be helpful to those experiencing similar detection problem. It applies to many X-Fi cards, motherboards, BIOS, and Windows 7.

[akirarulez]

I just updated my ASUS Sabertooth Z77 0906 BIOS to 1015. The procedure went fine, but my PCIe slots stopped working.

I Highly doubt that, as it would also cause your videocard to stop working. Thus you being unable to boot
That and the forums seem quiet at Asus atm regarding this bios version. So prob a more localized problem with the bios and your soundcard.

[Brat Gvidon]

I Highly doubt that, as it would also cause your videocard to stop working. Thus you being unable to boot
That and the forums seem quiet at Asus atm regarding this bios version. So prob a more localized problem with the bios and your soundcard.

Well, I flashed back to 1015 and X-Fi was gone again. I have Creative X-Fi Titanium. Relocating it to another slot had no effect - it disappeared in Windows. And again going back to 0906 made it re-appear. Maybe it is just me, but hey - I don't have stability issues with 0906, so if it is not broken - I am not fixing it.

[Orcass]

ASUS issued 8 bad bios this last round that broke a multitude of things including the pci-e slots address changes that makes things disappear. I am afraid to flash my P8Z68 Deluxe/Gen3 due to Asus's lack of testing before issuing the bios's. I have 4 P8Z68-M Pro boards sitting here next to me with the 3702 bios flashed from 0604 that kills the addressing of the pci-e 1 slot so that the southbridge gets a irq of 25 and prevents the intel sata sockets from being bootable; on top of that the pci-e 1 slot is locked to x1 speeds. Trying to flash back to 0604 gives a check sum error and locks up the board so they are thoughly trashed. So Asus has a lot to answer for and are giving me a load of sh*t about being only able to RMA only one board at a time. I will be using MSI and Gigabyte for the forseeable future.

[Brat Gvidon]

ASUS issued 8 bad bios this last round that broke a multitude of things including the pci-e slots address changes that makes things disappear. I am afraid to flash my P8Z68 Deluxe/Gen3 due to Asus's lack of testing before issuing the bios's. I have 4 P8Z68-M Pro boards sitting here next to me with the 3702 bios flashed from 0604 that kills the addressing of the pci-e 1 slot so that the southbridge gets a irq of 25 and prevents the intel sata sockets from being bootable; on top of that the pci-e 1 slot is locked to x1 speeds. Trying to flash back to 0604 gives a check sum error and locks up the board so they are thoughly trashed. So Asus has a lot to answer for and are giving me a load of sh*t about being only able to RMA only one board at a time. I will be using MSI and Gigabyte for the forseeable future.

Damn, I am sticking with this BIOS for a long time because it works. I heard even worse stories from MSI and Gigabyte...

[Horrorwood]

ASUS issued 8 bad bios this last round that broke a multitude of things including the pci-e slots address changes that makes things disappear. I am afraid to flash my P8Z68 Deluxe/Gen3 due to Asus's lack of testing before issuing the bios's. I have 4 P8Z68-M Pro boards sitting here next to me with the 3702 bios flashed from 0604 that kills the addressing of the pci-e 1 slot so that the southbridge gets a irq of 25 and prevents the intel sata sockets from being bootable; on top of that the pci-e 1 slot is locked to x1 speeds. Trying to flash back to 0604 gives a check sum error and locks up the board so they are thoughly trashed. So Asus has a lot to answer for and are giving me a load of sh*t about being only able to RMA only one board at a time. I will be using MSI and Gigabyte for the forseeable future.

Gigabyte = 10000000 times worse bios.

[Ninja7]

You know, wierdly i had the exact same issues years ago on my Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe and X-Fi XtremeMusic.

After a certain BIOS version my creative X-Fi would stop being detected. I asked Asus about it and they claimed nobody else was having issues. I checked the Creative forums and it mentioned nothing either, flashed back to the old BIOS and it would work.

Turns out, a few weeks later a bunch of people start reporting problems with the X-Fis as well, similar issues to what i had but on different board, in the end it turned out that the X-Fi boards were drawing too much power from the PCI slots and it was marginal on some systems. Creative simply cut it too fine with the power draw, later X-fi cards came with additional molex connectors. Obviously something that changed on the new BIOS had an effect on the PCI signalling or voltage.

Not really related to your issue, but quite interesting to see a such a similar problem to mine crop up years later.

[Brat Gvidon]

You know, wierdly i had the exact same issues years ago on my Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe and X-Fi XtremeMusic.

After a certain BIOS version my creative X-Fi would stop being detected. I asked Asus about it and they claimed nobody else was having issues. I checked the Creative forums and it mentioned nothing either, flashed back to the old BIOS and it would work.

Turns out, a few weeks later a bunch of people start reporting problems with the X-Fis as well, similar issues to what i had but on different board, in the end it turned out that the X-Fi boards were drawing too much power from the PCI slots and it was marginal on some systems. Creative simply cut it too fine with the power draw, later X-fi cards came with additional molex connectors. Obviously something that changed on the new BIOS had an effect on the PCI signalling or voltage.

Not really related to your issue, but quite interesting to see a such a similar problem to mine crop up years later.

In a way, it restricts me from messing around with my BIOS, but that may be a good thing for OCD tweakers such as myself. I know I am happy with X-Fi Titanium and not planning to upgrade it for a while, so 0906 BIOS it is then!

[Brat Gvidon]

Another new BIOS came out - 1206 and it had the same issue, which was really a non-issue.

I found out that it was Creative's fault and a Windows 7 issue. There is a Creative product ID installer (same Creative support page where you download the latest drivers) that allows proper X-Fi Titanium PCIe detection in Windows 7 if your Creative X-Fi card disappeared/no longer detected or was not detected in the first place. So, now I can flash to any new BIOS and still have my X-Fi card detected. Because of the original X-Fi now being a phantom device, the new detection renamed my X-Fi to X-Fi 2, but it all works like it should. New BIOS improved memory bandwidth for me (outside of error margin) and improved CPU benchmark scores.

Just thought this info would be helpful to those experiencing similar detection problem. It applies to many X-Fi cards, motherboards, BIOS, and Windows 7.