Mr. Fox

Hard to not get excited about things like this.

Hmm. Had the same issue on the Strix. The ASMx4242 firmware update did not seem to run. Then I remembered I had USB4 disabled in the BIOS on both of my systems. I toggled it back on and the firmware update for ASMx4242 completed on both... but with a bit of a scare... (see below). When I ran the ASMx4242 firmware update all of my USB and LAN stopped working on both systems. There was no visual indication on my screen that anything was taking place in the background. After what seemed like a long time the USB came back (maybe 20 seconds, but seemed like a long time waiting) and I was prompted to reboot. After rebooting and making it back to the desktop it seemed like a long wait for USB and LAN to power on again. This was exactly the same behavior on both systems. After the initialization the first time after rebooting the USB and LAN is working normally after multiple reboots. Apparently the flashing procedure does this since both systems behaved exactly the same when flashing the ASMx4242 firmware update. Did you experience the same with the ASMx4242 firmware update? I am glad I did not get impatient and power off in the middle of an invisible firmware update procedure. A$$zeus should have something in the Readme file about that. I could see some people flipping the power off before it finished. The PD update flashing provided a very visible indication it was working while it was happening.

Hmm. Interesting. There is a firmware update for both the Apex and the Strix. In fact, it appears to be the exact same firmware update for both systems... same SHA-256 hash even. The PD_UPDATE_TOOL_V0206.exe flash completed successfully on the Apex, but the second ASMx4242 firmware update doesn't seem to do anything. Running it gives a momentary cursor circle icon that goes away immediately. I rebooted and it still does not seem to run. I wonder if the Readme.txt file has erroneous information about installing both updates. I will see what it does on the Strix. I haven't had any major USB issues except for my USB mic would intermittently and randomly throw a device descriptor failure error message on the Strix, but never on the Apex. Maybe this will fix that.

@Rage Set it must be DIMM dying season. Check this out. Weird short circuit on this PC at the DIMM module.

A test BIOS (9923) dropped from ASUS for AM5 and it seems like an improvement. I cannot get 8400 fully stable, but I think that might be a CPU/IMC limitation. This is my weakest CPU. I may try my better 9950X or my 4585PX, but there is almost no measurable difference in performance between 8200 and 8400, so no biggie either way. These Kingbank XMP/EXPO 8400 sticks that @gupsterg turned me on to have been great. They were dirt cheap when I bought them on Amazon back in the "good old days" (not long ago) before the tech world went off the rails with the crazy AI nonsense. I've never seen so many stupid people that would otherwise be viewed as intelligent. Now I wish I hadn't sold that second 8400 kit. Kingbank no longer sells memory on Amazon, and even if they did the price would suck now. 😑

Yeah it is a real bummer. I am puzzled as well. Maybe they didn't make enough on motherboard sales for it to be sustainable. I loved their hardware and firmware. That will be a nice case upgrade for the wife. Antec makes good stuff, especially their cases. I enjoyed the Intel Unify X, but the firmware kept me from loving the X870E Carbon. It was not terrible by any means, it just never rose to the level of seeming awesome... good versus great.

That is the only solution that I would deem acceptable. Although disappointing, the fortunate thing for me is gaming is not important enough that making an exception and compromising my position on the subject isn't necessary. I won't lose any sleep over no longer playing new titles in game franchises I have enjoyed since the initial release. Seems like status quo that good things eventually turn to crap. Not a matter of if, but when. Easy come, easy go. Que sera sera. 🤣

Meta (aka FacePoot) Instacram and Reddtit are the social media cesspools of the world and I do not even like logging in to their platforms. I feel instantly dirty when I do.

After owning several MSI boards (Unify X and Carbon) and numerous ASUS boards, if it were me I would stick with ASUS if for no other reason than much better firmware. Apex is a great motherboard generally. Every MSI I have owned has something in the firmware that was irksome to me. They were OK in terms of hardware. Svet deals with fixing lots of MSI firmware messes. They are never-ending. MSI forums are littered with examples of problems caused by screwed up firmware. That sucks donkey butt. These idiot game dev clowns are going to FAFO what happens to dictators. They usually end up dead. I am happy that I don't care about Valorant. If I did, I would no longer. It would be dead to me, just as Battlefield and Call of Duty titles that require this stupid nonsense are now. Nasty finger salute to all of them, with both hands. No game is good enough or matters to me to such a degree that I will be told what I have to do in order to play it. They can drop dead and I hope that they do.

The current situation sucks. However, there is always a silver lining to a dark cloud when you are forced to look for it. This will likely benefit those selling spare used PC components. They (we) may be able to sell things used for the same amount or more than what was paid for them new. And, an additional benefit is that consumers will probably stop wasting money upgrading systems that still work fine for the tasks for which they are used. If games are dumbed down or "optimized" to function well on less capable hardware, the notion that an upgrade is needed should also be dramatically reduced. In practical application, systems that were nearing the end of their service life due to performance limitations may get a new lease on life. Another potential benefit is this may pressure the Redmond Reprobates to back off on their idiotic OS system requirements if their intent was to contribute to e-waste development by forcing people to buy newer computers. That may become more difficult for consumers and cause Winduhz 11 adoption to stagnate even further than it has. And, another potential benefit... perhaps the best possible scenario of all... AI development will implode, end up in a state of ruin and self-destruct. The very thing causing these problems may burn itself out due to astronomical costs developing something that their intended victims will not be able to leverage due to not enough consumers having the resources needed to utilize the garbage they are hoping to capitalize on. The idea of spending gobs of money on something that will not generate enough revenue to offset costs will ultimately fail. This is what I am hoping happens.

You're welcome. I also enjoy that kind of thing. If/when you can figure something out, or explore something out of the ordinary trying to figure it out, it feels good.

If you can determine the target slot number with the tool after saving the SPD from the good stick, select the target slot for the dead stick and see if the tool will allow you to write to it. When I had the SPD corruption happening from OpenRGB the stick seemed dead. CPU-Z could not "see" it and the tool could not read from it, and Thaiphoon Burner showed the module had no firmware on it. But, I was able to select the target slot annd write the SPD from the good stick to the corrupted one. Set the BIOS for SPD Write enabled (or SPD write disable set to "enabled" depending on how it is worded in the BIOS) has to be toggled. It may not work, but it would be worth a shot. Maybe you will get lucky.