[orlfman]

I'm putting together a new system with a 13700k and a MSI z690 edge. I have everything installed (CPU + heatsink, ram, GPU, etc), using the included USB 2.0 flash drive formatted to fat32 with the latest bios renamed to MSI.rom, and I'm about to do the bios flash to update the board for 13th gen support. But what's caused me hesitation is that when searching I see a lot of people saying you do it without the CPU installed. Is it safe to do it with the cpu installed?

 

[geeseman]

I'd check the manual to see. I have 13900K on a Z690 Master and with this board you can update bios with no cpu. You plug in the ATX Power cable, and put the bios file (which has to be named differently than what it is when downloaded) on a USB2.0 drive and stick in the correct bios port. Takes a while to update so leave it.

Seems to be the same

https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/MPGZ690EDGEWIFIDDR4.pdf

page 38:
Updating BIOS with Flash BIOS Button
1. Please download the latest BIOS file that matches your motherboard model from the MSI® website.
2. Rename the BIOS file to MSI.ROM, and save it to the root of the USB storage device.
3. Connect the power supply to CPU_PWR1 and ATX_PWR1. (No need to install CPU and memory.)
4. Plug the USB storage device that contains the MSI.ROM file into the Flash BIOS Port on the rear I/O panel.
5. Press the Flash BIOS Button to flash BIOS, and the LED starts flashing. 6. The LED will be turned off when the process is completed.

 

[Ichirou]

It doesn’t matter either way. You will have a black screen until you flash directly via the USB stick though. You know if it flashes properly because it’ll eventually finish. If it just loops indefinitely, you may need to swap the USB stick as it might be incompatible.

 

[orlfman]

Thanks everyone I did the bios flash with everything installed and it worked! Took about 4 minutes to flash. So far everything running great. Got windows 11 installed. After being on Ryzen for years at this point it's nice to be back on Intel.