BIOS R16 Updates:

• Fix bug with AUX fan
• Fix crash in EVGA-ELEET
• Improve PCI-E compatibility

 

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Windows Installation

• Download the correct .zip file below for your motherboard:

         160-SB-E689-XX - EVGA Z68 FTW
         130-SB-E685-XX - EVGA Z68 SLI
         120-SB-E682-XX - EVGA Z68 Micro

• First go into your BIOS and load defaults, save and exit
• Close all open programs.
• Go into the folder where you unzipped this package and run the appropriate batch file.
  • For Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 32Bit: FPTWIN32.BAT
  • For Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8  64Bit: FPTWIN64.BAT
  • If in DOS Mode: FPTDOS.BAT
• Press Y in CAPITAL LETTERS to start the flash process
• DO NOT TURN OFF POWER OR RESET DURING THE FLASH PROCESS
• After the flashing is finished, the system will automatically shut down. Then power on again and go into BIOS, Load Defaults, Save and Exit.
• Go into BIOS and make sure it says release 15 on Overview page. If BIOS did not flash correctly, please follow these directions.

 
USB Flash Drive Installation

• Visit this thread and follow the installation instructions. (Thanks Lvcoyote!).

Warning:
**Do not restart or interrupt your PC while the flash is ongoing
**Do not Flash BIOS on overclocked settings
 

Z68 FTW R16 BIOS
If I change the overclock settings to enable the Eleet utility i get 4 beeps and the system will not post 
XMP profiles cause system to reset loop 
Can no longer boot windows from either of my 2 raid arrays in normal mode, will boot from safe mode however 
 
A05 Bios will boot into windows just fine however I cannot adjust vcore
USB 3.0 does not function with usb 3.0 devices attached
 
R15 Beta Bios will allow USB 3.0 devices to function however they do not show up until a few seconds after windows has started
overclocking settings have no effect other than disabling turbo boost
XMP profiles cause the computer to reset loop.
 
all components function perfectly in my p67 board

With this BIOS, Windows won't boot, BSODs and the HW Monitor\Temperature locks up the BIOS completely.
On my system so....

I am having similar issues. No XMP modes. When XMP is selected, the motherboard tries to force extreme settings that the RAM does not support instead of letting the RAM choose their own XMP settings.

My RAID0's become non-bootable even after reconfiguring the RAID volumes and selecting in bios SSD or HDD for the volumes. Furthermore, booting from a Linux Live DVD or a Windows repair DVD causes the system to restart or hang after attempting to load. This makes it impossible to use or even install an OS by regular methods.
 
Lastly, this bios claims all my PCI-e slots are Gen3 from what i am reading.

Notes:  Raid 0 2x Sandisk Extreme 120GB (SDSSDX120GG25) and 2x Western Digital Black 750GB (WD7501AALS)
ASUS CD/DVD Drive (DRW-24B1ST)
EVGA Z68 SLI (130-SB-E685)
Intel 2700K
 
I like what this new BIOS supports, but please fix these issues!
Also, please fix Hybrid Sleep, i believe Intel has put out a patch for the Z68 chipset for vendors, but i am not sure.

I have some questions for EVGA about the new R16 BIOS.
I've tried the R15 BETA and had some problems with it.

1. Are these all the updates since R15 or since A05? We need a full update list.
2. Are there any benefits if someone uses Sandy Bridge processor with this BIOS?
3. Is Intel ME updated and if it is, which version? Are you also going to update the
    motherboard driver support with an updated Intel ME driver?
4. Did you re-enable control for the motherboard speaker?
    (POST beep on/off, not the USB beep)
5. Is temperature monitor on-board display fixed?
    (it showed wrong temps about 10 degrees Celsius more)
6. Can we now set the processor voltage correctly?
    (i had some hard time finding the settings and i'm not sure if i actually did!)
7. Is there any documentation about the new BIOS features or did you simplified
    the look of it? (compared to R15 which is chaotic, for example: PCI-e lanes
    settings, RAM settings, CPU voltage and some others i can't remember now)

These are some of the issues i had (i don't remember all of them) and i saw a
number of others in the forum. I had no problems at all with the old A05 BIOS.
 
Thank you in advance...

System tested (if needed):
MAIN: EVGA Z68SLI 130-SB-E685  |  CPU: Intel i5-2550k
RAM: Crucial 2x BLE4G3D1869DE1TX0  |  GPU: EVGA GTX 460 01G-P3-1372
AUDIO: X-Fi Titanium on PCI-e x4 black slot   |  HHD: Crucial M4 128  |  OS: Win 7 64-bit
These devices are disabled: LAN #2, USB 3.0, PCI-e x1 & 1394, Azalia Audio
 
UPDATE 24.12.2012:
Finally, i gave it a try since R16 is considered final.
These are my observations (Z68SLI 130-SB-E685):

1. no update list yet
2. Sandy Bridge processor microcode updated to version 28 but no official
    answer yet about any other improvements
3. Intel ME is updated to version 8.0.10.1464 but without configuration options
    and the driver support page is not updated
4. POST beep on/off is not fixed
5. temperature monitor on-board display is not fixed
6. processor voltage settings are fixed
7. no documentation yet

I found also that:
a. CSM module version updated to 07.69
b. if the processor is overclocked, CPUz shows correct speeds in windows
    but in BIOS overclocking tab shows stock speeds (target CPU frequency: stock
    and multiplier overclocked), also in CPU configuration, CPU speed is stock
c. ethernet controllers 1 & 2 changed positions compared to A05 BIOS
   (1 becomes 2 & 2 becomes 1, not necessary a bug)
d. if you disable the memory slots that are not in use you get
    four beeps & error code 55, if not a bug, why is that option there?
e. ICC (integrated clock chip) version & options are not existing anymore

I also have some new questions:
8. under SATA configuration we have the option "SATA device type" SSD or HDD,
    if you use a SSD what's the difference?
    (in R15 if you select SSD, performance is reduced very significantly and if you select
    HDD performance is normal like a SSD, in R16 there is no difference between these two
    options, the performance is always normal)
9. in USB configuration we have the option for USB 3.0 support, is this
    has to do with the on-board USB 3.0 NEC controller or is it a compatibility
    mode for USB 3.0 devices under normal USB 2.0 controller?
10. under memory misc configuration we can set the TOLUD, is it for CPU
      intergrated graphics only?

That's all for now...

I did manage to get R16 to boot into windows, I juggled my Graphics cards around in to some of the n200 slots and removed the card I had in the longer 1x slot and disabled that along with the firewire, secondary NIC and onboard audio, turned off the high precision timer and it booted into windows, for some reason when i shifted the graphics card around it started installing the onboard intel graphics.
 
I'm still not sure which of these allowed me to boot into windows as I did not have time to try these individually, but I was able to do some limited overclocking of the CPU at least, though it seems to be throttling it down under load if i go over 4 ghz. 
The individual cores show as about 20c lower than the CPU package so I believe the package temperature must be registering incorrectly

how can I get to the point that I can flash if I get no display from the #1 bios in any PCI slot???

Yep, that's what I did. Booted with working BIOS to Windows, moved jumper switch to bad BIOS and reflashed from within Windows.

That's why you only test your new BIOS's on one chip, ALWAYS keep one working one to boot with in case something bad happens.

thanks guys.  I'll try that.  Sad that this new BIOS is such a mess.  Terrible.

evo3rs,
 
You are not kidding, the R16 bios is not ready for production. I experienced similar issues with the XMP profile, as well as simple things like settings not being saved reliably. An hour of R16's unstability was all I could handle before I degraded the Z68 FTW back to A05. The A05 code appears to have issues of it's own, but at least it is stable. I have to wonder how much QA testing was performed prior to posting this bios update.

Did you enable "turbo mode" in BIOS?

works perfect for me on my i7 3770k

sinned.

works perfect for me on my i7 3770k

Can you describe in detail "perfect"? 
It will help myself figure out if I and others that can't get it booted are doing anything wrong!
Please

I have a i7 3770k processor (ivy bridge) that didn't work with this mother board.  (silly me, I didn't check that the motherboard only worked with sandybridge)
 
So now that their wearhouse is open again, they are sending me this new bios chip to replace the current one.  To my understanding this should fix my RAM error 55 and my computer should be able to start up finally?... Since this says that it supports ivy bridge?
 
Thank you if anyone can give me clarification.