i think it was 7f and 54 53, i just noticed a sticky about it seems like they are aware. i tried both the usb port for flashing and the io ports, same thing thanks

so i had some time today. i tried to flash 2.02 on all bioses 1-3, all resilt in 7f. wont boot. i can flash 2.01 on all the switches fine, i tried to flash without gpu on all switches to 2.02, didnt work

my z690 dark is in the closet now since z790 apex arrived, but before that i ran 2.02 from the day it released with zero issues. it definitely wasn't an issue with the usb stick you used? assume you tried more than one. ideally 4GB or smaller, has to be FAT32 etc...and if it helps, I never ever flash the bios from the flashback or windows. always directly from the bios under tools > bios update

i think 2.03 as only for folks who had an issue posting with 4090, right? i have a few video cards and usually do my bios updates w a very basic gt710. that being said, i ran some 3D with 4090 Suprim Liquid X on 2.02 as well and it was fine. So I suspect it's maybe a combined issue of older bios needing to be updated to fix raptor lake things (ucode support, a die) along with the nvidia firmware bug keeping people from being able to do anything since they have no display. 
 
this is a good example of why it's wise to keep a spare gpu, however old, around just in case...you never know!

zippytek
my z690 dark is in the closet now since z790 apex arrived, but before that i ran 2.02 from the day it released with zero issues. it definitely wasn't an issue with the usb stick you used? assume you tried more than one. ideally 4GB or smaller, has to be FAT32 etc...and if it helps, I never ever flash the bios from the flashback or windows. always directly from the bios under tools > bios update

man that rog dimm looks slick on the z690 apex, i hate the way everyone else does the nvme drive slots

98AMcFadden

zippytek
my z690 dark is in the closet now since z790 apex arrived, but before that i ran 2.02 from the day it released with zero issues. it definitely wasn't an issue with the usb stick you used? assume you tried more than one. ideally 4GB or smaller, has to be FAT32 etc...and if it helps, I never ever flash the bios from the flashback or windows. always directly from the bios under tools > bios update

How has the z790 Apex been working for you? I just got mine in, but this thing runs soooo much hotter then my Z690 Dark Kingpin. I can do 5.8 all core on my 13900k at 1.5V 430W and stay under 95C in Cinebench. I hooked up the z790 Apex and I cant even do 5.7 all core without the CPU thermal throttling at 1.39V 290W. 

apex works well so far, 1.5v is pretty high. i can do 6ghz 8P 5.5 cache at around 1.485v but this shouldn't be on the board. same cooler for you in both cases? are you on AIO or custom loop. my bench setup has a single mo-ra3 420 pro with heatkiller block. temps in the 90s for most benches but i've seen it hit up to 109C in ycruncher which is a bit more demanding (this runs at lower clocks too, i don't have the ambient cooling for 6GHz ycruncher)
 
lots of folks after heavy oc are doing direct die on raptor lake, but the supercool blocks are hard to get due to low production and higher demand

98AMcFadden
I have my CPU currently on my MO-RA 420 with an Optimus v2 block + contact frame and cpu is delided. There has to be some setting on the Asus board causing my high temps. I might just try setting stuff manual instead of Asus’s auto settings.

it's all on auto? yeah you need to turn off some stuff. under advanced > cpu configuration, disable all the TVB related stuff and see how that works out for you.