On Thu, 27 Aug 2020 16:18:07 +0100, Peter Johnson
wrote:

The problems seem to coincide with a BIOS update on the Asus Prime
X570 PRO mb. I can't revert to to the earlier version because the mb
doesn't recognise the BIOS file as valid, and I've tried several, the
option to update from the internet is no longer offered, and when I
try using the EZ update from the PC it crashes the PC - both problems
have been reported over several years and Asus don't seem to know how
to fix them.

You've another, or should, if I'm to go on the provision an AM4
socket, rather ASUS, still supports it.

Look-up, download HIRENs and make yourself a bootable CD. You'll have
a blinking thing called a cursor.The BIOS and BIN associative versions
also should be directly obtainable from ASUS (MD5 checksums for added
veracity) or general types supportive hardware sites.

Follow the instructions on how to Run an EXE file provided for BIOS
Flash Utility, including the /? parameter, and ascertain explanations
should the options provided be unclear before a selected BIN is loaded
and Flashed to CMOS from DOS.

A hell of a note when the MB contracts out for a BIOS chip, then to
tell its customer base, as many effectively will -- This procedure may
be a consequent result you assume at your own risk, that we do not
advise a potentially broken MB because the Flash you instigated didn't
take. If our MB is working for you, leave well enough alone. That is
our recommended course, because it's better you don't call us on our
dime if you broke it with a Flash.

So, then it gets Flashed anyway. I've never had a bad one. I've
never used anything but DOS. I haven't pressed my luck, to the best
of my recollection, and Flashed when I didn't need to or had cause to
revert to an older BIOS version. If the BIOS works that it works may
often stay true.

Another thing, probably unrelated, but are you checking your BIOS CPU
temperature sensor readings regularly, whether related for software or
on general principle during system anomalies? A cool-running AMD
doesn't need to throttle itself into a passive state of massive
unresponsiveness.

Hibernation is the first thing I personally turn off. I'm always on.
Binary operation sector restores, from another OS, are also nice.
While its running nice the binary image is taken. When it's not being
nice the taken image is restored. AB if not BA. Platform
development, adding software or "tweaking it", occurs experimentally
between the two binary events as images taken progress in complexity,
dated to subsequent stable states of evolving configurations.

Shut down the PS from the back of the case if you don't like the logic
of whether MB reset/pwr pins perform adequately. Sometimes a new PS
is not a perfect world, may not help, say when booting between two
different operating systems, when the MB's network loses coherence
with the modem and the back PS switch is the fastest thing. When its
working it's mostly always working.

Malware scans are another one in an ideal world of progressive
building upon a safe software platform. I don't use them. I'm
particular about not having to quarantine what I let in to copy from
the WEB to my hard drives for further testing. Autoruns I edit
myself. Video cards can often be installed from a bare essence of
drivers, auto-detected, or through a suite of sometimes extraneous
material included with a vidboard purchase. Sometimes just like
soundchips.

A prior operational state means breathe or move so much a hair I don't
like -- and boom, I'll reset the system to restore it with the last
uncontaminated image -- before Joe Schmoe's software scheme of things
tried out for auditions. I run in a standalone complex (from
self-contained program executables located apart, on their own
discrete storage subsystems, mostly, apart from any integral claims to
operational system imaging). Moderately above average to minimally
advanced in an essential complexity backups are, nevertheless, overall
to computers.