2nd Gen AMD Ryzen CPU Showing Boot Issues with Old BIOS

AMD has issued a support bulletin this morning pertaining to its 2nd Generation AMD Ryzen CPUs. It seems that some older UEFI BIOS are not playing nice with the new CPUs. All in all, this is not all that uncommon when it comes to new CPUs and motherboards that support previous generation processors. If you are unable to get your system to POST or boot with a new Ryzen, the solution is simple and hopefully you will have what you need on hand to make this happen. The Socket AM4 platform is designed to be a long life, fully featured, scalable solution with support for multiple processors, with varying capabilities. Since the release of the AMD Socket AM4 motherboards in early 2017 with the AMD Ryzen desktop processor, there have been several BIOS updates made available through our motherboard partners. These updates not only provide improved system performance but also expand support for newer processors as they become available.

In February 2018, AMD began introduction of the new 2nd Gen Ryzen™ Desktop Processor with Radeon™ Vega Graphics. To enable support for this new processor, an updated BIOS is required. Due to the rapid pace of innovation, and strong demand for Ryzen Processors with Radeon Graphics, it may be possible that some users with an AMD Socket AM4 motherboard paired with a 2nd Generation Ryzen Desktop introduced in 2018, may experience an issue where the system does not boot up during initial setup.

The boot up issue likely means a system is running an early BIOS that does not have support for newer processors. This can be resolved by updating the motherboard BIOS to the latest version, which can be performed by using any processor supported with the currently installed BIOS. For a list of supported processors per BIOS version, please refer to the CPU Support List document available on the motherboard manufacturer's website. BIOS download and installation instructions are also found on their websites.
Update the UEFI/BIOS to one from the motherboard manufacturer's website to one that supports the 2nd gen CPU. Of course, you will need your "old" Ryzen processor to do this. If you can't do this, you might check to see if you can send in the motherboard for an update, or rely on a buddy from HardForum to do it for you. AMD is also offering a free boot kit should you end up with no other options. I am assuming they will send you out a 1st gen Ryzen to allow you to update your UEFI/BIOS.