Question regarding Predator G3-710 CPU upgrade. plan was to upgrade it to an i3-7100

turboron
turboron Member Posts: 5 New User
edited October 21 in Predator Desktops

Hello,

I recently bought a used G3-710 board, CPU and RAM combo and my plan was to use it as a home media server. It came with an i5-6400 but my plan was to upgrade it to an i3-7100, as 7th generation is the minimum to do hardware transcoding and I'm currently using an i3-7100 fine in another PC, but it is an HP SFF which has limited storage and I was running out. After getting the combo tested to make sure everything was working properly, I sought out to update the BIOS to the latest but came across "R02 BIOS only compatible with Intel 7th Gen Kabylake platform. Not upgrade from R01.". Does this mean that I can't install a 7th gen CPU in this board? If so, this is an unwelcome artificial limitation imposed by Acer. In my experience as a computer technician, any 6th gen board I've come across has always been compatible with 7th gen CPUs (usually with a BIOS update) whether the board is OEM or aftermarket. The supposed two different revisions of Acer motherboards look the same and they're both B150 chipsets, which according to Intel, supports both 6th and 7th gen CPUs. I don't usually buy Acer stuff but it was fairly cheap and should have worked for my use case, based on my experience with all other 6-7th gen gear. It's absolutely ridiculous if the CPU cannot be upgraded.

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

Answers

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 12,174 Trailblazer
    edited September 28
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/713239/g3-710-cpu-upgrade

    The reason why you have that bios problem with the G3-710 bios version: R02-B2 or similar is because the Acer Predator G3-710 bios is designed specifically by Acer for the following CPUs and not the i3-7100 CPU that you have, get rid of that slow 😁slug i3-7100 CPU and then the Acer bios will work and you will be able to upgrade to the last bios version: R02-B2 from the G3-710 Acer Support page. If you have any further questions or you need oem specs and parts information, don't hesitate to ask , good luck and hope this helps you out.

    Install one of the below CPUs into the Acer Intel Skylake B150 chipset mobo and then the last version R02-B2 bios and all bios versions will update perfectly so that you can use the G3-710 mobo.

    Here are the compatible LGA 1151 socket type CPUs - the mobo and bios Supports the following Intel Kabylake-S processors:

    image.png

    Here are the RAM Specs and RAM type modules and the mobo layout to assist you further:

    image.png
    image.png
    image.png
    image.png

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  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer

    There were two different versions of the G3-710 shipped. The earlier one used the 6th gen chips, the later used the 7th gen chips. They had different motherboards and used different BIOS versions. The early motherboards had the R01.xx BIOS versions, the late the R02.xx BIOS versions. You can't flash the new BIOS on the old board and you can't use a 7th gen processor on the old board. You can upgrade to an i7-6700, but will see almost no system performance improvement.

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  • turboron
    turboron Member Posts: 5 New User
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1299918#Comment_1299918

    This is not true of any other manufacturer. HP, Lenovo and aftermarket boards all support both 6th and 7th generation CPUs. The G3-710 motherboards are the same. They use the same B150 chipset. Not being able to upgrade the BIOS to support a 7th gen CPU is an artificial limitation imposed by Acer. Are there actual Acer technical support employees in this forum? It seems like Acer "support" is non-existent and if you have any issues, just post in this forum.

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer
    edited October 2

    There are no actual Acer support people on this forum. All I can say is what actually works and what does not. The AG3-710 that have the 6th gen motherboards do not work with 7th gen CPUs. The G3-710 motherboards than have the 7th gen chipsets do work with the 7th CPU, and don't with 6th gen. I know it doesn't make sense overall, since Intel broke from their normal practice and allowed the switch, but that's still what we see.

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  • turboron
    turboron Member Posts: 5 New User

    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1300573#Comment_1300573

    Well, that's unfortunate that Acer has zero support. I guess this is a lesson learned. First time buying anything Acer and it will definitely be my last. I'm guessing Acer did this to push forced replacement on people who had bought a 6th gen system but wanted to upgrade to the latest and greatest 7th gen at the time. "Want the latest shiny new Intel i7-7700K?! Time to buy a whole new PC!". Garbage. Time to find a new motherboard. Thanks for your assistance.

    I did try updating to the latest R02 BIOS but of course it returned a ROM ID error, even when I tried to force it to flash. If I get ambitious, I might see if I can edit the file and replace the R02 ROM ID with the R01 ROM ID and see if it will flash. At this point, I don't care if I brick the motherboard as it's useless to me anyway. It's a matter of principle.

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 12,174 Trailblazer
    edited October 2
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1300636#Comment_1300636

    Just some justification and I know that you are not happy but you have to realise this, that Acer is a business and is functioning to make a profit and especially in the electronics field technology changes and many many manufacturers that have very advanced technologies do not release all at once and/or intergrade them even if its possible, their strategies with their products is to make max profit from each, as its a business they have to make a profit and that is what Acer does like all manufacturers do. The 6th Gen Intel and the 7th Gen Intel cpu's are different and Acer has taken advantage of releasing different model desktops , its as simple as that, as I'm sure that all manufacturers do the same. Your best option is to buy a new mobo for your i3-7100 cpu as they are not too expensive these days and upgrade your desktop that way, Good luck and don't be too hard on Acer as you will find the same issues or worse with other manufacturers 😁

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  • turboron
    turboron Member Posts: 5 New User
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1300640#Comment_1300640

    You have a point but, and it's a big BUT, no other manufacturer has done this with 6th/7th gen Intel. I'm a technician who has been in the field for over 20 years. I've dealt with numerous custom build PCs, and was an authorized technician for HP and Lenovo products and all of their 6th gen boards supported 7th gen CPUs. The B150 chipset officially supports 6th and 7th gen as per Intel's literature. Acer chose to implement planned obsolescence. I'm 100% in the right to give Acer a hard time as in my experience, they have proven to be the worst of all of the manufacturers.

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 12,174 Trailblazer
    edited October 3
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1300642#Comment_1300642

    You are very correct and I do appreciate your point and I do agree with you, but I'm in my 70ties and I've grown up from with examples like when the 8 track was around and they had the cassette tech around and they kept it from being released for years, where and even in the cassette tape era manufacturers already had the CD and DVD technologies available and they didn't release it, as that is how they work and Acer takes the most advantage of these different technologies, its good business. I can't justify either way but that is how it is with Acer but they are getting better. as their latest desktops mobos use XMP ram and are integrated with combined cpu technologies that can be integrated. Btw, I've been into computers for 39 years and I 've been a computer engineer since the mid 1980s so I know exactly what you are saying.👍

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  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer

    IIRC the BIOS for the 6th gen board uses a smaller CMOS chip than the BIOS for the 7th gen, which is why you can't flash the 7th gen BIOS on a 6th gen board. This is actually very normal for pretty close to all Intel designs. Sometimes (as with 2nd and 3rd gen) they can support a newer generation in the same board as the older generation, but it's a rarity and only when they doing a generation that's really just a re-spin of the old one. In general Intel doesn't support mixing generations. AMD sometimes does and sometimes doesn't…

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  • turboron
    turboron Member Posts: 5 New User
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1300791#Comment_1300791

    Sorry, I put this board away for a bit because I was so frustrated with it. This is the only time I've ever come across this problem with 6-7th gen hardware. I've dealt with HP, Lenovo, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, etc. and none have ever had this issue up until this Acer board. It's not a rarity with these generation products. You are right that 2nd and 3rd gen (and some AMD) was more of a rarity though, but that has no relevance to the issue at hand. It turns out that a friend of mine has a board that will work and I'm going to swap with him, so I can say so long to this frustration and so long to Acer.

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