A security update is supposed to close vulnerabilities, but for some ASRock Radeon cards, it appears to do the exact opposite: after flashing, the screen remains black. According to reports, models of the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX are primarily affected.
What happened?
ASRock released new vBIOS versions for ten Radeon RX 7000 models on October 29, 2026. The reason was a security issue (AMD-SN-6023), which AMD states is not actively being exploited. Flashing is done with the ASRVBFlash 1.0.5 tool.
- Affected users report a black screen after restarting, with the PC hanging before Windows starts.
- The RX 7900 XTX Phantom Gaming, RX 7900 XT Phantom Gaming, and RX 7900 XTX Taichi (including the white variant) have been mentioned.
- According to reports, the problems occur on motherboards from various manufacturers.
- How many cards are affected and what the cause is remains unclear. There has been no official statement from ASRock yet.
Some downloads are no longer accessible, while individual files are still on the FTP server.
Can a bricked RX 7900 be saved?
At least two users have revived their cards with an external EEPROM programmer. ASRock support in Europe suggested to one affected user to operate the card in the second PCIe slot and flash it again. A user from Japan received a warranty promise. There is no general promise for cards outside of warranty.
Our assessment: These are currently individual reports, not a confirmed mass defect. However, security updates for a graphics card's firmware are not an urgent matter for most gamers as long as no active attack wave is known. The risk of an unusable screen outweighs the benefit here.
What should ASRock RX 7900 owners do now?
The recommendation is: do not install the vBIOS from October 29 for now. If you have already flashed and see a black screen, contact your retailer or ASRock support and document the card along with your motherboard.
Source: ComputerBase, PC Games Hardware
Have you already flashed the ASRock vBIOS, or are you waiting for a statement from the manufacturer?
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