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Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

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  • #1

    Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

    Hi all:

    New Gigabyte user here, recently switched from an ASUS board based on recommendations from my local computer shop.

    I'm running the system in my signature and the board came with BIOS F2 installed. Last night I decided to flash to F3 final BIOS. I already have XPSP3 and other items installed.

    I saw in the manual that BIOS updating can be performed from a USB stick - since I have no floppy drive I had done this before on my ASUS board no problems with a FAT32 filesystem on the USB stick.

    I did read threads here related to this and saw a mixed bag - some success - some failures.

    I had no luck whatsover getting Q-Flash even to see the USB stick either to write to or read from. I tried rear panel USB ports and USB ports attached to both headers on the mobo. I also tried using two different sized and manufacturer USB sticks.

    One thing that dawns on me this morning is that I have "Legacy USB Storage Support" Disabled in the BIOS at present. Is this required to be Enabled in order to flash BIOS from USB ? With this Disabled I can see, read, and write the sticks just fine in Windows.

    Do you have to physically disconnect every SATA and IDE drive in order to flash BIOS using a USB stick ?

    Do you have to physically disconnect any other USB connections in order to flash BIOS using a USB stick ?

    I never had to disconnect anything and in fact once I had a properly formatted USB stick it was simple to update BIOS in this fashion on my ASUS board, but perhaps things are different with Gigabyte.

    I'd appreciate any thoughts; particularly from people who have had success updating BIOS from a USB stick.

    Thanks!
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

    As far I know (I am too a new user here), since I already did BIOS upgrade from F2 to F3e and from F3e to F3, the USB Legacy must be active so, during the POST the USB stick can be found by Q-Flash.
    Moreover, you do not need to disconnect anything, keep SATA and IDE cables on place.

    The great moderator here also suggest to have a little FAT32 (2MB is sufficient) partition on the main HD, in order to ease BIOS upgrade (I already did). In this case you can leave the USB Legacy disabled.

    Cheers.
    GA-Z97-D3H Windows Pro 8.1
    i5-4690K + Corsair H90
    Sapphire Radeon R7 240
    16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400MHz PC3 19200
    Corsair CX750M
    Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500 GB
    Sharkoon VS-3V tower

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    • #3
      Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

      I had to format my stick FAT16 before the bios would see it.
      Take care,
      Rick
      GA EP35 DS3P w/ E6400 @ 3.2 Ghz, 2 x 2Gb G-Skill PC8000, XFX 9600GT, Corsair TX 650W

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      • #4
        Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

        Thanks for the replies. Tonight I will try:

        - Try Q-Flash with my FAT32 stick with Legacy USB Enabled
        - Reformat my stick to FAT16, try Q-Flash with Legacy USB Enabled
        - Create a small FAT32 partition on my boot drive, try with Legacy USB Disabled

        I'll report back but I am hopefuly at least one of these should work for me!

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        • #5
          Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

          OK so here is how it went.

          When I tried using ANY USB stick, FAT32 or FAT16, Q-Flash presented me a "Floppy Drive" option to save to or write from. However, when I selected that Floppy Disk, Q-Flash froze and would not take any other input.

          So I made a small FAT16 partition on my primary hard drive connected to SATA port 0 (orange) and rebooted. Q-Flash saw that just fine. I was able to save my current F2 BIOS and load the F3 BIOS.

          I was very methodical during this process. I reset my F2 BIOS to "fail safe" defaults and rebooted into BIOS setup to verify the fail-safe was in effect. Then I rebooted and selected Q-Flash - did my save and load operations, then reset the system. When power came on I selected Optimized Defaults, did a save/exit and reset. Then when it came up again I re-entered my current settings based on the P35 tweak thread stickied in this forum plus my own personal settings.

          All is well - I am running F3 BIOS with no apparent issues. I can live with using the small FAT16 partition instead of USB. Only issue I see there is if I have a failure that precludes BIOS Setup and Q-Flash seeing that partition.
          Last edited by RustyFalcon; 07-24-2008, 08:58 AM. Reason: Correction to text

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          • #6
            Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

            Your USB stick should show as a HDD not a floppy.

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            • #7
              Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

              Originally posted by wayout44 View Post
              Your USB stick should show as a HDD not a floppy.
              Maybe that is why it didn't work.

              I set Legacy USB Support to Enabled and rebooted before trying any of the USB sticks. I did try two different sticks, and tried FAT32 and FAT16. All tries with sticks failed with the Q-Flash freezing.

              It dawns on me that with Fail-Safe defaults, the Standard CMOS settings include a Floppy Drive type setting. Perhaps that is what messed me up since I do not have a floppy drive physically connected to the computer.

              I may try and mess with it some more, but for now I will just use the small FAT16 partition on my hard drive.

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              • #8
                Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

                Originally posted by RustyFalcon View Post
                I may try and mess with it some more, but for now I will just use the small FAT16 partition on my hard drive.
                I think that is the best option, always available, no sticks to find out with the correct format, etc..
                GA-Z97-D3H Windows Pro 8.1
                i5-4690K + Corsair H90
                Sapphire Radeon R7 240
                16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400MHz PC3 19200
                Corsair CX750M
                Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500 GB
                Sharkoon VS-3V tower

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                • #9
                  Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

                  What did you use to format the USB stick? Try HP's utility.

                  HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - v2.1.8 Download - EXTREME Overclocking

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                  • #10
                    Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

                    That is in fact the tool I used. I had to use it with my ASUS board and had it laying around.

                    Originally posted by Toadeater View Post
                    What did you use to format the USB stick? Try HP's utility.

                    HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - v2.1.8 Download - EXTREME Overclocking

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

                      Strange. I used it with my EP35-DS3R and it detects the drive. Did you see in the HD boot order setting in the BIOS there is an entry for USB-HDDs? Maybe try setting that as the boot drive. It's a long shot, but it might need that to activate detection of USB HDDs or something.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

                        I have found no combination of BIOS setting/memory card formatting that will boot the computer from the memory card with the EP35-DS3R. This is using the same card reader and memory cards that worked perfect with a MSI MB. You don't need to boot the computer off a memory card to flash the BIOS though. Q Flash works perfect for me. When I hit [End] during boot the MB checks the USB ports for a memory device and always finds my reader, card and BIOS file.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

                          rubenstein: Funny you mention using a memory card and card reader. Now that I think about it an SD card in my reader worked to flash the BIOS on my ASUS board as well. I have a 6-in-1 reader that is mounted into the chassis and connects to one of the internal USB headers.

                          I'll have to try it as a backup to the small FAT partition I made on my boot drive.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Updating EP35-DS3R BIOS with USB Stick ?

                            Just for anyone reading this, If you are trying to Qflash with a USB stick you need to have it plugged in when you reboot to Qflash, not after

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