BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

[turvas0]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

HI all i have a big problem with GA-8S650GXM rev2 moderboard bad bios update. Now i start my computer i have text scanning bios image in hard drive. I dried boot usb memory vitn new bios file but nothing can somewone help me

[kromar]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

hi, not sure this belongs in this section but maybe this helps some people recover their board after a @BIOS flash.

i got a new GA-M790X-UD4 and after seting up the drivers and everything i wanted to flash the bios. until now i only used asus boards and always flashed with their software without trouble, so i thought @BIOS would also work... bad bad idea, everything seemed to go well untill i rebootet the pc.
no display signal no device activity, only the cd/hd led were blinking one after an other

i was told (also by the gigabyte support) that if a CMOS reset wouldnt help then the board is dead, but i wouldnt belive it

after reading lots and lots of solutions and forum posts throughout the inet i tried everything to bring this board back.
i read that it would be possible to have the bios file on a floppy disk and disconnect everything else that it would reflash it from the floppy, so i gave it a try.

first i disconnected all the drives exept the floppy, started the pc but the floppy light did not even flash once:/

then i removed the graphic card and tried again and there was a short blink on the floppy, so there was still hope:D
after that, nothing happend and i pushed some buttons on the keyboard and when i hit ENTER the floppy drive reacted (was like reading a newly inserted disk, nothing more). then i rebooted and there was the boot beep again
so i put the graphic card back in to see if i got it working again, and tadaaa input signal was back and i could enter the bios again:D the board was saved

the strange thing is that i first thought the bios was reflashed but that wasnt the case. the bios which i flashed with @BOIS was on the chip and not the one from the floppy drive:O
so the question remains what happend there with the bios with the floppy drive connected and why did i have to remove the graphic card to make it respond? maybe some bios guru has an answer to those questions. and maybe this hepls some others to get their board back to life after using @BIOS.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

Thanks Klompa for the info posted back!!

@ turvas0

Do you have a floppy drive ALREADY connected? If so you can blind flash the board, if not you may need to RMA it if you still can. How did you update the BIOS and are you sure you used the correct file?

@ kromar

As you found @BIOS is not suggested with so many other options. As for your findings, ya I was thinking as I read you were explaining a blind flash (Which you can do w/ Floppy as mentioned on page one) but after seeing all your comments I am not sure what to say happened.

What I would think is after you cleared the CMOS either it kicked in as it should have after a few starts instead of the normal one that is needed, or your Dual BIOS kicked in finally and reflashed the other chip to match the main chip you flashed with @BIOS

I do not think your removing the GFX Card had anything to do with it, but stranger things have been known to happen. It is all just likely a lucky coincidence is all.

[Cornflake]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

Hi all,

I just registered to say that I found your guide very useful, Lsdmeasap. It helped me create a bootable USB key to flash my GA-M55SLI-S4 mobo so I could use an X2 6400+ (It's an older Athlon X2 board, see the Newegg page or the Gigabyte page). I needed a bootable USB key because even though my floppy was enabled and 1st boot device (I reset to defaults before flashing), I didn't have a FDD hooked up.

However, despite the FLASH895.EXE program flashing the BIOS and telling me it was successful, upon reboot I found my system would not even POST. No error messages, no nothing. I cleared the CMOS several times, and attempted a blind BIOS flash (with a proper autoexec and everything) but since my floppy was getting nothing more than power, it did nothing. Not only did my BIOS fail for absolutely no reason, but I find out my mobo has no BootBlock or anything else to recover itself. Once a brick, always a brick.

Furthermore, it has a very small bios chip (It's 512K I believe) that is soldered onto the board. So that means either 1) Find someone who can flash the chip on the board, or 2) RMA it to gigabyte and wait more than a month for them to pop a new chip on in thirty seconds. I called around every PC repair shop in town, and they all knew what I was talking about with the BIOS -- but none of them had the tools or knowhow to reflash a soldered BIOS. I knew it was a longshot, but I had to try. It's sad that no one in the greater Denver area has an EEPROM burner. I guess We'll have to forever rely on China and Taiwan! God forbit if they're not here one day to do everything for us.

I can now say I will never EVER flash a BIOS again. Ever. For my very first flash to completely fail and brick my motherboard for no reason leaves me pretty upset. If I ever need to upgrade the BIOS, I'll be ordering a motherboard from Newegg first. That way, I'll have a brand new board if it fails and I won't be waiting around to get the old one repaired.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

Did you try with one stick of ram after your flash and reboot? Sometimes you need to also try a different (Cheaper/lesser) stick of ram as well, one that for sure will boot at the stock JEDEC Voltage of 1.8V

Are you SURE you download the correct BIOS Per your board model and revision? Just checking as there is two revisions >>>

1.0
GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - BIOS - GA-M55SLI-S4 (rev. 1.0)

2.0
GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - BIOS - GA-M55SLI-S4 (rev. 2.0)

A RMA may be needed, it should only take 2-3 weeks but you are right I have seen it take longer. I have also seen it take less as well though.

I am glad to see you found the guide helpful, but I am Very Sorry to hear you had these issues!

If you need RMA info let me know, I can also point you to the Ebay seller mentioned in your thread @ [H]forums if you would like to look into that option.

[mudkip]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

today i flashed my BIOS to F6D to test if I'd overclock better , but it didn't help. Then I wanted to flash my BIOS back to F7D again but Q-flash says the BIOS is not valid?!

How can I update my BIOS again?

Motherboard : Gigabyte X58 UD5
CPU : i7 920

[gigantic]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

hello,
EP45T-UD3P

I can't update BIOS (actually F1)I try to use Q flash but every time, systeme says :
"Warning Main BIOS checksum error
retrieving recovery source from hpa"
And it never let me "load fail-safe defaut" to finish the Update Bios procedure!
Would you please help me?
thanks in advance

(I try with F7, F6 & F3 =same result)

[Hardwood]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

Thanks for all the input on here.

I went though a scary situation yesterday but it's resolved so I'd like to share what happened.

As you see in my sig, I currently have a 9600BE in my GB mobo. With the 955 now available and a few bucks burning a hole in my pocket I ordered one and it arrived yesterday. Posts in other forums suggested the current BIOS F8a would not allow the 955 to run at full speed, consequently there was a beta BIOS ma79xds5.f8c available from GB. I grabbed that and stored it on a floppy and figured I'd update the BIOS before putting in the 955. Well.. that didn't work but luckly the dualbios feature did work and it recovered OK to the earlier version.
So, seeing as other people weren't having issues with the BIOS with the 955 installed I proceeded to rip apart the computer and pop in the new cpu. Everything went ok, I fired it up got into Vista and low and behold it's running at 1600mhz just as everyone else was too. Ok, so l decided to bite the bullet and try the new BIOS.
Well POOPIE!! That was the end of life as I know it. The BIOS installed ok, no errors nothing unusual so I reset the machine and nothing. Just constant restarts with no post and the long beep and two shorts (Video error). The 3870x2 was lighting two of it's diagnostic LED's also D25 and D31 (try and find what that means :/ )
After reading this whole thread and a couple others and trying everything on here including reseating the vid card, removing the vidcard, removing all but one dimm, pulled the Xonar, unplugging all USB, Lan and Sata drives.. nothing. I pulled the battery jumpered the clear pins overnight and nothing.
So, I made an MSDOS boot disk and added the current BIOS along with the autoexec and the flash program from GB, put that in restarted and nothing. But then I remembered reading CONTROL-HOME will activate the floppy so I gave that a bunch of tries and presto it started reading the floppy. I went for breakfast, came back, pulled the floppy and reset the machine. Well whatdayaknow? It actually booted up, posted and has been working fine since. Now I have a 955 sitting here I can't use until GB actually gets a BIOS that works.
What I don't understand is the video error and why my computer and not others.

Anyhow, thanks to all that posted, I was almost ready to order a nice shiny AM3 board which I can't afford.

Spider: Phenom 9600BE, Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5, Asus 3870x2, ASUS Xonar D2X pcie, 4 x 1gig OCZ2N1066SR2GK @800, OCZ StealthXstream 600w, Antec 900 case.
Vista x64 HP SP1
#2 Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 1950pro, Asus A8V-D, Enermax 465P
#3 2500 Barton, x800xl, ASUS A7N8X-E, Antec 400

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

today i flashed my BIOS to F6D to test if I'd overclock better , but it didn't help. Then I wanted to flash my BIOS back to F7D again but Q-flash says the BIOS is not valid?!

How can I update my BIOS again?

Motherboard : Gigabyte X58 UD5
CPU : i7 920

Please use DOS and flash with FlashSPI

hello,
EP45T-UD3P

I can't update BIOS (actually F1)I try to use Q flash but every time, systeme says :
"Warning Main BIOS checksum error
retrieving recovery source from hpa"
And it never let me "load fail-safe defaut" to finish the Update Bios procedure!
Would you please help me?
thanks in advance

(I try with F7, F6 & F3 =same result)

Full specs are needed to better help. Can you try the flash with one stick of ram with the voltage set manually?

Thanks for all the input on here.

I went though a scary situation yesterday but it's resolved so I'd like to share what happened.

As you see in my sig, I currently have a 9600BE in my GB mobo. With the 955 now available and a few bucks burning a hole in my pocket I ordered one and it arrived yesterday. Posts in other forums suggested the current BIOS F8a would not allow the 955 to run at full speed, consequently there was a beta BIOS ma79xds5.f8c available from GB. I grabbed that and stored it on a floppy and figured I'd update the BIOS before putting in the 955. Well.. that didn't work but luckly the dualbios feature did work and it recovered OK to the earlier version.
So, seeing as other people weren't having issues with the BIOS with the 955 installed I proceeded to rip apart the computer and pop in the new cpu. Everything went ok, I fired it up got into Vista and low and behold it's running at 1600mhz just as everyone else was too. Ok, so l decided to bite the bullet and try the new BIOS.
Well POOPIE!! That was the end of life as I know it. The BIOS installed ok, no errors nothing unusual so I reset the machine and nothing. Just constant restarts with no post and the long beep and two shorts (Video error). The 3870x2 was lighting two of it's diagnostic LED's also D25 and D31 (try and find what that means :/ )
After reading this whole thread and a couple others and trying everything on here including reseating the vid card, removing the vidcard, removing all but one dimm, pulled the Xonar, unplugging all USB, Lan and Sata drives.. nothing. I pulled the battery jumpered the clear pins overnight and nothing.
So, I made an MSDOS boot disk and added the current BIOS along with the autoexec and the flash program from GB, put that in restarted and nothing. But then I remembered reading CONTROL-HOME will activate the floppy so I gave that a bunch of tries and presto it started reading the floppy. I went for breakfast, came back, pulled the floppy and reset the machine. Well whatdayaknow? It actually booted up, posted and has been working fine since. Now I have a 955 sitting here I can't use until GB actually gets a BIOS that works.
What I don't understand is the video error and why my computer and not others.

Anyhow, thanks to all that posted, I was almost ready to order a nice shiny AM3 board which I can't afford.

Spider: Phenom 9600BE, Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5, Asus 3870x2, ASUS Xonar D2X pcie, 4 x 1gig OCZ2N1066SR2GK @800, OCZ StealthXstream 600w, Antec 900 case.
Vista x64 HP SP1
#2 Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 1950pro, Asus A8V-D, Enermax 465P
#3 2500 Barton, x800xl, ASUS A7N8X-E, Antec 400

So all good now, or do you still need a BIOS? Here is a proper F8c, maybe you grabbed an incorrect version? Or maybe it has since been updated? I know if it did have issues they would not have left it an active link

http://ggts.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/755980/ma79xds5.f8c

Load optimized, then save/apply/reboot to Qflash and flash the BIOS. Then exit/reboot and enter the BIOS and load optimized defaults then save/apply/reboot back to the BIOS and disable your quiet and cool and you should be good to go


You may need to raise/set your own voltages in order for it not to corrupt the BIOS and need the recovery and have issues with your x2 card. I would manually set your ram voltage, North Bridge/Memory Controller, Memory, and South Bridge a bit higher then stock. CPU maybe a lot higher just so you get going

Do keep in mind also, official 955 Support has been removed for your board
GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - CPU Support List - GA-MA790FX-DS5 (rev. 1.0)

[Hardwood]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

Thanks Lsdmeasap, that Beta F8c is bit for bit identical to the two other downloads I tried.
The computer is working fine with the 9600 and 3870x2 with BIOS F8a (and every other BIOS for the last 14months).
I see they removed the 955 as supported, which was just after I convinced them it's not my vid card.

FWIW, when I did flash to f8c, I rebooted and that's it, no POST, just fans and HD activity. Control-Home got the floppy going and it reloaded the old BIOS from a bootdisk. Pheww..
I'll wait for another version of the BIOS. One No POST Episode is enough.

Thanks though.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

Well it could have just been a glitch when you flashed to F8c, it happens sometimes, but if you are not willing to try it again then you may just have to wait for a newer BIOS. If you do try again, please set floppy as first boot device so you wont have an issue there, and also try with one stick of ram and load optimized before and after the flash

Of course since support has been removed that could mean they do not plan to support it ever so you may want to shoot them off an email to see if they have any further answers for you >>
GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Technical Service Zone

[Hardwood]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

Thanks for your interest,

For the record, the first try with F8c with the 9600 still in didn't post either, but dualBIOS did work allowing me to recover. I bought the 955 a week later, it booted with the F8a but ran slow (acknowledged problem but I had to try).
Flashed to F8C with the 955 in and no post again and no dualBIOS to help recover.
I am in contact with GB support and they claim a "final" BIOS will be available.. eventually.
Oddly enough F8C works for people with 955 and 4870x2 but not my 3870x2. The one difference in the two cards is the PCIe on the 3870x2 is version 1.0 (internal bridge (PBX) chipset issue) and the new GPU's are using Version 2.0.

Thanks again.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

Well that is good to hear they will eventually add it to the support list!

Very odd about the GFX Cards, so it is the card that is incomptible with the BIOS and not the board then. Did you tell them about that, you should. Sounds like it may be time to upgrade and sell the 3870 then?

[Hardwood]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

Sell the 3870x2?? ACK! No chance of that. It will be "dump this mobo" long before that.

Yup, it's just this one Beta BIOS that doesn't like the vid card, keeping in mind I don't have another vid card to test with, but I have seen other posters with other vidcards using this Beta BIOS successfully.

And yes I've explained that a few times. That doesn't mean they "get it" though. :/

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

Ahh well I just meant that because most users update their GFX cards often anyway.

So maybe it is just your brand of card then since you see others using it without issue? Or do they have the same brand as well? Maybe a different BIOS on the card? Did you try using a different card with the new BIOS and raising the PCIE Voltage a bit and SB Voltage some to see if that corrects the issue? That could be the problem, but of course you would need a second PCIE or PCI Card to do that, and of course flash back in the other BIOS again...