BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

[stasio]

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

For me the easiest way is by Q-Flash(F8).Have deducated partition with 50MB (FAT32),on my HD and no any issue at all.

[R_Hollandtekk]

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

For me the easiest way is by Q-Flash(F8).Have deducated partition with 50MB (FAT32),on my HD and no any issue at all.

What? I can't even.. Wow, clever as heck Needed much with 4gb+ flash drives. Can i force a format of fat32 with 8gb flash drive?

[Lsdmeasap]

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

Yes I agree with Stasio, not only is it nicer and easier to keep a FAT32 partition on your hard drive, it also allows you not to have to worry about USB incompatibilities or issues. And it can also save you in time of a bad flash or BIOS corruption as well.

I keep a 1GB partition on my drives as well, just in case. I keep a few BIOS versions on the partition as well.

[kevindd992002]

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

Hi, I'm new here :)

Can you (OP) explain step-by-step the process of clearing the CMOS? I'm not sure if I understand correctly the procedures in the first page. This is how I understand it:

1. Shutdown computer, unplug power cord, and let it rest for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

2. Plug in the 2-pin jumper and press and hold the power switch button for 1 minute.

3. Let go of the power switch button, and wait for 20 minutes.

4. After 20 minutes, remove the jumper.

5. Plug the cord, and start the computer.

6. Go to BIOS and load optimized defaults.


Is that correct? So all in all, you would be waiting about 21 minutes?

Also, I have the Ep45-UD3P board, is F101f known to be a stable BIOS revision? Or is it still F10b?

Is it also normal for this board to have this kind of behavior "sometimes", when I save and exit from the BIOS the computer will shutdown and then turn on and then for about 5 seconds will turn off and then for about 5 seconds again it will turn on and proceed to POST and everything will be back to normal? It's like it's giving an extra on/off sequence. This occurs randomly though, so I don't know if it's normal or not?

Thanks for your help :)

[Lsdmeasap]

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

Yes, that all is correct!

Often you do not "Have" to wait 20 minutes, but I suggest it just in case so no issues arise as it is better to wait 20 minutes than to wait for a RMA if things go badly.

Sometimes it only takes a few seconds, just so you know.

Not sure which BIOS is best for your board, but I personally always suggest and use the latest Beta BIOSes

Yes that is normal procedure, sometimes when changing certain settings the board must shut down to apply the new settings, then shut down and restart to check and verify they work then it will boot through to windows. All very normal, and only happens sometimes depending on what you have changed and or what was previously set.

If this happens and you see a Red Warning in the MIT Section of the BIOS after it is done with the cycle then you have set incorrect settings and defaults will be loaded and used no matter what appears to be set in the BIOS. If you are not seeing this warning then everything is normal

[kevindd992002]

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

Yes, that all is correct!

Often you do not "Have" to wait 20 minutes, but I suggest it just in case so no issues arise as it is better to wait 20 minutes than to wait for a RMA if things go badly.

Sometimes it only takes a few seconds, just so you know.

Not sure which BIOS is best for your board, but I personally always suggest and use the latest Beta BIOSes

Yes that is normal procedure, sometimes when changing certain settings the board must shut down to apply the new settings, then shut down and restart to check and verify they work then it will boot through to windows. All very normal, and only happens sometimes depending on what you have changed and or what was previously set.

If this happens and you see a Red Warning in the MIT Section of the BIOS after it is done with the cycle then you have set incorrect settings and defaults will be loaded and used no matter what appears to be set in the BIOS. If you are not seeing this warning then everything is normal

Great. :)

Is it recommended to clear the CMOS before and after updating the BIOS firmware?

Also, if I clear the CMOS but followed the instructions in the first post regarding the "updating the BIOS when in a RAID setup", would my RAID be corrupted or not?

[Lsdmeasap]

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

Well it is not a must, but is recommended if you are putting in new components. If you are not, then you can simply flash and load optimized and you will be fine.

If you are using RAID please follow my guide about that, clearing the CMOS before/after wont matter as you will HAVE TO remember to set RAID in the BIOS and change hard disk boot order once you are done with all of the process no matter how you choose to do it.

Your array WILL be corrupt if you forgot to do this and try to load windows, or accidentally let the board boot past the BIOS without making the changes back to RAID

[StrongMind]

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

Hello everyone,

I have a Gigabyte motherboard (Model: GA-8I945G) and did a BIOS update using @BIOS software from Gigabyte (before i read this thread)

I used the software to download and update the BIOS from the internet. After I downloaded the update, it asked me to restart my system; and you know the rest . I did reboot my PC but unfortunately it is not starting. When the system starts, I can hear the fan running but nothing appears on the screen; and after a while (less than 5 min.) it shuts down again. I was using WindowsXP.

I don't know what to do now. Is there a possible solution or do I have to throught the motherboard in the garbage and get a new one !?

I appreciate it if anyone can help or advise.

Thanks

[Lsdmeasap]

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

Sorry to hear!

There is a few things you can try before you would have to RMA the board. First you can try clearing the CMOS, use the method I outline here in post #2 (page one of this thread) >>

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide-27576/

If you do not have any luck with that, please try starting the machine with NO Hard drives connected, and only one CD/DVD drive (IDE first if you have it, then SATA). When using SATA CD/DVD Drive plug the drive into SATA2_0 port, then put in your motherboard CD and try to start the machine, let it run for a while. Do this a few times, sometimes it will pull the hidden BIOS from the motherboard CD's.

If neither of those methods help, since this board has only one BIOS, you may have to try one more thing. Then if that does not work you will have to RMA the board, or get a new one. You must have a floppy drive to try this, on the first page of this guide, please try the method mentioned "Blind Flashing"

[StrongMind]

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

I tried cleaning the CMOS as mentioned earlier, but it didn't work ... i will try the other two methods ...

Well ... there is one thing i didn't mention ... before I did BIOS update, i formatted my hard disk and did a new windows installation; which means I changed the booting priority in the BIOS settings to be for the CD first then the hard disk ... this would definitely have ruined everything, right?

another thing, what do you mean by "RMA" the board?

[Lsdmeasap]

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

Well, did you try clearing the CMOS using the long method I outline? If not, please do try as sometimes this is necessary.

No, your boot priority and all that would be reset after a BIOS update anyway, so this would not matter.

What screen are you seeing anyway when you start the machine? Any at all?

Have you tried starting the machine with only one stick of ram in slot one yet? If not try that now as well.

RMA means Return Merchandise Authorization, meaning send the board in to Gigabyte for repair or replacement. You can only do this for 3 years after purchase though

[StrongMind]

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

Yes, I did try the long method of clearing the CMOS where I have to use the jumper, remove the battery, wait for 20 min. ... etc. But, it didn't work.

This is the problem, I don't see anything on the screen :S; the monitor gives "No Signal".

Now, I will try two things. First removing one RAM stick. Then, I will try booting the machine without hard drive; only with CD drive.

I don't think I can RMA the machine since I purchased it more than 3 years ago.

[Lsdmeasap]

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

Ahh ya you would not be able to RMA then.

Go ahead and try one stick of ram in slot one. Other then that you may be out of luck since this board only has one BIOS chip.

Unless.... You can solder? If you can, I can send you a link to a ebay seller that can send you a new BIOS chip, but you would have to be able to solder/de-solder. This would be your last resort before a RMA which you can't do or throwing the board away

[StrongMind]

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

Unfortunately, nothing works ... It seems that I'm throughing this board away and getting a new one ...

Any suggestion? I'm thinking about GA-G41M-ES2L; does it fit with my old processor (Pentium 4 - single core - socket 775)? is it a good board in general?

[EvanOfCaerleon]

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

Thank you Lsdmeasap this thread is very helpful, much appreciated

I'm running an EX58-UD5 and looking to update BIOS to F7

I got the mobo in a bundle from overclockers.co.uk last May, the board runs fine but lately I did need to reset the BIOS (button at the back) on getting crashes with hyper-threading enabled

I can see from your advice that I didn't reset BIOS to default settings after the BIOS reset and so I see a (checksum) warning message as the machine boots up - but there are no other problems and a clean Win7 install at the weekend is running fine

I've got a 4GB FAT32 USB drive ready with the F7 BIOS and will do the Q-Flash (yes not the @ one, I spotted your warnings in time) :) in a day or two but a question please?

The motherboard came with the CPU already overclocked to 4GHz and that worked with no problems at all. My resetting the BIOS a couple of weeks ago would have lost the overclock I think and I'm contacting overclockers for details of the overclock

But I'm wondering- maybe the original overclocked settings are backed up on the BIOS chip and I can switch those settings in while booting up, I have the bootup '2oz copper' image coming up with a few keys advised at the bottom of the screen, Delete for BIOS setup and so on. Do you know if it's possible to switch back in the original overclocked BIOS settings? One mobo I had used to do that but I'm not sure if it's this one and softly softly treading carefully :)

Thanks again for your QFlash guide and your welcome advice!

Peter

Machine spec-
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz @ 4.00GHz
Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 Motherboard
OCZ Gold 6GB DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz DDR3