Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

[VimesUK]

Hi

I noticed a new BIOS out for my board and so to Q-Flash. All went well and was verified fine. But trying to reboot and it will power on with fans but then nothing. I have reset the CMOS but that has not helped.

Is there a way to boot the board to the backup BIOS or is that not possible with this board..?

I have noted this...

Quote:

Permanent damage from power surge or failure during BIOS update, can be avoided with GIGABYTE DaulBIOS, which automatically enables a secondary, back up BIOS. GIGABYTE also uses Anti-Surge ICs to protect the motherboard against power surges.

...but do not know how it is used..?

Any help please

[Acebmxer]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

First try removing all hardware except for 1 stick of ram, keyboard, mouse, Monitor plugged into igpu or on board video. Make sure all other usb device are removed including the flash drive or what ever you used to flash with bios with.

If that does not work try using a jumper to clear cmos with PSU unplugged and cmos battery removed. Leave the jumper on for up to 1-2 hrs and then try.

[VimesUK]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

Thanks for that :)

I had removed the board from the case and let it stand for an hour without battery. I had only 1 stick of RAM installed and the onboard GPU was being used. With mouse and keyboard plugged in I then tested to find just the same black screen, after I had cleared the CMOS.

Sadly it seems to have died which really frustrates me and illustrates how vulnerable we can be when flashing a BIOS regardless of what features are built into a board.

[Acebmxer]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

One time I had flashed my z77x-ud3h and thought it was a bad flash it turned out to be my usb stick. Which never had problems before and still has no problems but that one time the system would not boot after flashing bios with that flash drive still plugged in.

The second bios should kick in but for what ever reason it is not. You can short 2 pins on main bios that will force the backup bios to flash the main bios. I dont have the exact details on this handy, you can try searching the forum as it has been posted before. I believe its pins 6&7 but dont hold me to it untill you or someone else verifies that.

[VimesUK]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

I used to like it when the BIOS chips were socketed as at least I could have a spare reprogrammed ready to hotflash if needed. Having the dual BIOS is fine if there was a mechanical way to switch it on the board, a bit like the BIOS switch on some graphics cards.

I will do a little more reading to see what I can find. But it does seem dead for now and maybe a trip to my retailer will be needed.

Thanks for your help :)

[Acebmxer]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

Try this.

It is possible to make the BIOS Auto-Recovery kick in (Dual BIOS) and re-flash the MAIN BIOS with the contents of the BACKUP BIOS.

This is a simple and easy method for anyone to try before having to resort to other more difficult methods, or a RMA.

1. Shut off the power supply using the switch on the back of the PSU, wait 10-15 seconds.
2. Press and hold the case Power On swtich, then while still holding turn on the power supply from the switch on the rear.
3. Still holding the case power on switch, the board will start, once it does release the case power on switch and shut off the power supply via the switch on the read of the unit. (Do the latter two parts as quickly as you can once the board starts)
4. The board will shut down.
5. Turn the power supply back on using the switch on the rear of the unit.
6. Turn on the motherboard by pressing the case power on button.

Once the board starts this time you should see the Gigabyte splash screen, or POST page, then the Auto-Recovery from Dual BIOS will kick in. You will see a checksum error, and then recovery from BACKUP BIOS will begin. Once it is done reboot your machine and enter the BIOS and load optimized defaults then save/apply/reboot back to BIOS.

Now you are done, and will be using whatever BIOS was in your BACKUP BIOS, From there you can attempt whatever you were previously trying, or update your BIOS to the latest version.

[VimesUK]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

I really appreciate you writing that and I did follow it, several times, but alas in my case no luck.

I am at the point of returning it to the supplier after trying all the above. I will leave it out of my case without the battery and try one more time tomorrow before it will be returned.

Thank you very much for taking your time in helping me :)

[Acebmxer]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

If you want to try the shorting pin method send a PM to Profjim, wazza300, LSDMEASAP they should help you with shorting the main bios chip.

[VimesUK]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

Thanks I will do that and refer them to this thread.

Thanks again for your help :)

EDIT: I have sent a pm now.

[wazza300]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

idk the bios pin short method,only lsdmeasap knows,if you short the wrong ones it will brick the bios chip

tried a longer cmos clear? leaving mb battery out for 30mins or overnight? doesnt that board have onboard bios switch,tried back up bios

[VimesUK]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

Thanks :)

I will leave the board overnight and see what happens in the morning. At the very worse I do not mind returning the board to my supplier with a dead flash, as tha tis just one of those things. But I'm less likely to wish to try something which could kill the board which could only compromise the warranty. Unless I'm sure about shorting the pins I would prefer to return it.

Morning brings a whole new day :)

Thank you again for your help :)

[VimesUK]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

This board does not have a BIOS switch ( I will know better next time).

As far as I'm concerned the board is dead since the successful flash of BIOS 16a yesterday. In a way I was annoyed at myself about becoming too complacent on flashing a newer BIOS assuming because it had worked before so many times that it would continue to work. Regardless of me seeing two soldered BIOS chips on the motherboard there doe not seem to be a way to get it to boot from the backup chip. I suppose that is why you pay extra for the board with the switch.

I have tried most of the morning following the advice in this thread (thanks for the help) but now the board is boxed and the receipt sourced and to be returned.

Again I am just mentioning how vulnerable you can be when flashing a BIOS, even if it does go fine, with verification, during that process.

My system is being built back up now and maybe I will not be as likely to flash a BIOS just for the sake of doing that in the future.!?

[wazza300]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

it should have worked fine if you used qflash,did you try whats in this guide to envoke the back up bios?

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

[VimesUK]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

If you are referring to the section

BIOS Recover Method Via Manually Invoking BACKUP BIOS Auto-Recovery
Using Power Supply - On/Off Switch

then Yes I did.

The best that I can get a very short click sound from the speaker. By removing all the RAM I get the usual long series of beeps.

I did and always have used Q-Flash. It read the BIOS file and flashed and then successfully verified it. I had previously flashed the board without any issue before but this time with the Z77D3H.F16a BIOS it just did not work.

[wazza300]

Re: Gigabyte Z77 D3H BIOS flash failure

did you try with just one ram stick installed and did you leave cmos battery out overnight?

could also take out your graphic card and test with onboard graphics just to rule out gpu and mb bios incompatibility ect