EP35-DS4 failed BIOS flash - dead system

[DamianSewo]

instructions

[profJim]

Re: EP35-DS4 failed BIOS flash - dead system

Your motherboard does have dual bios chips, see the red box in the attached picture.
You might be able to follow the steps in http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte...ng-failed.html to boot from the backup bios chip.
Extreme care is required when attempting this fix.
I recommend removing the motherboard from the computer case when attempting to jumper the main bios chip.

Can you try booting with a low end PCI video card?
Have you disconnected all hardware that is not needed to boot into the bios?

[DamianSewo]

Re: EP35-DS4 failed BIOS flash - dead system

It's a pleasant surprise to see that I do have dual bios. Thank you for this! Indeed 2 chips on my mobo. I followed the instructions you gave me by shorting pin 5 and 6 very carefully and powering up (it is easier to do then shorting pin 4 and 7 described in the first post in that thread). This gave me good news and bad news.

The good news is that after a few attempts I got video!!! The first thing I did was go into the bios and load the optimized defaults and reboot. The bad news is that after doing so and rebooting I could not get video any more! Afterwards I was in exactly the same situating with exactly the same symptoms as before . I have been trying for 3 hours now to repeat this trick without any luck. I just don't understand it! I also cleared cmos again, but whatever I do, no video.

The time that I did get to see video (after I jumped 2 meters in the air) I saw that cmos was cleared but that it loaded bios F7d. This can be the latest bios, or the bios version before that one. Because my last version was a modded version with exactly the same version number as the previous one: F7d. I also got the same 2 long beeps when it worked.

Another thing: I noticed that I can enter bios when I unplug my video card! When I do so the long beeps are exactly the same, but afterwards I can get to bios and get it to load stuff. It is difficult because I can't see anything, but I know how to load failsafe or optimized settings, and this works. But it doesn't change the situation. When my video card is plugged in my keyboard doesn't respond to anything, even capslock and numlock don't work.

All other hardware was disconnected this whole time. Only 1 ram module, PS2 keyboard and vga or dvi cable. I also tried again with a different video card. Both are medium end video cards, unfortunately I don't have a low end videocard to try.

Anyhow, I just don't understand this whole situation!

[profJim]

Re: EP35-DS4 failed BIOS flash - dead system

See if you can get back into the bios by shorting the #5 and #6 pins.
Go to the boot priority settings and set your floppy drive as the first boot device.
This should let you perform a blind flash using a floppy disk if you want to replace the Main bios.
Your initial goal right now is to be able to reliably boot and get into the bios.
Your best bet might be to do a blind flash if needed or to enter Qflash and use the most recent un-modded bios to hopefully get a functional and stable system.

Before you save settings and exit, go into Qflash and see if there is an option to copy the Backup bios to the Main bios.
I don't know whether or not a lower end PCI video card will help.
It might be worth a try if you can buy one at a low price.

Another thought, try booting with a usb keyboard or a different PS/2 keyboard.
Lsdme is our former guru and I would be inclined to follow his recommendations.
If shorting pins #5 and #6 doesn't work, carefully try shorting pins #4 and #7.

[DamianSewo]

Re: EP35-DS4 failed BIOS flash - dead system

If I can get into the bios and see video the best thing is to flash immediately with qflash right?

But when I have to do it blind it's really a pain. I also don't have a floppy drive. But a bootable usb does exactly the same right. So what I could do is to change usb drive as the primary drive. Or maybe when there isn't any other drive it automatically has usb drive as the primary boot device? But for now the only way to get into the bios blind is by removing the videocard. Is it even possible to get to the point of loading something without a video card present?

I keep on trying to get video...

[profJim]

Re: EP35-DS4 failed BIOS flash - dead system

I've never tried booting using a bootable usb flash drive but it might work automatically with no other connected drives.
The bios file and the flashing utility would both need to be in the root directory for a blind flash to work.
An AUTOEXEC.bat file would need a single line of code with the correct command line parameters that will suppress ALL user prompts.
You will need to do a web search for the correct parameters for AWDFLASH.
If you need more detailed help with the command line parameters, send a PM to NoJuan999 and ask him to reply in this thread.

[profJim]

Re: EP35-DS4 failed BIOS flash - dead system

Pages 68 - 70 in your motherboard user manual describe using Qflash.
It looks like a usb flash drive can be used.
It is recommend to set Keep DMI Data to Disable and I think that the right arrow key will change the default Enable setting to Disable.
The Qflash options are minimal with only one drive connected to the system.
Make sure that your usb drive is formatted to FAT32 or FAT16 before you put the extracted bios file on the drive.

With some luck, you might be able to use QFlash even if your video isn't working.

[DamianSewo]

Re: EP35-DS4 failed BIOS flash - dead system

SUCCES !!!!!

It cost my 2 full days but I managed to get my system running again. Thanks to this thread and the incredible amount of knowledge on this forum.

The solution was pretty straightforward: With my video card connected I didn't got video and my keyboard wasnt responding. But when removing the video card the keyboard did respond. I made a bootable usb stick with flashspi.exe, autoexec.bat and the stable biosfile. autoexec.bat contained only the following: flashspi /c /e /r xxxxxxxx.xxx , xx being the biosfile. This I runned blind, and it worked!! I think I reflashed it 5 times, because I didn't want to shut down the pc in the middle of the flash procedure.

But I didn't stop there. Because I still want to have my modded bios and I want to understand what went wrong in the first place. So I decided to qflash it to the modded bios. It worked. Then I went into bios and loaded the optimized defaults. And then I got the same problem, NO VIDEO. So now I know what caused this problem; loading the optimized defaults! My modded bios works just fine when not loading the optimized defaults. It does have 2 long beeps before post, but it works.

So now my question is: why do you need to load optimized defaults after a bios flash, and how come in my case it's backwards?

[profJim]

Re: EP35-DS4 failed BIOS flash - dead system

Glad to hear that you've been able to get your motherboard working!

Loading Optimized bios defaults is the standard procedure before you reapply your bios settings.
Despite its name, loading Fail Safe bios defaults often causes problems.
Apparently your modded bios is not compatible with loading Optimized bios defaults.
I don't have an explanation why this happens with your motherboard.