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Dual BIOS issues

Evil Scooter

Evil Scooter

[H]F Junkie
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Sep 22, 2000
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So a few weeks ago I thought I nuked my Gigabyte X570 AORUS MASTER via a direct short in the video card.

Replaced it with like kind with one I purchased from a forum member.

Could not stand the thought of shitcanning it so I gave it a last ditch effort using my older sons PC as a test bed and I've been able to get it up and running on the backup BIOS. YAY!

The weird. I've reflashed the main BIOS several times with different (current, from last year) BIOS's but still cannot get the system it to boot from it. Onboard mobo diagnostic LED's say VGA issue. Switch over to the backup BIOS and it boots normally. . .??

Is it possible to have actually toasted the primary BIOS while leaving the backup intact? I mean.. one BIOS is plenty and my son whose system I'm going to upgrade with this mobo will never know the difference. I'm happy to see the board alive. Just seems odd I can reflash the BIOS but it's still nuked?

Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?
 
If you are not getting any errors while you are flashing a clean BIOS then the SPI part should be fine. Have you tried to clear the CMOS while on the problem BIOS, it looks like there is a button on the on the back IO. If the button doesn't seem to work to clear the CMOS you can also just removed the coin cell battery from the motherboard for a few hours. It could be that there is saved config data causing the issue.
 
UnknownSeeker said:
If you are not getting any errors while you are flashing a clean BIOS then the SPI part should be fine. Have you tried to clear the CMOS while on the problem BIOS, it looks like there is a button on the on the back IO. If the button doesn't seem to work to clear the CMOS you can also just removed the coin cell battery from the motherboard for a few hours. It could be that there is saved config data causing the issue.
Click to expand...
That's the oddity to me.. the flash completes without issue. I have tried clearing the BIOS with the button on the motherboard. I'm going to unplug it and remove the battery method next... thanks!
 
UnknownSeeker said:
If you are not getting any errors while you are flashing a clean BIOS then the SPI part should be fine. Have you tried to clear the CMOS while on the problem BIOS, it looks like there is a button on the on the back IO. If the button doesn't seem to work to clear the CMOS you can also just removed the coin cell battery from the motherboard for a few hours. It could be that there is saved config data causing the issue.
Click to expand...
Welp.. that did not work either. Popped the battery out and unplugged for a few hours. Still will not boot from primary bios. backup bios came right up and asked for reconfig as it should after being reset.

Might just be running off the backup BIOS. Only thing that bothers me a lil about running off the backup is I cannot get any info on what firmware version the backup is. I've tried from the BIOS system info and the q-flash and both only show the main BIOS version. When I flash the main it asks if I want to flash the backup as well and so far I'm in "no way Jose" mode... I don't wanna "upgrade" back into not booting mode. :LOL:
 
Yeah, dunno what's up with gigabyte's 4xx/5xx series boards, but their firmware handling seems hit and miss.

I had a board without any way to manually switch, and when it swapped it left you scratching your head, because one minute you'd be OC'd on the latest version, and the next you'd be a few versions back on whatever you set the last time it swapped without you noticing. And if you pushed a bit too far, it wouldn't get far enough into the boot process to swap to the backup.

Anyway, if your board is supported, you may be able to flash the funky one from a Linux OS and see if that fixes it. You would want to first copy the firmware image to disk and compare it to one you downloaded, to confirm which one is the backup chip. Then you would write the new fw image using flashrom or fwupd. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux
 
Did you make sure you got the correct motherboard version BIOS, from the website it seems like there are two different trees Rev. 1.1/1.2Rev. 1.0.

If you are on the correct motherboard versions BIOS then you can also try using an older BIOS. (I assume you downloaded and are trying to flash the latest BIOS version.)

If you want to try using a different flashing utility then the manual says "Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS" so you can try using AFU i.e. "Aptio V Firmware Update Utility" (you can find it here). You may have to rename the BIOS file extension to .rom or .bin. With AFU I would try using the arguments /n /k /b /p.
 
UnknownSeeker said:
Did you make sure you got the correct motherboard version BIOS, from the website it seems like there are two different trees Rev. 1.1/1.2Rev. 1.0.

If you are on the correct motherboard versions BIOS then you can also try using an older BIOS. (I assume you downloaded and are trying to flash the latest BIOS version.)

If you want to try using a different flashing utility then the manual says "Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS" so you can try using AFU i.e. "Aptio V Firmware Update Utility" (you can find it here). You may have to rename the BIOS file extension to .rom or .bin. With AFU I would try using the arguments /n /k /b /p.
Click to expand...
Correct BIOS. The replacement board I purchased is a v1 and the one I am working on is a v1.2.

Tried a few from last year.. I might get into the wayback as you suggest and try a much older one. Cannot hurt at this point.

I'll try a diff flash utility if the older BIOS fails to work.

thx 4 suggestions
 
Evil Scooter said:
Tried a few from last year.. I might get into the wayback as you suggest and try a much older one. Cannot hurt at this point.

I'll try a diff flash utility if the older BIOS fails to work.

thx 4 suggestions
Click to expand...
How did it go?
 
Been without a CPU for a bit... used it in another system. Replacement just arrived. I will report back later this week.
 
learners permit said:
To flash a Gigabyte backup BIOS to the main BIOS, hold the power and reset buttons for 10 seconds.
Click to expand...
I can do that currently thru the backup BIOS. Issue is I don't wanna take any chances with it as it's the only one that works. If I can get the main BIOS up and running I'll update the backup too.
 
learners permit said:
Look here.
Click to expand...
New CPU just arrived so I'm going to get back into it this week. That's interesting. When I had a CPU in it, I could get into the flash utility from the backup BIOS and it claims to reflash the main bios successfully. While in the utility it asks if you want to flash the backup BIOS as well and I select no as it's the only working BIOS. The only thing he does differently in the link is flip the switch to the main bios (while in the backup BIOS) before reflashing. I'll give it a go and report back later this week... honey-do list is a bit backed up currently. Thanks for the link! ;)
 
learners permit said:
Look here.
Click to expand...
It worked!

Odd that they would not add that "minor" detail of flipping the bios switch back to the main bios while flashing from the backup in the docs anywhere. Flashed to the newest BIOS and let it reboot with the BIOS switch in the main BIOS position... magic!

You sir are a steely eyed missile man.. I owe ya a beer!
 
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