Gigabyte Bios Flash

Sandycheeks

Sandycheeks

Sandycheeks

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Hi all,
F2A88XM-D3H rev3. (F1)

I have tried and failed to flash to latest bios...can some kind person help.

First, I made a bootable usb drive with the HP thingy and the DOS files etc..
I then downloaded the newer bios F4 and extracted and placed on usb drive.
I placed it into usb 2 socket and entered the Qflash utility.
I get the message "Q flash utility out of date"
I then try bios F5 and get same again.
I then tried a newer usb drive with both bios versions (not at the same time)
I then tried usb 3 slot.
I then tried @bios_select file from pc.
message " please update to latest version of @BIOS"
I updated @BIOS to the only version available from Gigabyte website and try again but still nothing.
I get message "please update @BIOS to latest version" when trying to select file from pc.

I am about an hour from throwing the thing through the window...please help.

I only want to update as when setting RAM to XMP it seems to cause BSODs.
and the newer F5 bios states to have better memory support.
 
Hi, did you read your motherboard manual on how to flash your Bios, l had a G85A UD5 and before flashing you had to Load Optimized Drivers.

Then when flashing the Bios is done you had to Load Optimized Drivers again, before changing anything in the Bios.

Read your mobo manual it might help you solve your problem.
 
Isn't the Gigabyte @BIOS program for flashing the BIOS within windows?

Isn't there a way to do it fully externally? I'll have a look too.

UEFI - http://www.gigabyte.com/webpage/20/images/utiltiy_qflash_uefi.pdf

Norm - http://www.gigabyte.com/webpage/20/images/utility_qflash.pdf

------

You're using two different kinds of Bios flashing by the looks of it, Qflash and @BIOS, you only need to use one.

Edit: Also make sure the USB is Fat12/16/32 formatted, NTFS doesn't work with Qflash I don't think. If this doesn't work you can also create a 20mb partition on one of your HDD in Fat32 and put the Bios files there.


Worst comes to worst I think there's some external flashing programs that work with certain Gigabyte mobos, but that's getting more and more risky.
 
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I read the mobo manual and it seems simple enough - but doesn't work (for me).
I tried @BIOS when I got feed up of trying to use Q-flash.

I wouldn't say I'm computer savvy but I'm not a nidiot also.
This should be as easy as following the instructions.

How can the Q-flash utility be out of date ?
The USB sticks- 1 is 4years old 2GB PNY formatted to FAT32.
the other is 6 months old 8GB Sandisk (win 8 ready) also formatted to FAT32.
The Q-flash utility reads the file and then says "the Q-flash utility is out of date"

Flummoxed !
 
Sandycheeks said:
I read the mobo manual and it seems simple enough - but doesn't work (for me).
I tried @bios when I got feed up of trying to use Q-flash.

I wouldn't say I'm computer savvy but I'm not a nidiot also.
This should be as easy as following the instructions.

How can the Q-flash utility be out of date ?
The USB sticks- 1 is 4years old 2GB PNY formatted to FAT32.
the other is 6 months old 8GB Sandisk (win 8 ready) also formatted to FAT32.
The Q-flash utility reads the file and then says "the Q-flash utility is out of date"

Flummoxed !
Click to expand...

Ah.. ok I've been reading and apparently there's an issue with Qflash and @BIOS in which if the BIOS you're updating to is of a larger size than the one currently in use, it sees this as an error.

http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/BIOS/mb_bios_ga-f2a88xm-d3h_f6a.exe

That's the latest Bios update - Try that with @BIOS


Latest @BIOS version from the Asia part of Gigabyte - http://download.gigabyte.asia/FileList/Utility/motherboard_utility_gbttools_gbt_atbios.exe / People reporting that this version works when the European one didn't. worth trying.



Read this - http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2249189 - Seems to fix your problem.

If all of that doesn't work let me know and I'll keep trying :D
 
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I tried to use the EFI file also but get error message "File size incorrect"
I assume it would say the same if the F5 bios was the wrong size.
The link you posted is to the F6a. Beta Bios, I didn't think of trying this as it won't accept the F4 or F5.
 
While general advice isn't to flash within Windows - you have to be pretty unlucky these days to mess up with @BIOS aslong as your sensible and close down any background programs, flash using it, reboot, check BIOS settings are correct/re-entered.
 
Install latest @BIOS then download the latest BIOS release from the product page on their web-site and use @BIOS to manually flash the file, the @BIOS internal links seem to be a bit hit and miss if they point to an actual existing file for some reason.

EDIT: Ah see you tried that - it should work :S

EDIT2: If your getting BSOD with the XMP settings it could be that the memory controller simply can't handle the XMP timings/frequency/amount of RAM no matter what BIOS you use, you will probably have more joy looking at slightly increasing the relevant voltages for the controller and/or reducing frequency and tightening timings instead.
 
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It's on my sons PC that we built for xmas and he's home from school now and using it so will have to have another go over the weekend.
The system is solid, it just annoys me that I can't run the ram at the advertised speed.
I will set the timings and DRAM manually to see if the XMP undervolts at all.

Thanks for the input.
 
This shouldn't be that hard to do.

You dont need a bootable USB drive, just stick the extracted BIOS file on to a USB stick.

Is the BIOS the correct one for the board?

Try doing the flashes in increments (F2, F3 etc) maybe the Qflash was upgraded on one of the prior BIOS's (unlikely)
 
" This shouldn't be that hard to do. "
I know, it's really frustrating.
The first time I tried it was about 2 weeks ago with a standard USB stick but it wouldn't work so I left it alone until now.
I tried formatting the USB stick to NTFS and FAT32 and tried both ways.
I will have another attempt soon and report back.
There doesn't appear to be a F2 or F3.
Only F1 (original) then F4 > F5 > F6a (beta).
I want to upgrade the chip-set drivers etc...am I correct in thinking these will have to be re-installed after BIOS update.
 
it has to be fat32 your memory stick

you should be able to flash back n forth to any bios version (although there is a one off flash somewhere along the line that you have to do with @BIOS so that it also updates qflash to allow for the larger 2mb and above bios files to be flashed) once done you can go back to flashing through qflash

and no your chipset drivers wont need re installing as that's to do with windows not the bios
 
Hi

Please update the BIOS to the latest version with the EFI Flash tool included in the zip file.

Make the USB flask disk as bootable. You need the boot disk program to make it as bootable.

Then copy those BIOS files (after extract) into the USB flash disk.

In the DOS mode C:> flashefi.exe <BIOS Filename>
 
Sandycheeks said:
Hi all,
F2A88XM-D3H rev3. (F1)

I have tried and failed to flash to latest bios...can some kind person help.

First, I made a bootable usb drive with the HP thingy and the DOS files etc..
I then downloaded the newer bios F4 and extracted and placed on usb drive.
I placed it into usb 2 socket and entered the Qflash utility.
I get the message "Q flash utility out of date"
I then try bios F5 and get same again.
I then tried a newer usb drive with both bios versions (not at the same time)
I then tried usb 3 slot.
I then tried @bios_select file from pc.
message " please update to latest version of @bios"
I updated @bios to the only version available from Gigabyte website and try again but still nothing.
I get message "please update @bios to latest version" when trying to select file from pc.

I am about an hour from throwing the thing through the window...please help.

I only want to update as when setting RAM to XMP it seems to cause BSODs.
and the newer F5 bios states to have better memory support.
Click to expand...

I have exactly the same problem with trying to flash the BIOS on my Gigabyte
GA-F2A88XN-WIFI, To get it to work with my AMD A10 7850K.
I purchased a FM2 processor to allow me to flash the BIOS and hit exactly the same problems as the OP.
On the Gigabyte forums I was also told to use the EFI flash utility only when I opened it it said it was not compatible, I am going to rma the damn board as I am really ****ed off.
n
 
You have read post#17 about making a usb bootable drive and putting the flash_bios on that and typing in a certain command at the prompt?
 
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