Dead Bios?

BluD · 19 Nov 2014 at 19:46

Hello, I have a feeling my main bios is dead, when i switch on my PC i get 2 clicks before it attempts to post. I think thats the mobo switching to the other bios as i thought i only got one click before. I wouldnt mind if it stayed on the second bios, but everytime i restart i think its trying to switch back to the main bios, which then causes it to either hang or restart again, i end up having to turn it off for a while then switch it on using the switch-bios button, which switches straight to the second bios and boots.

Back in the day when i killed a bios i would just order a new one and plug it in, or try a hot swap reflash, i guess i cant order these bios chips on the z77x udh5 as i wouldnt think most people would be willing to solder them in.

Anyone got any ideas? Maybe i can disable/remove the first bios? Or is it just a case of looking for a cheap second hand replacement mobo.

Cheers.

Doogles · 19 Nov 2014 at 20:01

I have no idea but I have heard of people soldiering new BIOS chips to there boards. My main BIOS corrupted once and fixed itself by using the second BIOS, if your first BIOS is dead though that won't work.

BluD · 19 Nov 2014 at 20:40

I was thinking along them lines, should be easy enough replacing the bios chip, i just dunno if they still sell the chips seperate, or if ya have to just salvage them from boards people have broken.

OhEsEcks · 19 Nov 2014 at 20:43

Sure it's not a dying BIOS battery?

BluD · 19 Nov 2014 at 20:53

Im not sure of anything

, the only thing that makes me think its a dead bios is the 2 clicks when i switch it on.

I've found a person selling replacement bios chips, i could do with sumone just restarting now on a similar board and seeing if you get 1 or 2 clicks please. If the extra click is it switching to the second bios i will just get one of these chips ordered and get a new one stuck in.

Also theres M_Bios and B_Bios, im guessing this is Main bios and Backup bios. Could anyone just confire that plz so i dont replace the wrong one

edit: confirm*

BluD · 20 Nov 2014 at 00:00

Oki seems my motherboard is reading the forum, i just restarted and it brought up a msg saying the BIOS is corrupted and will now be copied from the backup. After it reflashed the main bios it restarted and was immediately not posting again, so i had to manually switch to the backup bios.

The good news is that confirms my suspicions and i can just go ahead and replace the main bios. Oh well, the bios chip is a lot cheaper than a new mobo.

BluD · 27 Nov 2014 at 19:13

Bought a couple of new bios chips from a well known auction site and its working a treat again now. Its a bit more fiddly having to solder them in rather than just click them in, but was worth the messing around and saved buying new a Mobo.

I bought a spare for next time i ruin my bios, but if anyone else ruins their z77x UDH5 bios before i ruin mine lemme know and il send it over.

wazza300 · 27 Nov 2014 at 19:19

did you boot to bios on backup bios switch position,then while pc still on flick to main bios position and reflash main bios chip through qflash? it should have recovered it

(if it wasn't posting you will be on the older shipped bios after its recovered the main remember,so could have been gpu/xfire/pc memory issue)

BluD · 27 Nov 2014 at 20:08

Yeah i reflashed the main bios lots of times, it just kept going corrupt again. Qflash did recover it and told me it was reflashing it, but then after 1 or 2 restarts it was corrupt again and switching to the backup bios.

Once i got it up and running again i immediately ran lots of memory tests, i figured that was proberbly the main cause as i was overclocking my memory a few weeks before the bios went dead, but none of the tests found any problems, and the PC hasnt reset again yet even with me pushing the GPUs and CPU to their limit.

Luckily the guy who sold me the chips flashed them with a different bios revision to mine so i could see that it was working ok and wasnt just switching back ot the backup again.

I wish gigabyte had put a led next to each bios so ya could see which one is been used, it would have been much quicker to work out what was going on

BluD · 2 Dec 2014 at 22:19

Looks like you were right wazza, its all been going fine then out of nowhere the main bios is corrupt and needs reflashing again. Tested the memory overnight and that was fine, tested the CPU overnight that was fine, and tested the cross fire over night and was also fine. Also this problem started before i even got crossfire.

Im guessing its the Mobo thats had it, but im in 2 minds whether to get a new mobo or just go for a bundle and replace mobo/cpu/ram together and be on the safe side.

BluD · 3 Dec 2014 at 01:47

With wow raids starting this week i need a solid PC, so i ordered a 4790k bundle. Ill have to leave this mystery for another time.

Doogles · 3 Dec 2014 at 03:56

Good news for you is that second hand 3570k's sell for at least £100 and you can reuse the RAM.

BluD · 3 Dec 2014 at 14:00

I dont wanna risk reusing ram or CPU since i couldnt track down for sure what the problem was, i might buy a cheap PSU, case and mobo and make up a small media rig or summat next year.

wazza300 · 3 Dec 2014 at 14:40

sorry to hear its still playing up,idk why that is though,usually they are trouble free(the z77 up4 th board im using has been great)

I would still rma it back to gigabyte if its still in warranty

BluD · 3 Dec 2014 at 17:37

I dont think they would accept a RMA since i replaced the bios chips, i did a neat job so they proberbly woudlnt notice, but the writing on the chips is a little different from the original ones.

BluD · 3 Dec 2014 at 17:45

It's one of those things, i expect a few things to stop working from time to time when ya overclocking. Im quite looking forward to getting the new bits anyway, getting some 2400mhz Gskill ram, havent tried any high speed ram since last time i bought gskill about 10 years ago. Will be interesting to see what speed it does.