Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev 1.3) ... Win 7-64bit ... Successful upgrade to UEFI BIOS

[handygrandad]

Having recently succeeded in upgrading from The "Award" F13 to the" American Megatrends" U1e UEFI BIOS I would like to offer answers to some of the questions that led me to this point, and to pose two questions that have arisen since.


1) Is it worth the trouble?

I found the reduction in boot time remarkable : When setting up the U1e Bios I opted for the fastest boot option. The result is that there is only a second or two before Windows starts loading. No logo, no DOS echo ... straight into Windows with only two small niggles (I will come back to them at the end)


2) How do you upgrade to the UEFI BIOS on a Win 7 64bit system that does not recognise the new BIOS file and will not carry out the install using QBIOS, @Bios or the bat.file provided?

After trying many blind alleys, I created a bootable USB stick using the "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool V2.18" and a set of " Windows 98-Boot Disk Contents" from "allbootdisks". Then I copied the three new BIOS files (downloaded from Gigabyte) on to the USB stick. Finally I entered the existing Award BIOS to change the "First Boot" item to "USB FDD"(USB Floppy Disk Drive). With the USB stick in place I rebooted and waited while the screen displayed the process as the old BIOS was replaced with the new.


3) What do you need to change in the new BIOS setup.  

All settings from your earlier BIOS are lost and you have to start from scratch, with a mix of familiar, and some not so familiar entries to check. I would draw your attention to the distinction made between "Legacy" and "UEFI". I soon came to realise that the reference to UEFI in the BIOS refers to an operating system and hardware that has been installed with full UEFI compatibibility, whilst legacy refers to what I already had installed: a bog standard Win 7 (64bit) installation.

There are several BIOS entries that discriminate betweeen UEFI and Legacy, in my case I played safe and opted for the Legacy option each time.

I noticed that this had an impact on the drives that can be selected for "first boot". If you select UEFI it will only show UEFI compatible drives. This was one of my early mistakes which caused the BIOS to keep re-booting in a cycle, until I changed back to "Legacy" and the full list of available drives became available and I was able to select the correct drive for "first boot".

The old Award BIOS required you to select the AHCI option on two occasions in order to enable "hot swapping" of drives. In the UEFI BIOS you need to select each SATA drive in turn to enable hot swapping and there is also another separate option where you will need to select from IDE/RAID/AHCI.


4) Is there anything I need to do after updating the BIOS?

Oooooooh Yes ... (a la Churchill) ... Once Windows boots up it will automatically start re-installing "ALL" the drivers. The mistake I made was to think that it had finished this process ... when it hadn't ! ... ...  It takes a good few minutes, and just as it seems to have completed one batch of installations, it adds further items to the list. It's all automated, you just need to keep an eye on the progress by continually scrolling down the update window.

Later I discovered that I also needed to log back on to my wireless router and re-tune Windows Media Centre to my TV card and the available TV stations.


5) How do you get subsequent access to the new BIOS to overclock or modify other entries ?

I really struggled with this one for a while ... Here I was with a blisteringly fast boot, no boot logo, and no on-screen prompts. I discovered that the access key was the same as for the Award BIOS (i.e. the "delete" key), but the POST was so fast that I was unable to interupt the boot process. I was also concerned that my USB keyboard might not be effective this early in the boot process and I don't have a PS2 keyboard.

Eventually I decided that the only sure way to get the BIOS to show itself was to create a BIOS fault (i.e. a power failure). So by playing around with the Start button and quickly turning off the mains power, I eventually got the BIOS to show itself. Not very satisfactory, and I am open to any other solutions.


6) Can I use any of the Gigabyte BIOS utilities that previously gave me access to the BIOS from within Windows ?

No, in fact Gigabyte recommend these are uninstalled before updating to a The American Megatrends UEFI BIOS.


So, what are the problems I am left with?


1) How do I get my PC to "Sleep"?

If I select "sleep" from the Start menu, a shortcut, or the Media Centre remote control, the system shuts down immediately and when I reboot I get the error screen that tells me "Windows was shutdown incorrectly ... etc".

In the old Award BIOS there were the S1 and S3 options in the "Power" section that enabled "save to Memory" or "Save to Drive". There is no reference I can find to either option in the UEFI BIOS or anything else that might affect the "Sleep" function.

Is this something I have to accept as a limitation in the new BIOS, or is there some way that I can recover this function?


2) How can I reliably access the new UEFI BIOS, without having to resort to staging a power failure (as mentioned above)?

The POST (if there is such a thing on this new BIOS) is so fast that I'm unable to interupt with the delete key. This may be confounded by the fact that I am using a USB keyboard which may not be active during the POST.

Good Luck to any other BIOS adventurers, and I would be pleased to hear if anyone has a link to a manual or guide for the new U1e UEFI BIOS

Handygrandad

[dmdilks]

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface

First of all nice post this will help people with this update. The second thing is that, this is nice that you can update your old mother board to the UEFI.

The boards really are not made for UEFI. The thing is that are you really running in UEFI or mostly legacy.

For getting into the bios with these type of bios. I watch the little lights for your # lock & cap locks.

Once they blink I start hitting the del key. Was it really worth it. To some people yes and to some people no.

Yes the computer boots faster. But you have lost something too. The utilities that you were running, The sleep mode that you once used.

As they say you have to take the good with the bad. I myself wouldn't even try it. Again I'm not take any thing away from this post.

You did a lot of work to get this running and again this will help a lot of people too. There is a lot people that have done this and failed. 

 

[AndyM]

I have a different board which initially booted up rather fast, but I by making some changes, I have unwittingly slowed it down.

Firstly I set the UEFI BIOS to request a password.  So when I boot up it sits there until I enter a password, having entered the password I can hit the delete key and enter BIOS.  I did this not to intentionally slow the machine down, but as a way of ensuing that if the machine was stolen, the thief would require to crack the BIOS password to get to the operating system.

Secondly I connected an external USB hard drive to use File History on Windows 8.1.  This drive is always connected and I found that it also slowed down boot up time.

My machine still boots up quite fast in UEFI but as I have a RAID array, if I change the BIOS to boot into Legacy, the RAID Configuration Utility then shows and also slows the boot time further.  I have opted not to do this, but to stay with UEFI.

I am no expert, but I found your post very helpful

[handygrandad]

Time for an update:

My first post was written at a time when I was particularly impressed with the improvement in boot speed. As time passed I began to miss the "Sleep" function ... and I began to encounter boot problems.

So I decided to revert back to the Award BIOS (F13) which I had been using previously... ... .... Easier said than done !

I discovered that all the conventional methods for changing the BIOS (Qflash, USB stick, USB DOS boot etc) would not work.

After much frustration and research I discovered a post on another forum called ...  How to downgrade UEFI to previous Hybrid Bios - Gigabyte http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/how-to-downgrade-uefi-to-previous-hybrid-bios-gigabyte.168667/ ... (please use the link to check out the original post for details).

Initially I had a few problems with this process, (see link), but at the time of writing all is well.

Will post with any new developments.

[Coral]

My MOBO came with the UEFI BIOS pre-installed. To be honest I haven't been much impressed. The fact that they still supply you with a manual for the Award BIOS is not helpful at all.
I had to experiment in order to get the boot sequence the way it should be CD/DVD > HDD (OS). Setting to Legasy did the trick.
I am now in a dilemma if I should try to install the Award BIOS, if is possible and safe operastion.

[shadowsports]

There is definitely a certain level of risk associated with flashing.  It is partially mitigated with Gigabytes dual BIOS chip architecture...  and is the primary reason why I am leaving Asus after so many years.  Regardless of skill and ability to follow instructions its a brave undertaking as a failure could leave you with a non-bootable system.  

I had to replace the (removable) BIOS chip on my board after a reported successful flash...  mine was already UEFI capable.  Mine was done to add support for ivybridge and PCIe 3.0.  I have flashed hundreds of BIOS, had a back up and went overkill on taking precautions.  No level of recovery was possible.  From USB stick, AMI Boot Block Recovery or by using the MB CD which is part of Asus' "CrashFree" BIOS recovery.  Needless to say, this is why I'm done with them.  

The chips are soldered to Gigabytes boards.  Although they cannot be popped out and replaced, I feel that having two is better than one.  You need to weight the benefits and risks.

I wouldn't upgrade just to have the latest BIOS.  The "if it ain't broke don't fix it" rule applies.  As handygrandad and dmdilks point out there are pros and cons for the update.  I have 9 PCs in the house so loosing one (temporarily) wasn't so hard to swallow.  Pissed me off though.  We all like to tinker, but remember that things don't always go as planned.  I'm not trying to discourage you, just ensure you understand what you might gain or lose in the process.

Cheers

[dmdilks]

I have 9 PCs in the house so loosing one (temporarily) wasn't so hard to swallow.  Pissed me off though.  

I just had laugh a this because I thought I was bad with 5 computers 2 running and 3 sitting on the floor. I have enough parts to make another 6 or 7.

[shadowsports]

I know you do    I'm in the same boat having acquired too much new stuff over the years...  then not getting rid of it.  My basement is packed with working stuff I don't even have time to turn on.  My work requires me to support multiple OS's, MAC, server, and Linux.  This doesn't include the android stuff.  I fully acknowledge the need to purge...  Schools and church are excellent places to donate perfectly good hardware, that's EOL by our standards.  Now if I would only practice what I preach.  

[Coral]

I have 9 PCs in the house so loosing one (temporarily) wasn't so hard to swallow.  Pissed me off though.  

I just had laugh a this because I thought I was bad with 5 computers 2 running and 3 sitting on the floor. I have enough parts to make another 6 or 7.

Aren't we all a little bonkers (crazy) I have 2 working. One for just multimedia (no internet). Mostly video editing. The other just as a garbage bin.
The other 3 are in the garage gathering dust. I have dumped a big box full of parts from othe PCs. I just didn't want to bother to see if they are still worth keeping.