Identify my motherboard and BIOS version

[grn]

I'm having a slight problem with my GA-X58A-UD3R motherboard. It clearly states on the board that it is a Rev 2.0 board yet the BIOS tools list it as a Rev1.0 board. Also the BIOS shows version as FB and I can't see this version listed under BIOS versions for either the Rev 1.0 or Rev 2.0 board.

As a rule, I don't normally flash BIOS versions unless absolutely needed. I think in this case it might be. I have had the motherboard for nearly 2 years and have had flawless service with it other than having to power cycle the system frequently when it had gone into hibernate mode. Sometimes it would wake up but other times it would stay in hibernate.

I had a Gigabyte GTX 580 GPU in the system till it gave up the ghost about a month ago and I replaced it with an MSI GTX 670 PE card (fortunately it was still under warranty). When I installed the new GPU and powered up, I did not get a video signal at any time so I ran through a battery of tests to eliminate all the possible causes I could think of without success.

Fortunately, I have a second PC and was able to (a) check the 670 was working in this system (it did) (b) add the GPU (NVidia Quadro) from this system alongside the 670 card. I also have a KVM so I can switch easily between the two cards. Note, I've already excluded the KVM, monitor, PCI-E slots and cables as potential culprits, . With this setup I ran a few tests:

1. Just the Quadro installed  in PCI-E slot 1 then slot 2 - In both cases video from power up right through to Windows login.
2. Same test but the 670 replacing the Quadro - No video at ANY time.
3. Quadro in slot 1, 670 in slot 2 - Video form power up from the Quadro, no video at any time from the 670.

However, I was now able to login to Windows so could install the 670 driver. Checked device manager and the 670 was recognised but had a problem - there were no drivers for it. After the driver install, simply rebooted the system in effect re-running test 3. This time the results were different.

The Quadro gave video from start of reboot right through to Windows login but the 670 only provided a video signal at the point Windows boot loaded its driver. After that I could use the PC with the 670 card with the Quadro out but couldn't see the boot process (makes changing BIOS settings or selecting from the boot menu slightly tricky).

I ran through a few more tests with to test the Init display first setting with the 670 in slot 1 and slot 2. As long as the setting was either PCI or PCI-E slot 1 and 670 was in slot 1, the system would boot but I wouldn't see video till the driver was loaded by the boot process. With PCI-E slot 2 set, the system did not boot, as expected. With the 670 in slot 2 the situation was the same with the appropriate swap for the bios setting.

Given there were no more tests that I could think of it dawned on me while watching TV that I could using the HDMI socket to my TV HDMI. When I tried this, I did get video from power on right though to windows login. It seems to me that there is some incompatibility between the 670 and the standard VGA driver in the BIOS. The question is: is there a BIOS version that addresses this and is there a way I can confirm my board is indeed a Rev 2.0 board?

Alternatively, is there something I've missed that could resolve the problem?

Many thanks,

George

These were to test the 670

[Dark Mantis]

Hi,

Regarding the motherboard number, it should be printed in white on the board usually somewhere near the centre. Write down this number exactly as seen. Then look on the motherboard at the bottom left hand side near the PCIE slots for the revision number. Again it will be printed in white and will be in the format of REV:1.0 for example. This is important because sometimes there are multiple revisions of the same model of motherboard.

With this information you can then enter the board number into the search box on this page :

http://uk.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/download-center.aspx?kw=GA-81845GV-C

and then choose the correct revision number from the list that is given. If you still have the motherboard box all the details should also be printed on a sticker on the outside.

[grn]

Thanks Dark Mantis but unfortunately I can't see any likely number on the motherboard unless it's under the CPU cooler fan and I certainly don't want to take that apart as I have no thermal paste to put it back together again. However, while trawling through some of the links on updating BIOS one gave a fuller list of BIOS versions for my motherboard which did include an FB version, so seems to confirm the board is a Rev 2.0 board as it says on the board.

I may just bite the bullet and go with the latest, non-beta, version listed and flash that. My problem was that the Gigabyte tools seemed to think it was a Rev 1 board, although it says Rev 2 on the board and the fact that the BIOS lists the version as FB but that isn't listed in either of the Rev 1.0 or Rev 2.0 download lists.


I imagine if I could find the motherboard number that would provide the confirmation I was looking for but the only number I could see was D33006 but that was close to PCI_Ex16 Slot 1. Entering it into the keyword search option gave 0 hits.

Unless I stored the original box in my loft, I will almost certainly have thrown it out.

Thanks for the help,

George

[grn]

Just tried to flash BIOS version FH using Q-Flash and it reports the file size is wrong (Q-Flash says it is 2MB). Any suggestions as to what I can do next? I could try @BIOS but wary of that given the warnings about it on here.

I can try and download again but other than that I have no idea. I suppose I could try the flash executable if I boot into a safe mode, command prompt only but not sure if I can see the USB drive there??

Thanks,

George

[grn]

Bit the bullet and used @BIOS which, thankfully, was successful. I am now at BIOS version FH but still see the same problem - that is I get no video signal from my GTX 670 until Windows loads the device driver for it. This is using a DVI port - if I hook the PC to my TV via the HDMI port, then I get a video signal from power on.

Any suggestions as to what I can try next?

[grn]

It was a Rev 2.0 and I've updated to latest BIOS.

Thanks for everybody's help