GA-P67A-UD5-B3 won't boot, NO POST, instant off with power loop cycle

[stransky]

Hardware is:

i5-2500K
GA-P67A-UD5 was running F7 BIOS
ASUS HD6970
Corsair 750AX
8GB Corsair Vengeance (2x4GB) CL8
Crucial C300 128GB
2 x Samsung 1TB HD103SJ
Win 7 Pro

What happened:

Installed @BIOS
Attempted to upgrade to F8 BIOS via @BIOS
BSOD half way through, with physical memory dump

Now:

PC won't boot, doesn't even get to POST.
Turn on, power flashes on for about 1 second, enough for onboard LED's to flash, then instant off. Fans barely start spinning.
All LEDs flash for a second (GD1, GD2, CPU, S0 - S4/5, Phase)
After instant off, it goes into a loop after about 1-2 seconds of the same thing - powers on for a second, then instant of.

Problem solving so far:

I'm guessing the main BIOS is corrupted, so my efforts have been mainly focused on trying to force the backup BIOS to kick in.
I have tried the power off/on method to no effect. I think it requires more than a split second of power to be effective from what I have read of others that have used it with success.
Have also attempted to short pins on the BIOS and power on. Also to no effect. May not be doing this correctly OR the correct pins.
Have tried standard clearing CMOS, removing the battery overnight with no power etc.
Have also removed all components bar GPU, 1xRAM and CPU.
Tried reseating CPU, different RAM, different RAM slots, no GPU, no RAM, no CPU - all displays the exact same behaviour of flash of power, instant off, then loop cycle.

What next?

The MB is two months out of warranty - awesome timing
I'm mainly interested to know from others that are more knowledgeable if :
a) The limitations of the dual BIOS backup and how that works
b) If from the sounds of it I'm wasting my time trying to recover a bricked board (i.e. can't get to the backup BIOS with this crazy loop cycle and only a split second of power).
c) If there is still a chance, what technique(s) I should focus on to try and get the dual BIOS to actually work.

Very grateful for any assistance!

[autotech]

Get a usb and format it with Fat32 then get the bios you want and download to desktop and extract to usb.
Hit end key or F12 while booting and tell it to update bios from drive pick the usb and install the bios.


Another option.
BIOS Recover Method Via Manually Invoking BACKUP BIOS Auto-Recovery
 Using Power Supply - On/Off Switch

 It is possible to make the BIOS Auto-Recovery kick in (Dual BIOS) and re-flash the MAIN BIOS with the contents of the BACKUP BIOS.
 
This is a simple and easy method for anyone to try before having to resort to other more difficult methods, or a RMA.
 
1. Shut off the power supply using the switch on the back of the PSU, wait 10-15 seconds.
 2. Press and hold the case Power On swtich, then while still holding turn on the power supply from the switch on the rear.
 3. Still holding the case power on switch, the board will start, once it does release the case power on switch and shut off the power supply via the switch on the rear of the unit. (Do the latter two parts as quickly as you can once the board starts)
 4. The board will shut down.
 5. Turn the power supply back on using the switch on the rear of the unit.
 6. Turn on the motherboard by pressing the case power on button.
 
Once the board starts this time you should see the Gigabyte splash screen, or POST page, then the Auto-Recovery from Dual BIOS will kick in. You will see a checksum error, and then recovery from BACKUP BIOS will begin. Once it is done reboot your machine and enter the BIOS and load optimized defaults then save/apply/reboot back to BIOS.

Now you are done, and will be using whatever BIOS was in your BACKUP BIOS, From there you can attempt whatever you were previously trying, or update your BIOS to the latest version.

[stransky]

Thanks for offering some help.

Not being funny about it, but I said I have already tried the power off/on method. I reckon I did it about 20-30 times but had no joy.

The board literally powers on for one (1) second and goes straight off - there's no opportunity to F12 etc while booting, it doesn't get that far at all.

I can try the power off/on again but to be honest it turns itself off just as fast as I can do it.

[autotech]

Do you feel comfortable doing a lil bit of jumping bios legs if so you can try that method


http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/33904-how-fix-dead-dual-bios-motherboard-if-flashing-failed.html

or follow this one I have no idea if they work so use at your own risk.

[stransky]

Hi again,

Yup tried shorting BIOS pins (see problem solving steps completed above).

Looks like I had the correct pins from that example.

Have also tried a bootable USB with BIOS and flash tool under an autoexec.bat - no joy.

The power off is so quick I don't think there's a chance for any boot sequence.

Just flashes phase LEDs, CPU and CPU GD1 & 2 LEDs.