BIOS "F20" and beyond. Your feedback requested

[digital nomad]

Looks like Gigabyte standardized all X99 motherboard BIOS's to the same number. Nice move to reduce confusion I think.

I'm still using F7 on a X99 Gaming G1.

If you have flashed to the F20 (or later) on ANY X99 motherboard, could you please provide feedback.

I'm very interested especially to know of any USB reliability improvements or any other reason to change from the F7. 

[dmdilks]

There is no update for any USB problem. I run F9c and I only did that because I thought it might help With a problem with BSOD. Other than that I would still be on the first bios version.

[digital nomad]

I was hoping for undocumented USB improvements in the F20/F21a BIOS that somebody may have noticed.

However in thread http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=16938.0 , Joe88 said it BRICKED his board (in another forum he said he recovered with a earlier BIOS fortunately)

I've been using a external powered USB hub with a on/off switch (Powered OFF while booting) to work around the problem with boot looping with connected USB devices.

Guess I'll stick with the BIOS F7 and the external hub.

[treadpool]

I just updated today from F2f - probably should have stuck with that. Noticed that my system and boot is much more unstable with this BIOS. What was stable before at 4.35ghz on my 5930k is now unstable. In fact, I had to drop to 4.25ghz and bump up vcore to 1.25 from 1.2. Bleh.

May try to drop back to F2f, but not even sure if that's possible/recommended?

Edit: It's not possible. Ugh.

[treadpool]

I called Gigabyte about the new bios. They stated to me that it's "VERY CLEAR" that anyone with a non-2016 chip should not upgrade to it. I said it's not clear. At all.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5281#bios

I still have not found a way to revert to F2f. None of the qflash, qflash plus, @bios, efitools, etc work. They all say I have an outdated bios and to use a newer one.

[digital nomad]

The following is from Joe88 at Tweaktown Forums...

X99 UD3P bricked after trying to flash new bios I was running the F2c bios for 2 months fine abit with the sleep bug, basically you cant put the system to sleep 2 consecutive times without a restart or else the system crashes when entering sleep mode and restarts itself. Thinking the new bios posted might fix this problem I tried flashing the F21a bios using Q-Flash inside the bios and selected normal mode, it went fine till about 40% then the text turned all red, the bar quickly filled up and the system restarted Now whenever I turn on the system, it stays on for about 5-10 seconds then restarts its self and boot loops forever. No post screen, no error beep codes. I tried using Q-Flash Plus function with the original F1 bios and it seems like it flashes fine but restarting the system shows the same exact problem. Anyway to fix this without an rma? (since it will cost me $20 to ship it across the country ) I originally got the board free through the newegg eggxpert review program way back in june (or sometime around then)

Then he posted again after managing to revert back...

I managed to fix it after about 10 hours of flashing different bios, shorting out pins on the bios chip (SCLK & SI) I flashed the last working bios I had again F2c, the system acted like the same exact as it did before, boot loop with no messages or error beeps, about the 5th restart loop the bios recovery message appeared on the screen and finally it restored back to the F2c bios and the system is working fine again I suggest staying away from the F21a bios, not sure about F20 but I really don't want to mess with anything right now after that close call... I guess I will have to live with the sleep bug

[digital nomad]

I still have not found a way to revert to F2f. None of the qflash, qflash plus, @bios, efitools, etc work. They all say I have an outdated bios and to use a newer one.

I flashed a Gigabyte G1.Assassan2 once with a newer BIOS, didn't like it and could not flash back. Gigabyte emailed me a older BIOS flasher (had to put it on a flash drive with the older BIOS) and I was able to revert back. Surely they can do the same for the X99 boards. 

[Joe88]

There is another way to revert back on x99 boards, if you successful installed the new bios, can boot into windows
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/62479-force-revert-older-bios-x99-gaming-5p.html