EFI - is Hybrid EFI a real thing or just a 'half baked solution'

[nicolasdiogo]

dear folks from gigagbyte,


i have purchased your motherboards (and other stuff) for years now and i have to say that your support is getting worse..
i requested support 3 weeks ago and nothing ... it is bad. and getting worse it seems.

my question is around your claim of having an EFI solution on your motherboards,
it does not seem to work consistently across your boards, which leads to confusion and from a customer perspective - it may be seem as plain rip off.

some boards seem to support EFI shell while others do not.

i do not think i am missing the point here since you can not find a clear cut definition of these differences in gigabyte's own website.


i have recently purchased a
GA-890GPA-UD3H 2.1
BIOS: FGF


which i now believe not to support EFI shell.

as i said it seems that some boards have the EFI available when booting
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=4876.0

so my question is:

how do i boot into EFI shell using my board?

thanks,

[absic]

Hi there,

Sorry to say that your motherboard doesn't support UEFI BIOS and I have to agree with you, the information regarding this feature and which motherboards actually support it is very poor.

Basically, if the motherboard has 8MB BIOS chips or smaller then UEFI cannot be implemented on them but if the BIOS chip is 16MB or over then it can.

[nicolasdiogo]

thanks for being straight forward - it is quite refreshing to see that.

that means i now have to dismantle the Pc and request a replacement board.

GREAT!! more time waisted - thanks, to gigabyte.

is there a board AM3 socket that has EFI AND on-boad graphics by any chance?

thanks

[absic]

I think you will find that most boards that support EFI are the newer AM3+ sockets but if you look through this list: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=12&p=2&v=2 you might find something suitable.

[nicolasdiogo]

thanks


what would be the keyword to find a proper EFI bios on the specifications published in the website?

[Dark Mantis]

To be honest I don't think you will find a full blown EFI on any of Gigabyte's motherboards yet they are all hybrids. Probably next year they will move on to the full UEFI solution.

[nicolasdiogo]

thank you guys

should i look at Asus to solve this conundrum?
do you know of another motherboard for a desktop that i could look at?


with regards,

[Dark Mantis]

I used to be a mod with Asus too a while ago and so I know their  problems as well!  I don't know how well they have implimented the UEFI on their motherboards as that was after I left. I suspect they have their share of issues though as do most new technologies. If there is no extremely important reason why you need this now though I would just make do for now and then upgrade the BIOS when the new full version is rolled out.

[nicolasdiogo]

thanks

is there any expected dates and where can i find the published list of features?
would these features be available in all boards; or only those with 16mb of memory (in which case mine is out)?

[Dark Mantis]

Not that I have heard but I wouldn't have thought thatit would be to long away, maybe like end of this year or early next year. I think it can only be motherboards that have the 16MB larger BIOS chip because of the size required for UEFI. That pretty much means the six series motherboards on the Intel side. We will just have to wait and see.

[nicolasdiogo]

thank you

i will contact the seller and return this board and memory


and for the record - we can say that Hybrid EFI in gigabytes is totally 'HALF-BAKED' if one need proper efi (uefi) they should avoid these boards.

with regards,

Nicolas

[Dark Mantis]

Well that is your opinion and everyone is entitled to their own. There are many people however who like the hybrid idea as they are used to the BIOS and it gives them a chance to get used to EFI without having to jump in both feet first. As always there are pros and cons depending on your viewpoint and experience.

I don't really see where you are coming from when you say anyone who "Needs" EFI. As far as I see it BIOS/EFI it doesn't really make any difference as once the system is up and running you hardly have a second thought for it.

[nicolasdiogo]

hello

the seller has suggested that i have to pay for the return costs.
how do i get this to be paid by GigaByte?

thanks,


Nicolas

[nicolasdiogo]

what no reply now

come on - you guys had all the answers and now ..

[Dark Mantis]

Your contract in UK Consumer Law is between yourself and the retailer. Unless you can prove that there is a valid reason for them to pay the carriage costs they remain your responsibility.  Gigabyte has nothing to do with this transaction at all.