Flashing my BIOS on my Gigabyte ga-970a-ud3

[Thrall]

Hello.

I am kinda a newbie and probably have done something stupid.
Recently I bought a new computer with Windows 7 and I got it delivered and everything was working well. However there was this one game I wanted to play on my computer which is Shogun 2 Total War and when trying to launch it I got some errors.

After reading on their official forum the suggestion that had been given by the team there was to update the BIOS. Normally I don't touch that kind of things but I really wanted to play the game so I tried updating from version F4 to F5 using the @BIOS tool through Windows. Then after I installed it I rebooted my computer and now I can't boot Windows for some reason. I get a message saying Windows didn't boot correctly and I then get the option to try to recover or boot Windows normally. When trying to boot Windows normally I get as far as the Windows logo and then the computer reboots. I have tried to use the recover options but it doesn't solve anything.

I don't know what to do or how to solve this. So hopefully someone here can help me.

My rig is:

Motherboard: Gigabyte ga-970a-ud3 rev version 1.1
PSU: Corsair TX 750W
Processor: AMD FX6100 3,3 GHz
Ram: Crucial DDR3 8GB
Graphic: Sapphire Radeon HD6870 1GB
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium Service pack 1 64 bit version.

[Thrall]

This thread can be closed. I managed to fix the problem by reinstalling Windows 7. I will never touch BIOS again....

[Vezina]

I tried updating from version F4 to F5 using the @BIOS tool through Windows.

Never-ever update tru Windows ,you can get your motherboard killed.
With Gigabyte use Q-Flash.
After you flash BIOS always Clear CMOS and reload settings in BIOS.

[Thrall]

Well I certainly feel like I dodged a bullet there.

I have never updated BIOS before on any computers I have had so I didn't knew which way to do it correctly. I really got a bad feeling when I was unable to boot Windows after running the @BIOS tool and figured I was screwed. And that would be bad since the computer is brand new.

But luckely I was able to reinstall Windows and now everything works again. No issues so far and the computer been on for many hours. But I don't think I will be updating the BIOS ever again as long as things works.

[Vezina]

You are right , if it works let it be.

But when you do update put the BIOS settings on a paper first and make sure you use an update method that doesnt use Windows
Most probable in your case the boot order of HDD-s got changed or something.

That CPU may need an update though , asap , to the next version (when it comes).
Check for CPU throttling , if you observed under-performing ,strange slow downs.

[Thrall]

I am sorry, I am not sure I understood you. What do you mean by updating the CPU? Like a driver update or buying a new one?

[Vezina]

I am sorry, I am not sure I understood you. What do you mean by updating the CPU? Like a driver update or buying a new one?

No ,updating a BIOS in relation to the CPU.

If you observe abnormal performance now ,with what you have, you may still need to update the BIOS in the future .

[Thrall]

Ahh I see. Well I haven't noticed any problems and the system seems to run good now.

But if I was to update the BIOS I assume the correct way is to download the BIOS version that matches my motherboard and revision number, unzip it and then put it on a USB flash drive and then run Q-Flash during startup by pressing the END key?

[Vezina]

Exactly !

[Thrall]

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

And thanks to you I do know that I should never update BIOS through Windows again. So if I ever have to update the BIOS atleast I know how to do it now as safely as possible.

[MarkJohnson]

I'd like to add that you should do a clear cmos for 10minutes minimum.  Then when you start your system, go immediately into the BIOS and load system default, then save settings and go directly back into the BIOS and set the time and any other settings.

Sometimes old settings can get stuck in the BIOS and need resetting.  Probably why you had to reinstall windows.

-=Mark=-

[Thrall]

Thanks, I will keep that in mind if I decide to make another go at updating BIOS again.
Maybe thats what I did wrong when flashing my BIOS that I didn't clear the CMOS and I also didn't go to BIOS to load system default first before trying to boot.

[Vezina]

Thrall what temperatures you get with that CPU ?
I am just curious

[Thrall]

Well at first when I got the computer without doing any upgrades to the case and having 4 fans (If you include PSU fan, CPU fan and GPU fan and having one fan in front of my case) I got temps between 30-45c on idle and about 50-65c on load through Core Temp and HWmonitor.

Now after I replaced my PSU (Silver Power SP-SS500 500W power supply) which came with the computer to a new PSU (Corsair TX 750W) in my computer and also added 2 extra 120mm fans to my Cooler Master Elite 430 Midi Tower Black case I got the following temps:

Idle temps: http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/6605/idlecputemp.jpg
Temps after loading Skyrim for a couple of minutes: http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/4986/loadcputemp.jpg



 

[Vezina]

Thanks for the feedback.

Temps look indeed excellent

Enjoy your system.