Novice need guide on Flashing BIOS of GA-P55M-UD2

[horse]

Hi gigabyte users,

I am new to this forum and I need help in upgrading my motherboard bios.
The motherboard I have is: GA-P55M-UD2

The reason for me to upgrade is because I have been facing problem with my wireless adapter and Windows 7 Pro 64bit. I had a Netgear WG111v2 and a Belkin F6D4050. When I installed the installer or driver, both devices just fail to be enabled which it seems to take forever. I also tried it using compatibility mode but it is the same. The device manager shows that the device is working fine.

I went to their respective forums and called up the support but none of then seems to have a concrete solution. They just told me to uninstall and install again and again but nothing seems to help.

I then came across the 2 sites below:
http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-networking/27061-windows-7-64bit-wifi-network-adapter-keeps-disabled.html
http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Coffeehouse/456683-Windows-7-64-bit-wireless-N-USB-Network-card-anyone-got-one-working/

Based on the 2 sites, flashing BIOS seems to do the trick. Although I am not 100% sure that it will work for me but it another way for me to try out.

Here are the info of the motherboard:




Some are some of my questions:
1) How I can backup the BIOS?
2) After the backup, how can I upgrade the BIOS?
3) I notice the GA-P55M-UD2 has a version 1.0 and 1.1.
How can I check the version?
I live in Malaysia, thus can I say the my is a version 1? As I notice the difference is the "European Union requirement"
4) I have tried using "motherboard_bios_ga-p55m-ud2_f8.exe" from
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=3165&ver=#anchor_os
but I got the error below.


Any idea why?

I am totally new to flashing BIOS and really need a step by step guide for question 1 and 2.
I look forward to replies.

Thanks in advance.

[absic]

Hi,

First off you are getting the error message because you are trying to use @BIOS to flash. This is not a good idea and the best way to flash BIOS is to use the QFlash utility.

To do this you need to put the extracted folder from the bios download onto a USB stick. Leave the USB stick plugged in and re-boot the PC. As the PC starts up press the "END" key on your keyboard (you might have to press the "END" key several times during start-up this is normal so don't worry).

Instead of going into BIOS the PC will enter QFlash. Locate the folder on the USB Stick and follow the on-screen instructions. When completed re-boot the PC and go into BIOS. Load optimised defaults, save and exit. When the PC reboots you will see that the new BIOS is installed.

Do not make any overclocking changes to bios until you have checked that the system is running OK.

To be honest, I don't back-up the BIOS as I have found it easier just to re-flash with the appropriate bios if I want to go back.

Hope this helps.

[horse]

Hi absic115,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I will try it out and post back with the results.

One more question, after I upgraded the BIOS, will I be asked to activate windows once again?

[absic]

No, updating BIOS will not cause you to re-activate windows. 

[horse]

Thanks!

[horse]

Upgraded to F5.

My Belkin is working fine now.

Thanks absic115!

[absic]

Pleased to hear it all went OK and more than pleased to help out.

ATB and happy computing.