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Z370 Aorus Gaming 7 - BIOS F5h PREVENTS BOOTING

Z370 Aorus Gaming 7 - BIOS F5h PREVENTS BOOTING
« on: January 01, 2018, 04:50:42 pm »
I have Windows 10 1709 installed on my Samsung 960 Evo.

I updated to BIOS version F5h as it stated "Improve PCIe SSD compatibility"

After updating using the FW Q-Flash, Windows would no longer boot from the 960 Evo (the only NVMe disk on the motherboard).

After trying a number of things to resolve the issue, I decided to flash back to the previous version which I still had a copy after successfully flashing some weeks ago (F5e).

The device will now no longer POST.

1) Gigabyte support need to investigate the issues with the BIOS which is faulty (and I see that F5e is no longer available for download.....)
2) How do i get my machine working again?

Thanks

shadowsports

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Re: Z370 Aorus Gaming 7 - BIOS F5h PREVENTS BOOTING
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2018, 06:14:08 pm »
Greetings,
Sorry for your troubles.  These are always tough posts to hear about or read.

Start with the basics:
Attempt to invoke boot from the back up BIOS
If this fails, disconnect power from the board and attempt CLR_CMOS using jumper (battery remains in) test again

Strip the board down to CPU, Cooler and One stick of RAM installed in the slot farthest from the CPU socket.  Connect monitor to onboard graphics.  Perform steps to CLR_CMOS again and see if the system will start.

Now you should have a pretty good idea how "dead" or "alive" the board is.     

General thoughts:
Not sure about the troubleshooting steps you took prior to re-flashing the BIOS a second time.  Z370 BIOS comes preconfigured in UEFI with the controller operate mode set to AHCI.  It is recommended that you confirm the presence of an installed NVMe device in the BIOS under applicable heading after a flash, and also verify it in boot order .  While the newer BIOS' do reset themselves after flash, I always load set up defaults, save and allow the system to start again before entering BIOS and reconfiguring from scratch.   

Since Intel RST and UEFI RAID are part of the BIOS, its is important to image your m.2 arrays prior to flashing as you will lose the array on reset.  *Based on preliminary reports from others.  (Realize you are running one drive) Comment is for m.2 RAID users. 

For future, recommend that you not update your system if you are stable and are not trying to add compatibility or support, fix a specific problem, or address a security issue.  I hope you can bring the system back up.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2018, 07:11:24 pm by shadowsports »
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