GA-X58A-UDR3 r2 BIOS FF8

[markds]

I have ordered a 3GB drive, so I installed FF8 BIOS. My machine no longer works...

The BIOS updated fine, but after a reboot the SATA firmware also updated. I can no longer see any drives except USB flash drives.

I have tried every combination of IDE/AHCI. Windows tries to boot in IDE mode, but fails after about 2 seconds with a blue screen which is too brief to actually read. AHCI just hangs the machine.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Mark

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Mark and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

I take that it was a typo when you put 3GB drive ? Did you mean to say 3TB ?

Also when you said ordered are you saying that it is ordered or installed ?

What program did you use to update the BIOS ?

Try clearing the CMOS first and see if that helps with the drives.

Remove the power cable from the mains supply and then press the power switch on the case for a few seconds just to drain any residual energy in the PSU capacitors.

Once done remove the motherboard battery for at least ten minutes before replacing it.
 
Next plug back into the mains supply and boot.
 
You will now need to enter the BIOS by pressing DEL and load Opimised BIOS Defaults.

Make any other changes to the BIOS settings to suit your self like disabling the floppy drive, disabling the full screen logo and making the HDD the primary boot device and then press F10 to save and exit.

[markds]

Hi, and thanks for the quick response.

I've already tried resetting the BIOS, via the rear button and battery removal.

Here's the weird thing. If I try to go back to an older BIOS (B18 or FF) using Q-Flash, I get a "File size incorrect" message. If I boot to DOS and use FLASHSPI.EXE I get a "!!! Bad BIOS Image !!!" message. I've tried downloading from multiple servers just to make sure it isn't a corrupt BIOS from gigabyte.

The beta FF8, however, will reinstall just fine. FF8 is a 2Mb file, but all the older ones are 1Mb, which I suspect is the root cause of the problems.

I actually think the BIOS (therefore the motherboard) is trashed.

PS - I'm extremely experienced with PC hardware, so it's not a 'user' issue.

[markds]

Problem solved.

Would you believe that by disconnecting the DVD drive the mobo would accept the latest non-beta BIOS?

[Dark Mantis]

As a matter of interest Mark, was the DVD drive a IDE version ?

Anyway I am happy that you managed to solve the issue and get things back on track again.

[markds]

No, it was a fairly expensive SATA Blu-ray/DVD combo.

The FF8 beta BIOS is definately not ready for prime time yet!!!

Interestingly, using the Intel RST drivers, both my desktop and laptop both blink their HDD leds once a second. However, since the dodgy BIOS my desktop has stopped blinking! No idea why...

[Dark Mantis]

Thanks for the feedback anyway. Can't imagine why the DVD drive would cause that problem though unless it was set as primary boot in the BIOS.

[vijayp]

I am having a similar issue. I flashed to FF bios, and now I am unable to flash to FH. The file has been downloaded correctly. The FH1 file's md5sum is 9cb77cd839ef62fd359e7fd480af386d  and flashspi.exe is 560bee8708888fe315a403a5a000814f.

I'm not sure what to do; it keeps telling me "bad bios image." I might try to disconnect the DVD drive, but I need to boot from a CD to get into dos.

QFlash doesn't work; probably because it's a 2MB file.

Suggestions?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

Firstly make double sure that the file you have downloaded is the correct one. Make sure that you have used the one for the correct revision board you have.

To update the file the first time because it is a different size you will have to use FLASHSPI instead of QFlash. You can return to using QFlash as normal once the update has been performed.