P55A-UD4 startup "BSD" ~ why?

[Lsdmeasap]

Sorry for the late reply!

Na, I would not consider this overclocking at all, this would be setting up optimal stock settings per your hardware.

And sorry for the confusion with my X58 comment, the same applies in general to X58/P55, contrary to what used to be suggested as best on P35/P45

[Searcher1]

As you can see has been a while since I had to post to this thread but thought I would throw this update into the ring 

I went away for a week and turned off the PSU so PC in "cold state" so to speak.

Came back last night powered up and seemed very slow and seemed to take ages to boot so did a hard reset with the PC power button, as it came up I got a dialogue box of at the point of POST telling me that (sorry should have taken a picture!) the settings were overclocked or overvoltaged 'press any key to continue'.  I did and it proceeded to boot but all too slowly at the sort of rate that has in the past given the BSD I started this thread about.

Well fast forward to this morning and having done the various W7 updates with the reboots and it was still darned slow, so checked my HW monitor figures and that showed that the CPU volage changes made had reverted to "defaults".

At no point in these slow boots did I get the BSD showing ~ thankfully 

Went in the BIOS and that upon entry gave me a dailogue about the overclock and that the settings shwon may not reflect the actual hardware state!  Checked all the settings I had changed and they were as left.............was not sure what to make of this so went in one setting and reaccepted it said "yes" and restarted....booted nice and quick as I was getting used to.

So what gives with the BIOS reporting the issue and why revert to CPU voltage defaults but still show the adjusted figures in the BIOS screens and needing resaving to get them back running.  Should I be making alt settings to compensate for the way it is 'doing things' ?

Could the backup battery be at fault though I thought changes made in the BIOS went into non volatile memory???

Further thoughts & feedback much appreciated 

[Dark Mantis]

Weird! But not unusual. It is something that seems to happen fairly often although I have no real idea of why. I would agree that changing the battery just might help so for the price it is worth a try. Also make sure that both of your BIOS versions, Main and Backup, are synchronised.

[Searcher1]

Weird! But not unusual. It is something that seems to happen fairly often although I have no real idea of why. I would agree that changing the battery just might help so for the price it is worth a try. Also make sure that both of your BIOS versions, Main and Backup, are synchronised.

Hi DM

If this is commonplace why do Gigabyte not have a view on it and a solution???

Right, please can I have the idiots guide to backing up my current BIOS settings to the 'backup' BIOS chip 

Now need to eyeball the battery but think it hiding under dual width video card    What is the advised procedure for so changing it???

[Dark Mantis]

OK. Replacing the battery is easy enough once you can get at it. A small screwdriver or something similar will make things easier. It is the silver disk and is a CR2032 when you come to purchase a replacement. Just poush back the little spring clip on the top of the surround and the battery will pop out. Just push in the new one.

Regarding synchronising the BIOSes just follow these instructions:

Look to see if the  BIOS chips have matching BIOS versions in them.

To check, go into the BIOS and on the MAIN page press F9 for system info.   You should see both BIOS versions listed, if they do not match please update the backup BIOS to match the current.

To do that, reboot and where you would normally press DEL to enter the BIOS, instead press Alt + F12, this will flash the Backup BIOS with the MAIN BIOS contents.   Do not worry when you see a recovery comment, that is normal and means it is flashing the backup BIOS.

[Searcher1]

OK. Replacing the battery is easy enough once you can get at it. A small screwdriver or something similar will make things easier. It is the silver disk and is a CR2032 when you come to purchase a replacement. Just poush back the little spring clip on the top of the surround and the battery will pop out. Just push in the new one.

Regarding synchronising the BIOSes just follow these instructions:

Look to see if the  BIOS chips have matching BIOS versions in them.

To check, go into the BIOS and on the MAIN page press F9 for system info.   You should see both BIOS versions listed, if they do not match please update the backup BIOS to match the current.

To do that, reboot and where you would normally press DEL to enter the BIOS, instead press Alt + F12, this will flash the Backup BIOS with the MAIN BIOS contents.   Do not worry when you see a recovery comment, that is normal and means it is flashing the backup BIOS.

Great rundown, many thanks.  Will check it and do as appropriate  

A couple of extra questions which may be related? How do you if required copy the backup BIOS to the main BIOS if needed?  And is the "main" one non-volatile as surely if I swap the battery out that is a designed action to wipe the CMOS settings???

Oh, thanks for the battery number  

Edit - just checked  and the "main" is F15 and the "backup" is F11 (I think this F11 was the one in place at time of purchase?)  Tried to Alt+F12 at POST screen time and all I get is the boot menu and for the record this is a PS/2 connected keyboard and the ALT key works fine once in the OS!

[Dark Mantis]

I have heard of some others having this problem before with the ALT + F12. I would say try a different keyboard if possible. If as you say it is a PS2 keyboard I wouldn't have expected any problems like this. Does everything else on the keyboard respond alright at this point ? It might be just down to timing as it has to be done correctly.

[Searcher1]

I have heard of some others having this problem before with the ALT + F12. I would say try a different keyboard if possible. If as you say it is a PS2 keyboard I wouldn't have expected any problems like this. Does everything else on the keyboard respond alright at this point ? It might be just down to timing as it has to be done correctly.

Well AFAIK the kb is AOK at that point the only key required at F9 is ESC and that works alright and the DEL is good as it triggers getting into the BIOS.....

As for the timimg well I wil have another go and see at what point in the POST cycle might work..............methinks it needs to be at the very earliest point in time?

[Dark Mantis]

I know that it can be a bit awkward to get the timing just right as I have heard people mention it in the past.

[Searcher1]

Hi DM

we were posting at the same time it seems so to help others here is what I typing 

Sorted  it was a matter of timing!

I ALT + F12 immediately I heard the POST beep i.e. a shade in time before the screen shows the POST sequencing......held them down and waited approx 5 seconds and up came the question "do I want to copy the Main BIOS to the Backup one".....enter to accept..............as you say it then recovery completed after it counting the copied amount of data....soft turn off and reboot a few seconds later.........confirmed via F9 in the BIOS screens and the two match.

Now what about my other questions re changing the battery and loss of CMOS data..........and indeed about how to use the 'backup BIOS' to recover from a filed 'main BIOS' booting???

[Dark Mantis]

Right well one down!

The Backupo BIOS should automatically come into play if the Main BIOS gets corrupted during a boot attempt. There is no way you can influence this side of things.

Regarding the loss of CMOS memory when you change a battery is not a problem as all you have to do is load Optimised BIOS Defaults and then make any other changes that you want to afterwards like boot sequence, disable floppy drive, etc

[Searcher1]

Right well one down!

The Backupo BIOS should automatically come into play if the Main BIOS gets corrupted during a boot attempt. There is no way you can influence this side of things.

Regarding the loss of CMOS memory when you change a battery is not a problem as all you have to do is load Optimised BIOS Defaults and then make any other changes that you want to afterwards like boot sequence, disable floppy drive, etc

Ah! I see......so in regard to the battery replacement and loading BIOS defaults I will be back at square one i.e. will have to manually make the changes I have done as covered in this thread???  There was me thinking such changes were held in the CMOS backup and could be copied across easily....I must have too literal a mind at times like this    I take that such changes are never held in either the main or backup CMOS once the battery is removed....a pity for the likes of "us" that have setup a more optimised BIOS configuration   

[Dark Mantis]

It is possible to copy the BIOS settings to the hard drive. Under the Advanced BIOS Features section of the BIOS you will find an option to Backup BIOS Image to  HDD. From memory I think that the boot hard drive must be located on SATA2_0 for this to work.

[Searcher1]

It is possible to copy the BIOS settings to the hard drive. Under the Advanced BIOS Features section of the BIOS you will find an option to Backup BIOS Image to  HDD. From memory I think that the boot hard drive must be located on SATA2_0 for this to work.

Yes, I spotted that option ~ so that saves the configured settings but I wonder how you can 'copy them back to the BIOS' as I do not recall seeing that option on the list???  As for the connection of my boot drive...does it save to the boot drive then?.....cannot now remember which port so will have to watch the POST listing come up next time 

[Dark Mantis]

It automatically recalls the information if you get a corrupt BIOS. It will look on the drive first.