Bios corruption from hard shut down during boot loop

[Dave997]

I recently had to do a shut down by holding down the power button because my computer was in a boot loop from failing to resume from sleep mode. After I turned the machine back on it said the BIOS was corrupted and installed the backup BIOS. This is the 2nd time now that it has corrupted the BIOS after I had to shut it down with the power button. Is there something im doing wrong where I should be waiting for a certain time to do the shut off? When it boot loops the hard drive LED's come on for about 10 seconds then it shuts off for about 3 seconds, then proceeds to reboot. Is there a certain point in this cycle i should be waiting for to do the power off? Thanks.


Just as a side note i had fixed my resuming from s3 sleep problem about a week ago. It was my video driver and memory timings/voltage. I fixed those but decided to change to a newer video driver which in turn prevented s3 from resuming. I installed back my driver that is stable but im in a spot now where Im wondering if ill ever be able to upgrade my video driver without having this problem again.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

The only thing that you are doing wrong is that the two BIOS versions are not the same. Flash your Main BIOS to the latest (or chosen) version and then set it up how you want it. Once done save and exit. Next synchronise the two BIOS  chips so they are exactly the same. To do this follow these instructions:

If you have a PS2 keyboarrd connect that instead of the USB version as it is more reliable.

From a cold start with the power to the machine switched off press the power button and then enter the BIOS by pressing Del.
 Then when you get to the main screen press F9.
 
This will bring up an extra screen which will display more information about the two BIOS versions. Assuming they are different exit the BIOS and shutdown.

Again press the power button and this time press Alt + F12 where you would normally use the Del key to enter the BIOS. You will find that then your monitor will turn black and you will see:

Press [Enter] to start copying main BIOS to backup BIOS...

When you press Enter more text will appear saying:

Writing BIOS image.... xxxKb OK

Once completed more text will show:

BIOS successfully recovered! Power off or reset system!

Do as it says. Both Main and Backup BIOS chips now store the same BIOS version. You can now reboot as normal.


When you copy the first BIOS image to the second BIOS it also copies the current configuration
 so if you use RAID or something, set it before the copy.  It also copies over any saved profiles too.

[Dave997]

Thanks for the response. We've been over backing up the BIOS in another thread. When I press ALT+F12 it takes me to the boot selection screen. There is also no info on the backup bios in the F9 system display.

I found this in their user manual about DUAL BIOS, maybe on this motherboard it actually wont let you update the backup bios

Quote from the x79-UD3 manual:
"Normally, the system works on the main BIOS. However, if the main BIOS is corrupted or damaged, the backup BIOS will take over on the next system boot and copy the BIOS file to the main BIOS to ensure normal system operation. For the sake of system safety, users cannot update the backup BIOS manually."

http://www.manualowl.com/m/Gigabyte/GA-X79-UD3/Manual/244475?page=66

[Dark Mantis]

If you are having problems with the key selection (ALT+F12) it is probably down to using a USB keyboard. Try using a PS2 keyboard instead they are normally more responsive for BIOS duties.

[Dave997]

If you are having problems with the key selection (ALT+F12) it is probably down to using a USB keyboard. Try using a PS2 keyboard instead they are normally more responsive for BIOS duties.

sorry for not answering this earlier, but yes i use a ps/2 keyboard

[Dark Mantis]

I don't know what is wrong there then. A PS2 keyboard should work fine in the BIOS unless of course it's faulty. F12 alone should take you to the boot options list. Maybe the ALT key is not working properly. Try using the other one and see if that makes any difference.