Gigabyte Dual BIOS: a nightmare

[smonkie]

I have own a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4 for almost a year and I'm truly disappointed on the system. Dual Bios should be a great idea, but in practice is a pain in the ass like I never had before with a motherboard.

Problem is: if I use F6 Bios version, -almost- everything works as it should, but my OC is not half as good as with UEFI beta BIOS. But when I install UEFI, one of every 5-6 times I cold boot the PC, the system will enter a loop which only can be overrun by unplugging the power cord. I don't even recall how many times I've update to UEFI, and how many more have I downgrade to F6. And the latest UEFI BIOS version listed in the Gigabye official web is listed on March... ¡March! Too bad.

I promise this will be my last experience with Gigabyte in the field of motherboards.

 

[Kougar]

Well, it was labeled a beta for a reason. I'd be the first to agree it would be nice if GB and other brands would support their hardware longer though. I have issues with both ASUS and GB in that regard, they either stop updates within a year or they release a couple "beta" releases and leave it at that.

You might try flashing the backup BIOS from the booting BIOS and seeing if that helps the issue any. Some Z87 GB boards allow you to disable the backup BIOS or manually configure which BIOS the board boots from, you might double-check if your board offers the same.

 

[vailr]

Latest beta bios for GA-Z68XP-UD4: U1l
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html
Note: it's generally a good idea when using a Gigabyte dual-bios board, to have both bioses flashed to the same version.
For the boot loop problem: try using a spare "known good" power supply?

 

[smonkie]

Thanks both for the support.

Kougar: as far as I know, my board doesn't allow to disable backup Bios.

Vailr, I have a Seasonic X-Series 750, so I reckon it should be more than enough quality related. Anyway, I will try to get another one to test. The beta you post is the same which appears in the official Gigabyte web, so I've already tried it.

Thanks.

 

[vailr]

Re: Gigabyte bios support
The more popular/better selling of the Gigabyte boards seem to get the best bios update support. My Z77X-UD5H board is over a year old, and was recently updated to version F16 bios.
So: always consider going with the "Editor's choice" or "most popular/best selling" option when selecting whatever model of motherboard.

 

[chadashcroft22]

When you do gigabyte boards with dual bios you always have to load optimized defaults and backup the main bios to the backup bios or you can run into cold boot issues. To do this backup on eufi bios you hit alt+f12 before the gigabyte logo on boot. To do this on an standard bios alt+f10 before the gigabyte logo on boot.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Note: it's generally a good idea when using a Gigabyte dual-bios board, to have both bioses flashed to the same version.

Doesn't this defeat the purpose of switchable BIOS? I thought the whole point was to flash one bios up to latest beta, test, and if it fails switch back to known good bios......

 

[vailr]

Doesn't this defeat the purpose of switchable BIOS? I thought the whole point was to flash one bios up to latest beta, test, and if it fails switch back to known good bios......

Correct.
However: once an updated "known good bios" has been arrived at, flash both primary and backup ROMS and use that bios as a new baseline fallback position. According to some semi-authoritative web postings that I've seen, the active bios can still have problems if the backup bios has too much difference in firmwares of one kind or another. There's differing firmware versions within the motherboard bios for Intel CPU microcode; Intel & 3rd party: ethernet ports & Sata ports; Intel video; Intel Management Engine, etc.

Example of a modded bios:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/48085-gigabyte-modified-bios-60.html#post467696
GA-X79-UP4 BIOS F5b mod

Modified with :

Intel RAID for SATA 11.6.0.1702 to 12.7.0.1936
Intel UEFI SataDriver 11.6.0.1702 to 12.7.0.1936
Intel RSTe RAID for SATA 3.7.0.1049 to 3.8.0.1009
Intel RSTe EFI SataDriver 3.7.0.1049
Marvell 88SE91xx Adapter 1.0.1.0025
Intel Boot Agent GE 1.3.95 to 1.5.43
Intel (06D5) CPU Microcode 512 to 513
Intel (06D6) CPU Microcode 616 to 619
Intel (06D7) CPU Microcode 710
Intel (06E2) CPU Microcode 20C to 20D
Intel (06E0) CPU Microcode 008 added
Intel (06E3) CPU Microcode 308 added
Intel (06E4) IvyE CPU Microcode 416
ME firmware 8.1.40.1416 to 8.1.50.1456

Supposedly: there remains some sort of cross-talk between the 2 bioses whenever the system has electrical power.
You'd definitely want to avoid for example: version F4 bios (the version my Z77X-UD5H board came from the factory with) as the backup bios, and version F16 (current latest version) as the primary bios.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Thanks for the follow up vailr. Good info.

 

[vailr]

The situation with certain Gigabyte Z68 dual-bios boards, where the main bios is UEFI, and the backup bios is non-UEFI, would also seem to be a suspected source of problems.

 

[996GT2]

I had tons of problems with Gigabyte BIOSes when I first built a Sandy Bridge system. Learned my lesson, bought an Asus ROG board, and no problems whatsoever after a year and a half @ 4.8-5 GHz.

 

[Kougar]

I had tons of problems with Gigabyte BIOSes when I first built a Sandy Bridge system. Learned my lesson, bought an Asus ROG board, and no problems whatsoever after a year and a half @ 4.8-5 GHz.

Yeah, well I had a ROG board too... until the EPS12V connector slagged itself. No one company has perfect motherboards.

 

[muhammadhasan28]

Hi,

The motherboard GA-Z77X-UD5H (REV 1.0) is boot looping. The code displayed on first boot is db and then computer restart. On the second and later boot up the code is 32.

I have tried to boot up from the backup bios. It worked fine. Then i restarted and recovered the backup bios on the main bios and it also worked fine.
But on restarting the computer the main bios corrupted again. Then I again recovered the backup bios. It recovered successfully but corrupted again on next restart.

Now my both bios display db on fist boot. Then on display 32 or 15 in second boot.

My first question is that is it really the BIOS malfunction or any other component is causing it? Second, is there is a way to recover the bios from usb or any other way? or I have to replace the bios chip.

 

[frogspawn]

Sadly i feel GBT have gone down in my estimation in the last few years. They should concentrate on making a decent board instead of childish gun-mag shaped heatsinks etc.

 

[yottabit]

I know this is a necro but it reminded me of back in mid 2000s I had a Gigabyte dual bios board for something like an Athlon or Athlon 64. Somehow I toasted the main BIOS and went to switch to the backup, only to find that the backup version was an old firmware and did not support my CPU

I think I threw the mobo in the garbage after that