Black screen during BIOS update - revert to onboard gfx? dualbios recovery?

[Nellybauer]

Currently setting up a new PC, the Mobo is a Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-HD3 paired with an AMD Athlon X4 760K & HD7850 GPU.

Used the Gigabyte @BIOS tool to update the BIOS, it got part way through the process & then screen just went black, left it for 15 minutes & nothing changed. Turned it off & now all I get is a blank screen.

This mobo has Dual BIOS so should in theory fix itself but without getting a screen output I have no idea whats going on.

I've tried resetting the CMOS using the onboard pins, manual says only 5 secs needed (enough time?). I also took the battery out afterwards. Has made no difference.

What I'm wondering is if the clearing of CMOS or the dual BIOS recovery means the board is now trying to output through the onboard graphics rather than the GPU? Problem being that the 760K has no graphics chip so no way of using the onboard ports without getting an APU from somewhere.

Found some other pages that talk about shorting some pics on the BIOS chips to force the second BIOS to be used but dont want to do that if in fact the issue is just that I can't see what the recovery is trying to fix.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[alexoiu]

DualBIOS is supposed to work without any user intervention, but it seems that in some/most cases it doesn't.
You can't use the board anyway, so shorting the pins of the M (main) chip is an option.
http://comerford.cc/wordpress/fixing-gigabyte-ud3r/
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/260048-30-gigabyte-ep43-with-dual-bios-black-screen-bios-update
I would try it, and if not working, RMA-ing the board.
Or just RMA it.

 

[Nellybauer]

Thanks for the response. Happy to have a go at shorting the BIOS pins but difficulty I have is that the BIOS chips sit underneath the graphics card, can't reach them without it being removed. No graphics card & no on-board graphics means I'll still not know if it has actually done the BIOS recovery!

Seems weird that I'm seeing absolutely no signal output from the DVI connector of the card. Screen knows there's a cable connected but just says No signal being received. Wondering if maybe the PCI-e slot has been fried somehow with the BIOS update. However it is definitely getting power as the fan on the GPU spins up fine. Tried another GFX card & no different.

Could RMA it but building this as a Christmas present for someone, so won't get a new 1 delivered in time from a decent retailer & want to avoid having to buy from PC World!

 

[alexoiu]

Can't you use the bottom x4 PCIe slot for the graphics card (I haven't checked the board manual)?

 

[Nellybauer]

Good point, will give it a try but annoyingly all the front panel, front usb etc pins are right below the x4 slot, either card I've got here will be going right over the top of them & may not fit as a result

 

[Nellybauer]

No I couldn't use the x4 slot. Tried using the methods in the links you send before just with GPU disconnected. Figured if it worked it would chug through the process of doing the restore then boot to windows & I'd see HDD activity. Sadly nothing. Realised as well that I'm not even getting num lock lit up on the keyboard so nothing coming out of USB either.

Going to RMA it

 

[alexoiu]

You can remove them and start the board by shorting (again) the 2 pins corresponding to the power button.