Gigabyte GA-970-D3 rev 1.4 successful bios up date (F10-F12) but reverts back to old version

[Chris_151]

Hi All,
I have GA-970-D3 rev 1.4 which i was able to update (F10-F12 most recent non-beta) with Q-flash. The problem is when i reboot and check the current version it went back to original version. I want to update my CPU from a Phenom IIx4 965 3.4ghz to a FX-8350 4.0ghz 8 core which i got for Christmas. I checked the gigabyte website for compatibility/support which it dose with f11 bios. Any thoughts and help is much appreciated.

 

[GhislainG]

Did you flash both the main and the backup BIOS?

 

[Chris_151]

No i did't. New to this how do you do that? Sorry for noob question and thanks for quick response

 

[junkeymonkey]

I was wondering if the flash was bad on the main chip and it auto selects the back up bios


What is Dual BIOS Technology? Dual BIOS means that there are two system BIOS (ROM) on the motherboard, one is the Main BIOS and the other is Backup BIOS. Under the normal circumstances, the system works on the Main BIOS. If the Main BIOS is corrupted or damaged, the Backup BIOS can take over while the system is powered on. This means that your P C will still be able to run stably as if nothing has happened in your BIOS

should be all covered in your manual ??

thing is if you flash the 2 chips and say it all went wrong you may be fully bricked ?? unless it a cpu compatibility thing best leave the backup alone with its factory installed bios .. [opinion]

 

[GhislainG]

Did you follow the instructions available at http://www.gigabyte.com/webpage/20/HowToReflashBIOS.html and you didn't miss steps 4 and 5? The procedure can also be found here: http://www.manualslib.com/manual/542085/Gigabyte-Ga-970a-D3.html?page=62

 

[GhislainG]

I was wondering if the flash was bad on the main chip and it auto selects the back up bios


What is Dual BIOS Technology? Dual BIOS means that there are two system BIOS (ROM) on the motherboard, one is the Main BIOS and the other is Backup BIOS. Under the normal circumstances, the system works on the Main BIOS. If the Main BIOS is corrupted or damaged, the Backup BIOS can take over while the system is powered on. This means that your P C will still be able to run stably as if nothing has happened in your BIOS

should be all covered in your manual ??

thing is if you flash the 2 chips and say it all went wrong you may be fully bricked ?? unless it a cpu compatibility thing best leave the backup alone with its factory installed bios .. [opinion]

If flashing is required to support a new CPU, then flashing both BIOS is highly recommended.

 

[Hexxer151]

Thanks for the quick responses
@GhislainG- I did do steps 4 and 5, just checked the bios and it now says Main: F12 / Backup F10. Checked regedit and it says F10. Can it be wrong? how to tell which verson is running?
This is a flash for a new CPU upgrade. How do i flash the backup? I have the old verson saved to another flasdrive just incase. This computer is my backup rig so if it bricks no worries.

 

[junkeymonkey]

''If flashing is required to support a new CPU, then flashing both BIOS is highly recommended''

???

''thing is if you flash the 2 chips and say it all went wrong you may be fully bricked ?? unless it a cpu compatibility thing best leave the backup alone with its factory installed bios ''


see the part of that I stated ?

''unless it a cpu compatibility thing best leave the backup alone '''

 

[GhislainG]

Thanks for the quick responses
@GhislainG- I did do steps 4 and 5, just checked the bios and it now says Main: F12 / Backup F10. Checked regedit and it says F10. Can it be wrong? how to tell which verson is running?
This is a flash for a new CPU upgrade. How do i flash the backup? I have the old verson saved to another flasdrive just incase. This computer is my backup rig so if it bricks no worries.

If it's like my Gigabyte GA-97X-SLI, it should update the main BIOS, then verify it and finally update the backup BIOS. If yours behaves like my older Gigabyte motherboard, there could be an option to copy the main BIOS to the backup BIOS.

 

[GhislainG]

''If flashing is required to support a new CPU, then flashing both BIOS is highly recommended''

???

''thing is if you flash the 2 chips and say it all went wrong you may be fully bricked ?? unless it a cpu compatibility thing best leave the backup alone with its factory installed bios ''


see the part of that I stated ?

''unless it a cpu compatibility thing best leave the backup alone '''

It checks the main BIOS against the file before flashing the backup BIOS.

 

[junkeymonkey]

thing is if you flash both and there bad flashes its over - that's all there is to it -been there done that [ga-590sli board] and theres no salvaging unless you can change out the bios chip

your call on how you go about it

good luck

for fun
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/33904-how-fix-dead-dual-bios-motherboard-if-flashing-failed.html

 

[GhislainG]

thing is if you flash both and there bad flashes its over - that's all there is to it -been there done that [ga-590sli board] and theres no salvaging unless you can change out the bios chip

your call on how you go about it

good luck

It doesn't always give you an option. With the GA-97X-SLI; it flashes the main BIOS, verifies it and then flashes the backup BIOS. It doesn't ask you if you want to do it or not.

 

[junkeymonkey]

what ever you feel best .

his back up is working as it should and recovers from the bad main bios as he stated no need to fool with it [backup bios] its working as expected so why fool with it ???

thing he need to figure out is what went wrong with the flash of the main bios ? bad pen drive ? formatted wrong ? broken link for the download wrong revision board bios ??

true the backup don't support his new chip but it is saving the board and his old chip still works so he could find the issue and try to resolve ?

good luck

 

[Hexxer151]

Thanks for the information and help all. Main bios and Backup bios are now synced to F12 version. By using a PS/2 keyboard rebooting and hitting "alt" + "F12" at flash screen brought up a window to copy the new bios to the back up. Worked like a charm. New CPU installed and running like a champ. Again thanks for all the help. For further info on gigabyte boards and all sign up on the giga byte forums uk. Lots of info on all Gigabyte products.

 

[junkeymonkey]

so you see if you had a bad flash on the main bios and you did that and copyed to the back up now you got 2 bad flashed chips - so your working on pure luck the first flash was good cause in doing it like that you have no back up ??

now this board I use has a switch/jumper so it on this bios chip or that bios chip the one is all ways ''safe'' so to say [stand a lone ] also the bios chip is socketed not hard soldered in [easy to replace ]

so see what I'm saying you had I guess no way to be sure the flash oin the primary bios chip was good cause it changed automatically to the back up bios chip as you said in your first post ??
so your still in the hope of a good flash , right ??

 

[GhislainG]

Thanks for the information and help all. Main bios and Backup bios are now synced to F12 version. By using a PS/2 keyboard rebooting and hitting "alt" + "F12" at flash screen brought up a window to copy the new bios to the back up. Worked like a charm. New CPU installed and running like a champ. Again thanks for all the help. For further info on gigabyte boards and all sign up on the giga byte forums uk. Lots of info on all Gigabyte products.

It's like my older Gigabyte motherboard.