Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 bios update issue

sathiel

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Oct 30, 2012
3
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10,510
Hello,
I recently got an GA-970A-D3 MOBO for my PC. I've encountered serious issue with BIOS update - motherboard came with F7 BIOS version and I wanted to update it to latest F11 from gigabyte's site. After q-flash system went into bootloop, sometimes booting into windows just to crash after few seconds. Also when I try to change memory settings to work in 1600MHz mode it's not even booting to POST, just beeping twice / rebooting and restoring factory defaults. After pressing reset + power buttons together for ten seconds MOBO is booting old backup bios, and after few seconds I can see the message: "Warning: MAIN BIOS CHECKSUM ERROR!", and it's recovering backup bios. Everything works fine with stock F7 version, system is booting without any problems, memory oc to 1600MHz works fine. My configuration:
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3
Phenom II x4 945 3GHz
2x 4gb Corsair 1600 DDR3 ram
Gigabyte GeForce 660
Corsair SATA SSD 120 GB drive
Chieftec 550 W PSU
I tried few bios versions from gigabyte's official site, downloading from different servers, also once from @bios application F10 version of bios, all with the same result as I've stated before.
Does anyone have any idea what can cause this bios update issue ?
 

mace200200

Honorable
Is your flash drive formatted correctly? It wasn't to long ago I was updating BIOs on my gigabyte board (it's an older AM2+ socket but Q-flash I think still works the same). Anyway you need to format your usb stick to FAT 32, if it already is, reformat it again then try the Q-flash deal once more. When I did it I didn't have anything else on that drive except for the new BIOs version.
 

sathiel

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Oct 30, 2012
3
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10,510
Yes, it's formatted correctly - I've also used 2 other flash drives just to be sure this one is ok. Strangest thing is qflash doesn't recognize checksum error when it checks it after flash, but forcing backup bios mode sees it every time.
 

sathiel

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Oct 30, 2012
3
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10,510
New bug just came up - I've just tried to flash new bios again and with "factory defaults" settings windows message came up at boot saying there is no kernel and windows cannot be started. Looks like it's not only memory issue but mobo overall stops working correctly after flashing any other BIOS then default one. Windows booted correctly after returning to backup bios.
 

grn

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Aug 15, 2012
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10,520
Do you have a reason to upgrade the BIOS. BIOS update should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Are you sure you have the correct BIOS for your motherboard - if the mobo has different revisions then you need a BIOS for the mobo revision - it'll be marked on the edge of the motherboard (mine is on the left corner of the edge containing the back I/O panel). Sounds to me like you should just stick with the BIOS that works though.
 

strongflower

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Nov 19, 2011
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18,530
I'm having the same issue, only I, for all my foolhardiness, put my faith in the @BIOS software to update quickly and easily from windows.

Specs:
AMD FX-4170 4-Core @ 4.2 GHz
Gigabyte 970A-D3
16 GB Corsair Vengeance @ 1600
ATI Sapphire 6770 HD @ 1GB GDDR5
Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 500W
Windows 7 x64 Ultimate Edition
Some crappy optical drive I'll be replacing soon

My reason for wanting to go from F7 to F11 was that I can't seem to figure out why in the BIOS it says my RAM is running at 1600 MHz, but EasyTune is reporting "PC10" (i think?) @ 667 MHz. The CLs are correct but for some reason it seems to think my RAM is 1333 MHz. So I figured since I never updated the BIOS, thought it might jsut be prudent.

So the operating system wont boot, of course. I ran startup recovery just now, just in case, but that failed, naturally, since its a BIOS issue. So I'm going to try and roll it back with the Dual BIOS and take a few more runs at it. I take careful note of what I do, and if it works, I'll post how I did it.

In the meantime, if anyone knows how to solve my memory issue, I'd be very pleased. Should i just try to overclock it? Seems wrong. I disabled the page file thinking I'd have pretty fast access to a large RAM base. Bad idea?
 

strongflower

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Nov 19, 2011
39
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18,530
Okay got mine to boot with verF11.

I loaded Optimized Defaults and went through the settings again. The only thing I changed this time was in Integrated Peripherals. I changed the On Chip Sata type from "Native IDE" to "SATA". Maybe give that a try?

The first time I did this I tried switching the RAM's mem clock from x6.66 to x8.00 and it said it failed to boot due to overclocking. I don't know if that affected the overall outcome, but I then changed it back and it worked. Just trying to give you all the details - I'll start my own thread for my own mem issue so we stay on topic here. Good luck!
 

Ghabee

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Mar 29, 2013
1
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10,510


I've had this problem for some time now, it's a bug in automatic latency settings. The way to fix it is that you have to select the latency manually, just set it manually on what SPD suggestion is (should be 9-9-9-24)

Edit: Selecting Profile1 also works