I recently acquired a new CPU motherboard and RAM from Newegg. I had the PC up and running for not even 24 hours before the sh*t hit the fan. Here's what happened.
I read about a serious BIOS issue that should be flashed with tghe CPU verifitcation and RAM issues with the Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L. But I decided not to update because all things associated with flashing the BIOS have always taunted me. But the more I used the PC and benchmarked it, I kept getting system crashes with very small OCes and needing higher and higher voltages. But the Gigabyte software I had used was not working very well that was on the CD; such as EasyTune 5. However, I decided that the BIOS update was needed.
I downloaded the GA-P31-DS3L BIOS (latest version) from Gigabyte's website and proceeded with the @BIOS flash utility that they recommend using. SO I closed everything down, and ran it. I got a pop up saying, "BIOS file write error!" and clicked the only option, which was "OK". I did a reboot and did what the motherboard manual says, which is to load the optimized defaults. Well, when I reboot the PC, it never booted again.
I get this error stating "AWARD BLOCK BOOT : Scanning BIOS Image on Hard Drive." That's when the words, "Oh sh*t." were spoken. I'm now stuck here, I can not do anything at all.
I read on the web that I should be able to Flash back to my original BIOS, or any BIOS version for that matter, so long as I use an MS-DOS start up floppy and than add the BIOS files to the floppy. In addition to add a txt file with a line of code.
I did this, and still nothing happens. I'm stuck here. I want to RMA the motherboard, but than that leaves me with 2GBs of RAM and an E400 C2D just sitting there...
I also read more in-depth on this issue and it turns out that Gigabyte boards use a feature called XpressRecovery 2 which backs up the BIOS, or is supposed to back up the BIOS inot a hidden sector on the HDD so the feature can recover the BIOS. The only issue is this, the AWARD BOOTBLOCK is that it won't allow anything to boot, such as the floppy, until it recovers the BIOS, but the thing is, you HAVE to backup your BIOS in the first place; which is somethign I've NEVER had to do before and was never suggested in the first place; only as an option for data back up on external drives in the manual. So, I can't get, or put anything on to the hard drive.
Gigabyte essentially has made my motherboard and the associated BIOS unrecoverable.
If ANYONE out there knows anything about how to recover a BIOS at ALL, please, please, please, fill me in. If you need further clarification as to what this problem is I can go in-depth even more, but I think i covered it for the most part. But here's some additional info...
- C2D E4500
- Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L
- Kingston 2GB 2x1GB PC5300 DDR2 667
Those are my new parts, everythign was running great up until the BIOS flash. =(
I read about a serious BIOS issue that should be flashed with tghe CPU verifitcation and RAM issues with the Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L. But I decided not to update because all things associated with flashing the BIOS have always taunted me. But the more I used the PC and benchmarked it, I kept getting system crashes with very small OCes and needing higher and higher voltages. But the Gigabyte software I had used was not working very well that was on the CD; such as EasyTune 5. However, I decided that the BIOS update was needed.
I downloaded the GA-P31-DS3L BIOS (latest version) from Gigabyte's website and proceeded with the @BIOS flash utility that they recommend using. SO I closed everything down, and ran it. I got a pop up saying, "BIOS file write error!" and clicked the only option, which was "OK". I did a reboot and did what the motherboard manual says, which is to load the optimized defaults. Well, when I reboot the PC, it never booted again.
I get this error stating "AWARD BLOCK BOOT : Scanning BIOS Image on Hard Drive." That's when the words, "Oh sh*t." were spoken. I'm now stuck here, I can not do anything at all.
I read on the web that I should be able to Flash back to my original BIOS, or any BIOS version for that matter, so long as I use an MS-DOS start up floppy and than add the BIOS files to the floppy. In addition to add a txt file with a line of code.
I did this, and still nothing happens. I'm stuck here. I want to RMA the motherboard, but than that leaves me with 2GBs of RAM and an E400 C2D just sitting there...
I also read more in-depth on this issue and it turns out that Gigabyte boards use a feature called XpressRecovery 2 which backs up the BIOS, or is supposed to back up the BIOS inot a hidden sector on the HDD so the feature can recover the BIOS. The only issue is this, the AWARD BOOTBLOCK is that it won't allow anything to boot, such as the floppy, until it recovers the BIOS, but the thing is, you HAVE to backup your BIOS in the first place; which is somethign I've NEVER had to do before and was never suggested in the first place; only as an option for data back up on external drives in the manual. So, I can't get, or put anything on to the hard drive.
Gigabyte essentially has made my motherboard and the associated BIOS unrecoverable.
If ANYONE out there knows anything about how to recover a BIOS at ALL, please, please, please, fill me in. If you need further clarification as to what this problem is I can go in-depth even more, but I think i covered it for the most part. But here's some additional info...
- C2D E4500
- Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L
- Kingston 2GB 2x1GB PC5300 DDR2 667
Those are my new parts, everythign was running great up until the BIOS flash. =(
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram