Question Is it possible to downgrade BIOS?

[maxisme543]

I recently upgraded my Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite to F32 from F5, and have been experiencing an issue where the BIOS resets itself when I use XMP Profile 2. Is it possible to go back from F32 to F5 the same way I upgraded my BIOS?

 

[AllanGH]

Generally-speaking, yes.

 

[DMAN999]

I doubt it.
The newer BIOS versions F30 - F40 all use newer AGESA (0.0.7.2) so they should be compatible with the 3000 series CPUs.
F4 and F5 used AGESA 1.0.0.6 which is optimized for the Ryzen 2000 CPUs.
Which is why they say this on the BIOS download page for your BIOS:

1. If you are using Q-Flash Utility to update BIOS, make sure you have updated BIOS to F32 before F40
2. Before update BIOS to F40, you have to install EC FW Update Tool (B19.0517.1) to avoid 4DIMM DDR compatibility on 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ CPU

The newer AGESA versions all seem to cause various issues with the 2000 series CPUs and some cause RAM OC issues.
That is exactly why I am still using a BIOS that is 2 versions old on my ASUS B450 MB.

 

[CountMike]

Generally, when AGESA version is changed such BIOS can't be downgraded using onboard utility but only by SW of which every make has own, It's something like DOS boot disk/USB with appropriate program and BIOS version file. Look at MB manual how to do it.

 

[DMAN999]

Generally, when AGESA version is changed such BIOS can't be downgraded using onboard utility but only by SW of which every make has own, It's something like DOS boot disk/USB with appropriate program and BIOS version file. Look at MB manual how to do it.

While that may be true in some cases, I have seen quite a few posts on various forums where users said that they could Not downgrade once they flashed to the newer BIOS versions on B450 and X470 MBs even using the DOS based flash utility provided by the motherboard manufacturer (Afudos, BUpdater, etc.).

Which is another reason I will NOT update past my current BIOS version until I absolutely need to.
I would hate to find out the hard way that I couldn't downgrade my BIOS especially when my current BIOS versions works Very well for me.

 

[CountMike]

While that may be true in some cases, I have seen quite a few posts on various forums where users said that they could Not downgrade once they flashed to the newer BIOS versions on B450 and X470 MBs even using the DOS based flash utility provided by the motherboard manufacturer (Afudos, BUpdater, etc.).

Which is another reason I will NOT update past my current BIOS version until I absolutely need to.

I agree, once you are satisfied with what you have, there's no reason to upgrade BIOS until really needed. I updated mine after checking what might have changed and it works same as it did with older version. There will indubitably be even newer versions once R 3000 is released but that can wait until I get my mits on 3800x.

 

[DMAN999]

And to be completely honest I'm about 90% sure I could figure out a way to downgrade if I really had to whether with switches used with the DOS flash utility or possibly modifying the BIOS with a Hex Editor or some other BIOS editing tool but I really don't want to spend the time and energy it would take to figure it out.


PS
maxisme543,
I would recommend you search the Gigabyte Support Forums and see what other users that have your exact MB say about downgrading the BIOS.
They may know of a simple solution to your problem.

Also since you already uopgraded you could try using this tool:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HYcQE4FcLj_2yXK0nhXW1qSNy6zgvWwl
to make a DOS bootable FAT32 Bootable USB stick and then download and unzip the F5 bios (which includes the EFIFlash tool) and then boot to that USB stick and it might just work.
You won't know until you try.

If doing that returns an Invalid BIOS Image error you might be able to use the Modified version of EFIFlash with the integrity checker turned off found here:
https://www.win-raid.com/t1361f16-Flashing-Gigabyte-while-avoiding-quot-Invalid-BIOS-image-quot.html

 

[RagnarklokPc]

Don't know if this is late or not, but yes. I've recently (yesterday/today) did this in an attempt to upgrade from a ryzen 5 1400 1st Gen to a ryzen 5 2400g. I updated my bios from f4 to f31, but still couldn't get it to work. So I downgraded to f10 (the bare minimum bios version for a ryzen 5 2400g) I'm still troubleshooting, but with my old 1st Gen ryzen plugged in, I'm having no problems.

Download the gigabyte app center, install, run.
Go back to your motherboard on the gigabyte website, go to support, then click utilities.
Download @bios and the other program called bios. Save and install them.

Go back to gigabyte, find the bios version you want, and download, then unzip.

Open gigabyte app center. Run @bios, update from file, find the unzipped bios, and update!
After it finishes, it'll ask you to reboot. Do it.

After it's rebooted, open app center, open bios, and check! Should be the bios you want.

(insert Billy Mayes)
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Now, on YOUR MOBO ITSELF, you have to manually flip a switch to the 2nd bios! My switches are near the very bottom left of my motherboard (a gigabyte aorus ga-ax370-gaming k7) flip the top switch, and on the mobo you'll see an indicator light by your 2 bios chips switch from one to the other(my bios chips are just under and to the left of the CPU)
After you switch to the other bios, repeat the update(downgrade in your case) process.
Open app center, open @bios,update from file, click file, update, then reboot. Now both bios are downgraded

 

[Karadjgne]

The answer is yes, and no. Depends entirely on the bios update and what was done. Most bios updates are nothing more than including cpus or the odd bug fix in the uefi etc. Those are easily reset and returned to a prior version. But every now and then, bios versions contain microcode updates that wipe out all prior affected data, and that cannot be recovered from. You can roll back the bios version, but that microcode remains as it's also implemented in all versions from the vendor. So some things will not be recoverable.

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Hi guy's
I know this is a OLD and unsolved thread BUT it was good info.