Question Motherboard stuck on splash screen after attempted BIOS update ?

[DelusionsOfCompetence]

As part of prep for new parts I attempted to update the bios version on my Gigabyte B450 DS3H board, and as I started the attempt, the system started having inconsistent BSODs within a few minutes of boot (although I hadn't actually succeeded in making the bios change yet, just moved it to a flash drive.) I made a driver update but rolled it back after the BSODs starting coming up and then made a jump from F2 to F30 (the latest version it would accept and I had intended to make the other jumps until I was current) but after that it will only reboot to the Gigabyte splashscreen with my four button options but none of them work. Rebooting just goes right back, the board has a CMOS RST function and I've tried to touch that after the usual steps of powering off, unplugging the power supply, turning the supply off, testing it won't come back on, etc. but it hasn't had any change - it just goes back to the splash screen.

I'm frustrated and stuck and worried I have no recourse to get things operational again.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Have you unplugged all usb attachments to pc, removed all ram except one stick, and restarted? Did you update the chipsets before you updated the bios?

 

[drea.drechsler]

As part of prep for new parts I attempted to update the bios version on my Gigabyte B450 DS3H board, and as I started the attempt, the system started having inconsistent BSODs within a few minutes of boot (although I hadn't actually succeeded in making the bios change yet, just moved it to a flash drive.) I made a driver update but rolled it back after the BSODs starting coming up and then made a jump from F2 to F30 (the latest version it would accept and I had intended to make the other jumps until I was current) but after that it will only reboot to the Gigabyte splashscreen with my four button options but none of them work. Rebooting just goes right back, the board has a CMOS RST function and I've tried to touch that after the usual steps of powering off, unplugging the power supply, turning the supply off, testing it won't come back on, etc. but it hasn't had any change - it just goes back to the splash screen.

I'm frustrated and stuck and worried I have no recourse to get things operational again.

Does your motherboard have any troubleshooting LED's that light up?

When doing the CMOS reset, also pull the battery for several minutes while shorting the two pins. Maybe 1/2 hour: go get yourself a cuppa while waiting.

And equally important: what CPU are you working this with? It's possible to upate to a rev that won't work with older CPU's so you might try a new CPU (assuming that's one of the new parts) to see if it works. But that's just guessing: more information on what's in your system now and what you're trying to upgrade to will be helpful.

 

[DelusionsOfCompetence]

As an update, removing my m2 enabled the machine to escape the loop and do a successful BIOS update up to the most recent available version but the machine is instead now stuck in a Windows repair loop. It worked momentarily and then returned to giving me BSOD errors that are inconsistent (heap error, IRQL, etc.) which all, in my experience anyways, point towards a driver issue. After I went to sleep, it's now stuck in the win10 repair loop which I don't think is the kind of progress I was looking for. It won't take a new image from the USB for Win10 and won't enter safe mode.

Have you unplugged all usb attachments to pc, removed all ram except one stick, and restarted? Did you update the chipsets before you updated the bios?

I did remove all unnecesary attachments besides the two monitors, mouse, and keyboard.
I removed all RAM but two sticks, I did not try to go down to one stick.
I did do a chipset update, it's possible I made a mistake there though as that and my driver updates were when the BSODs started coming up, prior to me successfully getting the BIOS updated.

Does your motherboard have any troubleshooting LED's that light up?

When doing the CMOS reset, also pull the battery for several minutes while shorting the two pins. Maybe 1/2 hour: go get yourself a cuppa while waiting.

And equally important: what CPU are you working this with? It's possible to upate to a rev that won't work with older CPU's so you might try a new CPU (assuming that's one of the new parts) to see if it works. But that's just guessing: more information on what's in your system now and what you're trying to upgrade to will be helpful.

As far as I can see, my board doesn't have a convenient battery unit for me to pull it just has the pins to touch. Maybe I missed it on the diagram but I definitely don't see a larger silver disc on the board. I am still using the same parts until it successfull returns to operation, I don't have any older ones to swap, and it's worked fine up until these attempted upgrades so they shouldn't be an issue. I can give better specs when I'm at home again in front of the machine, had to leave it in a dysfunctional heap this morning.

 

[drea.drechsler]

.....
As far as I can see, my board doesn't have a convenient battery unit for me to pull it just has the pins to touch. Maybe I missed it on the diagram but I definitely don't see a larger silver disc on the board.
....

You're right, it may not be convenient: some motherboards have them tucked away underneath the GPU and that appears to be the case with yours.

 

[DelusionsOfCompetence]

You're right, it may not be convenient: some motherboards have them tucked away underneath the GPU and that appears to be the case with yours.

Thank you, I was able to find it by removing the card but removing the CMOS and allowing everything to cycle didn't change anything and the board didn't reset like expected. I was able to successfully boot from a USB stick after removing the m2 again and from there I was able to reapply the chipset update (from another USB that had it preloaded) which seems to have stopped the BSOD issues for now. Unfortunately somewhere along the way my m2 drive lost all of its data and since it was my boot drive, I'm unsure how that even happened and any attempt to reapply backups on other harddrives just says they're corrupted.

None of the files elsewhere have been harmed in this process so I just have to fix the drive to be my bootable again (I was initially using an HDD because I wouldn't boot if anything was in that m2 slot) and then start from scratch replacing the programs and going through Windows updates. It seems to have even picked up my license file once I was back on the internet. Losing the contents of my C: drive is annoying but not the end of the world.

I appreciate the comments and assistance, the primary issue was probably a problem installing the chipset update which cascading into everything else and leaving the m2 attached while doing the BIOS updates; I'm mostly just tying that loose end up so any future Googlers with similar issues have an actual solution/conclusion to look for.