[GUIDE] Forcing backup BIOS on Gigabyte motherboards.

wingman99 said:

What is the PSU method?

Click to expand...

turn off ur pc, press power button, switch your PSU switch ON while pressing power button (front panel case) do it once more, if ur board like mine has a BIOS switch set it on Main Bios (Down in my case) switch on PSU switch and pres power button then ur bios recovery should kick in and reflash ur corrupted one with ur backup bios ...

same as method #1

Hold Pins a Little Longer (Method 3)

Method 3, which explains to short/jump/bridge pins 1 and 6 on the M_BIOS chip to kick off a routine installed in firmware which reflashes a corrupt M_BIOS with the contents of B_BIOS, worked wonders for me, for which I'd like to thank the OP.

I had eliminated all possibilities other than the motherboard, and was about to RMA the board (which entails hefty shipping charges not to mention losing the board for a few weeks) when I discovered this thread and got Method 3 to work when nothing else would.

HOWEVER … at first I couldn't get it to work, despite trying a handful of times. What finally did it for me was when I stopped paying attention to the specific instruction of letting go of the pins when the power ON single beep is heard : on my board (a GA-H97-D3H) I had to KEEP HOLDING THE TWO PINS FOR 5–10 SECONDS after the initial beep before being rewarded with this pop-up message on my display :

❝
====== DUALBIOS ======
The main BIOS is corrupted.
Press [ENTER] to recover the
main BIOS from the backup
BIOS.
            ❞

It may depend on the board, or maybe if the OP sees this he might know why … but if you have a dual BIOS board and method 3 didn't work for you and you're out of options, try it again but keep holding pins 1 and 6 with a steady hand for at least ten seconds after the initial beep, see if that doesn't do it for you. Did for me.

Hi guys,
I've a dead z97x-gaming5 don't ask how, I was silly but I am 99% sure I've corrupted the bios or motherboard but nothing else.
1st 2nd methods and PSU method did not work.

this happens:
Board powers on a single click heard really low volume from buzzer, powers off. powers on, a single click heard, waits a second, 2nd click heard
(I think it switches bios at that moment), it beeps (Posts normally), Screen comes on I see the single enter text line (that I always see, so it is normal)
than it should boot into UEFI (will show OC Failed or Gigabyte Image) it shuts down and this repeats.

Never seen such thing happen and I cannot snipe the issue. (Already running out of case with minimum equipments possible, Cmos reset, Battery Removed)

I think the post before mine has quite similar chipset, and I also think he is talking about his mobo also posting but shutting down, so this gives hope to me.

Here is my question tho,
I can understand which one is the "1st leg" mentioned, but which one is the "6th leg"?
Normally in bios chips it should count counter clockwise, so from right bottom 2nd pin.
"-*****-
-*****-
-*****- ->This should be 6th leg
-*****-

but if I count up-to-down it makes 3rd leg from right bottom.
"-*****-
-*****- -> is this the 6nd leg mentioned?
-*****-
-*****-

so I need clarification, please help.

This is datasheet of mine
MXIC MX25L-6473E
http://www.macronix.com/Lists/Datasheet/Attachments/3251/MX25L6473E, 3V, 64Mb, v1.4.pdf

it differs from older MXIC Chips but should amtch the H97 mentioned above.
even tho it differs from the ones in Tweaktown forum, pin 1 and 6 according to this PDF is same with older/newer models.
so I assume 1 and 6 being the ones in the PDF, and shorting the ones mentioned in Tweaktown will cause troubles.

This is the one from Tweaktown
http://www.po-star.com/public/uploads/20120412164634_571.pdf

Update:
I've done the 1-6 method, hold it till screen comes on, It came on and said main bios corrupted then I released the short and it flashed main bios back with backup bios. I thought all good, it shut down, power on, shut down, power on beep (posts) a single line (as usual) and shut down.

Just did exactly what it used to do.
What do this eliminate now?
Ram is fine.
GPU is fine. (GPU in, out does the same thing)
PSU is fine.

is it mobo or cpu?
I am not sure if you can post, use integrated gpu in cpu and re-flash backup bios to main bios with a broken cpu.
is it possible that CPU is broken? I'll RMA both probably CPU will take months to come back and I cannot test it.

FlyPXS said:

Here is my question tho,
I can understand which one is the "1st leg" mentioned, but which one is the "6th leg"?
Normally in bios chips it should count counter clockwise, so from right bottom 2nd pin.
"-*****-
-*****-
-*****- ->This should be 6th leg
-*****-

but if I count up-to-down it makes 3rd leg from right bottom.
"-*****-
-*****- -> is this the 6nd leg mentioned?
-*****-
-*****-

so I need clarification, please help.

Click to expand...

Here is 2 pics of SOIC 8 pin chips, pin 1 will always have some way of finding pin 1 as you see below, then you go counter clockwise from there. Now as to what each pin does will vary from manufacture to manufacture but you still count from pin 1 the same on any 8 pin BIOS chip.

WhitehawkEQ said:

Here is 2 pics of SOIC 8 pin chips, pin 1 will always have some way of finding pin 1 as you see below, then you go counter clockwise from there. Now as to what each pin does will vary from manufacture to manufacture but you still count from pin 1 the same on any 8 pin BIOS chip.

View attachment 180156
View attachment 180157

Click to expand...

After I found datasheets, ı knew what to short, I did it(updated my previous post but anyway)
I shorted it till bios comes up, PC power on, shut off, power on, POST, (still shorting), bios came up (before it would shut down after post), released short, let it reflash
it shut down again, power on, shut down, power on, post, shutdown, power on, shutdown, power on, post, shutdown.

That is what happens.
I've eliminated other causes to CPU and Motherboard. but I cannot find any x97 or x87 motherboard to try my cpu on those.
Have another wrecked MSİ Z97 gaming5, but as I said it is wrecked cpu pins broken/bent (got it from a friend to see if I can rescue, no luck).

so how can I make sure it is not CPU and it is Motherboard? I am quite good when it comes to analyzing what is going on but this time, I cannot.
Cold start, Mobo shuts off 1st run, mobo shuts off 2nd run, Mobo posts, screen comes on, a single line shown (it is normal), waits 5-10 secs, shuts down, repeat(power,shutdown,power,post,shutdown)

Sometimes after post I almost see the blue (Overclocking failed/Corrupt Bios) alert screen (it sometimes flashes sooo fast that I am not sure what I see) before shuting down.
but also can a mobo with bad cpu re-flash backup bios to main bios (when I short the pins, I can get it to reflash)?

But also sametime after mobo flashes back, and it is working while flashing back, why doesnt it boot? Bios is fixed. CPU shouldn't be broken because it flashed old bios back, so what is wrong?

for a sidenote, on Giga website it says: "Note: F7 bios prevents downgrading the bios version." and I am sure my backup bios is F3, but may Gigabyte be this silly?
Because after re-flash behavior changed a little bit, now it takes longer for mobo to shutdown, it still does the same pattern but takes longer.

as an enthusiast I find this very interesting, so you guys may also want to be involved.
I'll RMA the cpu and mobo in 3-4 days, Luckly I bought both from same store and CPU is still under warranty for 3 months. (i5 4690k).
I am afraid they'll refuse to repair, (I am always skeptical so they'll probably just repair, replace but I cannot afford another i5 or Z97X G5 atm so fingers crossed

thnks this worked for me with a x58 ud5 gigabyte motherboard.
I had to keep holding the two pins until it started aytomatically to recover the bios from backup.

boombastik said:

thnks this worked for me with a x58 ud5 gigabyte motherboard.
I had to keep holding the two pins until it started aytomatically to recover the bios from backup.

Click to expand...

Yup. Wondering how many people wound up buying a new motherboard because they couldn't get it to work only because they kept letting go too soon after the power-up beep. Even the instructions I had finally managed to track down after a while say to let go after the beep. Maybe that used to work with older boards, don't know, but dual BIOS Gigabyte boards of the last couple of years definitely need you to keep holding until you see the pop-up on your display that the recovery has started.

Tried that on my x99 board, it just doesnt work anymore
Getting a different brand board and sending this for rma, not dealing with gigabyte anymore

No joy on methods #1 but method #2 saved my dead GA-970A-D3 after a bad flash, so many thanks to you, OP!

Is there a way of telling which BIOS (recovered Main/Backup) it is using after it's gone through the recovery process? It tells me BIOS version is FB, but not which BIOS 'slot' is the one in use. Board is GA-970A-DS3P (rev 2.x I think, the BIOS version nomenclature fits that revision).

cloista said:

Is there a way of telling which BIOS (recovered Main/Backup) it is using after it's gone through the recovery process? It tells me BIOS version is FB, but not which BIOS 'slot' is the one in use. Board is GA-970A-DS3P (rev 2.x I think, the BIOS version nomenclature fits that revision).

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Some boards have a tiny little LED underneath or besides the BIOS chips. My GA-Z97X-UD7 TH has one under Main and one under Backup. Each lights up as they become active. You can check your user manual's "Onboard Buttons, Switches and LEDs" section to see if it has some. Hope this helps.

Thread bookmarked. My last 20 or so posts will explain. LOL

Woah, I have been off for quite some time now, huh.. Glad this thread has helped so many people! If anyone needs any help, just shoot me a PM and I'll do my best

I just found this thread after experiencing a Main Bios Checksum Error on my 890FXA-UD5 board. It was working fine right before that and now it just goes into a loop saying it is retrieving recovery source from backup bios. Writing bios image, rebooting, getting just past post and then getting the error again in a loop. I have tried the battery removal trick, but I haven't tried some of the other ideas in this thread. Hopefully it can recover! I am able to get into the bios, change my settings, etc, but once I get past POST and get that checksum error, I can't get back to bios without pulling the battery first.

Post back if you get it working.

wingman99 said:

Post back if you get it working.

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Success with method 2!!!

The system rebooted, I went into the BIOS, went to Q Flash and was able to reflash the BIOS. Before, when I would go into Q Flash comma it would always tell me that the BIOS files I were trying to use or invalid. This time it worked. After rebooting the computer, I had a checksum error, so I reset the CMOS, and now it works!

Great it worked.

While it seems it did work, it appears something else is wrong with the system as well. I have two 4gb memory sticks that I was using and it seems, after further testing, that if one of them is in the system, the motherboard will go into a loop where it says begin to update backup Bios. Writing BIOS... Reboots... Does it again.

If I only run the system with the one 4gb stick, it works and will load to windows. Using just the other stick causes the boot loop.

I'm a bit surprised to see that memory would cause the BIOS to attempt to back itself up. Perhaps this is a warranty issue for my memory?

Yes I would RMA the memory.

I hope someone can help me here. If this is the wrong thread, please move it.
I had a problem with my BIOS update 2 months ago. After that my PC got into a loop. It booted, went off without displaying antything and most of the times, the thrid time automatically rebooting you see the standard BIOS screen and after that only a Blue Screen with a heading "Gigabyte BIOS....something". Hitting keys does not work. Therefore, I did the dual bios overwriting thing which somebody explained to me in a facebook group. I did this and then I was actually able to get into Windows (reboot also works) but when I shut down the same loop began again as described already. I sent the mainboard to Gigabyte and one month alter I got it back and they said it is working again. I put together all my components and did not thought about really testing it. I just saw that BIOS was working and I got into Windows. But as it seems they have also used the backup to override the main bios and when I switched it on it was the first time after they allegedly repaired it. It worked and I did not touch my PC for two weeks. Today I wanted to do some work and powered it on and again the loop. So I did the thing with the backup BIOS again and again it was working but this time I thought maybe if I do an BIOS update with qflash it will work permanently. I did it, got into windows like always after overwriting main bios, then I rebootet, what worked, and I thought everything is fine again. Now one hour later I tried it again and again. Every third time I get a bluescreen, loop all over again. Maybe someone here can help me. How can this happen??? After the recovery BIOS repaired the main BIOS, it has to work again, doesn't it? After overwriting it is asking me: load defaults and then boot /reboot or enter BIOS. I got the feeling as long as I dont really shout it down it works after kickind the second BIOS; but eventually, when I get into Windows and shut my PC off properly, it gets back into the loop.