Gigabyte Z270X-UD3 Unable to Boot to UEFI Shell

I am trying to do the exact same thing as this person in this older thread: USB-Bootable-EFI-Shell-for-Gigabyte-GA-970A-DS3P
I am unable to get the board to boot to the UEFI Shell.
I tried the DOS method, but I get the PAL error, which means I need to use EFI. I copied the EFI to my DOS boot USB and I had a "UEFI: USB Drive, Partition 1" boot option. When I selected it the screen went blank and then went right back to the boot options.
I tried formatting the USB drive in plain FAT32 (non-bootable). I then have a "USB Drive" and "UEFI: USB Drive, Partion 1" option. Again the UEFI option just blinks and goes back to the boot option. Selection the plain "USB Drive" option didn't do anything and it booted to Windows instead.
I tried both MBR and GPT partitions.

I'm at a total loss here. I can't update these damn HBAs any other way, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get into the UEFI shell.

Please help!

I this a brand new board with factory bios or have you flashed the bios? Try switching over to the other bios since it is a dual bios board.

Yes, it is a brand new motherboard. It says it has UEFI DualBIOS. I'll be honest, I don't understand what that means, or how to switch. There is nothing in the manual

Let me see if I can find something in the online user's manual. Usually, there is a "jumper" or a mechanical switch on the board itself to choose which bios chip you are booting off.

I can't find any info on it either but try this first: Clear the CMOS. There two bare pins in the lower right corner for doing this. First, power the computer down and disconnect the PSU cord from the wall. Then push the front panel power button to drain any remaining juice from the motherboard. Then take a screw driver tip and bridge the two pins for 30 seconds to clear the CMOS. Then try powering the system back on.

I tried to clear the CMOS a few times, and even dug out an actual jumper, and it wouldn't work.

I client brought in a computer for me to put a new SDD drive in. I tossed one of the HBAs into it and was able to book into UEFI Shell directly and updated all 4 of my HBAs.
They work beautifully. I erased them completely, and only flashed the firmware (not the bios). I knocked 5 minutes off my boot time!

I'm frustrated that I couldn't figure out the stupid UEFI on the Gigabyte. That and the DualBIOS feature are no where in the docs. (I DID check before I posted here!)

Flashing these HBAs solved all three issues I was having! Thanks for your help!

HBA ?

Host Bus Adapter, that's what the LSI cards are referred to generically.

Used to be there was a jumper or a slide switch to move from one bios to another on dual boot boards. Maybe these days that is handled automatically when one bios or the other gets corrupted. And not we have the EUFI middleware to contend with on top of that. Ain't simple no more.

trents said:

Used to be there was a jumper or a slide switch to move from one bios to another on dual boot boards. Maybe these days that is handled automatically when one bios or the other gets corrupted. And not we have the EUFI middleware to contend with on top of that. Ain't simple no more.

Click to expand...

I know that on GigaByte MB's with dual BIOS, the switch to backup BIOS is automatically done if the main BIOS becomes borked or bricked, the MB has enough smarts to switch to backup, reflash main then reboot.