BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide"

[Lsdmeasap]

Ahh, ya I do not use Greasemonkey so that would be why it works for me then maybe?

That one may just not be compatible, you are the first to notify me of this though. So Thanks, and I will keep that in mind. It may just be the size? I have only used 515-2GB ones and all of them have worked. MANY Brands, so the size just may be the reason? If you wanted, you could test that by formatting and partitioning that USB Stick down to a 1GB partition and see if it picks that up or not, then you would know

[klompa]

Originally Posted by Lsdmeasap

Sorry, that gave me the info I needed, but sadly it was of no help.

Here is the PDF For that chip
http://pdf.chinaicmart.com/PM4/PM49FL002.pdf

And here is the one I know how to short, using Pins #5 + #6
http://www.mct.net/download/macronix/mx25l8005.pdf

There is so many pins on the one you have, and none of the names are the same So I would not be sure of how to advise

You can try some of the methods posted here or ask if anyone can tell you for sure here, the info I mention about blind flashing award BIOS and Shorting the pins for modern boards is also posted here >>
BIOS Recovery procedures - My Digital Life Forums

Wish I could help, but I am not sure with that many pins what to advise. Maybe pins 31 and 30 but I am just not sure. I am not even sure if it is possible with that chip

Lsdmeasap hi mate just wanted to say thanks for the info i shorted out pins 3 and 4 and that did the trick the main bios recovered from the backup
so thanks again

[Lsdmeasap]

Ahh, nice to hear back from you. Yes I have seen this method save many boards, just was not sure which pins for the model you listed.

Can you please post a image from the PDF I linked showing which pins you shorted, for future reference. Please also note the board model again as well

Thanks, and nice to see you got it going

[klompa]

Originally Posted by Lsdmeasap

Ahh, nice to hear back from you. Yes I have seen this method save many boards, just was not sure which pins for the model you listed.

Can you please post a image from the PDF I linked showing which pins you shorted, for future reference. Please also note the board model again as well

Thanks, and nice to see you got it going

Yeah the board is a GA-K8N Ultra-SLI
Pins 3 and 4 they are both general purpose inputs I had them shorted on power up the screen said 'MAIN BIOS CHECKSUM ERROR' at that point i released the short and it went to auto recovery with in a matter of seconds I waited for it to complete the recovery and on the next power up all was good
cheers

[grishkafool]

Lsdmeasap,

Before I try this out, I have a RAID 1 question. If you recall I am the person that had a hard time getting my RAID 1 up and running. Ended up having to use the GSata ports for the RAID and the Intel ports for the optical and C: String Here

So, anyway, my RAID 1 is purely storage, my primary is C: After I flash F9, am I going to be able to enable the Intel ports and move my RAID there? What do you think?

[turvas0]

HI all i have a big problem with GA-8S650GXM rev2 moderboard bad bios update. Now i start my computer i have text scanning bios image in hard drive. I dried boot usb memory vitn new bios file but nothing can somewone help me

[kromar]

hi, not sure this belongs in this section but maybe this helps some people recover their board after a @BIOS flash.

i got a new GA-M790X-UD4 and after seting up the drivers and everything i wanted to flash the bios. until now i only used asus boards and always flashed with their software without trouble, so i thought @BIOS would also work... bad bad idea, everything seemed to go well untill i rebootet the pc.
no display signal no device activity, only the cd/hd led were blinking one after an other

i was told (also by the gigabyte support) that if a CMOS reset wouldnt help then the board is dead, but i wouldnt belive it

after reading lots and lots of solutions and forum posts throughout the inet i tried everything to bring this board back.
i read that it would be possible to have the bios file on a floppy disk and disconnect everything else that it would reflash it from the floppy, so i gave it a try.

first i disconnected all the drives exept the floppy, started the pc but the floppy light did not even flash once:/

then i removed the graphic card and tried again and there was a short blink on the floppy, so there was still hope:D
after that, nothing happend and i pushed some buttons on the keyboard and when i hit ENTER the floppy drive reacted (was like reading a newly inserted disk, nothing more). then i rebooted and there was the boot beep again
so i put the graphic card back in to see if i got it working again, and tadaaa input signal was back and i could enter the bios again:D the board was saved

the strange thing is that i first thought the bios was reflashed but that wasnt the case. the bios which i flashed with @BOIS was on the chip and not the one from the floppy drive:O
so the question remains what happend there with the bios with the floppy drive connected and why did i have to remove the graphic card to make it respond? maybe some bios guru has an answer to those questions. and maybe this hepls some others to get their board back to life after using @BIOS.

[Lsdmeasap]

Thanks Klompa for the info posted back!!

@ turvas0

Do you have a floppy drive ALREADY connected? If so you can blind flash the board, if not you may need to RMA it if you still can. How did you update the BIOS and are you sure you used the correct file?

@ kromar

As you found @BIOS is not suggested with so many other options. As for your findings, ya I was thinking as I read you were explaining a blind flash (Which you can do w/ Floppy as mentioned on page one) but after seeing all your comments I am not sure what to say happened.

What I would think is after you cleared the CMOS either it kicked in as it should have after a few starts instead of the normal one that is needed, or your Dual BIOS kicked in finally and reflashed the other chip to match the main chip you flashed with @BIOS

I do not think your removing the GFX Card had anything to do with it, but stranger things have been known to happen. It is all just likely a lucky coincidence is all.

[Cornflake]

Hi all,

I just registered to say that I found your guide very useful, Lsdmeasap. It helped me create a bootable USB key to flash my GA-M55SLI-S4 mobo so I could use an X2 6400+ (It's an older Athlon X2 board, see the Newegg page or the Gigabyte page). I needed a bootable USB key because even though my floppy was enabled and 1st boot device (I reset to defaults before flashing), I didn't have a FDD hooked up.

However, despite the FLASH895.EXE program flashing the BIOS and telling me it was successful, upon reboot I found my system would not even POST. No error messages, no nothing. I cleared the CMOS several times, and attempted a blind BIOS flash (with a proper autoexec and everything) but since my floppy was getting nothing more than power, it did nothing. Not only did my BIOS fail for absolutely no reason, but I find out my mobo has no BootBlock or anything else to recover itself. Once a brick, always a brick.

Furthermore, it has a very small bios chip (It's 512K I believe) that is soldered onto the board. So that means either 1) Find someone who can flash the chip on the board, or 2) RMA it to gigabyte and wait more than a month for them to pop a new chip on in thirty seconds. I called around every PC repair shop in town, and they all knew what I was talking about with the BIOS -- but none of them had the tools or knowhow to reflash a soldered BIOS. I knew it was a longshot, but I had to try. It's sad that no one in the greater Denver area has an EEPROM burner. I guess We'll have to forever rely on China and Taiwan! God forbit if they're not here one day to do everything for us.

I can now say I will never EVER flash a BIOS again. Ever. For my very first flash to completely fail and brick my motherboard for no reason leaves me pretty upset. If I ever need to upgrade the BIOS, I'll be ordering a motherboard from Newegg first. That way, I'll have a brand new board if it fails and I won't be waiting around to get the old one repaired.

[Lsdmeasap]

Did you try with one stick of ram after your flash and reboot? Sometimes you need to also try a different (Cheaper/lesser) stick of ram as well, one that for sure will boot at the stock JEDEC Voltage of 1.8V

Are you SURE you download the correct BIOS Per your board model and revision? Just checking as there is two revisions >>>

1.0
GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - BIOS - GA-M55SLI-S4 (rev. 1.0)

2.0
GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - BIOS - GA-M55SLI-S4 (rev. 2.0)

A RMA may be needed, it should only take 2-3 weeks but you are right I have seen it take longer. I have also seen it take less as well though.

I am glad to see you found the guide helpful, but I am Very Sorry to hear you had these issues!

If you need RMA info let me know, I can also point you to the Ebay seller mentioned in your thread @ [H]forums if you would like to look into that option.