How to fix "dead" dual BIOS motherboard if flashing failed

[tonus]

It is possible to make the BIOS Auto-Recovery kick in (Dual BIOS) and re-flash the MAIN BIOS with the contents of the BACKUP BIOS.

This is a simple and easy method for anyone to try before having to resort to other more difficult methods, or a RMA.

1. Shut off the power supply using the switch on the back of the PSU, wait 10-15 seconds.
2. Press and hold the case Power On swtich, then while still holding turn on the power supply from the switch on the rear.
3. Still holding the case power on switch, the board will start, once it does release the case power on switch and shut off the power supply via the switch on the read of the unit. (Do the latter two parts as quickly as you can once the board starts)
4. The board will shut down.
5. Turn the power supply back on using the switch on the rear of the unit.
6. Turn on the motherboard by pressing the case power on button.

Once the board starts this time you should see the Gigabyte splash screen, or POST page, then the Auto-Recovery from Dual BIOS will kick in. You will see a checksum error, and then recovery from BACKUP BIOS will begin. Once it is done reboot your machine and enter the BIOS and load optimized defaults then save/apply/reboot back to BIOS.

Now you are done, and will be using whatever BIOS was in your BACKUP BIOS, From there you can attempt whatever you were previously trying, or update your BIOS to the latest version.

[arjana]

you're awesome... great job man!!
it's works on my mobo GA31m-sl2
many thanks

[knilch2000]

Just wanted to give a short feedback, I have a Gigabyte GA-EG45M-UD2H, on which I updated a wrong BIOS file. After that I had my MB rebooting every 5 seconds without anything showing up on screen.

I read through the first few posts and then went with tgun's variant from the opening post.

I took a paper clip, connected pins 4 and 7 with a steady hand ;) and had my wife plug in the computer and switch it on. And voila, the GigaByte logo showed up, so it worked like charm, and took me about 10 minutes, after searching the web for about 2 hours to come to this thread :)

So thanks guys and especially tgun for the info!

greetings, Knilch

[Lsdmeasap]

Awesome to hear you were able to save your board!!!

To anyone reading this, anytime later, please try your best not to bump this thread. For those who are happy about recovering that's cool, but hold back if you can

Be warned, if you don't hold your hand steady you can fry your board! I just borked my P67A-UD7!! I let my short slip from 4+7 to 4+8 = Magic smoke and toasted unbootable board, even with a proper short on reboot!!

So be warned, and be VERY careful when holding that short!

Took some images this morning of the damage, it's hard to see in most of them, but you can clearly see the trace break in the second image.

This is what happens if you short Vcc+Ground / 4+8, so be VERY Careful!!
http://imgur.com/a/Wq2I9

[adriasansa]

Hello everybody. This morning I updated my BIOS with a wrong file (I suppose It because althought the installation "succeded" my screen haven't output anything since I rebooted.), I readed a lot of the tips in this thread, the tip of the power suppy and the power button haven't worked, I also think I connected succesfully the pins 4 and 7, and the boot, and I also have been trying some time with the 5 and 6 mehtod. I am not sure if this two methods work with my BIOS because It's a 18 Bit. Sometimes using the 5 and 6 method I hear a beep, sometimes before I connected the pins but I haven't seen anything at the screen. I think the problem why I can't see anything might be that my processor is maybe unrecognized(I think I updated to an older BIOS) and the non-backup BIOS can't be accessed, and as a result of that no signal arrives to the backup BIOS. I would be very happy to have help. Thank you !

[profJim]

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Socket AM3+ - AMD 870 - GA-870A-USB3 (rev. 3.1) says that you need the F5g bios or newer for any of the FX processors. If you flashed your board with an older bios you probably need to buy or borrow a cpu for flashing your board back to F5g. A local shop might be able to flash your motherboard, but I think that it will cost less for you to buy a low end cpu for flashing and then sell the cpu. There's no guarantee that this approach will work.

artdrivers is our resident AMD guru, send him a private message and include a link to your post in the PM.
Good luck!!

[adriasansa]

Thank you I supposed the problem was my CPU, but If I buy I new one for reflashing I think it would be hard to sell it... I will try to go to the shop where I bought the computer and ask if the guarantee involbes my problem.
Thank you for your time.

[profJim]

You're welcome.
There is always a market for good clean used computer parts.
Obviously you won't get all your money back, but it might be cheaper than having the shop flash it for you.
artdrivers might be able to help you, it won't hurt to ask him to look at your post.
Let us know how things work out.

[adriasansa]

Finally I lead the computer to the shop and told them the problem... They reflashed my bios for 25 e in 3 days. Thank you again :)

[tomxx]

Hi,
i have mobo gigabyte GA-945GCMX-S2 LGA 775(P4 dual core) and probably who(i don't know) was flashing failed bios.This is singel bios - mx 126 8 pin
i try instruction for dual bios, but doesn't work and i try recovery flash award bios, but doesn't work too.

This mobo on the start black display and work cooling [on the procesor](? sory my grammar) and no post code and dosen't work floppy drive , usb [i don't know]

is instruction to recovery or flash (not hot) bios on this mobo?

Thank you:)