Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 sometimes resets BIOS to defaults on boot

[Brian Kendig]

I built my PC around a Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 board. I'm running the latest BIOS (F12), and the only tweaking I've done has been to run my memory at 1600 MHz instead of 1333. (I have G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1600 memory.)


Everything works fine, except that sometimes when I boot, my BIOS settings are reset. I know this because I've turned off the graphic boot screen, so when I boot and see the graphic screen, I know I have to hold DEL to get into the BIOS settings, and then I have to set the memory to 1600 again and re-load my BIOS settings from my saved copy.


Why does my motherboard boot into defaults every now and then? How do I make it not reset to defaults?

[Chike]

Re: Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 sometimes resets BIOS to defaults on boot

do you turn the PSU off? If turned off for too long the battery may loose power.

[Brian Kendig]

Re: Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 sometimes resets BIOS to defaults on boot

I do cut power to the computer when it's turned off for a day or two, but it always cold-boots properly; it's only when I reboot that sometimes it resets to defaults.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 sometimes resets BIOS to defaults on boot

You may need to update your backup BIOS to match your main BIOS, this helps a lot in P67/Z68

Set your settings how you normally want them all to be, then follow this guide on how to flash the backup BIOS to match the main BIOS. You may need to use a PS/2 keyboard, or USB to PS/2 adapter if you don't have a PS/2 KB.
GIGABYTE Tech Daily: Video guide how to update your backup bios on GIGABYTE P67 boards

And when you reboot as you mentioned, use the actual reboot from within the OS, not the reset button

[Brian Kendig]

Re: Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 sometimes resets BIOS to defaults on boot

Thank you for the suggestion. I tried pressing Alt-F12 on boot, but that didn't bring me to the BIOS backup update prompt that the video showed. Maybe this motherboard doesn't offer a way to update the BIOS backup.

Why do you suspect the backup BIOS? What might that be affecting here?

[profJim]

Re: Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 sometimes resets BIOS to defaults on boot

Apparently there might be some stability issues with some newer motherboard models when the backup bios version is different from the main bios version. Under normal circumstances your system boots from the main bios.

Have you done any windows stress testing? If yes, which programs did you run and for how long?

[Brian Kendig]

Re: Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 sometimes resets BIOS to defaults on boot

Alt-F12 didn't do anything when I booted while I held it down on my USB keyboard, so I connected a PS/2 keyboard and held it down, and voila - I was able to copy my main BIOS to my backup BIOS. Thank you for the tip! I'll see if this avoids the BIOS-reset problem.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 sometimes resets BIOS to defaults on boot

Nice to see you got it flashed over finally! Hopefully this will resolve much of your booting issues!

Try to avoid the reset button as much as possible, and avoid using ctrl+alt+del while in dos, during bootups, or BIOS. If you avoid that as much as you can it should help a lot!

Also, pressing Delete at startup to get into the BIOS too many times in a row can cause this too, or too early + too many times.