Qflash Plus Gigabyte Z490. black screen after Firmware Update F20a

[capkasa]

System won't boot, not showing BIOS anymore. Not reacting to Power Button. QFlash Plus not working

 

Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Ultra Rev. 1.0

Intel i9-10900K

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3600Mhz 2x16GB

Corsair 850W

Asus Rog Strix RTX 2080 Super

Windows 10.0.19042

I have vast computer experience for 25 years.

 

I have a lot of troubles running this machine with my graphics card. It works great without but GPU works great in my old 4th gen Computer also. That will me my next topic. Anyway.

I downloaded firmware from Gigabyte website, unpacked, updated with Windows @BIOS tool. It was successful and showed it was ready to reboot and It did. But not working now as PC doesn't boot.

I have made every single Firmware update from F5,6,7,8 so far without troubles but now I did the F20a and PC not even reacting to the power button. I use CMOS reset to start up.

Bios LED shows 4F which meaning is "reserved". lol

 

I removed GPU and am using internal GPU

I turned off PSU for a while. Disconnected power Cord also.

Several CMOS resets

PC stopped working just after BIOS update so no issue WITH PSU or cable connections nor with GPU.

Monitor is working as I am using it on my old PC now.

 

I tried Q-Flash. Description in manual is dismal. I found on a support website (FAT32 in Bios USB slot, Firmware F8a renamed to GIGABYTE.bin, restarted PC and waited 20s until QFlash Plus starts on its own). Not working. I then used Qflash button when PC was off. Nothing. And when it was on and just after turning on. No QFlash LED blinking indicating the process)

 

Any idea how to reflash motherboard?

 

mb_manual_z490-aorus-ultra_1001_e.pdf

[capkasa]

Update: Qflash worked now but system still not starting. Powers off instantly. Same with CMOS reset.

 

I realised my USB showed access for two seconds when pressing QFLASH Plus button but no QFLASH LED indicating activity. After two days I found out on some forums that USB stick MUST have MBR partition table. with that flashing seemed to have worked as LED was flashing for a couple of minutes.

 

QFlash procedure: Format USB drive as FAT32 with MBR partition table. Use smaller USB drive if necessary. Firmware file name must be GIGABYTE.BIN. Turn off PSU, insert USB in special USB slot. Turn on PSU. Press QFLASH Plus button. Do not press power button. QFLASH Led will indicate activity.

 

Still stuck though.

 

[sokolinek]

Hi @capkasa, did you manage to make it through? I will repost something from Gigabyte forum via the other user that have dealt with that as well:

Quote

Download and extract previous BIOS to a clean (fat32) usb key (your case F6c).
Rename the BIOS file to GIGABYTE.bin
(I had removed all parts from my motherboard, this was based on something I read but I don't know if you need to).
Insert the usb key into the white USB port on the back of the motherboard.
--It says now to just press qflash button on the motherboard, but that didn't work for me.--
Power the PC via case power button. Wait a min and press the qflash button on the board. The qflash led should start flashing.
Wait for the update to complete and the system to shutdown and not start again (~6-10mins).
Remove the key and you should be good to boot. It did reboot once before booting normally.

By the way, I got a feeling that you have probably managed to solve it already, so one question from my side - are you now on F8a or some other? I have F7a and since I have seen many issues regarding F20a problems on Gigabyte forum I started to google F8a problems and there was a guy who claimed to have difficulties with it like 5 degrees higher temps and some lags and actually decreased performance. Can you share some of your inside about it?