Dual Bios Inquiry

[Xtreme Gamer]

If a bios flash fails, but the backup bios is still working. Then how do I use the backup bios to recover the old one?

[Tea1337]

There is usually a physical switch on the motherboard to switch between BIOS's

[Xtreme Gamer]

There is usually a physical switch on the motherboard to switch between BIOS's

 

That doesn't really answer my question at all. I already know that there is a switch.

[Tea1337]

That doesn't really answer my question at all. I already know that there is a switch.

What motherboard is it?

[Xtreme Gamer]

What motherboard is it?

 

Z77X-UD5H rev. 1.1

[-rascal-]

Z77X-UD5H rev. 1.1

 

Well we didn't know what motherboard you have so...

 

Power down the system, toggle the switch, and power on.

 

Regarding about fixing the corrupted BIOS, I'll have to read the user manual for the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H.

 

Page 23:

1: Main BIOS

3: Back-up BIOS

 

Page 70:

If the main BIOS was to become corrupted,  the back-up BIOS can take over in the next boot-up, where it can be copied over to the main BIOS. The back-up BIOS cannot be updated manually by the user.

 

When you are booting the system up with the back-up BIOS, you should be able to update/fix your main BIOS (as the back-up cannot be flashed) via QFlash, etc.

[Xtreme Gamer]

Well we didn't know what motherboard you have so...

 

Power down the system, toggle the switch, and power on.

 

Regarding about fixing the corrupted BIOS, I'll have to read the user manual for the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H.

 

Page 23:

1: Main BIOS

3: Back-up BIOS

 

Page 70:

If the main BIOS was to become corrupted,  the back-up BIOS can take over in the next boot-up, where it can be copied over to the main BIOS. The back-up BIOS cannot be updated manually by the user.

 

When you are booting the system up with the back-up BIOS, you should be able to update/fix your main BIOS (as the back-up cannot be flashed) via QFlash, etc.

 

Is the backup bios still able to be used to recover main bios when the backup bios had settings changed, rebooted, then reloaded the optimized defaults?

[-rascal-]

Is the backup bios still able to be used to recover main bios when the backup bios had settings changed, rebooted, then reloaded the optimized defaults?

 

I'm not entirely sure on...I haven't tried to purposely corrupt the BIOS on a Gigabyte motherboard that I have...that has the DualBIOS feature.

But...I'll look into it and see what I can find.

[Xtreme Gamer]

I'm not entirely sure on...I haven't tried to purposely corrupt the BIOS on a Gigabyte motherboard that I have...that has the DualBIOS feature.

But...I'll look into it and see what I can find.

 

Were you able to find anything yet????

[-rascal-]

Were you able to find anything yet????

 

Yes, you can use the back-up BIOS to recover the main BIOS even if the settings were changed, rebooted, and reset to optimized defaults.

Also, it seems that as long as the BIOS settings (i.e. overclock) is stable and problem free, you can just use it directly without needing to optimize to defaults.

 

You can also copy the MAIN BIOS over to the back-up BIOS. According to people on the Gigabyte forums, you press ALT + F10 instead of the Delete key. Your monitor will go black for a moment and you will see something like:

Press [Enter] to start copying main BIOS to backup BIOS...

 

When you press Enter more text will appear saying:

 

Writing BIOS image.... xxxKb OK

 

Once completed more text will show:

 

BIOS successfully recovered! Power off or reset system!

Do as it says. Both Main and Backup BIOS chips now store the same BIOS version. You can now reboot as normal.

 

 

If your motherboard supports this, you can manually invoke the Back-up BIOS Auto-Recovery.

 

BIOS Recover Method Via Manually Invoking BACKUP BIOS Auto-Recovery

 Using Power Supply - On/Off Switch

 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.