cant access bios on ga-990fxa-ud3 (rev 4.0) motherboard

[thesaltman]

i cant access the bios on 2 (god damn 2 of these peaces of junk) brand new ga-990fxa-ud3 (rev 4.0) its just going to the command prompt screen and when i hit the keys the screen just gos blank. i have brand new r9 290's gpu's, (kingston 4x4gb ram, 2x wd sata 500gb harddrive, 2x amd sempron 145 cpu, 2x ocz gold 80 plus 1000w psu all brand new) the r9 290's wouldn't even register a signal on the screen so i got an old 8800gts card to work on it. all i can do is hit command and gos to black screen. tried skipping on and installing Ubuntu from flash drive and its coming back with "unable to find a medium containing a live system" i need to get into the bios.

i brought the mother boards round to a pc repair technician and got him to update the bios to from f1 to f2 after i couldn't get the r9 290's
to register, the moron must of screwed up the bios update or something because when i got em home the r9 290's still wouldn't register. so i went and got a secondhand 8800gts for 25 bucks to do what the tech was ment to do and i cant access the bios...
i tried removing the battery, jumping the cmos pins but only to the same no access to bios. the board has duel bios and supposedly when the main bios becomes damaged the back up bios restores the main bios to factory setting.

is there some thing i have to do to make the back up bios restore the main bios or should it happen automatically?

[shorena]

Well I wouldnt even bother with it and just return it to the "pc repair technician" who was payed to update your bios.
Or did you update the bios? I dont understand the "i bought 2nd hand GFX cards to do what the tech was ment to do" part.

Also if your brand new hardware isnt working, why didnt you return it to the store you bought it from and got a replacement or them fixing the bios? Or is that where you got that technician?

Anyways, if you payed for it and its not working you shouldnt fix it, but those you bought it from.

[thesaltman]

no i didnt update the bios the so called "repair technician" did, to be honest if he cant do a simple bios update properly im not letting him back at it a second time to break something else. the reason i got a repair technician to update the bios is because the only cards i had were r9 290's and they would not work with the bios that was on the motherboard. the r9 290, the motherboard, cpu, ram everything were all working fine and still are. they were all tested by a supplier, i seen them working with my own eyes. it was a bios issue not hardware but now the tech has screwed up the bios. the reason i bought a second hand card was so i could update the bios because i knew when i got the boards home that the tech had not updated the bios correctly.     

how can i access the back up bios on this board or is it automatic?

i cant even enter bios to update it, its just sending to a black screen after hitting delete on start up

[shorena]

Allright I understand a little more, but I am still not sure why you didnt just give the motherboard back. Not sure whether this is country specific (im german) or even the shop I buy hardware at specific, but when I buy hardware parts and return because they dont run together they take them back. Usually they tell when I buy the mix or whether I want to build a system with the parts im about to buy and warn me that e.g. the GeForceMX440 wouldnt work well with this new Mainboard.

But maybe thats specific, so lets see how you can flash that thing anyways.

Remove the battery

according to this http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4672#ov
its next to the ram banks.

make sure the pc has no power supply and wait for at least 5 - 10 minutes, preferable do something else while you wait, just to make sure.

strike that, its easier just to reset cmon right away.

If that does not help, which it actually might, depending of the nature of the flashing you need to clear cmos. There should be a jumper on the mainboard with that or a similar name. Cant find it on the picture, but you should find it in your handbook. Usually in the part where they explain where all the connectors are.

Put a jumper on it or if you dont have one just connect the two pins with something metal, turn the machine on and you should be able to enter the bios.

[thesaltman]

im living australia but im irish lol. i bought the boards, gpu, and cpu from different ebay suppliers and some ram from a local supplier (who were the ones that checked all parts for me and found they all worked, it was just a bios problem) i kind of wish i had of just bought them all from my local supplier now javascript:void(0);

but yeah i have already tried to reset the bios from the jumpers (didnt fix the problem) and i also removed everything from the motherboard removed the cmos battery and i attached a power button and depressed 10 or 15 times to remove any current from the capacitors and still no luck.

i think with this model of board that when you flash the main bios that the back up bios is overwritten by the main bios. they call it duel bios for dummies... which is really dumb because unlike other boards where you have the option to switch over to backup bios with this board if you screw up bios installation you screw main and back up bios. this has to be one of the most flawed moves for gigabyte, they should stick to the switch method.

kind of good news i just got a drive from a laptop with a windows 7 on it working on 1 board and im going to try and update bios from windows and not from q flash

wish me luck

[shorena]

Well first of all: Good luck with that

Hmm sounds like the actual BIOS update went bad, which usually shouldnt happen. Not sure whether flashing from win7 is a good idea but maybe you can kind of initialize a boot to flash from there. If all fails you - or someone who does this on a regular basis - can still burn a new rom (like this selfmade one here http://www.eeweb.com/project/circuit_projects/pic-and-eeprom-programmer ) with a working BIOS.

And yeah, I stopped buying hardware online a couple of years back when I had a CD Burner that "should be working" according to the support, but it for the hell of it wouldnt with my PC. It took me almost half a year to get my money back, because they insisted that they checked it and everything was fine, while when I finally got it back from the lab it still wouldnt work. Ofc they though it was a problem on my end and maybe it even was, but if its not working with the hardware I have I cant just replace my whole PC just to make one part work.

[thesaltman]

yeah i have this really bad habit of buying something because its a deal that seems to good to be true and then it turns out it really is haha 
six months to get a refund, at that stage i would of been sending them anthrax letters... 

your 100% right in what you say, i decided against doing the windows bios update and risking screwing the one board thats booting os. there is however light at the end of the tunnel. im going to try tomorrow shorting out the main bios to trick the back up bios into thinking the main bios has been corrupted. what could of happened is something freakishly small went wrong in the bios update and the back up bios thinks the main bios is working ok and its not kicking in.

i found this telling how to do it if anyone runs into this same problem, it supposedly is a very common problem with these boards. but should only be tried after all other avenues have been exhausted

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/33904-how-fix-dead-dual-bios-motherboard-if-flashing-failed-2.html     

[thesaltman]

Hmm sounds like the actual BIOS update went bad, which usually shouldnt happen. Not sure whether flashing from win7 is a good idea but maybe you can kind of initialize a boot to flash from there. If all fails you - or someone who does this on a regular basis - can still burn a new rom (like this selfmade one here http://www.eeweb.com/project/circuit_projects/pic-and-eeprom-programmer ) with a working BIOS.

i should also confess i think it was my fault the bios stuffed up, not the techs. i made flash drive of the bios for the tech and formatted the usb in ntfs when it should of been formatted in fat32. so i think thats where it went wrong...

[thesaltman]

well i tried shorting the main bios by connecting pins 5+6 and you can also connect pins 1+7. which is suppose to trick the back up bios into thinking the main bios is not working but no luck.

it seems that the backup bios is not working on both boards, is this even possible? and if so what would of caused this?

from what i gather if you flash the bios in ntfs format flash it will not work, i couldn't find anything to say that it will damage the bios. could it be the tech who flashed it used @bios? and even if he did i should still be able to disable the main bios and make the back up bios take over right?

[shorena]

well i tried shorting the main bios by connecting pins 5+6 and you can also connect pins 1+7. which is suppose to trick the back up bios into thinking the main bios is not working but no luck.

it seems that the backup bios is not working on both boards, is this even possible? and if so what would of caused this?

from what i gather if you flash the bios in ntfs format flash it will not work, i couldn't find anything to say that it will damage the bios. could it be the tech who flashed it used @bios? and even if he did i should still be able to disable the main bios and make the back up bios take over right?

Im not sure how this dual bios tech works, but I think its possible to corrupt both. Or it just didnt work. So its still the corrupted mainbios thats working, or well not working.
And according to your link (pg 1) it should have been pins 4 und 7. And also its a different mainboard, so even though its the same company they might have changed the layout of the pins.

Can open the link to the datasheet from tgun, its probably to old.

But if you can find out which pins are Data In and Clock for your board...

http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_ga-990fxa-ud3_e.pdf says they use...

wait a sec.... chpt. 2 says you can press END to flash without entering the bios. Did you try that?

anyway, whats the writing on the bios chips? I cant find anything about which chip they use and my kids just woke up.

[darkblades19]

since you built this rig yourself, you do have to becareful, if yo do not properly ground the board in the casing, it can shortcircuit the bios or anything else in the board itself. Not only that but why in the world would you hire a technician to flash bios with data YOU provide? if you know how to obtain the bios flashing data, surely you could have went about flashing the boards yourself.

my suggestion to you now is to obtain a tester and see if there are any leaks on the circuits, if so you are SOL, will need to get new board.

remember always wear anti magnetic gloves when handling computer hardware.

[Olly_K]

If the BIOS was messed up it wouldn't boot.

I have a similar problem with my logitech USB gaming keyboard - it only get's initialized in the OS after booting. So I keep a spare PS/2 keyboard lying around and use that when I want to get into the BIOS.

try it

[btcdog]

vvvvvvvvv

[thesaltman]

well i tried shorting the main bios by connecting pins 5+6 and you can also connect pins 1+7. which is suppose to trick the back up bios into thinking the main bios is not working but no luck.

it seems that the backup bios is not working on both boards, is this even possible? and if so what would of caused this?

from what i gather if you flash the bios in ntfs format flash it will not work, i couldn't find anything to say that it will damage the bios. could it be the tech who flashed it used @bios? and even if he did i should still be able to disable the main bios and make the back up bios take over right?

Im not sure how this dual bios tech works, but I think its possible to corrupt both. Or it just didnt work. So its still the corrupted mainbios thats working, or well not working.
And according to your link (pg 1) it should have been pins 4 und 7. And also its a different mainboard, so even though its the same company they might have changed the layout of the pins.

Can open the link to the datasheet from tgun, its probably to old.

But if you can find out which pins are Data In and Clock for your board...

http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_ga-990fxa-ud3_e.pdf says they use...

wait a sec.... chpt. 2 says you can press END to flash without entering the bios. Did you try that?

anyway, whats the writing on the bios chips? I cant find anything about which chip they use and my kids just woke up.

yeah i think you can corrupt both bios...

sorry your right, typing error i was meaning pins 4&7 the pins are of the same config some bloke on page 5 has same board as me. heres the datasheet for the chip http://postar.sino-star.com/public/uploads/20120412164634_571.pdf
i think it should be the pins for 4ground and 7hold

yeah i been trying to press end to enter flash but none of the buttons work on both boards end, delete, f9, f12. it wont let me do anything with the bios. im just getting the gigabyte sign with the commands and keys to hit along the bottom then when i hit a key it just gos to black screen and stays there.

the writing on the chips so small i cant make it out, i need a magnifying glass lol. but from what i read on page 5 of the tech someone says its the same chip they give a link to prove it but its dead.

you have a kid, im so frustrated with these boards that if i had baby and it was crying id probably shake it to death haha

[thesaltman]

since you built this rig yourself, you do have to becareful, if yo do not properly ground the board in the casing, it can shortcircuit the bios or anything else in the board itself. Not only that but why in the world would you hire a technician to flash bios with data YOU provide? if you know how to obtain the bios flashing data, surely you could have went about flashing the boards yourself.

my suggestion to you now is to obtain a tester and see if there are any leaks on the circuits, if so you are SOL, will need to get new board.

remember always wear anti magnetic gloves when handling computer hardware.

i got the tech to update it for because i had no gpu that would work with the f1 bios. it needed to flash to f2 before my gpu would work. i ended up buying an old cheap gpu that worked.

i have a multimeter here, that was gonna be my next step. i also have a gas soldering iron and if all else fails im going to solder in new bios. im going to fix these darn boards if its the last thing i do.

[thesaltman]

If the BIOS was messed up it wouldn't boot.

I have a similar problem with my logitech USB gaming keyboard - it only get's initialized in the OS after booting. So I keep a spare PS/2 keyboard lying around and use that when I want to get into the BIOS.

try it

yeah i already tried that to, i tried with a wireless usb keyboard and a ps/2 board same deal with both lets me press keys on prompt and then just gos to black screen.

yeah like on one of the boards its letting run windows and everything on it, its working fine but it wont let me flash it and it wont enter the bios.

gigabyte should get there shit together, im sick of this goddam tomfoolery.

[shorena]

Yep 2 kids actually and they drive me crazy sometimes

I guess you read post 2 here and tried some if it?

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/27576-bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide.html

And the way I understand it is you short pins 5 and 6, so Clock is the same as input. This would basicly write the clock in the bios which probably kills it and the backup bios kicks in.

This is from the 2nd post here

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/33904-how-fix-dead-dual-bios-motherboard-if-flashing-failed.html

The method in the 1st post there (pins 4 and 7) will probably only work with some kind of button because you have to "hold" the main bios while booting and either hold during the flash or release right after boot. Not sure how steady your hands are, but I couldnt do that
Shorting 5 and 6 looks more promising even though its a bit brutal.

[Lethn]

How the fuck do you manage to screw up the actual motherboard BIOS? If you can't do a BIOS reset then it sounds to me like something may be physically broken? I'd take it back and get a refund on it or something like the others have said. This is precisely why I'm learning as much as possible about hardware and how to fix it myself so I don't have to rely on people like this.

[thesaltman]

Yep 2 kids actually and they drive me crazy sometimes

I guess you read post 2 here and tried some if it?

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/27576-bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide.html

And the way I understand it is you short pins 5 and 6, so Clock is the same as input. This would basicly write the clock in the bios which probably kills it and the backup bios kicks in.

This is from the 2nd post here

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/33904-how-fix-dead-dual-bios-motherboard-if-flashing-failed.html

The method in the 1st post there (pins 4 and 7) will probably only work with some kind of button because you have to "hold" the main bios while booting and either hold during the flash or release right after boot. Not sure how steady your hands are, but I couldnt do that
Shorting 5 and 6 looks more promising even though its a bit brutal.

you have 2 look after 2 kids... i cant even look after myself let alone 2 kids haha

yeah i tried the q flash and that but i had no luck at all

so what your saying is when shorting pins 4&7 you have apply the jumper during the few seconds when the gigabyte logo shows up and then release just after?

ok i haven't been doing that, i just had a paper clip jumping the 2 and waiting for the bios to kick in.

i have requested a refund for the boards but im considering soldering a button on the pins to try it out first.

i wonder if there any of connecting a button without soldering???

[Expat1]

I know this thread is a little old, but thought I'd put my 2 cents in anyways.  I'm a retired computer shop owner from the states now living in the Philippines.  Gigabyte is very good about replacing their boards just contact them and get a RMA replacement.  You didn't say what your OS is if the settings for quick boot are enabled and your using Wind 8 or 8.1 you cant get into the bios using the keyboard.  You have to use windows to get into it. Also to flash it has to be formatted Fat32 and no more than 4 gig stick or it wont load, it wont even see what's on it let alone load it.  The rev. 4 has the newest update in it F2.  Also as a general note from experience there are alot of copied fake boards from some counties cheep boards to high end boards of all brands and they do look like the original!  You find out very fast when trying to get a RMA number using the sn number.  I've run across even stolen pc parts that they were destine for other countries (the whole shipping container) then resold back to the USA via ebay or other such places.  Even RMA shipments have been stolen and resold as many countries stock up on RMA's before shipping to the manufacturer.  Sooooooooooooooo buyer beware!  As a previous reseller there is not that much of a mark up, if the item being sold claiming new and is lower than 10%-20% of normal retail something is fishy!  Also I have this board it's a good board I'd say for normal use and some overclocking, but for heavy overclocking I'd recommend a Asus's Sabertooth.