Gigabyte BIOS update won't stick; thoughts?

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FlippedBit

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Apr 28, 2015
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Hopefully someone's been through this already and knows what to do.

I'm trying to update the BIOS on a Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 from F4 to the newly released F5. I had previously tried to upgrade to the beta BIOS (F5j) before this one was released and had the same results. The BIOS seems like it flashes fine according to the Q-Flash utility, and I get prompted to reboot at the end. No matter how many times I try though, the BIOS still says F4 after I reboot. It's like the flash isn't 'sticking' or persisting.

Any thoughts what could be happening?
 
Last edited:
vailr

vailr

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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The Q-Flash utility itself is probably being targeted for update, but can't update because it's already in use.
Try using the @bios Windows update utility; the version offered on that specific motherboard's download site.
 
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FlippedBit

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Apr 28, 2015
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Thanks for the suggestion. It didn't work, but I learned something doing it... it seems the F5 BIOS they posted is invalid or broken!

The @BIOS tool could not even find an F5 version from the Gigabyte servers. When I told it to grab the latest, it said F4 was the latest and that I already have it.

I then tried upgrading from @BIOS by pointing it to the F5 binary that I manually downloaded. It started to flash but failed and gave a generic error message.

So, it seems F5 has some serious issues. Maybe Gigabyte accidentally posted an invalid link on the Z170X-UD5 download page (?) Either way, it looks like I should avoid it for now.

Many thanks!
 
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FlippedBit

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Apr 28, 2015
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Is that a beta?

I don't trust the F5 binary at this point enough to take a risk with it. I'll be looking around a bit for some other peoples' experiences.

Hopefully in the meantime Gigabyte will fix their website. F5 is supposed to have a number of fixes, including the Prime 95 Skylake bug. However, the release notes on their official page omit any of that. Not sure what's going on.

Thanks!
 
Ketchup

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
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Are you having trouble running your RAM at XMP? Because that is the only real reason to grad this update anyway.
 
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FlippedBit

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Apr 28, 2015
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Ketchup said:
Are you having trouble running your RAM at XMP? Because that is the only real reason to grad this update anyway.
Click to expand...
It's supposed to have additional fixes, such as the Skylake bug found in Prime95. I'm not sure why they didn't list that on their official website, but they did previously (in one of the F5 betas). I think maybe they omitted it in the notes or the website is wrong since they updated it recently.
 
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FlippedBit

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Apr 28, 2015
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UsandThem

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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FlippedBit said:
Same result with this one. It started to flash and half way through it failed.

Either it's a bad BIOS or there's something messed up on my end. If anyone else has had success with F5 please chime in.
Click to expand...

I have this board and updated it to F4 when I got it back in late November/early December (can't remember for sure), but it has been 100% stable with everything.

If you aren't experiencing any issues, I would just wait a while for a few more revisions. Unless I experience an issue or they majorly improve something, I might just stay with F4.

The only issue I have encountered and I am still trying to figure it out is my USB 3.1 Type A connection. I bought an external USB 3.1 enclosure and put a SSD in it. Windows recognizes the drive, but if I try to format it or copy data to it, the whole system becomes slow and hangs. It immediately improves when I unplug the external drive. It works perfectly in my USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, so that's the only thing I am trying to figure out.

You haven't tried a USB 3.1 device in yours by any chance have you?
 
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FlippedBit

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Apr 28, 2015
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UsandThem said:
You haven't tried a USB 3.1 device in yours by any chance have you?
Click to expand...
Sorry, the only USB3.x device that I own so far is a 3.0 thumb drive. I've used it a little bit on the front ports (mostly to install Win10) and it seemed to work fine.

Were you able to submit a ticket? I tried to register on Gigabyte's website to tell them about the F5 issue, but it won't let me log in even after I set up my account and clicked on the activation link. Maybe they don't want to receive bug reports :whiste:
 
UsandThem

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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FlippedBit said:
Sorry, the only USB3.x device that I own so far is a 3.0 thumb drive. I've used it a little bit on the front ports (mostly to install Win10) and it seemed to work fine.

Were you able to submit a ticket? I tried to register on Gigabyte's website to tell them about the F5 issue, but it won't let me log in even after I set up my account and clicked on the activation link. Maybe they don't want to receive bug reports :whiste:
Click to expand...

No, I didn't submit a ticket. I am going to try another brand of USB 3.1 enclosure or thumb drive first, but since USB 3.1 is so new, there isn't a lot of choices out there. There are a few on Amazon right now, but the limited reviews on them are questionable (the I received this item for free for an unbiased review type).

There doesn't see to be many people complaining about it, so I'm hoping it is just the Vantec enclosure that is the issue.
 
Ketchup

Ketchup

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Sep 1, 2002
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FlippedBit said:
It's supposed to have additional fixes, such as the Skylake bug found in Prime95. I'm not sure why they didn't list that on their official website, but they did previously (in one of the F5 betas). I think maybe they omitted it in the notes or the website is wrong since they updated it recently.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. I did find that "bug" a little on the silly side. Can only encounter this issue when telling the CPU to hunt for prime numbers? I don't think we are in a technological state where that is necessary any longer, unless one is testing his/her overclock (and there are better options out there for that sort of test).

I will stand by my earlier statement - if you aren't having "real" issues, just skip this one.
 
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FlippedBit

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UsandThem said:
There doesn't see to be many people complaining about it, so I'm hoping it is just the Vantec enclosure that is the issue.
Click to expand...
Hey, as an aside, are you seeing any crashes in Windows with this board?

I just got a blue screen today with bugcheck ID 0x0000001a (MEMORY_MANAGEMENT). The last BSOD I got was on 3/13 (SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED).

It's relatively stable but I do get the occasional BSOD and I'm not sure where the problem lies. I don't trust Windows 10 very much yet, either.
 
UsandThem

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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FlippedBit said:
Hey, as an aside, are you seeing any crashes in Windows with this board?

I just got a blue screen today with bugcheck ID 0x0000001a (MEMORY_MANAGEMENT). The last BSOD I got was on 3/13 (SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED).

It's relatively stable but I do get the occasional BSOD and I'm not sure where the problem lies. I don't trust Windows 10 very much yet, either.
Click to expand...

I haven't had any blue screens or crashes, or anything like that. Really the only thing I have encountered so far is the USB 3.1 problem.

Did you do a clean install or Windows 10 or did you go the upgrade route? I'm currently on the 1511 Windows build, and it has been pretty flawless here.
 
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FlippedBit

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Apr 28, 2015
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UsandThem said:
Did you do a clean install or Windows 10 or did you go the upgrade route? I'm currently on the 1511 Windows build, and it has been pretty flawless here.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I did the clean install from USB and set up my partitions from scratch. Also using build 1511 with the latest (March 8th) updates.

Since we're using the same F4 BIOS (I really need to get into the habit of saying UEFI) and the board is still at revision 1.0, then I guess it's got to be something else.

Are you using the Windows default AHCI drivers? I've got Intel RST installed and my primary disk is a Crucial MX100 256GB ssd.

For RAM, I opted for this kit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233752

It wasn't technically on Gigabyte's approved RAM list at the time, but it booted fine. I'm using the XMP profile.
 
Ketchup

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
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FlippedBit said:
Hey, as an aside, are you seeing any crashes in Windows with this board?

I just got a blue screen today with bugcheck ID 0x0000001a (MEMORY_MANAGEMENT). The last BSOD I got was on 3/13 (SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED).

It's relatively stable but I do get the occasional BSOD and I'm not sure where the problem lies. I don't trust Windows 10 very much yet, either.
Click to expand...

Generally a bad stick of RAM is the most common cause for that error. You could try knocking the speed down one notch and see if that makes a difference. It can be a driver, but that is pretty rare.
 
F

FlippedBit

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Apr 28, 2015
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Ketchup said:
Generally a bad stick of RAM is the most common cause for that error. You could try knocking the speed down one notch and see if that makes a difference. It can be a driver, but that is pretty rare.
Click to expand...

Running Memtest86 now... let's see what happens. If it passes then I'll bump the timings down and give it a couple weeks to see if the BSOD's go away.

Kinda hoping it fails the test so I know what to replace :-/
 
Edrick

Edrick

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Feb 18, 2010
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I have the same board and I had the same issue. I have F5 on there now and it is much more stable than F4.

The trick is to turn of the Bios Guard feature in the BIOS before updating (reboot after turning it off). For some reason that feature wont let you flash the BIOS properly and causes issues. I simply keep it off all the time now.
 
Ketchup

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
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Edrick said:
I have the same board and I had the same issue. I have F5 on there now and it is much more stable than F4.

The trick is to turn of the Bios Guard feature in the BIOS before updating (reboot after turning it off). For some reason that feature wont let you flash the BIOS properly and causes issues. I simply keep it off all the time now.
Click to expand...

You would think "fixed stability issues" would be something they would list in a BIOS fix. Asus does it all the time.
 
UsandThem

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Ketchup said:
You would think "fixed stability issues" would be something they would list in a BIOS fix. Asus does it all the time.
Click to expand...

They had XMP stability listed on one of the F5 beta BIOS (I think there were three different ones). I guess when they combined all three, they decided to not list all the issues they were working on.

I am just running some OEM Samsung 2133 ram that I pulled from a HP computer.

I installed all the drivers from their website for the chipsets, audio, LAN, AHCI, Thunderbolt, etc.
 
F

FlippedBit

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Apr 28, 2015
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Alright, about 9 hours to run Memtest86 and it's a Pass. No errors detected. That's with XMP Profile1 and no other modifications.

Good news: I've got F5 installed! Thanks, Edrick. I'm going to run this for a few weeks with the XMP Profile and see how it goes.

UsandThem, there's a new option in the F5 BIOS which I didn't see before. Under the "BIOS Features" tab there's an option to enable something called "TBT USB3.1 Force Power." Unfortunately there's no documentation and the summary in BIOS only says "Enable / Disable TBT USB3.1 Force Power"... gee thanks, Gigabyte :sneaky:

No clue what "Force Power" means but maybe it's related to the issue you're having (?)
 
Dahak

Dahak

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
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from this cached google search, cached search

its probably best to keep it off as it relates to the apline ridgde/thunderbolt controller
Apline Ridge Scheematic MISC
POC_GPIO_3 (TBT_FORCE_PWR) - forces AR to be on all the time
- To be used for debug only
Click to expand...
 
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