Cant flash bios-hating bigabyte!

bogwalrus

So i got a mobo off ebay which i got really cheap (and kinda knew something was going to be wrong with it).

It is a Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R.

The problem is the bios. I have the comuter set up outside the box with 1 stick of ram, no hdd, cpu and fan plugged in. When i turn the mobo on, up pops a screen that says "scanning bios image on hard drives".

This board has a special feature called Xpress recovery 2 that when you flash a version of bios it saves a copy of it on a secret location on your hdd in case there are any future problems with the current bios.

This is a new build so whatever bios is on the mobo is not on the hdd.

So it seems i have two options here. Try and flash a new bios onto the board by some means or else find where this secret location is on a hdd and put the bios files there, hook it up and then the "scanning bios image on hard drives" will find the bios image.

Since this message "scanning bios image on hard drives" pops up before any kind of post screen i am unable to flash bios via floppy or cd. The drive just does not get recognised. So can anyone recommend any tricks of the trade that might work?

I'm kinda having fun trying to see if i can solve this issue but i would really like some advice from any of you as i don't really know much about computers but i am learning as i go along=) If i get this working i would have made a very big saving.........

blackgold>>

Clear your cmos settings as that is what holds your settings not the bios.
The cmos is checked first.

bogwalrus

ive tried clearing the cmos a few times. I have done it quite thoroughly in some occassions like pull battery out put jumpers on power switch and smos jumper and left it for an hour.

Is clearing the cmos difficult on some mobo's? Like even if i tried the above could there still be a chance that it has not been cleared?

skuzzb

Try find out where the secret place the bios is coppied to on the HD.
Download a copy of the bios from gigabyte, then use a caddy or another pc and put the file in the right location on your new HD.
Pop it in and boot up and it will probably find what its been looking for!

Worth a try anyway!

*EDIT* noticed you were half way there with that idea LOL

blackgold>>

No clearing it should be simple just like what you tried.
I haven't used a gigabyte board with these fancy features (retarded features) can't wait till the bios is obsolete it's old ....

Anyway i'm sure of of the lads here has experience using it.
Goodluck.

pogcica

Hi, I have the GA-P35-DS4 and the Xpress recovery 2 is a BIOS based program that backs up your system data NOT a bios backup program.

You say you put jumpers on the power switch? That is not how to clear CMOS
only removing battery or putting jumper on correct cmos pins will will work

good luck

bogwalrus

skuzzb wrote: »

Try find out where the secret place the bios is coppied to on the HD.
Download a copy of the bios from gigabyte, then use a caddy or another pc and put the file in the right location on your new HD.
Pop it in and boot up and it will probably find what its been looking for!

Worth a try anyway!

*EDIT* noticed you were half way there with that idea LOL

I want to do exactly that but i cant find where this secret place is on the hdd anywhere on any forum. There seems to be quite a few people with this problem. Some have even speculated on whether there is even a "secret" place or not. It does seem strange that there can be such a place on a hdd. I was going to make an efi partition and fire the bios on there and see how it goes but i doubt it wil work.

TonyM.

Try it with one stick of ram your memory voltage may be wrong it will default to 1.8v and your ram may need more.

bogwalrus

pogcica wrote: »

Hi, I have the GA-P35-DS4 and the Xpress recovery 2 is a BIOS based program that backs up your system data NOT a bios backup program.

You say you put jumpers on the power switch? That is not how to clear CMOS
only removing battery or putting jumper on correct cmos pins will will work

good luck

yeah i didnt really know what it was exactly but knew it had to do with this saving an image of bios somewhere on the hdd. Funnily enough it says in my manual that there is a bios recovery utility, which is not true, there is just the express recovery2, as far as i know anyway.

I put a jumper on the power pins cause its supposed to drain whatever little bit of power is left in the mobo. Read it on a forum while searching for a solution to this problem. Probably bollox though=)

is it easy to solder a bios chip onto a board? Anyone ever try it?
Might just buy a replacement chip and give it a bash.

bogwalrus

TonyM. wrote: »

Try it with one stick of ram your memory voltage may be wrong it will default to 1.8v and your ram may need more.

i tried with an elixir 1gb stick which is at 1.8v default
then tried with a geil 1gb which is at 2.1v default

Neither seem to make a difference with the whole "scanning bios on hard drives" message that comes up.

This wouldn't be bothering me so much if it wasnt such a sweet mobo. It can support both ddr3 and ddr2 and has all sorts of cool little extras. Was hoping this would be my last board for at least the next 2 years. (provided they dont invent some sort of new wireless hover mobo that doesnt need anything plugged into it and shoots fire out its onboard fans)

TonyM.

well you could try putting a BIOS on an empty hard drive or even on a usb key it looks like a bad flash to me .(the mobo might be set to boot from a usb key or floppy)
When you clear cmos power down the psu completly unplug it from the mobo.

You can always get a new bios chip so you will not loose out if it was a bargain.

http://s219846715.e-shop.info/shop/category_2/PC-MOTHERBOARD-BIOS-PRODUCTS.html?shop_param=cid%3D2%26

bogwalrus

I found a site that says the bios can only boot off the hdd when it is in the "scanning bios on hdd state", unique to gigabyte mobos.

Some fella said that he got his working by putting an iso image of the bios on a burned cd and that it booted from that when it did not detect bios on the hdd. Going to try that now.

Thanks v.much tonyM for advice and the link.

Just one Q: how do i know which bios chip to get from the ones in the link. The chip on my board is a small black square one with 4 pins on either side. Should the code on my chip match up with the ones in that link.

I should be able to find out anyway.

Thanks again=)

TonyM.

http://tribune.kioskea.net/screens/blogPage/viewBlog/sw_viewBlog.php?idTheme=152&idContribution=72

I read about this shortcut one time but i finally found it for you.

TonyM.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/TechGuide_List.aspx?NewTechID=84

Situation 3: Primary BIOS is corrupted, backup BIOS is corrupted but capable of booting from boot block. No matched BIOS are found in the HDD hidden partition


　 START
Power On
(BOOT UP)
(1) Primary BIOS Failed to boot
(2) System reset & backup BIOS activated
(3) Backup BIOS also corrupted

(4) Continue to boot from boot block and System search for "Saved" BIOS
image in HDD hidden partition
(5) If no matched BIOS be founded in HDD hidden partition, BIOS continue to search for CD-ROM
(6) If matched BIOS image found in CD-ROM drive, that image will be programmed to
the still running backup BIOS image
(7) system reset will be issue continue to boot BOOT UP
Completed
　FINISH
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/NewTech/2006_motherboard_newtech/article_04_bios_explained.htm

bogwalrus

Once again thanks very much TonyM. Im going to give that method a go in the first link you gave. I had tried the method in your second link already.

I think the feature where after the whole "scanning for bios on hdd's" moves onto the cd rom is only on some gigabyte boards. I tried it a few times last night and it just stays on "scanning on hdd's". I used different hdd's and had things arranged differently with no luck.

ill let ye know how things work out