Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsBIOS update nightmare
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2021
I wanted to post this review specifically because of the problems I had updating the BIOS. I got it to work, but there were so many different conflicting versions of what you should do to successfully update it, and in the end the way I got it to work was not the way any of the youtube videos, tech sites, or even the gigabyte web site said.
If you are using the AMD 5xxx chips you have no option. You must update for it to work with the chip based on what the gigabyte web site says. I used and AMX 5800x and an AORUS x570 ELITE WIFI board.
I don't know if this way will work for anyone else or if you will have a problem, but if someone does maybe this will help.
1. Do not have the CPU on the motherboard. It cannot be moutned. Not optional. That was the last clue that got me to where I needed to be. I had the CPU already on the motherboard. I didn't see any videos that had the CPU on the board, but no one said that you can't have it until the last video I ran into. One video said you could do it with an existing computer so I didn't think the CPU had to be out, but it worked so...
2. You need to download the bios from the gigabyte web site and extract it and rename the '.f' file (like xxx.f30 or xxx.f34) to 'gigabyte.bin'. I saw so many version of this. gigabyte.bin. GIGABYTE.BIN GIGABYTE.bin and one video I saw on the gigabyte web site just said extract the file and copy it and never mentioned having to rename it. For this step 'gigabyte.bin' worked for me
3. You need to connect the main power connector and the CPU power connector from your power supply. The connectors are keyed and I verified my power supply worked so that step was ok.
4. you need to install it on a fat32 usb drive. I've seen so many different posts about size and what works and what doesn't and here's what I can say. A 64gb memory stick did not work. Tried two of them and neither worked. I tried a 32gb one and it was the one that ended up working. The thing here is, you need a fat32 formatted drive, but in windows 10 I only see options for NTFS and exFAT. Luckily the drive that worked was already formatted that way. I tried another USB stick that was 64gb and exFAT formatted (it came that way) and it didn't work but I'm not sure which of those caused the problem or if it was both. I did look and exFAT and FAT32 are not the same thing so I'm not sure if exFAT will work or how you would format a USB stick for FAT32 using windows 10 if it isn't already.
5. So here was the magic part for me. I removed the CPU, plugged in the power, got the USB drive set up just right, turned on the power supply using the switch on the back (0/I). I saw the board flash for a quick second when I turned on the power supply so I know it was working.
I saw several posts about hitting the button. Some said you have to hit it briefly and not hold it down, others said you hold it down for a second and one guy said he had to hold it for 30 seconds. I didn't know pressing a button could be so complicated.
So with all that ready, I pressed the gigabyte button using every method I was told and... nothing. I took the power cord out of the back of the power supply each time to make sure there was no residual power anywhere.
So here's what worked for me: With everything set up properly, I turned on the power supply, pressed down on the flash button for 30 seconds - AND TURNED ON THE COMPUTER FROM THE CASE. When I did that the fans came on and the qflash LED light started blinking. It kept blinking for a couple of minutes and I could see the light on my USB stick blinking also. After a couple of minutes, it stopped and the computer shut down. I heard the fans go off.
I read that you could not turn on the case power because it started booting the bios. I saw several videos on updating this and I don't remember actually seeing one where I saw the button pressed and the light started flashing. I saw people hitting the button and cutting to a shot of the button blinking, but not a straight through unedited shot. One guy didn't show the light at all. He said he would show the angle in another video, but I did get to see his bonus footage of his dog. Unfortunately the dog was unable to help me either.
So based on what I've read, what I did should not work, but it did so I wanted to post the details of what worked in case it helps anyone out. I wish the vendor would ship the motherboards already updated.
