dasboot5,
I'm not sure what "instant flash" is so I'm asking...on a Gigabyte board (GA-Z170X-UD5) are you suggesting to not use Q-Flash? Also, what do you mean by "only a windows drive attached?" The Hackintosh where we need to flash the BIOS does not have Windows installed. I do have a PC that I plan to use to download the BIOS update and create the USB for flashing the BIOS. Is using that USB what you mean by "having a Windows drive attached?"
Thank you in advance for clarifying.
Jim
OK Here it is: You are using an Intel X86 machine which was designed for the Windows operating system and Linux primarily, but IT will Run, the Mac OS, with the use of Clover. There are many ways to update your bios depending on the Motherboard manufacturer, but bios code is specific and more complex now that we are using UEFI bioses. The Manufacturer decides what company's basic architecture their bios will customized on: The motherboard manufacturer then customizes this BIOS to suit its own hardware. For this reason, updated BIOSes are normally obtained directly from the motherboard manufacturer. Major BIOS vendors include
American Megatrends (
AMI),
Insyde Software,
Phoenix Technologies and Byosoft.
The newer UEFI bios code (updates) are specific to the motherboard and its revision number. The updating process can be done in the Windows OS when booted, using a flash drive and software utility from the manufacturer. This is not recommended. Flash drives used should be clean, not large in capacity, and formatted in FAT 32 and good quality and placed only in a backplane USB 2.0 port not USB 3.0 3.1C or an front panel port. Do not use NTFS or any other drive formatting. If you cannot get into the current bios, some boards have a special USB flash port on the backplane to correct this, still not recommended, unless you no other option, other than ordering an new flashed bios chip, from the motherboard company, or a service.
You should enter the bios determine what bios revision you are on, make sure the bios you are updating to will not cause problems with the Mac OS you are installing. Find the Q Flash utility or similar and Update. You do not need any drives attached for this procedure, Windows or Mac and this is recomended. However to check functionality a Windows drive is the only option, after an upgrade flash, using a utility like HWINFO64 to check your hardware and new bios revision, you can seethe new revsion in the bios screen but this does not check bootabilty and bios settings may be not correct for Mac or Windows bootablity after flashing to new revision. It recommended to rest bios to defaults and change settings back as needed for Mac bootability. You should write down what settings worked before flashing. Once you satisfied, reconnect you Mac OS drive or, start in installation process with UNIbeast or a Clover based installation flash using Mas OS installer through terminal.
All my machines are dual boot, so I just assume most are the same, but many here use only Mac OS which makes harder to check an new build's functionality before stating the Mac OS installation process.
