How to Update Your Gigabyte Motherboard's BIOS

[Stork]

For those of you who have Windows installed on your system, each motherboard manufacturer has a website page on how to update the BIOS (see Option 2). However, the following methods are alternatives to updating the BIOS in Windows with a motherboard manufacturer's own utilities.

CAUTION: DO NOT POWER DOWN OR INTERRUPT THE FLASHING PROCESS ONCE IT HAS STARTED. DOING SO COULD MAKE YOUR MOTHERBOARD COMPLETELY UN-USABLE. LET THE PROCESS COMPLETE ON IT'S OWN

The following guides are for updating Gigabyte motherboard BIOS.


Option 1: Q-Flash Method
Motherboard BIOS utiity. Prepare from OS X. Easy Method for GUI oriented souls.

Boot into the BIOS and note the settings that you changed as part of your initial installation.
Go to the official page for your particular motherboard to download the latest BIOS;

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Uncompress the BIOS compressed ".exe" file with OS X compression tools Stuffit Expander,
___The Unarchiver, UnRarX or a similar utility as Apple's OS X Archive app doesn't unpack
___".exe" files;
Extract the BIOS from the ".exe" file (below is using Stuffit Expander);

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Format a USB Thumb drive in FAT32 format;
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Today, most new USB thumb drives come pre-formatted in FAT32, so you can change the name in the Finder by single clicking the USB drive "NO NAME" and pressing the Return key which will highlight the "NO NAME", and you can rename it.

Copy the BIOS file onto the USB Thumb drive;
Boot the computer into the BIOS; and
Use the BIOS's update function (Q-Flash for Gigabyte motherboards) to update the BIOS.

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CAUTION: DO NOT POWER DOWN OR INTERRUPT THE FLASHING PROCESS ONCE IT HAS STARTED. DOING SO COULD MAKE YOUR MOTHERBOARD COMPLETELY UN-USABLE. LET THE PROCESS COMPLETE ON IT'S OWN

Reboot back into the BIOS, Load the Optimal Defaults and reset any BIOS parameters.

Congratulations! You've now updated your BIOS.


Option 2: @BIOS Method
Gigabyte supplies a Windows app to update your BIOS. If you have a windows installation, this could be a good option, as it's supplied on the motherboard DVD and Support downloads. See the official document here.


Option 3: USB Drive with FreeDOS + BIOS file
However, if you can deal with the olde MS-DOS prompt, then here are a few more options for you. (Not for the faint of heart.)

Method 1: (Create a USB Flash drive on OS X) MacMan's Guide for using FreeDOS on a USB Thumb Drive. But, first, boot into the BIOS and note the settings that you changed as part of your initial installation.


Method 2. (Create a USB Flash drive on Windows) Recommended by wildwillow. This method has an excellent guide here. But, first, boot into the BIOS and note the settings that you changed as part of your initial installation.

Method 3. (Create a USB Flash drive on Windows) trs96 found this (XP through 8.1) Method using Efiflash* (included in UEFI BIOS downloads) and Rufus on a 8GB USB thumb drive.

Boot into the BIOS and note the settings that you changed as part of your initial installation.
Download the BIOS ".exe" file (see Option 1) and Rufus;
Create the FreeDos bootable USB using Rufus and leave all the settings at stock;
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Double click on the BIOS ".exe" file to extract BIOS file and Efiflash.exe
___(delete the autobat file as it isn't needed);
Add the BIOS file and Efiflash.exe to the USB drive;
Reboot and press F12 to go to the BOOT Menu;
Select the USB thumb drive and press enter to run in the DOS environment;
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At the command prompt, type:

C:/>Efiflash[COLOR=#FFFFFF]_______________[/COLOR]<--- This will start the Efiflash tool.
C:/>Efiflash <BIOS file>[COLOR=#FFFFFF]___[/COLOR]<--- For example, Z87MXD3H.F4

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Hit enter and it's all taken care of automagically from there.​

* FLASHSPI.EXE was used in earlier Gigabyte BIOS releases instead of Efiflash.exe. Same use.

Gigabyte Socket 1150 Haswell 8-Series Motherboards:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=0&p=2&v=31

Gigabyte Socket 1155 Ivy Bridge 7-Series and Sandy Bridge 6-Series Motherboards:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=0&p=2&v=24

Gigabyte Socket 1156 5-Series Motherboards:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=0&p=2&v=11

Gigabyte Socket 1156 X58 Motherboards:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=0&p=2&v=1

Gigabyte Socket 2011 X79/C606 Motherboards:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=0&p=2&v=28

How to Reflash BIOS:
http://www.gigabyte.com/webpage/20/HowToReflashBIOS.html

Related:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/dsdt/124646-gigabyte-beta-bios-modified-bios.html
http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/38604-gigabyte-backup-bios.html

 

[georgeba]

I would have thought if the BIOS is rendered unusable by a mistake in updating the backup bios would come into play. I had an occasion for this, when for some reason or other the BIOS became faulty. After several attempts at re-booting the message said that the BIOS is being copied from the second, backup BIOS. After that all was well.
I was well impressed.

 

[trs96]

After several attempts at re-booting the message said that the BIOS is being copied from the second, backup BIOS. After that all was well.
I was well impressed.

Another reason why the Gigabyte boards are in the Buyer's Guide. Other than being the easiest
to setup for an OS X install.

 

[KEAPS]

You can also use the gigabyte software if you have a dual boot win/OSX machine.

Once you booted in Windows, install the gigabyte software and you'll be able to update bios, drivers and edit your Boot logo easily.

The gigabyte software is like a puzzle and you can choose which parts you need and want to install. To me, Ez tune is the best choice

 

[telepati]

Best easy way for Z87X-UDH5;

Use Option 3 Method 2.

1- Create MS-DOS USB disk just like the link

2- Download BIOS fıles from Gigabyte

3- This is the important part. Extract all files to USB disk (include autobat files this is important files)

4- Restart machine press F12 choose your USB Disk. Thats it you dont need to write anything. BIOS update start automatically.

 

[h4xxx0r]

Hi, thanks for the guide, really good to see so much information out here!

I recently began building my own rig (click here for details) and decided not to go for the 4770k but for the 4790k, since the price is almost the same, but recently got told, that I would need to update my BIOS version to F8 in order to have it work. So since I don't have another CPU for the socket lying around do you think it's possible to flash the BIOS with the CPU or won't it work at all, if it works, which method would you recommend? (I only have an OSX and a Linux machine, no Windows)
Also how will the BIOS flash affect the ability to run OSX?

Thanks in advance guys

 

[Stork]

If you are running OS X now using the 4790K, then, yes, you can flash the BIOS to the latest version, and it won't affect your OS X installation.

 

[h4xxx0r]

That's good news, thanks unfortunately, I'm still in the building progress, my CPU will ship next week, the GPU a little later, so I wasn't sure, if it's possible to even get into the BIOS with said CPU, or if it refuses to work at all w/o the update.
Greetings

 

[h4xxx0r]

Just FYI, the 4790k works without any issues.
Even with the F6 BIOS, I had no problem updating the BIOS (via q-flash), although I noticed that the temperature was about 15°C higher with the F6 BIOS in comparison to the F9 BIOS.
Greetings

 

[Ivanovitchk]

Mhh guys... these methods seems way too complicated

You just download the latest bios from gigabyte website, unzip the archive, take the BIOSFILENAME.F6 (F5, F6, F7... depending on the version of the bios) and put in on any FAT-Formatted usb thumbdrive...

if it's not formated you can do it using disk utility from osx.

then you reboot, get in the bios with the DEL key, go to the Save& Exit pane, hit Q-Flash*, launch it, select update bios from drive, select your usb key, select the file you copied before, and voilà !! that's it, no need to copy any other file, to use some wtf software or whatnot... much more easy !

and regarding power failures / reboots during bios update, don't worry, you can't fry the M/B, mfg. (not only gigabyte) have been using dual bioses with automatic reflash since years...

*you can also directly launch Q-Flash by hitting the corresponding key shown on the M/B splashscreen near the DEL to enter bios indication.