How to Update Your Gigabyte Motherboard's BIOS

[Stork]

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.

Welcome to the tonymacx86 Forum.

Some BIOS are still only available as an .exe file which you must unpack with a "smart" unzip program. This is why we put together this tutorial.

 

[wstrohm]

Successful BIOS Firmware Update

Agreed the "Q-Flash" procedure is easier than described, since the download already has the firmware update file expanded; no need to use Stuffit. I just put the "auto exec.bat" and the F8 firmware file on an FAT32 USB flash drive, plugged it into a USB port, restarted with "F12" held down, navigated to "Enter Setup" in my F4 BIOS, clicked on "Q Flash," selected "from drive," chose the USB drive and the F8 file, and everything went smoothly. Took about 30 seconds. Restarted and entered "Setup," confirmed BIOS was now F8, and went through selecting my choices, then did "Save & Exit."

After the firmware update, I ran Geekbench 3, which returned about the same benchmark results I had seen on the F4 BIOS version (3973 single-core, 15793 multicore); then ran Heaven on the IGFX graphics, and saw a very slight loss, from 12.3 FPS to 12.2 fps. So I don't really see any change to speak of, but something might be hidden in there.

GA-H87N-WIFI, Intel Core i7 4770K, Extreme Memory Profile 1, Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB SSD, no PCI-e card installed.

[Edit: Oops, sorry Stork, didn't see your reply above.]

 

[ohdediku]

Follow this step-by-step video to simple instructions! bravo hackintosh

[video=youtube;7YR-DdWIZzM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YR-DdWIZzM[/video]​

 

[grjbb]

Never updated a BIOS and to be honest everything is working fine, not sure if its worth risking.

If I choose to update on my windows partition via @BIOS update app, will all my bios settings be reset too? my mem speeds etc?

 

[Anachronaut]

Thanks for this! I used Option 1: Q-Flash to update my Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 v1.3 from U1b to U1c without a hitch. Very easy, and a lot less worrying as with some other methods.

 

[amagyar]

Using your method, formatted the usb, copied the 3 files.. q-flash ready, I pointed to H97NWIFI.F8
and I got a "Bios ID Error" message.. What is wrong?

Oh, Nevermind
I just realized I didn't order the wifi H97N, so i downloaded a wrong bios. I am lucky i didn't brick it lol.
I got the F5 , and it is done...

 

[slp31]

Update: Finally got UnArchiver to work.

I have the exe file downloaded, but UnrarX tells me that there are no files to extract. I've tried downloading Stuffit, but my OSX needs to be updated in order to use it. **Banging my head against the wall**

 

[slp31]

Update: Found the file and receive the error, "BIOS ID Error"

I'm following Option 1, but it is a little difficult to follow without the images loading.

I've formatted my drive in Fat32, I'd unzipped the files and copied them to my drive, entered Qflash and it says that there are no files on the drive.

Files are listed as: autoexec.bat, Z68XUD3H.U1I, and FLASHEFI.EXE

Do I need to do Option 3 instead?

 

[mzmuda33]

I recently purchased GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 revision 1.0.
It came with F5 bios version which is odd since F4 is the latest option available to download. I want to flash to F4 to hopefully get rid of the clover boot entry issue (nothing else seems to work).

Problem is none of the .exe files can be extracted by OSX tools suggested. They all say it's not an archive. I've downloaded various versions and sources and same deal. Has anyone been able to get latest gigabyte bios extracted?

 

[Stork]

I recently purchased GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 revision 1.0.
It came with F5 bios version which is odd since F4 is the latest option available to download. I want to flash to F4 to hopefully get rid of the clover boot entry issue (nothing else seems to work).

If it came with the F5 BIOS, then you have the latest. You must have looked at the wrong Gigabyte motherboard web page. Go with the F5.

Problem is none of the .exe files can be extracted by OSX tools suggested. They all say it's not an archive. I've downloaded various versions and sources and same deal. Has anyone been able to get latest gigabyte bios extracted?

So, Post #1's Method 1 didn't work for you?