[rescue] flash failure

[Curtis H. Wilbar Jr.]

Phil Stracchino wrote:
> Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
>   
>> Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
>>     
>>> On Mon, 31 Dec 2007, Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> Looks like the flash is soldered to the mobo, and the manual does not
>>>> mention any sort of floppy recovery procedure...
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> Gigabyte says:
>>>
>>>    http://www.gigabyte.eu/Support/Motherboard/FAQ_Model.aspx?FAQID=1504&ProductID=1768
>>>
>>> So there may or may-not be a feature there to restore the firmware
>>> image.  I've no clue how you'd activate it, but it's called "Xpress BIOS
>>> Rescue".
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>> Sadly, it appears for this to work, you had to be running Windows, and 
>> had to have
>> this option installed... it somehow recovers from the hard disk....  
>> (versus a floppy
>> like Award).
>>
>> Sadly, unless Gigabyte sends me a new ROM (doubtful), and I want to 
>> attempt to remove
>> and solder in the replacement, I think this mb is dumpster bound.  It is 
>> the last Gigabyte
>> product I'll own unless Gigabyte does something to remedy (for me) their 
>> shoddy design/
>> firmware/updater mess.  This WAS a perfectly good board. 
>>
>> The vendors have always said don't update the BIOS unless you have a 
>> need to ( didn't
>> specifically have a 'real' need to).... now I know why... they know this 
>> stuff can fail
>> to easily (even when done right).
>>     
>
> The one GigaByte board I have has a dual-BIOS feature.  You can choose
> which EEPROM to boot from, update one or the other, and copy one to the
> other, and if you bork the primary it'll automatically boot from the
> secondary.
>
>
>   
Not on this cheap piece of sh!^ .... grrr.... 

Xpress BIOS recovery is their cheap a%% way of cheaping out of a dual 
bios....

it doesn't appear to have a boot block like award/etc that eases 
recovery.  I'd guess
that Xpress BIOS recovery works in even fewer cases than other methods 
(boot block).

I've used the support form at Gigabyte... but I'm sure they're going to 
say something
like the board is out of warranty, and flashes can go bad, buy a new 
Gigabyte board with
blah blah feature....

This would have put a good P4 CPU I have to good use... but I have no 
more P4 mobos,
and unless I find a decent one very cheap, then ... well... use your 
imagination :-)

I've never had a BIOS flash go bad (and I've flashed nearly every board 
I've ever owned).
So the fact that this thing flashed 'succesfully' really steams me.  And 
they didn't even
socket the chip !  True sign of cheapness.... take a part that they know 
can fail easily
during flash upgrades, and make it non socketed to boot !  Brilliant !

-- Curt