mobo dual BIOS

For any Gigabyte mobo owners....Question on Dual BIOS.

I have a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 mobo and it has a dual BIOS setup (for back and OC'ing according to the manual). That said, it came with BIOS version F7 (main BIOS) and upgraded to F8 (flash of BIOS went great) a year ago and no issues at all. So my question is how to I find out what version of the backup BIOS is installed with out having to manually move the switch on mobo and booting into BIOS then checking version and then resetting everything back like I had it?

 

I have two Gigabyte Mobo's z97x Gaming 7 and a z170x Gaming 7 but sorry I don't have an answer. Not game to find out in case I screw my Bios settings. Maybe ask on the Gigabyte Forum.

 

How do you like the Z170x mobo?

I know exactly what you mean about dorking about with the BIOS. I looked through every tab in both legacy style and modern styel theme BIOS and can only find what my current BIOS version is....F8.

 

Hmmm I always assumed if you flash the bios and it is a dual bios you change both, however I never questioned that thought.

 

Found this on MSI Forum :
"*This relates and has been tested on all mainboard with a true hardware switch. Z77a-gd80, M-Power, Big Bang X-power, X79a etc)
Note: If you use the above process with a z77a-gd65, it will appear that it has worked. The bios won't ACTUALLY switch unless the system is powered down. IE You will have it set to bio "b" after a power down and flash the bios. You then re-boot and switch to bios "A" and flash. In reality, you have just re-flashed bios "B" and wont see the difference until you actually power down the system. A re-boot will not switch the bios's!

Process for P67, Z68 and z77a-gd65:

Since the P67 & Z68 both have automatic software switches that operate their dual bios's, the process is a bit different.
If you want to flash both bios's or you see the led indicator showing a corrupt bios, you do a normal bios flash with a single extra step.

After a standard bios flash/ you realize one of your bios's are corrupted, enter bios and navigate to the security section and enable multi bios flashing. Save & Exit, and the board handles the rest.

Note: This will NOT work if you want to flash backwards. Multi bios update will flash to the most recent version installed. So if you have the P67 & Z68 make sure you don't flash your backup bios unless you are really sure you like the new one.
In the case of the z77-gd65 you are still able to achieve this, but you must flash your bios, power off the machine, switch the bios switch then flash again."
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=160450.0

And this from Gigabyte:

"How does GIGABYTE DualBIOS™ Work? GIGABYTE DualBIOS™ feature two physical BIOS ROMS mounted onto the motherboard. One chip acts as your "Main" BIOS, or the BIOS your system primarily uses during boot up. The second chip acts as a "Backup" BIOS and has the factory default BIOS version on it. If your "Main" BIOS happens to fail or stops functioning, the "Backup" will automatically take over on your next system boot with little or no down time."
http://www.gigabyte.com/microsite/55/tech_081226_dualbios.htm

So I am completely wrong...

 

Yep that's how it works with modern Gigabyte boards.........


And I can't stop laughing at "I'm completely wrong"......Too damn funny Rich!

 

All I wanted to know was; how to find out what the back up BIOS version that was installed originally with out manually opening the case and physically flipping the switch on the back up BIOS. My mobo came with F7 BIOS, so I assume (we all know about assuming) that the back is F7 also. My buddy has the exact same mobo but his came with F6 for both. He did the switch change to verify for both.

 

I like both Gigabyte boards, BassFisher. Running M.2 PCIe Hard Drives. For those who build upmarket Computers I highly recommend Gigabyte. High end Gigabyte boards with Intel i7 high end chips a great combination. Brilliant.

 

You know Jimbo I think it is funny too that someone considered to be a power user can say something really stupid and I have always said
I am the first person to admit when I am completely off the rails in a thought! Hey it happens,

 

Yep....we are to few!

 

I've been seriously considering getting a M.2 drive. Only problem, with my mobo I loose 2 sata ports as the M.2 port uses the same PCI lane as those 2 SATA ports.

 

M.2 drives have advantages and disadvantages I have found. My M.2 drives are x4 so you see there are variables.

In a nutshell would I buy more and the answer is I would wait time as they will get perfected more.

This deserves a thread of it's own really discussing M.2 drives as there is a huge amount of information, both positive and negative.

 

Back when I used Gigabyte they also had the dual bios, and as I remember it the @bios utility would only show the currently being used bios, and CPUZ as well. I do remember that usually the backup BIOS was 1st release in most cases. Not sure is that is still the case with Gigabyte mainboards.

 

I thought Gigabyte was the first with dual bios and was a bit surprised the idea never really caught on the way I thought it would.

 

Some Gigabyte Motherboards have a quad Bios.

 

Yes I know Dougie though I have never had one. Gigabyte was my favorite board for so many years but I never struck one.

 

I must admit I know I have built a lot, and in the 16 years of doing so, the aftermarket mobos, the Gigas, and any other mobos with a dual bios, only 3 times out of about 350+'ish do I ever remember actually using the dual bios for myself or any customer. It's a gimmick put there to safeguard idiots from doing errant bios updates wrongly or severe overclocking (manually) mistakes that create severe heat.

 

That can't be a bad thing.The more built in safeguards the better.

 

Oh I do agree Dougie. I mean bad BIOS flashes do happen especially with computer enthusiasts.