did i kill 1 of my bioses?

ledzep

hi all
i have an intel 865 mobo "GA 8IPE1000" gigabyte motherboard with the dual bios feature.
i went and flashed the bios twice using the @bios windows utility , i updated the bios manualy and not through the internaet. i pointed the @bios to the bios.bin file and flashed.
on the first flash from f8 to f9 bios i disabled the HT in the bios and only then flashed and rebooted.
on the second flash i decided to flash to the latest version f10, so i diabled the HT in the bios (gigabyte say you must disable HT before flashing) and flashed again this time i also checked the option to "clear DMI pool" as sysoft sandra couldnt read my correct bios version and recommended me to clear the dmi pool, so i did. after the flash utility finished i was promped to reboot and i did, but here i think i made a mistake i booted into the bios using the del key and there i enabled HyperaThreading again , i saved the cmos and rebooted, now when i look in sandra it recognises my bios as f10 but it also tell me this:

"Warning W214 - The BIOS can be updated (flashed) but is surface mounted. If the update goes wrong you may not be able to get a new chip to replace the old BIOS. This does not mean that you cannot recover from an unsuccessful flash but it removes an option. (Intel main boards and those using AWARD BIOS have a recovery option)
Fix: You cannot fix this - but keep it in mind when your buy your next main board."

did i ruin my main bios by enabling HT before the system booted for the first time after the second flash?
thanks , ledzep.

dj_stick

does this gigabyte board have dual bios?

ledzep

yes it does.

dipstick

I would not worry about what Sandra says. If at bootup it says you're using the F10 bios then you're good to go Also you cant ruin the bios on these boards; if something goes wrong you can flash from the second chip and restore peace

ledzep

my main consair is that by enabling HT in the bios before letting the sys fully load to windows after the flash i ruind the main bios and that now its loading from the secondary.
i worried that if a future flash goes wrong the mobo will be dead.
do you know a way to check what bios is actually loading the sys the primary or secondary?

tjanks .lz.

dipstick

nah, you cant ruin the bios like that. They also say not to OC when flashing but who listens to that While booting it should say which bios you're using. You should be able to use QFlash and @bios utilities to see which bios is on each chip, though I'm not 100%. But it would tell you 'there has been an error and the bios needed to be restored...blahblah' if you did it wrong. Did you see anything like this?

ledzep

found this at tom's hardware


if this procces is right then i should be promped to load with the 2nd bios once the main bios fails. i dont get this prompt and system just loads as usual with the f10 bios so i guess/hope my main bios is running fine.
can anyone confirm this?
lz.

full dual bios article at tom's hardware:
http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20011207/

Geminiwave

I think you want us to tell you that you havent screwed up your board, but we cant do that. We arent using your board so none of us knows. What we CAN do is give you a pretty good educated answer to your question. You are PROBABLY fine. I wouldnt worry about it. If you are absolutely positively worried about it alot you can call up gigabyte tech support. Supposedly they are almost as good as ASUS so you should ge fine. My emails get a response the next day tops. Sometimes 20 minutes after I send them. Ask them. They would know better than most people here.

ledzep

well after reading around on the net i think im fine, also i don't see any message telling me otherwise when i boot up so i guess im fine.
im guessing you have an asus mobo cause gigabyte takes more then a week to reply usualy.
cheers , lz.

Geminiwave

yeah. I got ASUS. I'm very happy with my board. My best friend got the equivalent GB board and uh...well he likes it but I cant stand using switches to change alot of the settings.

Nacht

well, whatever floats your boat...it's asus for me

i dont usualy think too much about it unless it doest turn on lol

ledzep

yea i was debating between asus and GB for a while myself i went with GB finaly coz it was a little cheaper i wish i went with asus but after all the gb mobo isnt bad or giving me problrms , and i love the dual bios feature.
GB can really try and improve their online support , first by opening a forum for support and discution and reply faster when been asked a question. other that the board itself is quite good. if they wont improve on that i gues my next board will be an asus or abit.
cheers , lz.

dipstick

I've had the total opposite experience with support from Asus and Gigabyte. Asus sometimes will not even answer my questions or take a week to do so at best. GB on the other hand has answered my questions overnight. Crazy world, no?

ledzep

yea, what method you are using to contact GB? i use the "gigabyte technical service zone"
http://http://www.giga-byte.com/Tech...viceCenter.htm

is this what you're using?

cheers , lz.

dipstick

Yep, that's the place. Weird you're not getting quick answers. But they answer with a link to a webpage with the answer. Make sure you're not deleting them by accident or that your mail client isn't thinking its junk mail or something. Try them again

Geminiwave

its weird that you dont get quick ASUS response. I picked them over everyone else because everyone I knew told me about their awesome tech support. They'll also take RMAs even though obviously you didnt buy the board from THEM. I got this A7N8X-X that ended up being crap. BSOD constantly(there was such ghetto stuff like things were missing and the ram SLOTS were skewed to an angle. it was all so ghetto) so I tried to return it but the company i got it from (PartsPC.com. NEVER RMA ANYTHING THEY WILL ROB YOU BLIND) but they gave me this contract to sign that stated if I returned it and they decided there was nothing wrong with it, I would have to pay them for the board AGAIN...AND shipping...AND they STILL wouldnt repair it(and it was all in really bad english too) so I refused and just told the credit card company to reverse charges. Anyway ASUS contacted me after I made a complaint and said they would gladly take any ASUS parts I had and replace them free of charge.

dipstick

Well, it is a weird world we live in. I also remember them taking just over two months to RMA my Asus A7V8X back in the day. I'm sure(hope) they have gotten better since