Gigabyte DualBIOS will not run as advertised

Sardonicus said:

You should be able to make a backup to external media, using Q-Flash, that should be on the menu, or by using the @BIOS utility.

How much of that is guessing, considering the 2 "shoulds"?

How would a BIOS backup to external media (USB stick normally) then be presented in a menu read from a motherboard chip?

There isn't the slightest reference in any documentation I have seen that I have to back up anything or use a USB stick in order for DualBIOS to be functional.

It's cryptic and poorly documented. The implication of all I have read is that the board ships with 2 BIOSes---to be revealed in an F9 menu. The "backup" is supposedly updatable via Alt F12---according to Gigabyte forums and Golden's report when he chose Alt F12..."and YES, hitting ALT+F12 during boot give me the option to copy main BIOS to backup".

It works that way in Golden's case, but not in mine.

It may well be that optional software is required and I'm hoping Golden can shed light on that. I typically do not use any optional software found on motherboard manufacturer's discs and have seen no online references that optional software is needed for this functionality.

Golden said:

Hi,

I didn't install any of the optional Gigabyte applications, incl. the SmartBIOS utility - only the chipset drivers etc. were installed.

Do you think updating the actual main BIOS might help? I'm assuming of course your current F4 ins't the latest....

Regards,
Golden

Thanks again, Golden.

I seriously doubt the main BIOS is the issue. My F4 is less than a year old. The newest F6 is nearly as old---July 2011. The board was introduced less than a year ago.

There is no indication at GB site that newer BIOSes address any DualBIOS issues.

The only reason I got inquisitive about DualBIOS is that I was contemplating a flash to F6 and I got to wondering about backups. I have a niggling problem or two and foolishly think that F6 might resolve those issues.

There are reports online that it is not highly reliable. I'd probably be even more foolish to count on it in a jam anyway.

The worst of it is the lack of proper documentation. Not surprising, motherboard manufacturers being what they are.

And I don't even know if it is operational at all.

Did you in fact over-ride your backup BIOS with the main BIOS, via Alt F12?

Golden said:

I wonder if its a dud board? BIOS chip?

There is an option in the CMOS to backup the BIOS to an HDD - perhaps try that before the flash to F6?

Could be an issue peculiar to my board only, but there's quite a few online posts bitching about it, with the recommendation to do some goofy stuff with the PSU switch and power button to get it to "kick in"--which points to it just being not ready for prime time generally.

I also saw a comment from the geniuses at GB tech support that DualBIOS is NOT intended to recover from a "seriously" corrupted BIOS. I'm not even going to try to parse what that means.

Nor would I RMA over it. I'll just ignore it and move on. And do whatever else I can think of to back up the existing BIOS should I be unable to resist flashing.

Thanks for your good work.

Here's an update with a new development:

I flashed to F6 using Qflash from a USB drive without issues. I first chose "save bios to drive" from menu, which backed up the existing F4 bios to my USB drive. Then rebooted to confirm the backup and then went back to Qflash and chose "update bios from drive", which did the flash from F4 to F6.

I'm not sure if that backup is valid or will ever bail me out, but it's all I could do. I'm leaving it on the USB stick and also filed it away on my HD.

The new development is that an Alt F12 now DOES bring up a screen offering to overwrite my backup bios with the current bios. I said OK to that and now presumably have F6 as both primary and backup. Probably a doofus move now that I think about it.

However-------an F9 from within the bios still shows only the main bios, with no indication that I have a backup bios at all. I hope I never need it and don't even know if I have it.

I'm not sure what it all means, but I temporarily relieved my itch to do something.