This how-to guide will show you how you can flash/update your BIOS on GIGABYTE motherboards. There are several ways to do this but we will show you two ways here. One that’s fast, if you do this only once per year and one that’s faster if you do it more often (of if you flash other GIGABYTE motherboards when you produce PCs for friends).

Do you always get the message: ”The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running…” when you try to run the flash tool?

Its not so strange, since you always should try to avoid flash/update BIOS from Windows environment. Our software that comes along with the BIOS, when you download from our homepage, needs to be execute from ”DOS” and not Windows. So, this is how you should do…

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Version 1 DOS

(fastest way if you do it one time per year).

You will need one file, the BIOS file for your motherboard.

1. Download the latest BIOS for your motherboard from gigabyte.com
2. Unpack the the file you just downloaded.
3. You now see three files, Efiflash, autoexec together with a file thats called the same as your chosen motherboard. In this example we will use filenamne.F2.
4. Take the filename.F2 file, and copy it to a USB flash drive (needs to be FAT32 formated).
5. Reboot your computer, and during boot press ”END” (like you normally press ”DEL” to enter BIOS”.
6. GIGABYTE flash tool will now pop up, and you can load your new BIOS from the USB flash drive.
7. Choose ”Update BIOS from Drive”
8. Choose your device – press enter and pick your BIOS file (named filename.F2).
9. Done!

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Version 2 DOS

(fastest way if you have several computers to flash, or you just like to flash. This includes to create bootable USB flash drive)

You need three files:
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
Win98boot
BIOS file for your motherboard.

1. Run hpusb.exe to install the utility.
2. Plug in you USB flash drive to your computer. (Please note that all current files will be deleted, so use an empty key)
3. Run the program you just installed (HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool).
4. Select your USB flash drive as your device.
5. Choose FAT32 as file system.
6. (Optional) Select Volume label if you want to give your USB flash drive a name.
7. Under format options, choose create a DOS startup disk.
8. Select ”using DOS system files located at” and point the program to the folder ”win98boot” which you just dowloaded (you need to unzip this folder).
9. Then click the start button.
10. Now when you have created your bootable USB flash drive, you need to input the BIOS.
11. Download the latest BIOS for your motherboard from gigabyte.com
12. Unpack the the file you just downloaded.
13. You now see three files, Efiflash, autoexec together with a file thats called the same as your chosen motherboard. In this example we will use X79UP4.F2 (since we have a GA-X79-UP4).
14. Copy all three files to the USB flash drive.
15. Choose ”replace all files on destination”
16. Reboot your computer, and during boot press ”F12” (like you normally press ”DEL” to enter BIOS”.
17. Choose ”boot from USB”.
18. Done.

Next time you need to change the BIOS on any GIGABYTE motherboard, you just have to follow step 11-18 since you have already prepared the USB flash drive.

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