Rob
12-06-2012, 10:41 AM
I’ve upgraded My Super PC and it now includes the MSI GeForce GTX 660 video card. I wanted to mention that the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H I originally acquired some months ago came with BIOS version F7. This BIOS version does not support PCI Express 3.0 video cards like the GeForce GTX 660. It’s easy enough to flash update the BIOS from Windows using the utility that comes on the Gigabyte CD. After doing this the BIOS version is now F14 and the video card works great.
But what was happening with BIOS version F7 is that the computer would not post. The red LED display on the motherboard showing the debug code displayed a value of 97, which, according to the motherboard manual means “Console Output devices connect (ex. Monitor is lighted)”. Seriously, that’s the explanation. Doesn’t really clear things up much, does it? Well, what it comes to is that the computer can’t see the video card. In this case, flash updating the BIOS fixes the problem.
Like I said, it’s been some months since I purchased my Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H. The BIOS version F14 is dated 8/23/12. The BIOS version F7 that I replaced was dated 5/11/12. Hopefully, any Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H purchased today would come with the F14 BIOS or later already installed. But I don’t think there’s a way to tell until it actually boots into the BIOS.
And there’s the rub. If you’re PC configuration includes a PCI 3.0 video card and you have a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H with the older BIOS then it won’t post, so there’s no way to flash update the BIOS with that configuration. Although there are workarounds, like you could temporarily use another PCI 2.0 video card just long enough to flash update the BIOS, which is what I did since I was replacing the GeForce GTX 560.
Hopefully this is not an issue anyone will run into. The places I recommend to buy computer components sell a lot of them, so the pipeline of motherboards with older BIOS versions should have cleared out by now.
But what was happening with BIOS version F7 is that the computer would not post. The red LED display on the motherboard showing the debug code displayed a value of 97, which, according to the motherboard manual means “Console Output devices connect (ex. Monitor is lighted)”. Seriously, that’s the explanation. Doesn’t really clear things up much, does it? Well, what it comes to is that the computer can’t see the video card. In this case, flash updating the BIOS fixes the problem.
Like I said, it’s been some months since I purchased my Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H. The BIOS version F14 is dated 8/23/12. The BIOS version F7 that I replaced was dated 5/11/12. Hopefully, any Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H purchased today would come with the F14 BIOS or later already installed. But I don’t think there’s a way to tell until it actually boots into the BIOS.
And there’s the rub. If you’re PC configuration includes a PCI 3.0 video card and you have a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H with the older BIOS then it won’t post, so there’s no way to flash update the BIOS with that configuration. Although there are workarounds, like you could temporarily use another PCI 2.0 video card just long enough to flash update the BIOS, which is what I did since I was replacing the GeForce GTX 560.
Hopefully this is not an issue anyone will run into. The places I recommend to buy computer components sell a lot of them, so the pipeline of motherboards with older BIOS versions should have cleared out by now.