Quick and simple question regarding my edited bios.

[HHawk]

I am experiencing problems with my GA-880GA-UD3H rev. 3.1 motherboard. I am using this motherboard for my NAS (FreeNAS 8) and uses 6 SATA HD's. It's been running fine, but when I press delete (to enter the bios) in hangs whenever it checks the SATA drives (AMD AHCI ROM).

Now since Gigabyte doesn't care about their customers and they come up with a lot of horseshit, I decided to create my own bios with an updated AHCI ROM from AMD. Those *friendly* people over at Gigabyte even closed my support ticket for no reason!!

Current AMD AHCI ROM version is from 2009 (!) ver. 3.0.7
The one I downloaded is from 2011 ver. 3.0.C.2.

I followed the following instructions:

cbrom32 Z8MAD2H3.F9 /D
cbrom32 Z8MAD2H3.F9 /pci extract (here program asks which of the pciroms to extract, i choose C, A was RAID, B was AHCI so C was the one.
ren rtegrom.lom rtegrom.ori
ren gpxe-1.0.1-10ec8168.rom rtegrom.lom
cbrom32 Z8MAD2H3.F9 /pci release (choose here C again).
cbrom32 Z8MAD2H3.F9 /pci rtegrom.lom

Source: http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Ch...gabyte-Z68

Of course I did it a little different since I was updating the AHCI and not the network rom (so used option B, etc).

Now as far as I can tell, the AHCI ROM has been updated. However I noticed something strange and I cannot really tell if it's normal or not.

Before the No. of the PCI ROM[B] was 17 in CBROM32. If I check it now, it's on No. 26.

I don't know if this is an issue. I also checked it with Award Bios Editor 1.0 and I can confirm the Type ID (hex) are the same for both versions.

Now will it be safe to flash my bios with the updated bios file?

Oh and I used CBROM32 v1.15 (oct. 3 2007 release) from Asustek.

I don't know if that matters?

And is there a way to check the file for errors?

Thanks in advance.

[HHawk]

Small update.

I tried to flash the bios with the modified bios using Gigabyte's built-in Q-Flash, however it says that the bios file is invalid.
Should I try to flash it with something else instead?

Please reply.

[HHawk]

Well I also tried FlashSPI from DOS, but it also says something is wrong with the image.

Can anyone with some experience update the AMD AHCI ROM in the bios?

I have included the latest bios for my motherboard including the latest version of the AMD AHCI ROM (sb800.bin).

Can someone replace the old AMD AHCI ROM version with the newer one, please?

[HHawk]

Well I tried it several more times myself, but no luck. It keeps telling me the bios is invalid. :S
I also tried re-downloading the original bios file and edit that one with several different versions of cbrom but no luck.

Probably I am doing something wrong here... Sigh.

[TheWiz]

Hi HHawk,

I am taking a look now.

Warm Regards,
TheWiz

[TheWiz]

Hi HHawk,

Please rename the modified BIOS image to the same as the original and flash from the BIOS menu. As always, flash at your own risk and have a good backup plan.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1525839/Bios/88G...OM-MOD.bin

Warm Regards,
TheWiz

[HHawk]

Hi HHawk,

Please rename the modified BIOS image to the same as the original and flash from the BIOS menu. As always, flash at your own risk and have a good backup plan.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1525839/Bios/88G...OM-MOD.bin

Warm Regards,
TheWiz

First thanks for taking the time to help.

However it results in the same problem as I had previously. When I try to flash the BIOS with the file, it says: Invalid BIOS Image.

I am using Gigabyte's onboard flash tool (Q-Flash), but using Flashspi (or whatever the name is) results in the same problem.

Sigh.

//edit #1

I am going to try and flash the bios with @BIOS in mini Windows XP. See if that helps, cause the modified bios looks the same as I did it.

//edit #2

Okay tried flashing through Mini Windows XP with @BIOS. It did flash succesfully, but after a reboot I got the message below:

Warning: MAIN BIOS CHECKSUM ERROR!
Retrieving recovery source from HPA... HPA BIOS not available!!

Now I am back again on the old bios.

[DMAN999]

You can try this version FGf BIOS I updated with v3.09 (from 2010) AMD AHCI ROM and see if it works any better for you.
Gigabyte_GA-880GA-UD3H_rev.3.1_FGf_AHCI_3.09.rar
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/55030067/Gigabyt...I_3.09.rar

[HHawk]

Thanks man for your efforts, I will give it a go tonight.

Any idea what is causing the invalid checksum problem?

[HHawk]

Still the same result: "Invalid BIOS Image"

Sigh...