Hello @chinobino
Is it possible to bypass the “invalid bios file” error on a Gigabyte Z790 XAX?
I’m trying to install an Intel i9 14th Gen but cannot for the love of me update the bios to any higher versions. I can confirm I am downloading the correct rev1.1 versions but they ALL give me that darn error.
I’ve got an i5 13th gen on it on bios F5 atm and tried all F6-9, no luck.
Please, let me know 
thank you!!
@Wno66 Hi and welcome to Win-Raid forums.
I don’t have a Gigabyte Z790 XAX to test with but if you aren’t having any luck with Q-flash or EFIflash you could try using the Q-flash+ button method.
Hi mates! I’ve gotta problem - got mb gigabyte a320-mh from oem supplier, so I just can’t flash any bios by any means, to use bios from supplier - i need a sn of pc which i don’t have. I always have oemid missmatch or bios id error, triend everything i can - nothing worked. My last resort was modified efiflash, and it does work but after reboot nothing happes - bios version is the same and from 2020. Any ideas how to fix that? thank you 
Hello, how can i add the NvStrapsReBar.ffs to B360M DS3H (rev. 1.0) bios version F19 ? i tried Q flash and get “invalid bios image”.
While using freeDOS with efiflash, if i try using B360MDS3H.F19 i get a error but if i use something like b360m.rom it checks the corrent bios and the new bios, after that a countdown appears from 5 to 1 saying that the pc needs to restart and when it gets to 1 nothing happens, when i restart using ctrl+alt+del and check the bios, the version is still the same.
Thank you.
A similar issue to @Infarcire
I’ve just inherited a prebuilt system from a family member with a Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Pro AX motherboard and i9 10900K CPU. The Bios can only be flashed with offerings from the OEM supplier. CPU benchmarking scores are half of what they used to be so I can only assume the newer bios is a downgrade with no way back.
Is there any way the bios can be downgraded or at least reverted to the Official bios? I tried everything in DOS using Efiflash but it threw an error saying the bios file can’t be read!
I stumbled upon a Reddit article where some guy with the same kind of locked setup says he had success downgrading using Efiflash, sadly no luck here.
Thanks in advance.
@MyBios8MyHamster
As an Intel platform, there may be a chance with Intel FPT tool from ME FW 14 tools package (14.0 or 14.1 ONLY) from C. Intel (CS)ME System Tools on the linked thread…this besides EFIflash…
This this requires a little knowledge of it and requires that SPI access to regions be unlocked for read/write, at least to bios_region.
Still…the results can be unpredictive, but at least this board USB Q-Flash that may provide a bios recovery, again unpredictable.
Last resource is using an SPI programmer like CH341A or similar.
You should wait for other users, before any action with this tool.
Carefull, this tool (FPT) will write ANY DATA to the SPI without any warnings of bad user actions or wrong data provided to it.
Good luck.
Thanks for the help @MeatWar
I’ll try everything you suggested, failing that It will be used for some project or another. 
hello @chinobino I’ve been trying to follow this guide to downgrade my z390 aorus pro from f12 back to f9. I’ve gotten to step 5, and I’ve copied the bios file into the FPT folder. When I run the fptw64 -SAVEMAC -f .bin command only for command prompt to spit out “Error 189: File does not exist. FPT Operation Failed.” Is there something I may have missed/ got wrong?
@courter491 Hi and welcome to the Win-RAID forum.
In your command for FPT you need to specify your BIOS file name:
fptw64 -SAVEMAC -f NAME.bin
I used NAME.bin as an example, so swap NAME.bin with whatever your file is actually called.
@chinobino thankyou, that’s what I get for troubleshooting at 4am after a day at work. Funny enough my z390 decided to stop with the 100% drive utilization just as I gave up for the night. Gonna give it a chance to act right before trying again, thank you.
How can I avoid “Invalid BIOS image” and flash official Z97 beta BIOS with Q-Flash? And why is same BIOS flashed successfully with official EFIFlash?
Firmware security signature implementtions prevents the use of modified files.
I though I was clear, I am asking how can I avoid “Invalid BIOS image” when flashing an unmodified BIOS with Q-Flash. I would expect such BIOS not to have this problem and I know that a solution is to use EFIFlash, but is there a way to make it work with Q-Flash?
Hello,
I’m trying to flash a modded BIOS on my Gigabyte B360M DS3H with the Turing ReBar module, using Q-Flash i get the infamous “Invalid BIOS Image” error, using the EFiflash method i get the “Secure Flash” warning, probably because I updated my BIOS to F19 previously and using flashrom the flashing completes but Resizable BAR is still disabled in GPU-Z after using the .exe to configure the ReBAR size.
I should mention my GPU is a 1660Ti
If anyone could give some other method to flash the BIOS or tell me what I’m doing wrong I would be grateful.
@poweruser0409 Hi and welcome to the Win-RAID forum.
For your Gigabyte B360M you can also use Intel FPT (Flash Programming Tool) to flash a modified BIOS.
You will need to use the correct version of FPT that matches the ME Firmware version (v12.x).
WARNING: Unlike Qflash or Efiflash, FPT will not verify that the BIOS file it is told to flash matches the hardware you are trying to flash. You can brick your motherboard if your BIOS mod is bad or the motherboard is accidentally cross-flashed with the BIOS from another motherboard model - so please be careful!
DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible if you brick your board trying to flash any BIOS using FPT. It is a good idea to use FPT to make a backup of your current BIOS before you attempt to write anything to the BIOS chip. It is a good idea to have a hardware programmer available so that you can recover the motherboard in the case of a brick.
You can use FPT from within Windows, an MS-DOS bootable USB stick or an EFI shell.
Command to do a full BIOS EEPROM backup from a Windows command prompt:
fptw64 -d bios.bin
You should see “FPT Operation Successful.” If not then you may have a BIOS chip that FPT cannot recognize.
Use the following commands to flash the entire EEPROM (all BIOS regions are overwritten i.e. Descriptor, GbE, ME and BIOS);
fptw64 -f MODBIOSName.bin
Once the flash operation says it has completed successfully type the following command to IMMEDIATELY reboot and load the BIOS you just flashed;
fptw64 -greset
Note that your PC will restart instantly without any warning as though you have pressed the reset button.
Also note that If you choose to use the DOS or EFI version note that the FPT filename will be different from above.
Thanks, I figured it out in the meanwhile, but I appreciate the prompt response.
I am trying to rephrase what I previously asked, can “Invalid BIOS image” appear when using Q-Flash and official BIOS from Gigabyte?
No one else here seems to anwsered you… so i think we lack a bit more info on the file actions, Q-Flash is an embebded bios utility from GigaByte and for sure it checks the file signature for its information, if you have issues with an original GigaByte file why dont you contact them since is a Beta file and in the way you can also ask them why the files works on X but not on Y. Or is the file somehow modified by you?
Maybe the Beta file hasn’t enough info or not compatible signatures for Q-Flash…
By the way this thread is about using EFIFLASH for flashing mod files.
I may not be enterely correct but Q-Flash is mainly a bios region update/recovery…we may say, while EFIFLASH can do a full writting to several components of the SPI IC that maybe Q-Flash cannot.
My pov only.
EDIT:
Yes my “poor” native English knowledge, understood it… and you got my anwser.
@MeatWar I am trying to flash unmodified BIOS and with Q-Flash I get “Invalid BIOS image”. Same unmodified BIOS can be flashed with EFIFlash. I can try asking Gigabyte about this, but I thought someone here could answer sooner.