I experienced exact same issue with a Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi motherboard (which has dual BIOS) neither of which would post - it came with a 3900X chip and previous owner specified the BIOS was bad (apparently from Windows Updates?). Knowing about DualBIOS I figured it’d be an easy switch to Backup BIOS and reflash MAIN, I was very wrong. Neither BIOS would even POST, cycling error codes on the qLED, no beeps, nothing.
This was my first BIOS fix via CH431a experience:
0. I read several guides on WinRAID including this one
Great YouTube video from Miyconst on how to use the programmer and clip: Link
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I was only able to find the B_BIOS chip (soldered on the board) initially, after several attempts with the clip and various tools, I was able to read the chip. However, VERIFY would always fail, and very quickly as chip contents did not match the buffer.
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After many more hours of testing, researching online, I determined the following:
a) comparing to Gigabyte’s official BIOS .bin files, the dump appears to indicate version F30 which is older than F40 needed to support Ryzen 3000 series chips
b) however, I’m still unable to read/verify the B_BIOS chip
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Eventually I found the M_BIOS chip, Gigabyte actually has this neat little “BIOS Socket” which houses the M_BIOS chip unsoldered in a little housing, allowing for easy removal and access.
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I removed the M_BIOS chip, clipped to the CH431a reader, and this time I was able to read/verify the chip.
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Using this as baseline, I then wrote to the chip (mistake) and verification failed. What many guides neglect to mention is what Lost_N_BIOS has mentioned the order of operations should be:
a) Read
b) Verify Read
c) Save copy (if needed)
d) Erase
e) Check Blank/Zeroes
f) Write
g) Verify Write -
After flashing F40 to M_BIOS chip and replacing into the BIOS socket on the board, it POSTed and I was able to revive the board.
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With that success I decided to try again and update the B_BIOS just in case M_BIOS becomes corrupt again, once again the CH431a is unable to read/verify the soldered chip. I realized it’s probably electrical issues related to the chip being connected the remaining circuitry onboard.
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I decided to take the easier route - boot into Windows with M_BIOS active, then use the GigaByte @BIOS tool which allows updates to both BIOS chips and update the B_BIOS, flashing both to F50 first.
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Now that B_BIOS supports Ryzen 3000 series, I was able to use the BIOS selector switches onboard to POST and update via qFlash to F61 which is the latest version for Ryzen 5000 series and G version support.
Thank you to everyone on the forums for all your knowledge!