gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

[rtalcott]

I have 4 gigabyte MA785GM-US2H boards...rev 1.0...two rev. 1.1 and one rev. 1.3...I upgraded the 1.1 and 1.3 boards to the F12A BIOS and now I cannot boot from a flash drive. I had no problem before and the rev. 1.0 machine boots fine from a flash drive that none of the upgraded machines will recognize until the OS comes up. Is this a known problem and is there a fix?

rtalcott

[profJim]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

Did you load Optimized Bios defaults after flashing?
What are the bios settings for:

• Legacy USB Storage Detect?
• USB EHCI Controller?
• Hard Disk Boot Priority?
• First/Second/Third Boot Device?

Did you try pressing F12 while booting to select the device to boot from?

[rtalcott]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

First profJim Thank You for taking the time to reply...the assistance is greatly appreciated...I use the boot from usb regularly so this is a big deal for me...AND...I'm very pleased with these boards so I am looking forward to keeping them in service for years.

In the BIOS:
Legacy USB Storage Enabled
USB Storage Function Enabled
Hard Disk Boot My boot disk for Ubuntu 11.10 and that's a 500 gig WD SATA
First Boot Device is the WD everything else is disabled.

There is no specific mention of USB EHCI Controller.

I did reload both Optimized and fail-Safe Defaults...rebooted...pressed F12 which has always worked before on ALL 4 machines...the 3 with F12A all refused to boot from the usb..on my machine with the F5 BIOS the usb drive shows up at the bottom of the boot pick screen which appears after F12...something like Legacy USB...if I select that it boots and this is the same usb drive that the other 3 machines don't see.

I did get a reply from gigabyte tech support (I was amazed...response in less than 2 hours) and they said no know problems with bios F12B to which my reply was you have BIOS F12A on your site is there a F12B?

I do suspect that the issue is mine somehow because it's very hard for me to believe that this bios has an issue...it's been around for some time now...I'll go back and recheck everything again...

Again...I do appreciate the help!
rt

[profJim]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

Check out post #3 in GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H problems - Motherboard Processor & RAM.

Our FAE has the time tested and found no problems: "I tested this thing with our fast-MA785GM US2H". Booting from USB problem. In the F12 boot menu our USB stick appears as a hard disk. If the USB stick as a first Boot Device is set, the board also boots from USB. In short bios F11 AM2 5000 and Corsair Flash Voyager 2GB, FAT formatted. I hope that you have got the thing that you are trying to convey.

I think that this means that you need to boot from the USB-HDD device option.
Does this help?

I'm searching the web for a link to download the F12B bios.

[profJim]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

A web search using: MA785GM-US2H f12b bios
turned up several links for the F12B bios.

I don't know if the following model name is a typo:
For the GA-MA78GM-S2H v1.x motherboard:
From Gigabyte (EU): http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList...m-s2h_f12b.exe
This link was found in: All Slics 2.1 (Modded Bios List) - Note: For requests use 'Bios Mod Requests' section - Page 519, post #5188.

[rtalcott]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

Again...Thank You for the assistance!

I put the usb-hdd as the first boot device (again...did try it earlier) and get the same result...I get a boot error. The device does not show up the way it did when it worked and how it does on the one machine (BIOS F5) that does work. I will go back down the BIOS tree...

From the thread you pointed me to:
After some testing I was able to successfully downgrade to F6. Through incremental test to find out I could, that it has begun between F7 and F8. At the F8/F9 not even stick appears more as a hard disk in the F12 menu / USB-HDD does not work. Going as far back as F6 (if I understand how this works) I lose the use of many of the newer cpu's...

From the thread you pointed me to it appears that this may be a real problem...I had hoped it was something stupid/overlooked on my part. I need to look at the BIOS of my one working machine (this one) and see exactly what is in this BIOS. I also wonder about the F12B bios gigabyte was talking about....F12A is what is on their site so maybe it's a fat finger error on their part BUT details like this can be significant unfortunately.

I'll keep beating on it. If anything occurs to you please pass it my way...I would very much like to get this resolved!
rt

We don't have known USB issue on bios F12B. After bios updated make sure all USB controller been enable back in bios under integrated peripherals, include USB keyboard/mouse/legacy strorage devices detection, do further testing on all USB port and devices.

Gigabyte technical support team.

[profJim]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

Search the European Gigabyte site for the F12B bios for your motherboard.
As I recall, there are several USB-xxxx options when you boot using the F12 PFkey. Try all of them.

It might be helpful to try booting with your USB as the only bootable drive attached to your system.
If this works, contact tech support again and include the additional information.

Glad to help, good luck!

[Chike]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

Press F12 at boot time for boot menu, see if you can see you usb flash-drive under +Hard Disk at all.

[rtalcott]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

ProfJim:
I compared my F5 machine to the F12A machine (bios settings) and they are the same in the critical areas...I will probably try the F6 bios tomorrow and see if that works.

Chike:
It does not show up anywhere when I hit F12 during boot. On my F5 machine it shows up on the bottom of the list and not under HDD and that is how all 4 machines behaved until I thought it was a good idea to upgrade the bios so I could use newer cpu's. The same flash drive that boots on this machine (F5 machine) also boot on two ECS boards. The 3 machines having the problems worked fine until I upgraded to F12A and I've had these boards for at least a year and probably 18 months for the newest with the oldest being significantly older than that...great boards (for me) until I run into this!

rt

[profJim]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

You might need to contact Gigabyte tech support to see if they will provide you with a modded bios.
Be sure to include links to the posts that say that this appears to be a flaw that has been around since the F7 bios.

[rtalcott]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

I will flash F6 tomorrow and see if that works...and I'm suspecting that it will. Then I will get all the links and whatever explanations & documents together and see if I can get someone's attention at Gigabyte. I greatly appreciate those links you gave me because that adds a bit of weight to my argument that this isn't some setup error on my part. I really like these boards...$59 from NewEgg with free shipping and I run Linux so I expect them to have a long operational lifetime as I'm finding the alpha of Ubuntu 12.04 to be significantly faster than the previous versions...I don't need new hardware every few years to stay current...but it will be an inconvenience if I cannot boot from a usb device...

I'll document how this comes out....I have my doubts about getting any satisfaction from Gigabyte...this has to be a bit of a weird problem because it appears as if not everyone has this issue.
rt

[profJim]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

I'll document how this comes out....I have my doubts about getting any satisfaction from Gigabyte...this has to be a bit of a weird problem because it appears as if not everyone has this issue.

Keep in mind that this might be an issue with specific brands or models of of usb memory.
See if you can test with different usb models.
Gigabyte has been good with providing a modded bios for current or recent motherboard models.

[rtalcott]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

Glad to hear there may be hope for help from gigabyte...I do like their boards and had made a mental note to only buy gigabyte for a number of reasons...as for memory I've tried PNY, Adata and Kingston all with the same result.....I am unfortunately starting to think that this is not me...so tomorrow's flash to F6 will be interesting but I still have to wonder how something like this could get out and not have many people screaming...that's what makes me think it may really be my problem but there is that thread you pointed me to which makes me doubt the it's my fault theory...I guess I don't know at this point...need to dig into it...one of the advantages of unemployment is that I have the time!

Again...I greatly appreciate the suggestions and input!
rt

[profJim]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

Make sure that you downloaded the correct bios version from the appropriate motherboard version web page.
There might be a different bios for each motherboard version, even if they "share" the same bios name.

MA785GM-US2H
CPU support lists:
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Socket AM2+ - AMD 785G - GA-MA785GM-US2H (rev. 1.0)
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Socket AM2+ - AMD 785G - GA-MA785GM-US2H (rev. 1.1)
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Socket AM2+ - AMD 785G - GA-MA785GM-US2H (rev. 1.3)
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Socket AM2+ - AMD 785G - GA-MA785GM-US2H (rev. 3.3)

You're welcome, glad to help.

[rtalcott]

Re: gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

Yes indeed...I was 100% anal about this...I went to the web site and downloaded the specific BIOS for each rev. of mobo..in my case 1.0, 1.1 and 1.3...going to flash the 1.3 board back down to F6 in a few hours and IF that works I'll do the other 2...if they all come back to life it almost has to be a gigabyte problem...a weird one because not everyone gets bit but more than likely their issue but of course I have to deal with it.
rt