Downgrade from F4 BIOS on Gigabyte ga-x79s-up5-wifi

If you upgrade to the F4 BIOS and you experience problems, Gigabyte makes it really tough to downgrade to your old BIOS. Make sure whenever you upgrade a BIOS to save the previous version just in case you have issues. Gigabyte even says on their BIOS download page:

Because BIOS flashing is potentially risky, if you do not encounter problems using the current version of BIOS, it is recommended that you not flash the BIOS. To flash the BIOS, do it with caution. Inadequate BIOS flashing may result in system malfunction.

With that information feel free to upgrade but know it might not work.

To downgrade back to your old BIOS you can use the FTK_0.9.6.1_DOS.zip tool. It allows you to install a BIOS without using Gigabyte’s tool. You can download it here: FTK_0.9.6.1_DOS. First you need the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool to create a bootable file from a USB drive. You can find the HP tool here: SP27608. Next grab the Win98SE_bootdisk.iso. You can find the Win98SE_bootdisk.iso here: Win98SE_bootdisk. extract the iso using something like winrar to a directory and use it with the HP tool to create a bootable win 98 usb stick. next but the extracted FTK files and the older f3 BIOS on the stick. Insert the usb stick into your computer and boot it up. Hit F12 to get to the boot menu and select the USB stick. Once that’s selected you will boot into win 98 DOS environment. From there, CD to the directory of your F3 BIOS, you can find my copy here: 10.13.2013.f3.bios.

Now run: fpt -bios -f biosname.bin

After a few minutes it will say completed! now power off your system and reset the CMOS. You do this by either removing the batter from the motherboard for five minutes or using the jumper on the motherboard. see page 27 of the manual. ”Use this jumper to clear the CMOS values (e.g. date information and BIOS configurations) and reset the CMOS values to factory defaults. To clear the CMOS values, use a metal object like a screwdriver to touch the two pins for a few seconds.”

Finally once you reboot you should be back to the F3 bios.

Here’s a great resource for all your BIOS needs: http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/27576-bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide.html

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/48085-gigabyte-modified-bios.html

Hope that helps!