Enable SLI on your GIGABYTE's EX58-UD4

[Peakr]

Article up at Tweak Town. Basically you flash the UD4P bios to the UD4 and you should be set. I'm sure there are a few XS'ers here ready to try this out...

[gorby]

Hi there,
Im up for trying it on my EX58-UD3R but sadly im unable to find a flash tool that will accept the incorrect microcode from the SLI bios.
I had assumed that this board would do SLI (I follow design logic rather than marketing shpeel) and ended up first viewing the above mentioned thread on tweektown
Since the UD3r and UD3r-SLI use the same bios type and the boards look identical I assumed the same was possible then found this article on anandtech confirming that it should be possible.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...readid=2284106

The article on tweektown mentions that u need a flasher called "spiflash.exe". This seems to have been released by some clever Asian chappy and it looks to be a word play on gigabytes own "flashspi.exe" tool used to flash these bios's.
I know thats the file im after, I guess its just the same tool modified to ignore the micro-code mismatch.
But despite registering at a few sites with the help of google translator im still unable to get hold of that file. If anyone has any information on where i might download it I would be very happy, and would also confirm my results.

The same 'problem' will probably exist for anyone trying the above on the EX58-UD4 - the modified flasher seems very hard to get hold of.
Ty for help in advance

[ReverendMaynard]

sure it's not "spitool"? ftp://download@ftp.dmp.com.tw/vortex...ool_090303.zip

[gorby]

sure it's not "spitool"? ftp://download@ftp.dmp.com.tw/vortex...ool_090303.zip

Nah dont think so, the intial article quotes spiflash.exe.
"...Instead, you need to flash your UD4 board with a DOS BIOS flashing program called SPIFLASH - a quick Google reveals it is readily available online."

the article seems to have been written from the slant of some one who done the procedure themselves. The search term linked in the article is "spiflash.exe+download". The top hit there is an article to the asian site that was hosting the tool but appears to no longer have it available.

I whacked the one you linked on my boot stick anyway, dont think its compatible with my chip as the read to file option produces "flash drive / chip not found" errors and tells me to check bios settings. Do you think there might be some other generic type flasher i could use?

[ReverendMaynard]

Nah dont think so, the intial article quotes spiflash.exe.
"...Instead, you need to flash your UD4 board with a DOS BIOS flashing program called SPIFLASH - a quick Google reveals it is readily available online."

the article seems to have been written from the slant of some one who done the procedure themselves. The search term linked in the article is "spiflash.exe+download". The top hit there is an article to the asian site that was hosting the tool but appears to no longer have it available.

I whacked the one you linked on my boot stick anyway, dont think its compatible with my chip as the read to file option produces "flash drive / chip not found" errors and tells me to check bios settings. Do you think there might be some other generic type flasher i could use?

sorry homie lol, thought I had it pinned for ya. I'd wait a bit honestly, now that the news is out the file will magically become available.

[YukonTrooper]

Tempted to try this on my DS4, but I think the boards are too different?

[Damien]

mmmm SLI on my ud3-r would be nice

[Lsdmeasap]

Disclaimer:
Neither Gigabyte or I condone or recommend this in anyway

Any flashing done to your board outside of the normal flash procedure is all up to the end user, and may void your warranty and or brick your motherboard.

You have been warned

What you need is Flash SPI (FlashSPI) or Flash895, or AWDFlash would work as well. All you need to do is a DOS based flash is all, there may be other tools that would work the same those are just the three I know off the top of my head.

Flash895 comes with the older BIOS downloads from Gigabyte, and FlashSPI (Same thing I believe just updated or reworked/renamed) comes with all Newer BIOS downloads. (May also come with all OLD ones as well now, have not checked)

The FlashSPI and Flash895 tools are available in my Qflash Guide linked below.

1. Make a bootable floopy disk by formatting a floppy disk and choosing Create a MS-DOS startup disk in the format options

2. Copy the Award flash utility (FlashSPI/Flash895/AWDFlash) & BIOS file (.Fxx) to the floppy disk

3. Create an autoexec.bat with “flashSPI bios_file_example_name.Fxx” in the content of the batch file, (without the quotes “ ”).

Yes the space is there and is necessary!
(Example: flashSPI gaex58ud4p.F12)

4. Boot the system with the floppy (it will take a few minutes before screen comes out)

5. Re-flash the BIOS & reboot.

Here is how to create an autoexec.bat File
1. In Windows, open NotePad
2. In NotePad, write “flashSPI gaex58ud4p.F12″ (without the quotes “ ”)
3. Save the file as autoexec.bat

A few more methods and switches as well you may use with these tools if needed, as making a bootble USB if you would like to do it that way, in my Qflash guide at TweakTown (See post #2) >>
http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/bios...h-guide-27576/

[gorby]

Thanks for the detailed post / reply
Well ive certainly tried at least FLASHSPI.EXE (this was contained in the bios download for the SLI bios UD3RSLI.F2) - I didn't try with an autoexec.bat file but i don't see how that should make a difference. I had just whacked the flasher and the bios on my boot usb stick and run the command manually.

When I tried with that flasher I got an error about the bios i was trying to flash not matching my board.
Gonna try lots of different flashers today and note down my results with all of them.

First Boot disk
H:\>dir /A:H
Volume in drive H is BOOT
Volume Serial Number is C4F6-23B4

Directory of H:\

18/04/2005 17:54 116,736 IO.SYS
18/04/2005 17:54 9 MSDOS.SYS
18/04/2005 17:54 93,040 COMMAND.COM

H:\>dir
Volume in drive H is BOOT
Volume Serial Number is C4F6-23B4

Directory of H:\

28/08/2008 15:16 26,351 FLASHSPI.EXE
26/02/2009 18:37 1,048,576 UD3RSLI.F2

For subsequent attempts ill just list the changes i make to the last two files.

[Lsdmeasap]

You may need to use a modifier in the string of the batch file, check my post at TT to see how to use those. Not sure which it would be though. So you say you did try FlashSPI without luck then right? If so, then ya you may need to use a Modifier switch such as maybe the Force Flash modifier would work (/F or -F)

[gorby]

The above Flasher (28/08/2008 15:16 26,351 FLASHSPI.EXE) produced this error.

"GIGABYTE SPI Flash Bios Update Utility V 1.32
!!! Bios ID Mismatch, Unable to Proceed Bios Programming"

Next Disk. Flash895.exe (taken from the guide linked at tweektown)

H:\>dir
Volume in drive H is BOOT
Volume Serial Number is C4F6-23B4

Directory of H:\

26/02/2009 18:37 1,048,576 UD3RSLI.F2
27/06/2006 14:45 176,886 FLASH895.EXE
2 File(s) 1,225,462 bytes
0 Dir(s) 1,029,898,240 bytes free

Haven't tried with any switches (although yesterday i always tried a (flashtoolname.exe) -? /?) etc to try and discover them. In your guide you only mention the switches for flash895 and awardflash, ill try switches for flash895 and flashspi this reboot. Cant really discover the switches in windows as its vista 64 and moans if i try and run them at the command line about 64 bit stuff.

Edit - Tried both with /Ff switches - flashspi.exe - same result.
Flash895.exe is at least behaving differently. Ive tried that with the switch also but always get this error pretty fast.

" Error 31 - Flash is write protected"

I presume this is because the tool isnt submitting some command properly or something, Im not too clued up on how the dual bios stuff works, does it always keep one as read only? Perhaps flash895.exe is trying to access the wrong one as its old and doesnt know about the two chips.
If i Launch flash985.exe on its own the graphical program also gives me a "modules" list - presumably all of the flash devices on my mobo / pciX. Am a bit too scared to try and just "insert" something here as the menu seems to sujest i could. I imagine if i was able to find the right chip(s) in that big list i may encounter the same problem anyway.
Now i will try googleing for the non writeable error and also move on to trying the generic award flashers.

[Lsdmeasap]

Try Flash895 or AWDFlash with these modifiers all at once >>
/py/sn/f/cc/r

Not sure myself, I see the link it worthless in the Article posted at TweakTown. I'll have to see who wrote that and if they have any better info. *EDIT* Sent out a PM asking for some info about who wrote up that article and if they know any better info or could give me the link to that page shown in Chinese

What I can suggest is for you to PM this user (Shangri), he posted about this at TT before that article and then never posted back at TT but did at Anand. Maybe he is lying? Who knows? I see you have already been posting there, have you PM'd him and got a reply yet? >>>
http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...readid=2284106

[gorby]

Yeah you've found pretty much all my breadcrumbs now Thanks for your continued help on the matter.

My superstitious findings on the matter may be relevant now :P
I do think that the tool hosted original on the site was the right tool to use (although i do think its worth my continuing to try other company's awdflash tools for similar motherboards / bios's). The guy who posted it is listed as leaving college with some kind of degree that would certainly pre-dispose him for working at many mobo manufacturers, perhaps he pulled it from the site after an influx due to the article - the goggle cache dates on the web forum in question certainly support that. If u manage to create accounts on the sites in question (took me some serious head banging ) you will see the "gogobox" (some kind of Asian file sharing site where u can link stuff with mod-rewrite shortened urls) site no longer has the tool.


Yeah, I already PM'ed the guy on anandtech, Ive also left a pathetic pigeon English beg type message on the Chinese forum

The flasher that DFI uses for their 1336 boards is also awd.
AWARDFLASH.EXE (24/07/2008 17:14 63,837 AWDFLASH.EXE) when you download from their site it gives u a floppy image that extracts also a bat file with similar switch spam that u sujested useing. /cks/sn/py/cc/cd/cp/ld/qi/WB/ch
The program and release dates look quite similar to the generic awdflash893.exe (23/10/2008 12:13 63,393 awdflash893.exe)
These have got to be the best generic type alternatives.

[gorby]

My findings bascily support the notion that you either need

a) a transcoded bios so the SLI one doesnt report the mismatch to flashspi / awardflash. Not my preferred option as i know how funny vista can get with activation and things. But mabe that wouldn't be an issue here because manufacturer etc will be the same.
b) a modified version of flashspi (spiflash.exe) that doesn't care about the bios ID mismatch and flashes anyway.

My final tests were -
flashspi.exe with a crap load of switches. Basically if you dont use /py (amounts to just flash it i think) u get the error "ID mismatch" if you do use it u get the error "not able to read bios file successful" The wording there is a bit misleading, I tried the latest legit bios in the same bootup with the same switch and it didn't produce the error.
awardflash.exe and awdflash893.exe behave the same way although accept less switches and have a graphical awd flash thing.

I found a good bios transcoding thread here
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/sho...ed=1#post55794
Seems to be populated by some nifty bios hackers, gonna see if they will oblige me with option A =)

[gorby]

Still no luck finding the required tool or replicated the procedure.
Have created a website to try and get some more info about this or hunt down the tool as my search terms for the process have started to rank these threads quite highly.
Its an altruistic effort to try and find the tool or enable the process, hope mods here dont mind the linking.

http://g0rbi.000space.com/

[Lsdmeasap]

Someone at OC>Net said they did it to test it out on a friends setup, I asked for pics, method used, proof on the post and linked to this thread, of course no reply yet >>>
http://www.overclock.net/hardware-ne...ml#post5848551

Maybe he did, if so hopefully he will reply soon?

[gorby]

Its strange how the people saying they did it arent being more forthcoming indeed ^^
Today's slant for me was the same search with a few proxys and im finding a few more sites with spiflash.exe are coming up in hong kong.

If you look here http://www.hk-pub.com/forum/thread-1927389-1-1.html
you will see the same place where the file was linked originaly on "gogobox.com".
I managed to make an account there but when i log in and try to download the file "BIOS UPDATE-0311.zip" (which may or may not contain spiflash.exe, who knows) I get what i think is a permissions error.
Perhaps some one better able to interpret / work the site would have more mileage than me.

[gorby]

Hurrah! Some very very very nice person posted the tool on the temp forum i made. Tested it on my ex58-ud3r now its a ex58-ud3r-sli <3
You can get it from here.
http://g0rbi.000space.com/index.php?id=11

Thanks to the mod author and whoever helped making that possible
LSD - is it cool if i post a link to it on the GB bit of tweek town?

[Andrea deluxe]

http://www.techsweden.org/recension/...ga-ex58-ud5/5/

whith same procedure i have transformed my UD5 on EXTREME :-)

[ReverendMaynard]

http://www.techsweden.org/recension/...ga-ex58-ud5/5/



anybody try?

No need....the only difference is the cooling lol.

[Lsdmeasap]

Hurrah! Some very very very nice person posted the tool on the temp forum i made. Tested it on my ex58-ud3r now its a ex58-ud3r-sli <3
You can get it from here.
http://g0rbi.000space.com/index.php?id=11

Thanks to the mod author and whoever helped making that possible
LSD - is it cool if i post a link to it on the GB bit of tweek town?

Yeap, sure go ahead!!

I would say post it in the Gigabyte section and in the Motherboard section as well for those who may only look there as we do get those users who do not notice the gigabyte section often

[Savuti]

Hurrah! Some very very very nice person posted the tool on the temp forum i made. Tested it on my ex58-ud3r now its a ex58-ud3r-sli <3
You can get it from here.
http://g0rbi.000space.com/index.php?id=11

Thanks to the mod author and whoever helped making that possible
LSD - is it cool if i post a link to it on the GB bit of tweek town?

Hey fellas, question. Did the update with the flash tool on a UD3R. AFAIK it went through.

Now the thing is I only have a single card here. How do you verify that SLI is indeed functional? Is there an message that's supposed to pop up in windows desktop or an option in nvidia control panel that will appear notifying that the board supports SLI? or do these options only appear once two cards are connected?

[BulldogPO]

Gotta give it a try, nice to see if it can flas retail rev1.0 bioses to etc rev0.2 preproduction boards

[Sparda]

Thanks to gorby & Andrea deluxe for the tools and info.

List of all beta and final bios for some Gigabyte board download here.(use at your own risk :P ) >> Gigabyte BIOS

No need....the only difference is the cooling lol.

Might help people that still have some problem with S3. I saw x58 Extreme user has less S3 problem.

[lowfat]

Tempted to try this on my DS4, but I think the boards are too different?

Interested as well. How different is the DS4 from the UD4?

EDIT: Just realized the DS4 has another x16 slot and one less PCI. Chances are that is a big difference.