Gigabyte mobo BIOS problem

stonecherub · 19 Nov 2021

Gigabyte Z690 UD DDR4 mobo purchased with CPU. As of Friday morning, I can boot into Windows 10 Pro ONLY if the boot drive is ALONE.
When I connect my data HD spinning disk (Toshiba 3Tb) and the BIOS starts, data is listed as #1 in the boot sequence with the name UEFI OS (P2:TOSHIBA DT01ACA300). #2 is Windows Boot Manager (CT500P2SSD8). Names assigned by the mobo. Change the order to put boot first, Save & exit. When the BIOS restarts, data is first!
That said, a couple of times while I was trying to make this work, it didn’t revert and booted (the video card was out).
This mobo with the F1 Bios ONLY supports PCIe style M2 drives. Tech support recommended BIOS upgrade which I did but the software they provided did not let me make a copy of F1 first – bad decision. Their BIOS webpage does not have F1.
My M.2 boot drive is MVMe in a PCIe converter case and PCIe slot.
Gigabyte provides tech support entirely at their convenience, they only work M-Th.

Does anybody have any suggestions or, maybe, a copy of F1?

fireberd · 19 Nov 2021

Many motherboards have dual BIOS, If yours does, switch to the other BIOS as its likely still F1

stonecherub · 19 Nov 2021

And, how would I do that?

sygnus21 · 19 Nov 2021

stonecherub said:

And, how would I do that?

I don't know where you're getting F1 from for your BIOS when Gigabyte shows F3 as the first (initial) BIOS - Z690 UD DDR4 (rev. 1.0) Support | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

So that definitely needs to be resolved... and "if" you installed the wrong BIOS, than yeah, that could be a problem!

Lets deal with that first!!

Let us know.

stonecherub · 19 Nov 2021

Sygnus21:
Where did I get F1 for my version of the BIOS? From the BIOS screen, itself. F3 came from Gigabyte and sort-of works so it can't be the wrong BIOS.

I have many problems with Z690 UD DDR4.

When I finally read the fine print in the manual, it said. "There are two types of M.2 SSDs, SATA and PCIe" This mobo only supports PCIe. The only useful tech support I got from GigaByte was to upgrade the BIOS. I did that on Wednesday, when I got the phone call from Giga.

F3 BIOS recognized a 500 Gb NVMe SSD I put into slot M2A_CPU. NVMe boards Iin slots M2P_SB and M2Q_SB are NOT recognized but I don't understand these slots.

I started out installing Win 10 onto an old HDD and because both OS and data were actual disks, I could access the data drive. I was able to clone the OS onto the M.2 SSD in M2A slot. With this configuration, the data disk did not always flop into position #1 of the boot sequence.

At this point, Thursday, I installed my video card and everything went to hell. B&H was sending me a one T PCIe M.2 SDD and a converter for NVMe to PCIe that I had ordered before Gigabyte tech semi-support told me to upgrade. AS the M2A slot is UNDER the video card, I removed the boot SDD, put it in the converter and put that into the PCIe slot opposite the video card. That SSD boots if the data drive is NOT connected.

As chance would have it, B&H charged me for a PCIe SSD but actually sent NVMe. I never got to try the right card in the M2A slot.

Sorry this is so long but I'm sending it to Gigabyte because they didn't understand a previous message.

Megahertz · 19 Nov 2021

Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs. It will help us to help you
System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums

When you use M.2 slot, on most MB, a SATA connector can't be used as the SATA and the M.2 share the same PCIe lane.
How many M.2 connectors are in use and what type of SSD are in use?

If your data disk is listed as boot able is because it wasn't cleaned properly (it once had a OS)
Please post a Disk Manager image. Please, full screen and expand the columns so we can read them.

fireberd · 19 Nov 2021

Looking at Gigabyte listing this is a Rev 1 board which has no relation to the BIOS rev.

Along with what Megahertz says about M.2 drives taking SATA ports, an NVME drive in my Gigabyte motherboard takes up 2 specific SATA ports, depending on which M.2 slot is used (it has two M.2 slots).

sygnus21 · 19 Nov 2021

stonecherub said:

Sygnus21:
Where did I get F1 for my version of the BIOS? From the BIOS screen, itself. F3 came from Gigabyte and sort-of works so it can't be the wrong BIOS..

I think there is some confusion here because the current BIOS will always be reflected on the BIOS screen. In this case it should have been F3 as that's the BIOS listed on Gigabyte's website. I'm also a Gigabyte board user as listed in my system specs on both system, so I'm also going on experience here.

Anyway, the F3 Bios is the (first) and current BIOS listed for that board so that's what you need to be running. Additionally, if you in fact DID do a BIOS update (wondering where that came from), after a BIOS update you need to hit "Load Optimized Defaults" on the Exit screen so that the system sets to the current hardware you have. From there we can then proceed.

stonecherub said:

When I finally read the fine print in the manual, it said. "There are two types of M.2 SSDs, SATA and PCIe" This mobo only supports PCIe. The only useful tech support I got from GigaByte was to upgrade the BIOS. I did that on Wednesday, when I got the phone call from Giga.

Don't know what owner's manual, you're looking at but this is what I'm looking at this English guide here (PDF) and it shows 3 M.2 connectors - M2Q_SB, M2P_SB, and M2A_CPU. All three support PCIe 4.0. And you are correct that none support M.2 SATA drives. So... if you're trying to use a SATA M.2 drive you'll have to find an adapter card or use a standard SATA SSD drive on one of the six SATA ports.

That said what drives do you have?

stonecherub said:

F3 BIOS recognized a 500 Gb NVMe SSD I put into slot M2A_CPU. NVMe boards Iin slots M2P_SB and M2Q_SB are NOT recognized but I don't understand these slots.

How many NVMe drives do you have? And are they PCIe 4.0 or 3.0 drives?

Additionally, these ports should be fool-proof meaning M.2 PCIe drives and SATA drives are keyed differently so theoretically a "SATA" M.2 drive shouldn't fit in an M.2 NVMe (PCIe) slot, but....

stonecherub said:

I started out installing Win 10 onto an old HDD and because both OS and data were actual disks, I could access the data drive. I was able to clone the OS onto the M.2 SSD in M2A slot. With this configuration, the data disk did not always flop into position #1 of the boot sequence.

If you have multiple drives in your system with boot files, you need to designate which drive the system should boot to in the BIOS. If you leave it up to the BIOS it will choose the first boot drive it sees... which may not be the boot drive you want!!!

stonecherub said:

At this point, Thursday, I installed my video card and everything went to hell. B&H was sending me a one T PCIe M.2 SDD and a converter for NVMe to PCIe that I had ordered before Gigabyte tech semi-support told me to upgrade. AS the M2A slot is UNDER the video card, I removed the boot SDD, put it in the converter and put that into the PCIe slot opposite the video card. That SSD boots if the data drive is NOT connected.

I would need to see what "converter" you're talking about before providing further help here. Can you link to the item(s) in question?

stonecherub said:

As chance would have it, B&H charged me for a PCIe SSD but actually sent NVMe. I never got to try the right card in the M2A slot.

Since those M.2 slots support NVMe (PCIe) SSD's that's what you need. M.2 SATA drives won't work on that board and are of no use unless you plan on using them with an adapter card.

Hope this helps clarify things

bobkn · 19 Nov 2021

stonecherub said:

(snip)

As chance would have it, B&H charged me for a PCIe SSD but actually sent NVMe. I never got to try the right card in the M2A slot.

(snip)

You seem to have a false impression. Gigabyte may not have understood your previous message because of that.

Your motherboard supports NVME PCI-E 4.0 M.2 drives. All NVME cards are PCI-E. That may not be clear from the manual. When it states that it only supports only PCI-E drives, it means that it does not support SATA M.2 drives. NVME is basically assumed for M.2 PCI-E drives at the moment. It is hard to find a PCI-E M.2 drive that isn't NVME. I have one, that uses only 2 PCI-E lanes, but it's old. Not in use. I needed it for a system that couldn't boot from an NVME drive. I used it in a slot adapter, as the board had no M.2 sockets.

An adapter that allows you to use an M.2 drive in one of the full-sized PCI-E slots won't remove the NVME character of the M.2 drive.

I'm not sure why you're having such troubles with the drives. If you clone an HD to an M.2 drive, you should get rid of the Windows installation on the HD before connecting it back to the PC while booting from the M.2 drive. If it was me, I'd clear it completely using diskpart.

Some motherboards require the proper BIOS settings if you're using multiple M.2 drives, because of the limited number of PCI-E lanes available, but I don't know whether a Z690/Intel Gen 12 CPU needs that.

Good luck with your setup.

sygnus21 · 19 Nov 2021

fireberd said:

Along with what Megahertz says about M.2 drives taking SATA ports, an NVME drive in my Gigabyte motherboard takes up 2 specific SATA ports, depending on which M.2 slot is used (it has two M.2 slots).

While that is "usually" correct. Many newer board such as the OP's don't have this limitation. If that limitation was there, it would have to be noted in the owners manual as not to cause users to wonder why certain SATA slots are not working or being recognized. It would also include a matrix as both my Gigabyte boards in my system specs featuring M.2 slots does, to show what SATA ports are affected by which M.2 slot used. Example my Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Xtreme board...

Gigabyte mobo BIOS problem-z270-m2-connections..jpg

There is no such limitation listed anywhere in the owner's manual (page 9 & 24 - PDF file) stating SATA slots will be lost using any M.2 slots.

Also, in using the M.2 slots for a boot drive there's also this not...

If you want to install an operating system on an M.2 PCIe SSD, you need to install the Intel ® RST VMD Controller driver first. Refer to Chapter 4 for more instructions.

I think we need to be careful in assuming newer board behave as older boards did. I'd also ask we be careful as to the info posted as there is already some slight confusions by the OP already.

Thanks