Gigabyte board BIOS upgrade - need instructions

Hello,

While recovering from a recent computer disaster, and after very in-depth diagnostics, I've been advised to upgrade the BIOS.

I really don't want to screw things up, so I'm asking for detailed instructions, like, for a 10-year old? OK, maybe 15.

The MoBo is a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 1.0).
I was sent to this page: GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 1.0) Support | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global
...and was told to update F1 through F6 on that page.

I have downloaded to a folder each file offered for F1, F2, F3...etc.

RE: F1
I clicked on the mb_bios_ga-x58a-ud3r_f1.exe which I downloaded and three other files were extracted to the F1 folder (image below).
Which file do I click on? the .BAT file? (I don't want to screw this up)

Are there any other pre-upgrade preparation steps to take?
I read something about terminating all TSR (terminate and stay resident) programs; is this important? If so, exactly how do I address this?

I also read that updating the BIOS from Windows is much riskier than from a USB stick. If booting from USB is safer, how do I do that?

I'm eager to move ahead.

Thanks in advance

AddRAM said:

Don`t update the Bios from windows.

Thank you for the confirmation

AddRAM said:

If you have the new Bios on a stick, boot into the Bios, find the tab that asks you if want to update the Bios, and you tell it where the new Bios is. Once you do that it should take over and update the bios.

That sounds easy enough - IF that .EXE file will make the USB stick bootable.

AddRAM said:

Some Bios can be updated live, right from the bios. It`ll be called EZ Bios Update or something like that. It`s so easy to do. Read your manual. It tell you how to do it.

Gigabyte has some kind of easy updater. I tried it years ago and it took me forever to recover. I kinda hope putting whatever is needed on a stick will do it more directly

AddRAM said:

Whatever you do, take your time and do not proceed if you`re not sure about what you`re doing.

Excellent advice. Thanks.

AddRAM said:

If your picture is of the latest Bios and you are in windows, click on the .exe file. It may reboot your PC and install the latest Bios.

But, um, a couple of issues. First, I did click the highlighted .EXE file while it sat in a Windows folder and it opened three other files. I don't know which one to click. The .BAT file?

Also, since these 4 files are in a folder, inside Windows, and if I ran it from there, would not that be going against the advice to not run it from Windows? I imagine that you thought these files were on a USB stick...

One more: The diagnostic program used to find these things out displayed this. Note the "F1>F6"

Someone else told me that the most recent BIOS file, presumably the F6 one, would include previous upgrades and improvements and that I'd not need to do each sequentially. So, is it advisable to just go for the latest F6 non-beta version?
HERE is a link to the Gigabyte page in case that helps

AddRAM said:

You did download the latest Bios and put it on the stick yes ?

Nope. I downloaded it to a folder inside Windows. Should I just move the 4 files to a USB? Will these files make it bootable? Will the tabs mentioned automagically appear with choices?

Many thanks for your review of this...

Oh...here's an image from the manual - no clue which is better (and the manual does refer to a dual BIOS feature with one as a backup)

AddRAM said:

They are all ancient. What Bios is your board using now ?

BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. F1, 12/28/2009

2009 was just last week, right? lol

Thanks for the input. Ima gunna wait until tomorrow to get back into this.

I was a complete novice and could use Q-Flash blindfold.