BIOS Updates forum

I bought 2 of these boards, and got a third one free, because the seller of one of the other two threw it in "dead" from a bad bios flash. I got the other two to boot w/ some difficulty, had to use PCI cards initially before they would pickup an AGP card.

EDIT : Note, still have one more of these boards on the way, (not yet arrived).

Because I want to use adapter sockets to run 1.4Ghz P3S Tualatins on them, I went to Gigabyte's site to download the latest bios. There were 4 versions there for the GA-6VA7+. F2, F4, F7, & F8. I downloaded the F8 version and flashed my 2 good boards. After flashing them, I rebooted each board and they seemed to be working ok. I also took the chip out of one of them to see if it would get the third board to work. (It did not.)

The following day none of the three boards would boot. No video, no sound, nothing except that the keyboard and fans powered up. Checking the mobo manual, I found a notice at the back of the manual advising users before bios flashing to check whether their board was equipped w/ an AMI bios, or an Award bios. It seems they used both. Checking the downloadable bioses at Gigabyte, I found that the F2 was an Award bios w/ an Award flash exe program, while the F4, F7, & F8, were all AMI bioses w/ an AMI flash exe program, though the name of the flash exe did not indicate that.

All 3 boards came equipped w/ Award chips, and though I have no idea what the first dead board originally had for a bios, the other two were F2, and F7 respectively. That would apparently indicate that it is possible to run the F7, (AMI), bios on an Award chip.

I want to run the F8 for best support for my Tualatins, and my question is what do I have to do to get these boards working again? (The first dead board came w/ 3 bios chips, 2 of which came from "Bad Flash", which apparently did not solve the problem.)

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Are they in fact real GA-6VA7+ boards and if so, what revision?
Maybe they suffer from bad caps syndrome, check this site to see what I mean:
http://www.badcaps.net

Make sure you use tested memory, use memtest86 and test the sticks on the same speed as you'll use them in these boards.

Use uniflash from http://www.uniflash.org for flashing the other boards, INCLUDING the bootblock (that may not have happened on the other boards). There's also an article about hotflashing boards but we first need to make sure they are physically OK.

Thankyou for taking the time to help.
All three boards have GA-6VA7+ Rev 2.1 silk screened right on them. Re caps, they are not as perfectly flat topped as you would find on say an ASUS P5A-B in good condition; but they are no worse looking than those on a brand new, (unused), FIC KA-6100 board that I have. That is to say that the reinforcing indent on one type of cap used has been deeply enough struck, that what you have is a strike pattern with raised mounds surrounding it. NOTE : Will edit to add cap photos demonstrating what I mean.

Caps on used Gigabyte board; (worst) :







Caps on new FIC KA-6100 :







Re memory, the RAM that I used to test and flash them is two separate, (1 in each board), 256 Meg sticks of Infineon PC133 CL2 which has previously passed memtest @ 133Mhz. I also have Hynix PC133 CL2 256 Meg sticks if you think that would be better.

Note : Have also replaced the mobo batteries in all 3 boards.

As of now I still have one board on the way to me. These boards were very expensive, (average price over $200.00), so I am not inclined to risk the last one. What I am prepared to do is buy a new bios chip for one of them then try to revive the others from that one.