Does "Q-Flash" work while all of the components are installed?

Hi!

My friend is building his first gaming PC in the Ncase M1 and I'm assisting him. He's built whatever he could already while waiting on the ASUS TUF RTX 3080 to arrive.

He's currently having some trouble updating the BIOS to a more recent version that supports the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X he's using. He bought a Gigabyte B550I Aorus PRO AX motherboard that has a feature called Q-Flash Plus that allows flashing in a shutdown state without booting and without any other component installed except for motherboard and CPU power cables. Before we started building, we tried Q-Flash Plus while following the instructions on the website of Gigabyte, a couple of posts on Reddit and a YouTube video explaining what to do. He didn't get the Q-Flash Plus LED to lit up, so we decided to continue building as some people said their board was able to boot with the 5600X installed. We can't really check if it boots though because we don't have a GPU to provide video output yet.

Some people in the following post on buildapc said their Q-Flash Plus actually did work after they installed their CPU and RAM. We can't install the CPU cooler yet because it will interfere when trying to fit the 3080 inside the Ncase M1. My question was if we can actually use Q-Flash Plus without a cooler attached to the CPU. I don't think pressing the Q-Flash Plus button will start the system, but I want to make sure I give the correct advise to my friend.

TLDR: I want to use Gigabyte Q-Flash Plus (flashing in shutdown state) without a CPU cooler installed but not sure if it's safe for the CPU or rest of the system.

Cheers,

Bart

SOLVED ‼️‼️‼️‼️

I'm losing my mind and about to return my B550I Aorus Pro AX. I can't for the life of me get Q Flash Plus to work. And I have a Ryzen 7 CPU. So you know I have to update the BIOS to F10.

I've tried 3 different USB drives. But none of them are working. I've seen people say that you have to rename the BIOS file to gigabyte.bin, all caps. But the autoexc.bat has the B55IAPAX.F10 in it's script. Do you have to rename both the file and the script?

What am I doing wrong?

Ok update. Yup I was a dummy. You have to rename the file name in both locations. Duh

B760 DS3H I7 13700KF SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS 1TB SSD

Onto my 3rd motherboard where I'm upgrading from Intel 12th Gen to Intel 13th or 14th Gen.

All attempts to use Q-Flash Plus to update the bioses have failed.

None of my four USB 2.0 flash drives are recognised - two old and two new, all 16GB or less, all FAT32 and MBR, full reformat, and checked for errors. The QLED light never comes on. The flash of the new BIOS - checked for mobo version, never starts. I've read, and re-read, their god-awful doco, watched video after video, read blog after blog, and Reddited hours and hours of time trying the plethora of suggestions that worked for other people.

Time for Gigabyte to include a known-good USB flash drive in the motherboard boxes? Yes !!! Otherwise, they should admit this 'feature' is as flaky as f### and can't be relied upon.

Edit: So what did work? A brand new 8GB USB 2.0 from Netac. No reformatting - just copied the bios image to the new stick ... and it worked first time.

My advice - Ignore GB's bollocks about what should work - buy a new USB 2.0 stick and try that first. Trust me - life is too short.

Just got a X570 Aorus Elite WiFi and I'm not sure which BIOS version is installed, if it's the latest that supports my R5 5600x.

I know this motherboard has a 'Q-FLASH PLUS' feature where I can update the bios without having neither a CPU or RAM installed.

The box has a sticker written "UPDATED" on it, but I don't know if it's updated to 5000 series Ryzen. I suspect it is, since this motherboard is already Ryzen 3000 series compatible, there wouldn't be any other reason to update the BIOS aside from changing the language from English to Portuguese.

So, I was going to install just the front panel connectors, CPU and RAM and try booting and getting in the BIOS. If I can successfully get into the BIOS and check that the version is 5000 series compatible, everything's perfect and I can just turn off the system and resume building everything.

But, if it doesn't post and I need to update the BIOS, would I also need to remove the incompatible CPU and remove the RAM or can I just flash the BIOS without removing them? Because if i could flash the BIOS without removing them I could install my AIO, fans etc. and see if I get a post or not.

I'm pretty sure I saw JayzTwoCents flashing a bios with an incompatible CPU in place.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks guys.

Long story short, I'm building a new PC with an x570 Aorus Elite Wifi MOBO and an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU and I haven't got it to POST.

Recently have been trying to use the Q Flash to update the BIOS, since I tried everything else (moving RAM sticks around, removing NVME drives), but I cannot get any flashing lights on my MOBO.

I've followed a couple videos just to make sure I'm doing it correctly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9uGfIFufZIa was the most applicable since it was the same MOBO that I have. But when I try to flash it, I get no blinking QLED lights on my MOBO.

Here's the renamed file: https://imgur.com/a/kw8cSo4

I have my MOBO out on some cardboard with just the PSU ( NZXT C 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ) and the big motherboard 20+4 and CPU connections hooked up. I have the fat32 formatted flash drive with just the renamed latest BIOS file plugged into the white USB port. When I turn on the PSU, there's a brief flash of LEDs around the I/O Shield. That's the only time I've been able to get any LEDs to light up on the MOBO.

Also, I've tried a PSU I know works (using it currently for the desktop I'm typing on) and that didn't have any other affect. So it seems to me like I'm doing something wrong, or my MOBO is defective. I bought it Nov 5, 2020 from Amazon new.

Here's the rest of my parts list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Gk6Nz7

I've tried getting this PC to run for over 8 hours now and I need a hero in a bad way.

I didn’t know I would need to do this and I have everything already installed(GPU, CPU, SSD, HHD, RAM)… Could there be any issues if I just happen to make the update with all of the components already installed?

-B650 rev 1.2

Public Service Announcement (PSA): Posting this in the hopes it helps others. I spent over two hours trying to get Q-Flash Plus (QFP) to work; failed! You are welcome to still try to get QFP to work, but I would suggest not spending more than 30min on it. If it doesn't work with a couple of USB 2.0 drives, keep reading for the other option. It worked for me, and maybe it'll work for you. I think QFP is a finicky, dubious feature that is hit-or-miss. It seems to work if you have the right type of ancient USB 2.0 flash drive. A few people posted links in the below references (bottom of my post) about a specific brand/model that worked for them, but I didn't want to order & wait for yet another thing in the mail.

BTW, if you'd like to try QFP this is a great reference. This is well explained and it seems simple, which made it all the more frustrating that this didn't work for me. I have experience building PCs, so to follow a simple process and NOT have it work, is very, very annoying. But the video is well done and easy to understand:

https://glennsqlperformance.com/2020/12/22/how-to-flash-a-gigabyte-motherboard-with-q-flash-plus/

I can't take credit for the workaround, as I learned it from another Reddit post. Here's the trick: Just configure the motherboard (build the PC) and try to boot it. Add your CPU, RAM, video card, etc. then connect your power supply to the motherboard. Then hook up the video card to a monitor, power the PC on and hopefully it will at least post (power-on self test) and let you boot into BIOS (just press DELETE key repeatedly when powering up the PC and odds are good you'll get into the BIOS). If so, congrats! You can now use the regular Q-Flash (within the Gigabyte BIOS) to upgrade the BIOS to a more recent version. You can even use the same USB stick you prepared to use for Q-Flash Plus.. Magically the USB drive is readable now, even though it didn't work when you tried to use it with Q-Flash Plus.

The above trick worked for me. I recently got a Gigabyte motherboard (B550 Aorus Elite v1.0; who names these things...) as part of a new computer build for an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU. I picked this board specifically for its Q-Flash Plus feature, which is advertised as allowing you to flash (upgrade) the BIOS without needing to have CPU/etc installed. I thought this would be great, since I don't have a Gen-3 CPU on hand (and I thought this was all the board is compatible with out of the box, until you flash it to a higher version of BIOS that supports Ryzen 5000 series CPUs). The sticker on the motherboard box proclaims "3rd Gen Ryzen Desktop Ready" but nothing about Ryzen 5000, so I thought I had to QFP to get this to work. Fortunately, when I followed the trick above, I was able to get into the BIOS and saw it had BIOS firmware version F11 installed. I used Q-Flash within the BIOS to browse to the USB I had plugged in (ironically, to the same dumb "BIOS" USB port, which failed to do anything when I tried to QFP) to upgrade to the latest firmware available for the motherboard I bought (F14c, released 09/06/21, 6 days ago). Rebooted and the PC still boots OK, so looks like the BIOS was successfully updated (confirmed in BIOS it recognizes the CPU, memory, etc & the BIOS version is F14c). Yay.

The strange thing about the F11 BIOS, is that you cannot download this version for this motherboard from Gigabyte's website. Here is the link; if you go there, you'll see F11 version isn't available for download: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550-AORUS-ELITE-rev-10/support#support-dl-bios. Looks like Gigabyte did an internal release of this BIOS to boards, to give them Ryzen 5000 capability (to allow them to boot up, at least). Version F10 is when Ryzen 5000 support was added for this motherboard, so I thought that was an interesting discovery.

If that didn't work, I would have probably had to get a Gen-3 CPU somewhere, as I really didn't want to send back the motherboard and get another one which may or may not allow me to flash it without CPU/etc. attached. So if QFP doesn't work for you, hopefully you'll be able to boot the PC like I did & update the BIOS via the regular Q-Flash method within the BIOS.

For reference, here are some other posts of folks having issues. I probably spent almost an hour of time reading every single post, hoping to learn the secret trick to getting this damn QFP to work. One recurrent theme I saw in the posts was that folks opened support tickets with Gigabyte and got crappy replies; basically just telling folks to "follow the directions" or suggesting that they RMA the board and get another one. Ugh! Hopefully nothing ever goes wrong with this motherboard, because it sounds like customer support is horrendous. Good luck everyone!

https://www.reddit.com/r/gigabyte/comments/nz31jv/b550_aorus_elite_ax_v2_cant_flash_bios/

https://www.reddit.com/r/gigabyte/comments/kazqli/yet_again_someone_else_who_cant_flash_their_bios/

https://www.reddit.com/r/gigabyte/comments/k4nnoh/q_flash_plus_not_working_on_three_gigabyte_b550i/

https://www.reddit.com/r/gigabyte/comments/k6694v/possible_qflash_plus_fix_b550_aorus_elite5600x/

I've just ordered a new motherboard, a Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X DDR4, (from Amazon, but not available for dispatch for a few weeks).

I will be installing an i7 13700K on it, and I'd be grateful for some answers to a few questions, ready for when I do this.

1)is the M/B likely to come with the latest F21 BIOS , or will it more likely have the F2 BIOS only?

2) If I need to use the Q-Flash Plus button, do I need to enable the button somehow, or just connect power, insert USB and hold the button?

3) Am I right that I must change the name of the file Z690GAMINGXDDR4.F21 to GIGABYTE.bin ?

(When I lupdated the BIOS on my current motherboard only a month or so ago, the instructions on the Gigabyte site were woefully outdated, telling me to 'insert the floppy disc'! at one point, so it would be nice to hear some genuinely current experience to help me setup my new board).

Thank you to anyone who can clarify the process for me.

EDIT I changed my order to Aorus Elite AX DDR4 instead of waiting weeks for the Gaming X.

It's all fitted, bios update went smoothly, and it seems to be working fine, thank you all for the helpful info.

My GPU stopped working after I installed a new M.2 Nvme SSD drive. I did take the GPU off when I installed the drive. After checking the connections numerous times I decided to update BIOS if something went wrong with it in the process, because GPU still didn't show up in BIOS. It did power up, because the fans were spinning, but not detected by motherboard. So I downloaded the latest BIOS files and updated. System rebooted and after that lost signal to display. Can't access BIOS anymore. Next I need to probably use the Q-Flash to try to recover the MB. It's just a bit pain in the ass to uninstall everything in SFFPC case. Has anyone done this with parts installed? It just says on their site that "you CAN Q-Flash without CPU", but do you have to?

Z490I AORUS ULTRA (1.x)

I’m aware that Qflash plus can work with no components installed (cpu, gpu, ssd, ram). My question is, if u update bios using qflash plus when all of ur components are installed can it potentially cause damage to any of your component or pose any potential problems?

Hello! I bought a b650 Aorus Elite AX V2 motherboard and a Ryzen 7 9700X. The CPU is not supported so I had to use Q Flash Plus to make it work.

I assembled the whole PC already, plugged the stick in the BIOS usb port behind, pressed the button and the upgrade started (that’s when also my PC turned on and I have pressed only the bios flash button)

After like 5-10 mins the LED turned off completely (so it didn’t stay on as the tutorial said) and the PC remained turned on. I shut it down and now I turned on the PC for the first time, black screen, nothing happens and the RED Ram LED is turned on.

The RGB is turned off on everything instead of the Ram sticks.

What should I do? The stick is 8GB, formatted FAT32 with the F31b BIOS update on it named as “GIGABYTE.bin”

I have to mention that all parts of the PC are new and it’s the first time booting up.

PS: The mobo is rev 1.0

EDIT: ISSUE SOLVED: FOR EVERYONE IN THE SAME SITUATION, I HAD TO REMOVE THE CPU AND THE RAM FROM THE MOTHERBOARD AND THEN THE BIOS UPDATE WORKED COMPLETELY FINE AND THE PC TURNED OFF BY ITSELF.

BOOTED AFTER 2 MINS AND I WENT INTO BIOS WITH NO PROBLEMS WITH 9700X

THANK U FOR THE HELP

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a Gigabyte B650I AX motherboard and need to update its BIOS before installing my CPU, as my processor is an AMD Ryzen 9000 and requires a BIOS update for proper support.

I attempted to use the Q-Flash Plus feature by following these steps:

• ⁠Formatted a USB drive in FAT32. • ⁠Downloaded and extracted the latest BIOS file • ⁠Renamed the BIOS file to “GIGABYTE.bin” (I’ve respected the uppercased name as said in the Gigabyte manual) and copied it to the root of the USB drive • ⁠Connected both the motherboard power connector and the CPU power connector • ⁠Inserted the USB into the designated port and pressed the Q-Flash Plus button

However, the LED that is supposed to indicate that the update process has started never lights up. For context, the PSU appears to be working properly (the PSU fan starts spinning when I initiate the update) and the USB drive even feels warm, as if it’s active. I don’t really know if it’s a simple LED error, a wrong power connector or something a lot worse. Has anyone encountered this issue or have any suggestions on troubleshooting it? Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: the problem was the usb key, I’ve used a USB 3.0 32Go and it works

So I've recently ordered the Z170X gaming 7 Mobo by gigabyte, and I was curios as to which components are required to q flash plus.

I'm saying this because if the cpu is not required to q flash+, then I'll order a kaby-lake cpu(i7-7700k) as I was hoping to.

But I'm really hoping I can get an answer from someone whomst'd've'ly'yaint'nt'ed'ies's'y'es has the same Mobo and cpu.

I am being told I need the following; power supply, gpu, mobo,ram, and monitor. But then I watch videos or read forums saying I need the cpu or some of the components in which I've listed are not not required. At this point I'm very perplexed, so please to help and tbank you in advance.