Project information

Title : Reprogramming a Gigabyte Motherboard BIOS EEPROM

Date : 04/01/2026 - 23/1/2026

Description : I recovered the BIOS on a Gigabyte motherboard where changing a setting caused it to fail to POST, I managed to use a dump from the backup BIOS to recover it

Problem : The computer was not booting after selecting a setting in the BIOS, it was failing to POST and using all standard methods to recover the BIOS failed.

Overview

I had a working motherboard initially however after changing some of the BIOS setting as normal the computer decided it wasn't going to boot. I have had this issue on at least two Gigabyte motherboards so far and am unsure why it occurred.

I initially tried to get a readable BIOS dump using a TL866II Plus programmer however was unable to, I recall using ChatGPT to query why and got some sort of answer relating to the way the programmer operates but honestly I have forgotten what it was about.

Using a CH341A programmer I was able to get human readable text for the H270 Bios Dump where TL866II Plus did not.

When using ChatGPT I discovered that modern BIOS files use intel boot guard technology where rather than doing a full flash over the chip the bios updates certain areas only. Apparently the area is called the DXE Volume, that the other volumes of the BIOS dump can not be flashed over and unlike older boards where you could rebuild bios firmware for MBs that this process has essentially become more locked down.

I discovered that the UEFI Tool NE doesn't allow writing to the BIOS dump.

I ended up de-soldering the backup bios and using a dump from that to flash to the main bios - it worked!

P.S. This one was poorly documented as I thought I had taken more images and a video of the issue prior only to find that I hadn't, also a minor correction regarding the video, the CH341A is an EEPROM programmer not an EEPROM it-self which is a type of memory.