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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

The VBIOS of your discrete VGA card does not support UEFI GOP…

The VBIOS of your discrete VGA card does not support UEFI GOP, so it can not support “Ultra Fast Boot” and “CSM Disable”.

That’s the error message I got when I selected the “Ultra fast boot” option in the brand new beta UEFI of my ASRock Z68 Extreme4 (non-gen3) board. It’s admirable that ASRock is still pushing out firmware updates for this board which is almost 2 years old. They already have a newer revision of the board and a newer generation (7 series chipsets) of the board. Instead of adding these fancy features only to that newer generation, they have been adding them to the old models as well. Well, their priority is of course the newer generation of boards.

Today I accidentally discovered that there was a new beta BIOS (or UEFI) for this board – version 2.21 beta. It was released about a week ago – 25th of February. These are the release notes:

Windows 8 Ready.
Note: "Ultra Fast" is only supported by below conditions.
1. OS Windows 8 is installed on GPT format.
2. Graphics supports UEFI GOP.

Not much there, but the part that says “Ultra Fast” caught my eyes. They were developing a BIOS that allowed ultra fast boot up on Windows 8 for their motherboards based on Intel’s 7 series chipset, but I didn’t expect it to be released for the older motherboards. (In case you didn’t know, mine’s got an Intel 6 series chipset.) I downloaded it quickly and flashed without thinking twice. I took screenshots of my overclock settings and everything else because I would lose them once I updated BIOS.

 

Windows 8 Fast Boot Comparison, ASRock Wins!!!

So,  the update went as usual, but then all of a sudden, the PC rebooted. It doesn’t happen usually. I have to reboot manually once the flashing is done. To make things worse, it didn’t POST the first time. But it automatically did a REPOST and it went into the UEFI screen once more. Then it started to update Intel Management Engine. I don’t know what it is, but this is the first time I’ve seen that happen.

IMG_1408

Once that was done, it rebooted and POSTed as usual. I pressed DEL key to go into the UEFI to change everything back to the way it was. I did that, and while doing that I noticed a new option. (There was another option too, but that was for debugging or something like that.)

IMG_1409

I straight away selected Ultra Fast and rebooted. I was a bit worried about the message, “You will not be able to enter UEFI Setup by using the keyboard. The only way to enter UEFI Setup is Clear CMOS or run “Restart to UEFI” utility in Windows.” because in case Ultra Fast option failed, I would have to clear CMOS. It’s a hassle reconfiguring everything. (Wait, I don’t have to do that. I have saved my settings. This is not a reflash. This is just a clear CMOS. Stupid me!)

I was completely pessimistic about this. Like expected, it failed. But luckily, ASRock had detected it and allowed me to go into UEFI. When I checked that setting, it had changed to “Fast”. So, if I just continued to boot into Windows, it would have been alright.

IMG_1410

Now I have to find out what this means. I don’t know if there is any way of getting around this problem. But if I find a way, I will definitely share here. Wish me luck.

In case you were wondering, the graphics card is Palit Jetstream GTX670 2GB.

Note: the “Fast” option was there before this UEFI and I had been using that setting all this time. Thus I’m not seeing any difference in boot up speed with “Fast” option. *sad*

Edit:

I sent Palit an email asking whether they have a UEFI compatible BIOS for the card, Today I got the following response from them. All isn’t lost yet. =)

Dear customer

Thank you for the mail.

Please could you follow the steps of attached TXT file to backup current graphic card BIOS and send to us.

We’ll provide UEFI BIOS for you accordingly.

Thanks.

Palit Support
Palit Microsystem Ltd.
Website: http://www.palit.biz

Edit 2:

So I received a response from Palit. They provided me with the UEFI supported firmware. It flashed alright. But there seems to be another thing I’m missing. Apparently I need to have Windows 8 installed on a drive formatted as GPT (instead of the default MBR). I don’t get the error message I used to get before flashing the UEFI video card firmware. Instead it goes into UEFI page every time I start the PC.  I wonder if CSM disable option will fix the issue. Will give it a shot and report back with the progress.

If anyone wants the UEFI firmware, I can give it to you. Just leave a comment.

16 comments:

  1. Try to get a VBIOS update from the card manufacturer. Many have the update to make UEFI work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have the latest bios released for this card. but I mailed Palit whether they have a UEFI bios for the card in the development. hopefully they will get back to me. (they have responded to my mails in the past so i'm hopeful.)

      Delete
  2. Hey my friends please upload the bios to dropbox or something else i would appreciate it Thanks a lot :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi, could i please have the vbios. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Be careful that you have the same model as the one I the GPU-Z screenshot.
      https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8446054/GPU-Z.gif

      Here's the flasher.
      https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8446054/VGA_BIOS_Upgrade_0225.exe

      Delete
    2. Worked like a charm! Thanks again!

      Delete
  5. my motherboard is z77 extreme 6 gen 3.
    My VGA Card is GTX 550 Ti
    How can i get ultra fast boot ? sorry bad english
    Please send to my mail :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sorry for the late reply.

      your Z77 Extreme6 board should have support for Windows 8 Ultra Fast Boot out of the box. But your video card won't.

      I think you will have to contact the manufacturer of your video card, and see if they can provide you with a firmware that supports UEFI.

      Delete
  6. i am planning to use uefi gop for my gtx660 and searching about it. your article came on top :D
    are you using uefi gop on the new system?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Since I have all the FAST BOOT options enabled in BIOS, I believe so.

      Delete
  7. are you currently using uefi gop with your new system?
    im planning to do a vbios upgrade to to enable windows 8 ultra fast boot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Have they released a UEFI supported BIOS to your card? I had to ask Palit provide one for me.

      Delete
  8. i just need to asked them. they need my current bios file and serial number. i saw many got their vbios from msi support forum for my model which is gtx660 twin frozer 2 oc.
    it's worth trying of the speed boot time. (as per the youtube vids)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I see. I wonder why they don't release it to public.

      Delete
  9. i have fast boot enable also. but that dont need uefi gop. then there is windows 8 mode which is the ultra fast boot in some MBs. for that only i need uefi gop.

    my system boots 2.5s after post. but post is too long. :D
    i need to shorten that too. :)

    ReplyDelete

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