It is not going to matter, but some DMI contains info strings that need to be reset if you erase it.. Serial numbers, service tags, manufacturer info, etc. You usually keep it, FLASHSPI will not give you that option more than likely.
What is the problem using Qflash? Quote from my Gigabyte manual :- 'Q-Flash utility is a pre O.S. Bios flash utility enables users to update its BIOS within BIOS mode, no more fooling around any OS'. I would have thought this would be the safest method for Gigabyte boards. I have never had any problems using Qflash. I fully agree about not using @bios though.
^^ Same here lol I get lazy and just use @biso, but on some Gigabyte boards it wornt work with modded bios. as for the OP I have already posted a modded bios for your board in one of the stickies just do a search for my name. I am currently using both mods I made and are working flawlessly.
Google Traslate: If the BIOS of a motherboard corrupt, so the board is often ripe for the ton. To reduce this loss of opportunity to have a lot of motherboards from Gigabyte Virtual Dual BIOS "feature that creates a copy of the BIOS on the hard disk. However, this happens not only unquestioned but may at worst lead to data loss. Motherboards with the "Virtual Dual BIOS feature set when you start a restricted area at the end of a connected hard drive. In 2113 these sectors (about 1.1 megabytes) large Host Protected Area (HPA), the BIOS then sets off a copy. If there is a start to a problem with the BIOS to come, these boards are trying to restore the copy from disk to then successfully with the boot process can proceed. The problem here is the creation of the HPA and the backup of the BIOS. On both the user has no influence, because everything runs automatically in the background without any feedback. Does the motherboard to affected users in a disk, the data in the last few sectors includes, it may happen that the BIOS overwrites this data without asking. Problems are also hard drives that have been partitioned as dynamic disks in a RAID array or with a GUID Partition Table (GPT), because there often are important sectors in the last partitioning information. If we make use of a motherboard without this feature the last sectors to access and re-reading this then with a hex editor such as HxD, we find that in the last 2113 sectors of various messages that indicate a copy of the BIOS. If the hard drive in the rear areas, empty, or the partition has been setup with the Windows or the Linux tool "fdisk done", there is no danger. These two partitioning tool can be several megabytes at the end of every hard disk space, so there is no loss by the copy. Moreover, since only a lack of documentation of the function is present, the exact constellations under which there is a loss of data, not yet known. On what drives the BIOS writes a backup and when exactly this happens is therefore still unclear. To determine whether a board is also a question, need only look in the manual. Can be found under the product specifications under the heading "unique features" of the item entitled "Support for Virtual Dual BIOS, the motherboard to one. Until the manufacturer has released a solution for this problem, all users connect to an existing use located disk with the utmost care and preferably with an additional backup to an affected motherboard. It would be desirable that the manufacturer here quickly for all boards provide a BIOS update, which fixes the problem.
@bios and q-flash i used to have gigacrap p35-ds3l (yep. the one mentioned in OP), and it basically sucks. it was shipped with bios version f1 or 1.0 something so one day i decided to update it(mostly due to huge vdrops and system unstability, though it wasn't that much troublesome compared to other gigacrap mobos) q-flash failed to work in the first place. i tried @bios and no good. and i wasn't able to boot into DOS and flash it - my gigacrap mobo refused to boot from usb. so i had to use Winflash. After flashing every block - including reserved and boot blocks - suddenly q-flash has started to work. @bios still fails. the bottom line is that gigacrap sucks. Also, this p35-ds3l crap still refuses to boot from usb. the best i could get was making it to boot from usb in 1.1 speed - which has no advantage over normal CD-booting when loading os installation files or PEs. p.s the latest bios of gigacrap p35-ds3l is(or was) f9c or something. don't bother try it, every bios released for this gigacrappy never solves vdroop and other problems.
I have the board in question and it works perfectly fine (Rev 2.0). Good for OC'ing (Maybe you had a faulty board or psu.),very compatible with multiple hardware. Q-Flash works perfect off a USB stick, Though Straight dos is always the best way to go. @Bios works most of the time, but isn't very trust worthy. USB boot works very well. Hell I even boot Ubuntu off my my cell's MicroSD, picks the broadcom connection right up... Sorry about your bad luck =\.
I really like gigabyte motherboards. Everyone has had hardware fail or malfunction in someway, I would have to have some clever name for every hardware manufacturer out there if I judged all their products on the performance of one
Of course is late for you, but to boot from a dos usb you must press F12 and then select +hhdd. And for me is a very good relation between price/performance. Never a problem, and it is used by my childrens. You known what it´s mean.
I used qflash to flash slic-modded bios to my p35-ds3l mobo and it worked just fine. I have never had a problem and I have done 15-20 bios flashes on the board. Installed slic 2.1, with HP cert and the "key" and it activated and everything is A-ok. I have a floppy, though, and that makes it really easy.