Own a GIGABYTE AORUS Z790 motherboard? Steer clear of the new beta BIOS whatever you do

GIGABYTE recently deployed a new beta firmware release for its AORUS Z790 motherboards, but it suffers from a serious bug - so you should avoid it for now if possible.

Of course, all beta software needs to be regarded somewhat warily as it can always be bugged, and that's especially true when it comes to motherboard BIOS updates for obvious reasons. When things go awry with your BIOS, the results can be devastating, and the reported glitch in the AORUS Z790 beta is a pretty nasty one.

That said, you won't notice anything - or you won't see this bug anyway - if you don't go into the BIOS after updating. However, those who have the new beta firmware have found that the BIOS freezes up when they go into it, or shortly after. Which obviously means making any further changes to BIOS settings is quite tricky.

Uniko's Hardware flagged up "multiple reports" of problems with locking up when going into the BIOS as seen in the above post on X (formerly Twitter) which was noticed by VideoCardz. Separate reports are also present on Reddit from affected owners of AORUS Z790 motherboards.

According to one post on Reddit - add seasoning here - GIGABYTE is aware of the problem and is investigating.

The BIOS was actually pushed out in March, but is still available for download as we write this. As per the headline, we'd advise steering well clear of the beta, unless you feel you absolutely have to install it.

The trouble is this BIOS release brings in a couple of useful features, one of which is support for Intel APO, and the other is support for Team Blue's newest CPU for Raptor Lake Refresh, the Core i9-14900KS. Obviously, folks who have bought one of the latter are going to want to install the BIOS pretty desperately, we'd imagine.

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