Two weeks ago my Supermicro X10SAT suddently died. You can check the history here if interesed. Basically, I carried it to a local technician that said that it was a mere BIOS corruption issue, and the reflash cost 15 U$D or so. Currently, I have my computer working, however, there are several issues left pending…
1 - Supermicro has a tendency to only post in their website the latest BIOS version of a Motherboard, and does not provide either public changelog or older versions archives. I don’t even know if the Supermicro provided tools allows you to downgrade a BIOS to an older version. At the moment, I’m stuck with the X10SAT8_518.zip / 3.2 version which seems to have omitted a few options that were previously available (Or that are bugged, see below), like enable/disable the X2APIC Opt Out Bit so that Linux automatically enables x2APIC instead of backing down to the older xAPIC. Could it be possible to force flashing an older version (Or a modded one), or do I need to do everything externally with a reprogrammer? I think that I have the older 2.x that I had in use stored somewhere…
2 - Reprogramming the BIOS chip had a collateral damage: Motherboard specific data has been totally erased. Being a Workstation Motherboard, it had some customized data for this very specific unit (I think that serial number data and other things retrievable via SMBIOS). A very notorious one is that the MAC Address of the Chipset NIC (The i217-LM, not the secondary i210 one) now has as MAC Address 88:88:88:88:87:88. Basically, important data specific to my unit was completely zeroed. Do someone with other Motherboards that have unique SMBIOS info programmed on them has any idea of how many things should I need to check to re-create as much of the old data as possible? Seems like it may be worth to dump SMBIOS from Server / Workstation Motherboards if you need to put it back to factory status from scratch.
3 - For some reason that may or may not involve the missing SMBIOS data, the BIOS seems to be missing some options. For example, I can’t see the menu to enable the RAM ECC, nor there is the Graphics Configuration submenu in the Chipset Configuration menu to manage IGP related settings. At the moment, the latter is absolutely killing me since I use both the IGP and a Radeon 5770, the first for the Linux host, the later for VGA Passthrough to a Windows VM. When I have the Radeon 5770 installed, the IGP gets automatically disabled and Linux doesn’t even see it in lspci. The IGP does work with no discrete Video Card, but I still don’t get the menu. The menu is supposed to have the important option to select if I want the IGP to be “auto” or to force it always on, and which card I want to be primary video output. I’m not sure if this is an issue related to the latest BIOS version or the blank SMBIOS info.
4 - The X10SAT has a sister Motherboard, the C7Z87-OCE. The technician initially flashed the latter on my Motherboard because it was printed in the PCB, and it worked. The Z87 Chipset had a quite different feature set compared to the C226, the most obvious one being that the C7Z87-OCE had a few tabs with overclocking options whereas the X10SAT has absolutely nothing that allowed it to run out of spec. The X10SAT has other options including being able to enable Intel AMT (Active Management), ECC support for RAM, and a few other things which I don’t use.
The first thing that I thought when I saw that the C7Z87-OCE BIOS worked in my X10SAT, is whenever a hybrid of some sorts could be created, as my wet dream was to undervolt the Xeon E3 and force a minor overclock to highest Turbo multiplier. Due to market segmentation purposes, Supermicro never cared about my request about hybridizing the Workstation class X10SAT with overclocking options (Pretty much all but freely modificable multiplier, as that requires a Z87 Chipset). Yes, I know that the first step would be to check if the options are already there but hidden, but for some reason I never checked that…
5 - A major issue is that the BIOS chip is soldered, so experimentation is extremely limited. I can’t risk to brick the Motherboard again since it is my main and only system, but now I’m skeptical due to the previous suddent BIOS corruption that it may spontaneously happen again, reason why I’m thinking about getting a Flash reprogrammer. However, I want to avoid anything related to soldering. There seems to be some empty room that may allow to make a mod to replace the soldered chip with a socket. This would also required to replace the current chip for a socketed version. The current one is a Winbond, didn’t checked the specfic part number. Do someone knows if such mod is viable? I don’t have the tools to do it myself, but could ask the same technician to do the soldering assuming I figure out what is needed to do a proper mod.
I’m going to try to contact Supermicro support, too, but I also want opinions from the BIOS modding gurus here about what could be going on.
Edit by Fernando: Thread title customized and shortened
@zir_blazer - To be able to answer anything here, I need to know exact name/version of the older BIOS you want to use, so I can try to find it for you. Then we can figure out how to flash back to that, it can likely be done without programmer, but getting one will make it easier and they only cost $2.50 + 2.50 for SOIC8 cable
Yes, this is common to loose board specific details, if care is not taken before programming in new BIOS. The tech who fixed this for you knew that in advance and should have dumped your BIOS, corrupted or not, and copied out and over this board specific info. Even when bricked or corrupted etc, this info is usually still in the BIOS
To get this stuff back, you only have a few options, if you still have the box the serial may be there. If not, check all stickers on the board, serial and UUID could be on those, LAN MAC ID will be on a sticker on the board usually on or near the LAN Block, but could be anywhere else too. Be sure to check side of 24 pin, top/bottom sides of PCI/PCIE slots too.
Do you have a dump of your BIOS before/after the corruption, before it was fixed by the slacking tech that got it running again? If not, then putting this info back could prove to be a huge hassle, unless you can get another dump from someone you know that is willing to tell you their serial, UUID and MAC along with giving you their dump.
Sometimes I can find location to put these easily, but not always, so best to have a dump with known info to find locations (mainly for the serial + UUID)
On #3 - Sounds like he also flashed in stock BIOS, instead of actual dump, which stock BIOS download is only a partial update and will leave/blank out many NVRAM settings and often an entire NVRAM volume of settings.
That, and he may have flash in the wrong model entirely (As alluded to in #4), it’s not normal for so many settings to go hidden on you from one BIOS to the next. I can unlock BIOS for you though, so this may not be such a huge deal.
Whatever BIOS you want in there, we can do, especially and so much easier once you have a programmer, but either board BIOS I’m sure I can unlock all options for you.
Yes, you can solder in a socket type BIOS if you want, there’s several ways to do that, but since you don’t solder it’s much easier to just get a SOIC8 test clip cable
Here’s what you need on ebay, you can purchase shipped faster from other sellers on ebay, or other places like Amazon or Newegg type shops, these are just examples so you have an idea of what to look for and what you need etc.
There is also kits like EZP2010 or EZP2013 and many other flash programming kits (Like SkyPro), those cost more but you get more too, and sometimes you might find a kit shipped quicker.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/201316582787
https://www.ebay.com/itm/382486015977
If you can get SuperMicro to give you a full proper SPI image (with complete/populated NVRAM Volumes) that would be great!
Even if serial/UUID is not there, all the stuff missing in BIOS upgrade from downloads would be a huge improvement if they’d give you a full SPI image instead of the partial downloads they provide on site.
Thanks for your quick reply.
I need to look around because I do have stored the older X10SAT BIOSes somewhere, I used to collect that type of stuff. At the very least, I should have the one that I previously had flashed. Will have to look around in the other computers and a few VMs.
The latest one is the one that you can download from Supermicro website, but I can’t tell you if I "want" to use it or not since lack of changelogs means that I don’t know what I’m missing or getting.
I seriously doubt that he dumped that info, and if he actually did it, that he saved it. Actually, before sending the Motherboard in, I sent him a mail warning him that the Motherboard PCB said C7Z87-OCE but that it was actually a X10SAT, then forgot about that detail when I turned the Motherboard in and just told the recepcionist that he should read the mail to know all what I did with that Motherboard previously since the moment it became a brick. Instead, he simply reflashed the Motherboard with the wrong BIOS and returned it to me before reading the mail, which costed me a facepalm (I had it ready as I KNEW it was going to happen) and having to travel to his shop again. This tech is the only one here that I known of that is honest and usually gets thing working, but he seems to lack eyes for these details that are quite important in this UEFI era…
Yes, there is a sticker with the Motherboard serial. I also have the Chipset NIC MAC Address in some config file since I used it for Linux. UUID I’m not so sure. This is the part where I need Supermicro help, or some other user with a X10SAT that can dump all his info and serve as a sort of donor, or for comparison. Still, I need to shut down the computer (Have a two week backlog of world news and procastination) and get some light and magnifier to write them.
Actually, I recall that with the C7Z87-OCE BIOS the Graphics Setting submenu was available. Since chances are that the technician ignored all the NVRAM info and such, I doubt that it may be associated with that specific menu cause it was working after the first flash. Since now I have the latest X10SAT BIOS, which I didn’t used before, I’m not sure if it could have been hidden by Supermicro itself for some weird reason.
These seems to be a bit harder to use than the single time effort of the ROM socket mod. Since I live in south america I will need to find first a vendor that can ship them here (Or look around locally), they seem cheap but the problem is shipping costs 
I also need to check the Winbond chip that I have, so that I know that it will work. Are there any notorious incompatibilities or things are standarized enough to expect them to work at first try?
I will have to try. I sent a mail and they replied in a record breaking 25 mins asking me to just RMA it and that it is not recommended for end users to flash the BIOS. Compared to consumer Motherboard vendors, Supermicro strongly discourage users from applying even basic BIOS updates…
I sent another one asking if they can provide a custom BIOS if I provide them the Serial Number and MAC Address. Response:
I have absolutely no knowledge about how much a full SPI image differs from a BIOS update. I’m aware that in a standard update not everything gets overwritten, like the NVRAM or the static SMBIOS data that I just lost, but how many other things get lost?
Do you have some tech article or something to read about the matter? What I’m interesed about is how much data I have to somehow re-create, re-invent or recover. Like, for example, a list of SMBIOS entries that usually contains unique info programmed during manufacture. Some other brands that aims at consumer seems to use extremely generic static info, but Supermicro or other vendors that aims to enterprise and have those low level inventory management systems actually seems to take serious things like Software retrievable Part Numbers and such.
An user in ServeTheHome has a X10SAT and said that he was also missing the Graphics Setting submenu apparently beginning with BIOS version 3.0, but that Supermicro provided him a custom BIOS with that option unlocked. Why the hell they hided it in the first place is something that I can’t understand. Heck, it even has a Support FAQ Entry!
It seems that to get this thing at a functional state I need to either: Unlock the missing settings in BIOS 3.2, or, downgrade to the previously working one, the X10SAT5_128.zip / 2.2. At the moment, I will be happy enough with just getting the Graphic Settings submenu working, so I may actually omit any fancy modding solutions.
How do you suggest to flash to bypass any potential lower BIOS version warnings? Should I do it with an USB Flash Drive, renaming the ROM to super.rom and setting a Jumper to Recovery Mode, or using some DOS based tool?
The same user says that he can provide a full BIOS dump assuming that he shut downs the system at some point. What sort of tool and parameters does he needs to do so? What I suppose that should be possible, is to compare whatever static data area he has that in a dump from mine is empty, blank, or has default values, then do a full ROM flash instead of a BIOS update.
Also, here is my archive of X10SAT BIOSes (Link already broken. Any easy place to upload them without registration and bla bla bla?), downloaded from Supermicro website when they were the latest one available. That is a temporal session, if you don’t grab them say so and I will upload them again.
Included are:
X10SAT4_421
X10SAT5_128 (2.2)
X10SAT5_526 (3.0)
X10SAT7_505
X10SAT8_518 (3.2)
@zir_blazer - You’re welcome!
Anyone working on BIOS, especially in a professional work environment, already has it drilled into his process to backup first before doing anything, this applies to anyone for any edit to BIOS or hard drive etc, I’m sure he did that.
Now, whether he kept the file or not, or used it for anything in his process, as you mentioned that’s another matter. 
Obviously he didn’t use it for the NVRAM or board specific details, this is usually overlooked (accidentally on purpose) because tech is either lazy and doesn’t want to go through all the work to locate and transfer stuff.
Or maybe doesn’t know how to do that for all type of BIOS, or simply didn’t really do any of the BIOS stuff and only desoldered the BIOS and replaced with a new pre-programmed one he ordered from someone else lazy that put on stock upgrade BIOS from web download (Such as ebay seller, or other shop)
Graphics sub-menu could be hidden by default if you have CPU’s that do not have onboard graphics, this is the norm, and if you’re CPU’s do not have built in graphics then it’s possible that in older BIOS they forgot to set this way and then now have in the latest.
I’d need to know exactly what you mean, which exact menu and it’s location etc, or at least some of the settings you know that were in there, to know which menu you need unlocked (Or I could just unlock them all, for that I need images of all pages of your BIOS, so I know what you can and can’t see)
For BIOS images, use your camera, or try with USB plugged in before you boot and hit F12 in BIOS, if it asks you for saved image name then screenshots are working.
If you end up using camera, please set it to a low quality setting first, or resize images once you are done and then zip/rar or 7zip to send to me. I don’t need 3-5MB single images, even 1MB is way too much for a single image for this purpose
Good you have serial and MAC, UUID is often some combo of those + YY/MM or other random digits. But yes, as mentioned, I may need another dump from a working board that has not been sloppily recovered in this manner, along with it’s UUID, Serial. Maybe someone on server forum would be willing to help you out with that?
I may not need it, but it would help save a lot of time digging around. I do need a proper dump from this model though, even if we can’t get one with it’s known details, but I can probably find that myself if you can’t. For this, I don’t care about UUID/Serial, but it would be good to know it as said above
Flash programmer is very easy to use once you use it a time or two, and will be a lifesaver for you for any future board that gets messed up like this. That is what I suggest you do.
Putting on a socketed BIOS holder to a board without through hole pins for the socket, so surface mounted (SMD) socket, will be very tough to do for someone without proper solder tools and skills (hot air/warming plate used for this, not soldering iron)
Winbond chips work, almost any chip works for these, that’s what they’re designed to do, people even use them to fix monitors and TV BIOS too.
Some chips need to user certain non-matching config, like W25Q64FV you need to use certain version software and different ID W25Q64BV, and W25Q128 you need to use a different software, but those are about the only two odd things I’ve ran into helping people and using/testing these programmers myself.
Yes, they pretty much work at first try, once you are familiar with using. We have guides here for these too, with plenty of images, and of course I can advise as you start using them as well.
Here’s the three guides we have here on using these
[GUIDE] Flash BIOS with CH341A programmer
[Guide] Using CH341A-based programmer to flash SPI EEPROM
[GUIDE] The Beginners Guide to Using a CH341A SPI Programmer/Flasher (With Pictures!)
Replay back to them and ask if they will send you full SPI image (including populated NVRAM volumes), along with your serial and UUID (they need to add/create)
MAC I can help you put in, they’re talking issshhh! This goes into GbE region of the BIOS, very simple to put back, and very simple for you to fix (even now, on it’s own you can do this, via software)
They may be held by some law preventing them from helping you change your MAC ID, but how they worded that is simply wrong, they make it sound like you “can’t fix that”
This can be fixed many way, including “Custom BIOS” it can even be fixed directly with the software they already provide to end user in all BIOS update packages.
In simple terms, the BIOS you download from the website is what I’d call partial update and can recover a board, but really shouldn’t be used like that, it should only be flashed in with certain software that knows it’s a partial BIOS/update
It’s missing an entire NVRAM volume usually, and the one it does have only contains 1/5th or less of the actual contents that’s already in place in an onboard BIOS NVRAM volume.
Places that hold serial, UUID, MAC etc during flash are skipped/left in place by the programming software. When you use this kind of BIOS with a flash programmer like the tech did to recover, it overwrites everything and puts in only this partial BIOS upgrade info, missing the one entire NVRAM Volume, 4/5 or more of the other NVRAM volume, programs in the stock placeholders for serial/UUID/MAC (usually FF’s or 00’s anyway, except for MAC is often 88:88:88:88:87:88 which you’ve noticed.). Windows activation can sometimes be lost when this is done too, since it’s often tied to serial/UUID (Along with the SLIC in the BIOS, this would still be there/contained in the update)
Sorry, I don’t know about any guides on this kind of BIOS knowledge, only know what I know from experience and hacking/tearing apart BIOS to mod or unlock, recovering 1000’s of boards to re-sell etc.
I can unlock any BIOS setting for you, don’t stress on that! 
Don’t worry/wonder about what BIOS flash warning you might get, wait until you get to that road before we discuss, because it could be any number of things and we’d resolve those in any number of ways. No need to what if it, only wait and see then we solve.
That’s great someone is already willing to help with a BIOS dump! Tell him thanks, and to please wait until I can get back to you after his next reply. What BIOS version is he using, ask him that.
And then you send me a copy of that version, you can upload files here for free tinyupload.com - please only include the version he’s using, and maybe the one you wanted to flash back to if different, or if we end up going that route) I already have latest
Once he tells you what BIOS he’s using, I will tell you a few ways he can make a BIOS dump for us, then you can zip and upload that for me too. Since he said to you “Full BIOS dump” it sounds like he probably already knows, or has a programmer etc, so may not need any advise on this.
Hopefully he will give you his UUID and serial too! Here’s how he can gather that info, from within windows environment, without having to gather images of the stickers on board etc.
Run these two commands from command prompt, then select all, copy (right click may fail, may need to use control + C) then paste into txt file
wmic baseboard get product,Manufacturer,version,serialnumber
wmic csproduct get name,identifyingnumber,uuid
Would be also great if he’d run the following too, and copy/paste to text (Or images of all these outputs fine too)
Ipconfig /all
If he wont give you the details, that’s silly, since it would all be in BIOS anyway, but some people are silly you know 
If he wont, and I can’t locate certain things, then comparing in a way your thinking of is not possible, only when you know the exact location can you then compare.
This is mainly due to you can’t search a 10000000 byte file for instances of FF FF FF or 00 00 00 etc, there will be 10’s of 1000’s of results, so knowing location is key.
Most of the time this kind of stuff is stored in certain known locations, or within certain known BIOS modules or files etc, so I can usually find if I have a non-stock dump to compare with even if I don’t know the dumps given details beforehand.
Sorry for keeping you waiting, I procastinated a bit too much during the last two weeks. At the end, this last friday I sent a mail to Supermicro asking specifically about the Graphic Settings submenu being missing in the BIOS. 45 MINUTES later got a mail saying that they reproduced it, then they delivered a BIOS fix yesterday. Tested it and it works as intended, so I can now simultaneously use the Processor IGP and Video Card again, and got my QEMU setup with VGA Passthrough working the same as previously (I was ONE ENTIRE MONTH without playing games!).
I also asked about the “full SPI image” or more details about what data could be missing if outright flashing the partial BIOS updates, but that question was ignored with the expected “we don’t recommend doing so”. Getting the other guy with the X10SAT to provide a full dump of his BIOS may be the only way to get mine as close as possible to factory contents, but at this moment, that is more due to obsessive-compulsive tendencies than out of any sort of necessity.
If you are still interesed in my particular case, I will later respond with more details (I got photos of the Motherboard stickers, and the entire BIOS menues, but need to wait for family to be sleeping before monopolizing the upload bandwidth). However, chances are that I pause this for a bit since everything that needs to be working is working, and since I tend to procastinate a lot when I’m out of enthusiasm or somehow satisfied, investing your time in helping me will probably be a waste since I doubt that I will realize my dream of making a X10SAT+C7Z87-OCE hybrid so that I can undervolt my Xeon.
The only thing that may have some priority is asking the X10SAT BIOS donor what he has to do to dump his BIOS, since the missing NVRAM Volumes have to be retrieved from somewhere. You misunderstood what I said about him - I was the one that asked him if he is willing to do so considering that I will have his MAC Address and Serial Number, and perhaps other internal data, and he seems to not mind doing so. However, I don’t know if he knows how to dump it, so I may need to provide him the instructions. He said that he uses it in a “production server” so rarely shut it downs, and I don’t recall if he uses Linux or Windows (Maybe is easier in Linux, as it can get straight info from SMBIOS Tables with the dmidecode command). Should we do a Phase 2, I suppose that we will need his full BIOS dump and I should also order the BIOS reprogrammer and the SOIC8 clamp adapter.
Can Software tools like AFUDOS make a full dump? Does Jumper position matters (For example, the ME Recovery Mode or Manufacturing Mode)? What parameters does he needs to be using? I suppose that you just need a FreeDOS booting USB Flash Drive made with Rufus then the dumping tools, right?
Hell yeah, I beat procastination once more.
I didn’t bothered to ask the technician if he did a backup because I can certainly bet that he didn’t (Or deleted it as soon as he got it working). My personal opinion is that he is not used to non-consumer Motherboards so he may not care about that, considering that the only time I managed to talk to him directly and asked him if he knew about Supermicro, he said that he only rarely saw them but that if it used a standard ATX power connectors he could try to repair it. Alas, a bit later you mentioned that the ACPI SLIC Table would also be blown if he blindly reprograms the Firmware, and I think that he repairs Notebooks too. Assuming that he deals with those as he did with mine, I’m not sure if he cares about broken Windows activations…
To be honest, I’m actually avoiding to have to talk to him. The real reason why I’m avoiding him is not him, but his secretary, which also seems to be his wife. Is extremely hard to talk with the technician himself as she filters him way too much. Moreover, she made some unwelcomed remarks like "Its mathematically impossible that the BIOS corrupts itself, it must be something that you did". Since they have good reputation as the only honest Motherboard repairers around (And they don’t charge if they fail to get it working), I used their services like 3 times in the last 8 years or so, but I avoid interacting more than necessary since the ocassional comment made by her easily get on my nerves 
As mentioned in the previous Post, Supermicro acknowledged that the menu actually not appeared as intended and gave me a beta BIOS based on 3.2 that fixed it. Ironically, this issue was known from months ago as Supermicro has a FAQ entry for this. Seems that they didn’t bothered to mainline the 3.0 fix they did to production BIOS like the 3.2.
The 3.0 BIOS version added Broadwell support but somehow broke a whole bunch of things besides the Graphic Settings submenu. There were also issues with Intel AMT, again, fixed by a beta BIOS. Not sure if they did mainline that fix.
You have all my BIOS 3.2 photos here (These were made BEFORE flashing the fixed 3.2 that Supermicro sent me). What was missing there is right here:
Advanced -> Chipset Configuration -> System Agent (SA) Configuration -> Graphics Settings submenu (Below Memory Configuration. Is on the menu where VT-d appears Enabled. Appears as intended on fixed 3.2).
Also, inmediately below VT-d, on the previous 2.x BIOSes there was an option called "X2APIC Opt Out Bit" which is missing since 3.0.
Got photos from the stickers, will later send the numbers to you by PM if you’re still interesed in helping me achieve perfection. There are actually FOUR stickers, Serial, MAC, 1394 (The X10SAT has a FireWire header), and another one I can’t identify if it is the UUID or what.
Then I guess that I am "lucky", as the marking on top of the Flash chip says W25Q128FVSG, and there is also a line below that with four numbers, 1327, which I don’t known what they are meant to represent. You can see them in the photos.
Winbond has a page for them here, catalogued as Serial NOR Flash. Data Sheet here. On Page 97 it says that the full chip name is W25Q128FVSIG.
BTW, I just noticed that there is a X10SAT review made by TweakTown here, where you can see that the Flash chip, which is right below the Southbridge, is actually socketed! That thing is obviously missing the "This photo is ilustrative only" disclaimer, heh.
Ironically, they have a C7Z87-OCE review which has the Flash chip soldered (My X10SAT says C7Z87-OCE on the PCB).
They ignored any questions regarding to that.
Can you actually describe what the "NVRAM Volumes" are supposed to contain? It is a generalized term to refer to the Serial/UUID/MAC/ACPI SLIC Table or these are separate from it? I’m curious since it seems that there should be way more functionality missing than what I’m already aware of.
The BIOS that he seems to be using is the custom 3.0 one with the Graphics Submenu fix, 3.0.T201511121937, which I don’t have. I doubt that he knows how to make a "Full BIOS dump" - I was the one that asked him about doing one, and he didn’t seem to mind about Serial Number and MAC Address and so on. You can check that Thread here. I will need to provide him instructions about how to dump it. See also below…
How important is the data retrieved by those Windows commands? He seems to use it as a VMWare ESXi host and I doubt that he has available a native Windows Dual Boot. I don’t know if he can retrieve the info directly via ESXi, but maybe he can via a Linux LiveCD. dmidecode can be used to read the Firmware SMBIOS Tables, which seems to be what the first two wmic commands seems to do (You need Type 0, 1 and 2 tables, right?), and ipconfig /all looks to be to retrieve the MAC Address, available via ip addr in Linux.
I spent quite a bit of time dealing with tinyupload because it refuses to hold a ZIP/7Z file with all the BIOSes together (It is 30 MiB in size, max is supposed to be 50, yet it complains after finishing to upload that it is too big. Go figure…).
X10SAT4.421 - 2.0??? - http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=70851491222986172454
X10SAT5.128 - 2.2 - http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=39877827475150631373
X10SAT5.526 - 3.0 - http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=27115978278513775437
X10SAT7.505 - 3.1??? - http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=32183976122961458990
X10SAT8.518 - 3.2 - http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=03088435072926053249
T201903151640 - 3.2 with Graphics Settings submenu fixed - http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=06745098729364751320
@Lost_N_BIOS
Mind you help me to resume this? Albeit chances are that I don’t do it unless I can get my hands on the reprogrammer (eBay prices are cheap but I need to get a license of sorts to import stuff even at a personal level, then wait like 2 months for a free shipping from China, or purchasing it locally, but there is too much markup for my tastes), I still want to leave the path clear. I just need you to tell me if it is possible to get a full BIOS dump using Software only tools so that I can forward that to the guy with the X10SAT so that I have a proper BIOS to compare.
I find it weird that there isn’t a sticky or something with info about how to do Software Flash ROM dumps, or maybe there is but I missed it. Or a reprogrammer is mandatory?
@zir_blazer - Ohh wow that is a wall larger than my replies, and I’m behind now too, sorry!
Great they sent you a fixed BIOS finally. I knew their answer to you would be useless or they’d ignore, you asking them about a full BIOS instead of an update, since it’s out of the norm for standard customer to need.
However, you could tell them exactly what you did, and they may reply with proper complete BIOS, send them your serials, sticker images etc and tell then you had a bad flash and recovered the board/BIOS using the partial online BIOS and would like a complete BIOS with fully populated NVRAM volumes.
If your email finds a friendly tech they will help, it’s easy for them to do this.
To dump entire BIOS, I personally would suggest using FPT, there is DOS, EFI and Windows versions for your system. You need Intel ME System Tools package V9.1 from here
Intel Management Engine: Drivers, Firmware & System Tools
Once downloaded, inside you will find Flash Programming Tool folder, and inside that the EFI/DOS/Win32/64 folders. In windows it must be ran from Admin CMD Prompt, to do that select that Win32/64 folder, hold shift and press right click, choose open command window here (Not power shell).
At the command prompt type the following command to dump entire BIOS >> FPTw.exe -d bios.bin
To use the DOS version, make a DOS Bootable USB and copy all the contents from DOS folder to root of USB, then run this to dump BIOS >> FPT.exe -d bios.bin
For you to be able to dump entire BIOS, yes, put the ME or service jumper on (ME will be disabled then, so fans may ramp up, other stuff may not work etc).
With that jumper on, you may also be able to dump entire BIOS with AFU from DOS or Windows or Universal BIOS backup Toolkit (Windows only, either of those may dump it without jumper in place too
Sounds like they are good team, but his wife/secretary as you mentioned sounds like a pain. You should tell her next time BIOS does not compute math very well after it corrupts itself, and BIOS can corrupt itself any time on startup or shut down, and even more so during a stock BIOS update as well.
While numbers and coding is involved, Math is really not utilized in that way for any of this, funny to hear she said “Mathematically” like “Big words mean I’m correct”
Yes, if you need fully unlocked BIOS, or system ID numbers fixed etc, package all the board images into a zip for me later and I can do for you.
That review was probably pre-production or ES Sample board, so it had socketed BIOS for them to easier reflash or fix during the reviews, this is normal with early board reviews.
For W25Q128FV and CH341A programmer, I have tested a few times and you need to use ASProgrammer software instead of usual CH341A software
Bricked Asus Z170-AR
NVRAM volumes contains MANY MANY things, sometimes yes this includes system specific details such as serial or MAC ID etc, but usually it’s only copied to there, along with settings for MANY other things, windows keys/SLIC, lots of things and sorry no I really can’t describe it better.
I could show you stock BIOS single NVRAM volume vs populated dual NVRAM volume from a system dump, but you’d need to open the BIOS Files and look for yourself in UEFITool, it’s not something you can show in images because there’s too much to scroll down past (Except in stock, which is only a few entries in a single volume)
This is not the normal location of system specific details but they sometimes are copied there, those details are usually in other BIOS modules not in NVRAM, in padding files or other known locations in other areas of the BIOS.
I am not at all familiar with Linux, so I can’t say what the command I gave you are similar to in Linux, but as you can see from the commands what data it’s to gather so any way he knows to get that info would be fine equivalent.
The info itself is critical, so I can locate in his BIOS dump this data’s locations, so I can put yours back into the proper locations. And yes, the other one is just to get LAN MAC ID. So yes, it does not matter how he gets it, but it’s mission critical
Or he can give you images of all the stickers on the board, which I assume will be much more difficult, and UUID often is not in same format so not always helpful
It must be your IP or something? I’ve uploaded 100MB+ files to TinyUpload? They do have their days though, sometimes I have to do certain things to download from there myself, but upload is generally OK unless they’re having issues.
Feel free to use any other site to get all that into one zip if you want.
License to mail order a $2 programmer from China? Do you live in N. Korea? If yes, order from N. Korea then
Yes, it may be possible to dump entire BIOS with software, and on that same path you may be able to flash entre BIOS via software too (if your ME/Service jumpers work properly)
There is no guide on dumping BIOS, too many methods, too many random limitations between brands, BIOS series, softwares used etc.
There’s no one size fit’s all except using a programmer, and for that there is many guides, which of course all differ too because of programmers used, software used, methods used, boards, BIOS’s etc
Apologies again for the late reply on this, I’m so far behind I don’t know if I’ll ever catch up again.
If you still want fixed BIOS with your board details, NVRAM populated etc, I need new current BIOS dump from you, one from your buddy, and board details in full from both of you, preferably put all this in a rar or 7zip for me as a single archive so I can keep track of it all at once.
The X10SAT has two Jumpers related to Intel ME, JPME1 and JPME2.
JPME1 is Intel Recovery Mode, which can select between "Normal" and "Recovery Mode". When in Default, the Advanced -> PCH-FW Configuration looks like this. When in Recovery Mode, I think that ME version says 0.0.0.0 and some other fields says N/A, or something like that. In Recovery Mode I can also enable the Me FW Image Re-Flash option (Which doesn’t sticks to Enable with the Jumper in Normal after rebooting).
JPME2 is Intel Manufacturing Mode, which can be select between "Normal" and "Manufacturing Mode". However, instead of a Jumper, I have three solder pads. So it was not fully implemented.
Basically, should I set JPME1 to Recovery Mode to do a full BIOS dump via Software, or do I also need JPME2? If I need the later, then seems like it will not be possible to do this via Software.
I forgot to mention, but I THINK that I have figured out what happened. As explained before, after I cleaned the computer and reassembled it, it turned on the first time, but since the CMOS RAM got reset, I touched a few configuration options and save settings. The two settings that I changed were the main video output (Force IGP instead of discrete Video Card. This was in the missing Graphics Submenu), and also the SMBIOS Event Log to empty the log contents, which are stored in the NVRAM itself. Emptying the log contents means that there should be a flashing procedure going on. The thing is, changing the main video output is one of those settings that seems to force a power cycle of some sort (The computer turns off, then after a few seconds turn on itself). Somehow I suppose that the corruption happened because the Firmware decided to flash and reboot simultaneously. This would be an interesing test case to see if I can reproduce it should I manage to get the tools and feeling lucky. Does this possibility sounds plausible to you, or have you seen BIOSes where changing some specific settings in the same session could brick it?
If the X10SAT BIOS donor has to touch the Jumper, may as well ask him for pics of the stickers, too, heh.
For reference, this is how my current SMBIOS Table 0, 1, 2 and 3 looks with Linux dmidecode:
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.
Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
Version: 3.2
Release Date: 03/25/2019
Address: 0xF0000
Runtime Size: 64 kB
ROM Size: 16 MB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
BIOS ROM is socketed
EDD is supported
5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
Serial services are supported (int 14h)
Printer services are supported (int 17h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported
Targeted content distribution is supported
UEFI is supported
BIOS Revision: 4.6
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.
Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
Manufacturer: Supermicro
Product Name: X10SAT
Version: 0123456789
Serial Number: 0123456789
UUID: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-888888888788
Wake-up Type: Power Switch
SKU Number: To be filled by O.E.M.
Family: To be filled by O.E.M.
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.
Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
Manufacturer: Supermicro
Product Name: X10SAT
Version: 1.01
Serial Number: 0123456789
Asset Tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
Features:
Board is a hosting board
Board is replaceable
Location In Chassis: To be filled by O.E.M.
Chassis Handle: 0x0003
Type: Motherboard
Contained Object Handles: 0
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.
Handle 0x0003, DMI type 3, 22 bytes
Chassis Information
Manufacturer: Supermicro
Type: Main Server Chassis
Lock: Not Present
Version: 0123456789
Serial Number: 0123456789
Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Boot-up State: Safe
Power Supply State: Safe
Thermal State: Safe
Security Status: None
OEM Information: 0x00000000
Height: Unspecified
Number Of Power Cords: 1
Contained Elements: 0
SKU Number: To be filled by O.E.M.
Are the fields that you typically would look for in a Windows system there? I will have to request those from the other X10SAT user.
There are some SMBIOS Tables that are generated on demand depended on installed stuff (Memory Modules) so I don’t know if a full SMBIOS dump is useful for you.
Argentina. The procedure to get the license was supposed to be easy if you have your papers in order, but I’m lazy to deal with bureocracy. The problem is that the people that already has it doesn’t like to be used as proxies since there is a cap on how many international orders you can receive per year, and no one wants to waste it on that type of stuff.
I hope that!
A problem that I see is that I would upload data pertaining to my current Supermicro-customized 3.2 BIOS, whereas the other X10SAT user has instead a Supermicro-customized 3.0 BIOS. He said he had the ROM that Supermicro support sent him some time ago, but had to search for it. I suppose that you will want to see both BIOSes simultaneously, while also confirming what data is unique, so getting the same version in both X10SATs will be necessary. Otherwise, there will be a lot of things that aren’t going to directly match, unless everything is focused in the NVRAM volumes. I think that I will have to ask him his BIOS to downgrade, or give to him the 3.2 fixed one so that he can flash. Alas, it seems complicated, but I want to at least have everything ready for a rainy day…
Oh, and Xeon undervolting. How I can forget that!
Would anyone still be interested in progressing this (a year later)?
I ran in to this thread whilst figuring out what to do with my next BIOS upgrade on an X10SAT.
I had a similar problem to OP back in 2015: a dead motherboard in my case following a failed BIOS upgrade. I was just out of warranty, and Supermicro essentially told me to get stuffed and buy a new board; not even an offer of repairing for payment. At the time I solved it by flashing a new flash chip with the latest available BIOS (3.0) and living with the fact that it was a bit broken (no Intel graphics with off-board, 88:88:88:88:87:88 MAC etc.). My board is a very early one and has a test-socketed Winbond SPI chip, so replacing the chip was fairly easy.
The thing that might be useful: I have a complete dump of the original (although corrupted) chip, which might help work out the locations of the board-specific data. I’m happy to provide that, or to search through it myself if someone can point me to what to look for.
I’m still alive and active here, and Lost_N_BIOS is, too. I lost interest because I got it in a "just works" state and never managed to purchase the external reprogrammer and clip, and since experimenting without those tools with my main and only computer is a recipe for disaster, you get the idea…
I envy that you have a ready-to-use socket, mine doesn’t. Do your X10SAT says C7Z87-OCE in the PCB, too?
I had posted a Supermicro-provided 3.2 BIOS with the graphics menu fix. It seems that the link is still alive:
T201903151640 - 3.2 with Graphics Settings submenu fixed - http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=06745098729364751320
Obviously that it would still be useful! So that we can finally put to rest to the "NVRAM volumes" differences and any other things that were impossible to compare due to the lack of original factory Firmware backup.
I never managed to not procastinate from actually playing around with the Motherboard Jumpers to see what I can dump from mine.
Assuming that you’re willing to brick the Motherboard, that it is not your main computer, and that you’re not as lazy as me, would you be willing to try my theory that simultaneously writing to the NVRAM and using an option that forces a cold reboot of the system can corrupt the Firmware? It is for scientific purposes. I ended up recalling that the last time that I got it POSTing before bricking it, I simultaneously enabled the IGP, which forces a cold reboot on saving settings (It came on "Auto" if losing RTC SRAM battery, which disables it if discrete card is found), and set the cleaning of the SMBIOS Event Log on next reboot. What I suppose that should happen, at least in 2.2 BIOS, is than that combination should brick the Firmware. At least knowing that it is reproducible would give me some peace of mind…
@surjeon
In pure DOS, directly use eeupdate to write MAC address in the format of eeupdate / NIC = [A] / Mac = [B], where A is a number, which indicates which network card MAC is written to, because notebook basically includes wired network card and wireless network card.
Enter the command “eeupdate”, and the interface will display all Intel network card information of the current device
Generally, wired network card is 1 by default, and wireless network card is 2 by default. B is the MAC address of the 12 bit network card, which can be found on the back of the machine.
If we want to write the address of 00 50 8D D7 26 68 to the MAC of the wired network card, and run it under pure DOS: eeupdate / NIC = 1 / Mac = 00508dd72668, just press enter. After normal writing, the following information will be prompted:
EEUpdate 5.30.10.00.rar (723 KB)
MAC Is stored in GbE region here, easily dumped and corrected via Intel FPT (FPTw.exe -gbe -d gbe.bin >> Edit in mac at 0h in place of 88:88:88:87:88 >> Write it back >> FPTw.exe -gbe -f gbe.bin)
You need to use FPT from V9 ME System tools package at C.2 section here - Intel Management Engine: Drivers, Firmware & System Tools
FPT MUST be ran from Admin CMD prompt (not Admin account, that does not matter). To do that, Select that folder that contains the FPTw.exe, hold shift and press right click, choose open command window here (Not power shell).
At the command prompt type the commands you want to use ^^
If you are stuck on Win10 and cannot easily get command prompt, and method I mentioned above does not work for you, here is some links that should help
Or, copy all contents from the Flash Programming Tool \ DOS folder to the root of a USB Bootable disk and do the dump from DOS (FPT.exe -bios -d biosreg.bin)
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-add-c…creators-update
https://www.windowscentral.com/add-open-…menu-windows-10
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/open-…ator-privileges
Or here is simply registry edit that adds “Open command window here as Administrator” to the right click menu
Double-click to install, reboot after install may be required
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil…134606820377175
Hey, I’m sorry to necro a thread this old, but I’m at wit’s end here. I have an X10SAT motherboard that won’t boot into Windows due to a corrupted bios. The only available version on Supermicro’s website won’t complete the flash process, which creates the same issue, even after multiple attempts.
Would it be possible to get a re-up of the older bios versions?
No, its user private links, have you tried a bit more? Theres a search box on the forum…
search.php?zeit=9999&s=2&forum=0&q=+X10SAT
I have, unfortunately without any luck. I don’t seem to be able to finde older bios versions available for download anywhere.
Thank you very much, I really appreciate it!