Adding broadwell microcode to Dell T1700 SFF

Special Topics CPU Microcodes
1

Hi guys, this is the first post on this forum.

I just get my hands on a E3-1285 v4 and I would like to install it on my Dell Precision T1700 SFF. I flashed a custom A29 bios like a year ago that added the support of nvme boot using the guide on this forum. The T1700 SFF is using C226 chipset which should theoretically support Broadwell-based E3-1285v4 with CPUID 40671. However, the A29 bios only includes 40661, 40660, 306C1, 306C2, 306C3 and it is using “FIT” table. Now I am planning to to replace 40661 (size 6400) with 40671 (size 3800) using @Lost_N_BIOS guide.

From the original bios, I noticed there exists a 400h padding between those microcodes. As replacing 40661 with 40671 will increase the size of padding between 40671 and 40660. I am not sure about whether the increase or any changes on padding size will break the bios. I have included some screenshots and bios files for the works that I have done now. Any help would be much appreciated!

t1700_a28 is the original bios extracted from hdr
t1700_a28_nvme is the bios that added nvme ffs module
t1700_a28_nvme_broadwell_mcode is the bios that replaced 40661 with 40671 which results in extra padding

S1.png


This is the original bios and the first 3 padding is 400h.

S2.png


Now I replaced 40661 with 40671 and the padding size is increased.

t1700_a28_nvme_broadwell_mcode.zip (3.66 MB)

t1700_a28_nvme.zip (3.67 MB)

t1700_a28.zip (3.66 MB)

1 Like
2

This BIOS hasn’t support for Broadwell.
Adding microcode doesn’t add support for new CPU.

3

Thanks for your prompt response! I shall put it in my Z97 rig and forget about the T1700 then. Since no OEM had ever released a PC using Socket 1150 Broadwell, I can assume no OEM PCs would support i5/i7 5th gen and Xeon E3 v4?

4

@kaguya

Can this also work on the T1700 non-SFF? They seem to have the same parts, just different form factor. Dell Precision T1700 System BIOS | Driver Details | Dell US

How can I flash the t1700_a28_nvme.zip BIOS to gain the ability to boot from NVMe ?

5

@reukiodo
I saw your post yesterday…since this user only posted in this thread and 4 yrs ago… probably its a hit and run or a get served and bailed out after using this forum guide for NVMe mod.
Anyway these machines usually do not accept bios mods flashed by normal system tools from DELL due to security, not always like this must very much so.
So it leave us with 2 options, Service_Mode jumper on the motherboard, dump, mod and flashed with FPT tool (From ME FW package tools) or an SPI programmer.

Bios region should be enough for mod but its advisable to perform full backups of the spi containing all regions

Plenty of info on both on this forum.
Good luck.

6

I will probably delay doing this until this system is easily replaceable. It would be nice to boot from NVMe, but booting from SATA ssd is fine for now, and not really worth the downtime risk of uncertainty.