Allow B0 stepping on Asus W621E Sage

@babar are you running on windows or linux? honestly could be that my ES chips are a bit defunct but i didnt have any issues when running windows pro so its all a bit wierd

Bios version 5503 is the only one that allows for CPUID 50652 to be added and function proper, all bios versions that came afterwards lock at 79 CSM Init.

Something somewhere in the modules there has been a change. I compared and compared and copied over modules from 5503 to see if the piece that made it tick was in there but nil success.

In hindsight, I should have shared these findings sooner…

@Gurney - do nothing, in regards to me tagging you. I excitedly tagged everyone for update, since I didn’t realize there was so many updates past that 5503 I posted, and just assumed all would be OK. It’s failed mod, do not use for ES CPU
Yes, CPUID is different for ES vs retail. You can use retail CPU in the BIOS I posted, it’s just stock BIOS + Updated all microcodes and added back in all ES microcodes, so even though the ES ones will be failing all retail CPU will still work fine with that BIOS if you wanted to use it.
However, please wait, because I think there is another problem (blanked Devexp1 region) with that BIOS I posted, I sent fixed once to levelud to test, but I guess due to what Airo says above it’s going to fail for him anyway with ES
If you want proper for retail let me know and I can update the microcodes in it for you guys.

@Airo - Thanks for your testing info! Yes, you should have mentioned sooner So, in your testing, did you test with ME FW from 5503 (by itself), into your mod newer versions? How about with CSM module from 5503 into newer mod, since that is the error indication.

@avd - What GUID is this “SECCore” you mentioned? I looked for this, so we can test transferring this from 5503 back into latest BIOS + uCodes and I can’t find anything like that.

@Gurney So far just been testing with win10 pro, but it will be running esxi when I finally get my last hw. So lets see then.

Hm… Finally got my second cooler and installed the second cpu, aaand guess what. It hangs on error 79 too! Gonna have to do a bit of fiddling to see if its the second cpu thats causing it, or simply using 2 cpus…

EDIT: Only happened once… unsure why, but I’ve been having issues with the memory… still trying to get it stable…

@Lost_N_BIOS Hey.
Thanks for the bios.
I have an Asus W621E Sage and 2 8160 processors.
I want to ask, how can I update the BIOS version to the latest, while maintaining support for the 8160 engineer?
Can you update the BIOS file?

@Bitfan - You’re welcome! Sorry, but for now the only working BIOS for ES CPU’s is the old 5503, posted in post #241 here - Allow B0 stepping on Asus W621E Sage (17)
Apply that via USB Flashback (ONLY)

Thanks. I already use this bios.

@Lost_N_BIOS I will give it a new try tomorrow because I don’t rely remember what I did and did not do try as it’s mainly just a bunch of guessing and trying.

What would help me with my testing is for me to know the names of the “module files” that belong to “ME” and “CSM”. (like a list) If anyone knows, It will save me a lot of time.

@Airo - thanks, it’s OK you don’t remember. ME does not have any modules, it’s a single region at top of BIOS, and be very careful with what you do there, ME FW must be edited and or flashed a certain way or you’ll corrupt it.
If you do test ME FW from 5503 into latest, it should be OK to directly extract and insert into BIOS using UEFITool 25. You will need to program it in with hardware programmer, unless you already unlocked FD, if you did that then you can reflash the ME FW region only with FPT

CSM is also it’s own module, this simply contains legacy oroms, and possibly some legacy settings (not sure, it may just be all legacy oroms) This can also be extracted/inserted with UEFITool, use V25

I found and compared SECCore relevant area from 5503 and 6102 and they are hex match, so it’s not an issue with this.
I guess maybe they blocked, or as someone mentioned a few pages back, they think maybe only older ME FW was OK with the ES CPU’s (maybe you mentioned?)
And, this makes sense ^^ because on current Z170-Z270 etc, to do coffee mod, only some older ME FW allow earlier CPU’s, so I bet this is what we need to try next (mod 6102 like I did, but with ME FW from 5503)
Someone with programmer will have to test that, if you have one and can test, let me know I will remake a mod for you to try and send in PM

I did a couple of things but 6102 still locks up at 79:

ME 4.1.4.339 works with BIOS 5503 and CPUID 50562, so no issue there.
I replaced the oroms and efi drivers with those from 5503.
Now looking at the module files again…

Hi folks,
I was having issues with my earlier board and was getting bb error code with one long and two short beeps on two processors that I tried which were QRGE and QRA9. These are 5218 ES/QS processors. Now when I tried those with Bronze QN0D it booted past POST screen, but would only pick memory from a certain slot as a result only one module would be detected and rest of them had training error.
I tried multiple memory modules but they all worked when they were installed in that one slot.
So I returned the board back thinking that it might have been an issue with the board. I recently got a new board and installed the QRA9 on it with one memory module on slot A1. Before installing cpu I did a flashback of the 6102 bios from asus website.
Now I am stuck trying to figure out what is going on. I really appreciate the hard work @Lost_N_BIOS is doing and I have used the earlier 5503 bios on my older motherboard.
Any help on this would be great.
Thanks
Sam

Hey @Lost_N_BIOS ,

It´s been a while since I´ve been here. Thank you for the tag and all your work!

I´m using two retail chips atm, but I´ll try to update to some faster ES chips whenever possible and continue to use your fantastic mod

Any progress over easter? Just keeping the thread alive… :slight_smile:

Hello I have just to ask if there is a way by ql1f to get higher boost clocks for multiple cores? 4 or 24 doesn’t make any difference in cinebench it just stays at 22…

Hi i have a pair of xeon 8153 QS qms7 that don’t boot on my sage c621e tried @Lost_N_BIOS bios mod and newest original bios to no avail…am i missing something? my pair of 3104 work like a charm on the board and ram is on the qvl lrdimms

Hi,

My FSB was 103 at max untill recently when I updated the 5503 bios with the ME from 6102 and the drivers from 6102.
Now my FSB is 105.


Can you please share that bios? At it’s best with flashback, so everyone can use it.

@LordCaedus and everyone else - Do not use that new BIOS mod I made, it does not work!! Only use BIOS in post #241, page 17.
Then try with single memory stick, different sticks, sometimes there is memory compatibility issues with some CPU’s I think (not due to the mod, just generally)

@trespasser2 - Thanks, and you’re welcome

Hi all,

I have just joined today.
I bought WS C621E Sage for just USD25.00 on eBay and not sure whether it is working or not.
I don’t have any 3647 CPU lying around nor RDIMM memory. How should I test the motherboard before buying anything else?
Will it show any POST Code when I turn the power on without CPU and RDIMM installed?

Thanks!