Allow B0 stepping on Asus W621E Sage

The culprit was the RAM modules - all of them were deffective unfortunately.

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I have exactly the same configuration with you and exactly the same code "bb" in slot A

Ive tried all BIOS in this thread except avd’s, his files are no longer available.

Did you manage to resolve this problem?





The culprit was the RAM modules I was using. It turned out to be not compatibel or deffect - I am not sure. Now everything is fine.

@Lost_N_BIOS -I can get a hand on some Xeon Platinum 8124M (SRD1Y) CPUs.
Those are Amazon-OEM designed for 240W TDP, 18 Cores @3.0 GHz, 3.4GHz Turbo.
Those seeem to run, wether QS or OEM, only on AsRock mainboards.
Do you know if there can be made a mod to make an Asus WS C621 Sage work with them?

@paranoid_android

The “M” stands for Omni-Path support and the Asus WS C621 Sage doesn’t support these, you will have to go for a Supermicro board if you plan on buying these Xeon Platinum 8124M.

@Lost_N_BIOS

Hi, @Lost_N_BIOS I’m totally new on the forum, yet I’ve been following these thread for months waiting for my 8280 ES to arrive :slight_smile: Now I’ve got XEON Platinum 8280 ES (QQ87) Stepping A0. Would you be so kind to supply me with modified bios, allowing QQ87 A0 to run?

@Airo
Ok, interesting fact. What I knew until now was that the M-models feature a doubled managable memory range.
Problem with the 8124M is that it is an OEM Product made for Amazon EC2 Servers. And I found various posts that seem to confirm that these CPUs only work with some AsRock-Rack mainboards.
I got one reply from a vendor who they tested that CPU in a supermicro board and it didn’t POST.
So at least a bios mod would be necessary for that brand as I understand it.
The same person confirmed that the 8124M POSTs with an ASRock-Rack EP2C621D16-4LP, additionally I found other posts in forums confirming that it also POSTs and boots on EP2C621D12 WS boards.

@paranoid_android
Got a working C621E Sage for my 8124M today and tested all bios versions here in the forum.
None of them brought me to a successfull post. Only got the QCode 00 and the red LED with a cold cpu.

Hi!
I have an Asus WS C621E and 2 8180 ES QKRQ 1.5 Ghz.
I am using the latest uploaded bios postet here on the forum and i post fine. But i am unable to boot in anything else than safe mode.
Any one have some suggestions to this? I can’t boot from a usb stick either.

@iCa -

Did you do a fresh install of your OS?
Perhaps Flash the bios again.
Remove all other USB hardware except USB stick that holds the OS ISO, mouse and keyboard and than Override boot to the USB stick.

@FMQ - https://www.mediafire.com/file/uomwpacy6…locking.7z/file

@Alexwolfus - The 8124M is not on the list of supported CPUs for the ASUS WS C621e SAGE

The Asrock EP2C621D12 WS seems the better board for 8124M

@paranoid_android - What I found so far is that the Asrock EP2C621D12 WS does indeed support your 8124M CPU’s. And as far as quality and performance goes, the Asus W621E Sage isn’t any better than other Motherboards, all the talk of overclocking is bullocks.

Check this thread… https://forum.level1techs.com/t/xeon-pla…-testing/161064

I’m gonna try that! Thx
I was using an old install since i couldnt boot from the usb.

Gonna report back soon! Thx




So i reflashed the bios, formated the SSD and i just have the keyboard and the USB plugged in. My screen is using the on board VGA.
When i try to boot from an UEFI flash drive i get stuck at qcode B1 with the windows logo frozen, and if i use non-uefi with csm i end up at the same windows logo but with qcode AE.

I could install a clean windows using another system and then put that disk in this one, maybe that could work?

@Airo
That thread on Levelonetechs was what I had found before, too.
I know that any advertised overclocking options don’t make much sense with these Xeons… It’s more that the design of the Asrock-Rack board is partially odd.
More Server-Like, with those 4 GBit Lan connctors. Quite outdated Audio-Codec and Hardware.
The PCIe Slots don’t look that sturdy as I would expect from a WS Board.
This design looks quite “Rack-Like” to me.
Adding that it has very small sized heat sinks, and the CPU socket’s Mosfets are on the rear side of the board.
I’m not sure it that can be cooled effectively in a Tower case.

The supermicro X11DPG-QT board has the most attractive design for me, except that the PCIe slots are of that same server-style as the Asrock-Rack’s.
I might as well ask for a modded supermicro bios to suppport these 8214M CPUs.

But now that WRX80 CPUs are available to retailers, I’ll have to overthink the whole thing anew…




So i reflashed the bios, formated the SSD and i just have the keyboard and the USB plugged in. My screen is using the on board VGA.
When i try to boot from an UEFI flash drive i get stuck at qcode B1 with the windows logo frozen, and if i use non-uefi with csm i end up at the same windows logo but with qcode AE.

I could install a clean windows using another system and then put that disk in this one, maybe that could work?




So same issues as before, even tried with only 1 CPU.
Stuck at windows logo with B1 on the Q-code

@iCa - AE refers to Legacy boot event,

Have you tried it with CSM Disabled. Check if your USB stick will boot on another system, if it doesn’t boot use diskpart to clean the stick.

@paranoid_android - Yep, the asrock boards are intended for rackserver.

The cpuid of these CPUs is 050654h and would have to be added in the bios for it to work, the supermicro X11DPG-QT will work with Pre-3.0 Stock BIOS
or Modded BIOS 3.0, these boards were actually one of the few that supported engineering samples out of the box.

About WRX80 : the 3955wx is nearly as strong as 2 x 8124M and the 3975WX runs circles around the 8124M…

@Airo
Yep, I know what you mean.
But the 3975WX runs circles around my briefcase also

3955WX is on sale here for round 200€ below the official list price.
Strange though that none were sold on the two major IT online retailers so far. Still all in stock.
And still no mainboards for sale anywhere.

Still I can get two 8124M for ~300-400€ less than one 3955WX.
Plus, a new C621 mainboard, wether Asus, Supermicro or AsRock, is quite cheaper than the WRX80 boards.

I am aware that C621 and Skylake/Cascade lake are at the end of their life cycle, in general.
Investing in state-of-the-art tech versus slightly aged tech that is more affordable and upgradable is something to consider for me.
If Cascade Lake at least would have introduced PCIe 4.0 support, it’d be easier to decide to go with that platform for a few more years.
Adding a pair of used 8284 later would have been a nice alternative.

Currently I am still using an X79-E51680v2 setup for every-day use, accompanied by a C621 dual E5-2690v2 system for heavier loads.
So almost any kind of skylake setup would surpass that of course…
Also a pitty that even the medium-sized Epycs don’t feature high frequencies.
I’d have considered to go for a dual-setup of those instead.

Should I decide not to go for WRX80, maybe I’ll come back to the question if the supermicro X11 board(s) can be made to work with those amazon oem xeons.
You sure that adding cpuid is enough?
Those 8124M are QS, not ES by the way and I could aquire straight OEM-Versions as well.
And also some others with higer core-count.



Hi! Yeah i know, i actually did a new install from that this this weekend. So i know it works. I disabled CSM and I get stuck at B1 as before.
Only way i could get into windows is thru safe mode. This is so weird.
Could it be something with the PSU? i have an old Corsair HX 1050. But i used it on a different system and there it works fine…
B1 is "runtime set virtual address map end".
Anyone had this issue before?