[quote="Lost_N_BIOS, post:79, topic:32714"]
@mitdal369 - new BIOS from Asus, maybe you guys will get lucky, @maxdata has been tormenting them for a while now
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Lol that's some good news at least that progress is potentially being made. And that's interesting for the flashback issues Max, when I still had the board I did have to get some shitty flash drives off of amazon otherwise it wouldn't flash at all but the fact that it works for that one bios version is super odd. Lets hope that when you get the cables you can get it flashed. I wish I still had the board with me to do more tinkering :) I might try and pick it up again in a little bit to do more testing after I get back from LA.
With official BIOS (.cap format, not edited etc) it wont flash for you from within BIOS using EZ Flash? That’s not right if so, something is wrong! What does your board show as in CPU-z, is it identified as the correct?
Which exact link here did my 0801 BIOS for you work from? I will check it and see, and do the same for you on this 3501 BIOS. Ohh, I see I only updated microcode’s and sent back, still as capsulated file, so it should work for you from Asus (Especially from within the BIOS built in flashing app) Try flashing like that, normally from within the BIOS. If BIOS cannot see your USB Still for BIOS updating, make a FAT32 partition on some spare drive and put the BIOS there.
Did you ever find an email for motherboard marketing or sales team, try contacting them at HK or China, wherever their HW is located.
Here, try this 3501 @maxdata - this is stock BIOS with edited similarly to the BIOS I gave you in post #4 (The only one you said would flash), but I did not actually edit, only extract microcodes and then put back. A “Non-Empty” Pad file is removed during these saves, that must be what allowed it to flash for you before too. Flash via flashback Damn, Asus still blocking me from downloading, had to use a proxy again (All week long!) https://www.sendspace.com/file/ul16su
This BIOS contains updated microcodes, like I did for you initially, plus added 50655, but still has older 50652 (Matching stock 0801 BIOS, ME is still same
Hi Lost, Still waiting for any response from ASUS. They always say ‘response in 24-48 hours’ then disappear. So I have had to migrate back to my Supermicro board, presently an X11DPG-QT, and the 6149s work very well, no glitches
Dual Xeon 6149 es benchmarks (2x 16core) with supermicro board and only 32GB DDR4-2400 for each CPU Passmark CPU 31000 Corona 3.1 35sec, 13,612,000 Cinebench cb 5400 HWInfo - attached CPU-Z 15,000+, screens attached
Not giving up! Will have my second Xeon Platinum 8168 in a couple days, will move these Xeon 6149s back to the ASUS C621E board for further testing. I expect about 30% performance increase from the Xeon Plat 8168s which are 24 cores running all-core 2.9 GHz. I already tested one in the ASUS board and it does EXACT same thing as the 6149 B0z- stalls at code 14, cycles, then freezes at code 66.
But I had to get these 6149s on my Supermicro workstation after my laptop workstation died an ugly death last week. Hope the HW info at least clarifies what these CPUs are and a little info on the Supermicro BIOS.
Hi Lost, Just a footnotete, I believe ASUS has earned sufficient infamy tio be worthy of mention on my avatar. I greatly appreciate your expertise in all this hardware stuff, that seems to be the key to any breakthrough. Thanks for your continued interest, I don’t know how you juggle so many help threads at once, but I sure appreciate it!!
One more note- the 8168s are also B0 samples, of course, not the $1000 production item. The Supermicro boards have all been amazing in the range of cpus that work with them. I have had 7 different Supermicro boards and NEVER had a cpu that didn’t work.
I will flash with your file, and report back, should also be able to get BIOS dumps from the supermicro and ASUS with 6149s installed.
Hi MIT, I have cables on the slow boat from China, apparently. I have two parts I need - SPI cable & adapter, but still waiting for the SP8 thing. I hadn’t done anything on this a couple weeks because I had to pull the 6149s and use them in my supermicro workstation. But I was able to get some 8168 B0s for the supermicro and will be able to put the 6149 B0s back on the C621E to continue pursuing the mirage of a working ASUS board. I’ve had 7 different Supermicro X10 and X11 series boards and they seem to run everything in their processor families easily. I don’t know what secret ASUS is missing but they certainly have the $ to get it if they wanted to. Hey, if Lost’s updated BIOS fix works, the ASUS board might be worth it after all, we can only hope! Insane hope, so far. Meanwhile good luck in your saner adventures!! max
It’s tough to see, even if you zoom the page, I can read it finally, but maybe it needs a white stroke/border on the text?
Do the 8168 run on Asus or not, or are those the original issue CPU’s?
You have the SPI Cable and adapter, what is SP8 thing? I thought you had programmer already, and was waiting on cables, but now you said you have cables? What part are you actually waiting on, I got confused?
Hopefully you’re still following this thread. I’m in the same boat as the rest of the guys here, but I already have an SPI programmer and can just build whatever cable I require. I am no stranger to programming FLASH parts.
My chips are the 6136 Gold QL29. I did try the update to the 3501 BIOS, which flashbacked without any trouble for me, but no dice. I am still stuck at the BB error code during POST.
@malucul - thanks so much for stopping in! Please make a dump from your SPI port then, and see if you can get verified and valid dump. if yes, please share the pinout with everyone, thanks! We/I thought maybe it would be same as Z270 pinout, but maybe not since it’s a BIOS with a lot more pins, but SPI pin header is same, so maybe we can get lucky.
Once you are sure we can get verified/valid dump from the SPI header, I can make you some BIOS to test. I assume you will need 50652 or 50653 microcodes, but ME may come into play too (likely) I forget which microcodes are in the stock BIOS, I haven’t looked into this in so long now, but I did gather up a bunch of 50653 microcodes the other day for someone else with similar issue, after insertion no problem, but I forget what CPU’s those were (looking now) >> Yes, starting here at post 184 w/ 8163 CPU’s - [GUIDE] AMI INTEL CPU Microcode Update Guide (13)
Arghh, turns out that my TL866 doesn’t have support for the 25Q256 ROM that is present on the C621E. The newer version does, so I have ordered it. In the mean time I will see if I can come up with a dumper based around a Netduino or suchlike.
The board does have the same SPI header as in your diagram, and the SOIC16 on my board is essentially the same thing as the SOIC8 part, just with more legs. Nevertheless I will check it against the datasheet.
EDIT: I’ve written the code required for my makeshift dumper to read the ROM on the MB. I’ll give it a try tomorrow and report back.
Dang @malucul - I was hoping to come back and maybe get ready to solve this for all you guys!
No way to edit the software, or shove in an update? SOIC16? Every image I looked at had QFP (Maybe 64) package BIOS? Image here, is this not the BIOS??? Allow B0 stepping on Asus W621E Sage (2)
If it’s not, then everyone could have simply ordered an SOIC16 to DIP8 cable to go into CH341A, that would make things much easier if it is SOIC16
I think the chip labelled “BIOS” in that shot is actually something to do with the M2 socket immediately below it. For my money the BIOS chip is next to where it says “Workstation” on the chipset heatsink, with the SPI header immediately above. There are a couple of other flash chips onboard but I think these are firmware for accessories (BMC, RAID etc).
Worst case scenario I have to use my new programmer, which should be here this week; but I’m pretty sure my Homebrew one will work. I’ll give it a shot after work today.
@malucul I guess seeing “BIOS” plastered on there instantly made me blind to all others, you are probably correct and everyone should have just picked up a SOIC16 to DIP8 test clip cable all along @maxdata@mitdal369 M.2 needs a BIOS controller? I do think you’re right, now that you pointed out that Winbond chip beside SPI header, can’t believe I looked right past that due to some other chip labeled BIOS.
Hey Malucul and Lost! I’m happy to see this is still progressing and interesting to see that 50653 isn’t in the 0801 release, happy to hear that you were able to get it up and running for the other person on their supermicro board! It looks like the 8136 is similar to the one I am currently using (that one is 28-cores at 2 ghz and mine is 24 cores at 1.8ghz). @malucul let us know how it goes with the programmer. I wish I could buy another board and do some testing but I’m doing too much travelling (work and personal) throughout this holiday season. If you need any info from my current setup please let me know and I’ll see what I can do, as mentioned before I currently have two of them booting with the Supermicro X11DPH-T. Attached is a dump from CPUz in case that’s helpful in any way.
Sorry @mitdal369 - I forgot you don’t have this board anymore Thanks for the dump! Looks like your CPUID is 50652, which I guess we knew and checked/updated etc already
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It’s been that long, still no real support given your way from them!
