@malucul - which CPU did you try that didn’t work, what S-Spec and CPUID if you know it? For everyone’s reference
I believe it was - 50652h QL29 chip that he tried.
Typically the exact chips i want to use!
Is this of any use?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-Plat…id=123640383944
Seller lists a microcode modded bios needed for Supermicro boards…
Sorry, been a busy few days. Yes they are QL29 chips, I will try and dig up the listing for some more details later.
Ebay listing are not always correct or show exactly what you get, so best to check the CPU in your possession to confirm. Most of the B0’s, or at least many mentioned here, work fine on several Supermicro boards with stock BIOS, as noted through this thread.
Ask that seller, what exact microcode revision he knows that works. He lists Supermicro boards as compatible, except that one model needs a ucode patch. It’s been confirmed here, for some B0’s (Unsure which) that 50654 Rev 200004D works (Tested on SuperMicro early in this thread, ported to SAGE board without luck)
Hey if Lost is interested than I will try to increase the knowledge via my supermicro board.
bios version 2.1 the ES CPU work out of the box
update to bios 3.0c (I have missed the link to 3.0a) tells me that my cpu is not supported by the bios.
So we can check how they disable the cpu’s and probably this will shed some light on the asus project.
@XeonScalable - zip both of those BIOS in single archive and upload for me and I’ll check. But, they may not need to block, simply remove microcode on their BIOS may cause it to fail, you’d have to test the compatible BIOS with ucode removed and see if it fails or loads anyway to confirm that.
Having rewatched Linus’ video, it occurs to me that we might all be hitting the same RAM problems as him. Is anyone testing with 2133MHz RAM? All mine is 2400 
Asus have just sent me Bios 0503 to test.
Has anyone tried 0503?
Also just sent over from Asus is version 5503
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/So…E-ASUS-5503.zip
I shall upload a dropbox link to 5103 later.
Hmmm so ASUS say ES chips are blocked under instruction from Intel…
@TechStream - thanks for your confirmation, finally an actual answer and now we know the cause, they blocked it! Now, we need to find out how and remove it! 
Maybe you can chat with that same guy, and tell him after you put back ES ucode… which module “might” need an edit to remove such a block 
nudge nudge
@Lost_N_BIOS
Well… as the project is actually a marketing build for Asus ive tried to blag a none blocked bios that way haha
They must have internal use bioses that support ES.
Did you see this? - https://www.ebay.com/itm/BIOS-MOD-ASUS-C…IQAAOSwVHRcx9wL
And also this - https://www.chiphell.com/thread-1956839-1-1.html
But unfortunately the link to the modified image is already dead and i can’t find another, maybe some of you might get more luck with it. Or if some of you have access to the chiphell forum, just ask the threadcreator yoshitora https://www.chiphell.com/space-uid-20568.html But you need an invitation in order to register a new account
Hmmm interesting, so there IS a way around it. But has to be flashed via programmer a normal bios flash wont work…
Not sure if this is just their dodgy marketing or if there is an element of truth.
@Lost_N_BIOS any reason why it would have to be done this way?
the reason is simple - you have to sign the cap image to flash it with motherboard. But i would prefer to flash with a programmer anyway as it’s much much cheaper comparing to the cheapest compatible 0654 cpu. yeah, the cheapest suitable programmer costs about $3-5 (not 200 as the listing says, lol) vs $200-300 for crappy 4core retail xeon bronze
Yeah I suspect that this is entirely to protect their special sauce. If they just sent you the file then someone could share it and that would ruin the money tree. Very interesting to know that it can be done though, I am tempted to send them a board and then dump the flash contents when it is returned.
@malucul Don’t hurry if you can wait until the next monday. I got an idea, looks like everything is much simpler than it looks to be, I will check it this weekend and in case of success will share it for free