[Discussion] Firmware for Asmedia Sata 6G Controllers

DavidSar · March 7, 2020, 3:01am

Just registered to share some information.

There 2 versions of ASM106X ROMs. One for motherboards is that around 32KB, and one for add-on cards that is around 128KB.

The latest version for the add-on is 1.90 and is available here: http://ableconn.com/upload/ASM1062%20FW_…-RE1062.A19.zip

kyriacos · May 12, 2020, 5:26pm

@DavidSar

Is this version intended for any ASM106X card or only for ASM1062? Did you try flashing it yourself?

DavidSar · May 15, 2020, 7:15am

Don’t know about 1061, but worked fine for me on SilverStone ECS03 PCIe card, and some other generic card with ASM1062.

MonarchX · May 23, 2020, 6:29pm

I have ASUS Z370 Hero X WiFi AC motherboard with the latest BIOS 2301 and Windows 10 x64 LTSC. How can I find out:
1. Which ASMedia SATA Controller my motherboard has?
2. What are the latest drivers for my motherboard’s ASMedia SATA Controller? Where can I download them?
3. What is the latest firmware for my motherboard’s ASMedia SATA Controller? Where can I download it?
4. How can I flash my motherboard’s ASMedia SATA Controller to the latest firmware version?

mockingbird · August 17, 2020, 5:11am

gitsov:

So now my question:
I have (sh!tty) AssRock J4105-ITX mainboard, which I am using as NAS. Board have soldered Quad Core Celeron processor and have no CSM in BIOS (AssRocks!) so it’s UEFI only.
There is an 2-port Intel SATA3 controller and Asmedia 2-port 1062 (according to lspci from Linux) controllers onboard. I can boot from drives attached to both of controllers and they are shown in BIOS.
I’ve bought SSU-SA3004 v2 PCI-E x1 board (that green one with switch and 4 ports), but even after update to 4.27 AHCI ROM is not listed as possible bootable device in my secondary PC’s Mainboard set at CSM/UEFI or No CSM Boot settings (Board is AsRock H81-DG4). It is listed only in Legacy mode as boot device. My goal is to expand NAS with that 4 ports and if possible to make that card bootable (and future proof), but in BIOS MMTOOL shows only ASM1061SataDriver and OpROM. Extraction of that driver generates 9KB uncompressed file and comparison with Hex editor shows that OpROM (32KB) does not contain driver . My question is:

Is there a way to combine both UEFI driver and OpROM on card’s flash chip?

I know that, probably card will probably work with disabled boot support via switch as boot device, as it will "share" driver from onboard controller (maybe I shoud disable onboard controller too), but I am looking for variant when I replace board with another one which does not have this controller soldered to use it.

BTW card have two flash chips (Puya PH25Q40B, recognized as EON EN25F40 by Asmedia updater, see attached picture) and I am assuming that switch on top enables 1 with AHCI ROM (left position), second with IDE (right position) and in the middle position (NoBoot), it just disables both SPI chips.
*chips aren’t Puya - got fooled as on my other 88SE9215 is with that chip, but markings looks similar.
*This controlles does not get listed as boot device both on AsRock H81-DG4 and J4105-ITX. Tried with AHCI/IDE/NoBoot positions on switch.

I did some poking around on this card and desoldered the SPI flash chips because they could not be read in circuit. I discovered like you, that although they’re labeled PH25Q40B, they are identified as EN25F40 (or EN25FL40) by my programming software.

There are actually three flash chips on the board:

I traced it out with a multimeter and I discovered the following: the yellow chip is the IDE firmware, the green is AHCI, and the orange is for the ASM1093 port multiplier chip. The difference between the IDE and AHCI firmware consists of only a few values, and you can probably extrapolate these values yourself and modify an AHCI firmware, just by looking at a side-by-side comparison (the third file is firmware 4.27 from station-drivers, and it’s not all that different from 4.20):

The differences are at the following offsets:

0x0000001c
0x00000020
0x00000024

…with the following corresponding values for IDE:
07
01
03

and the following for AHCI:
04
06
00

I am attaching all three BIOS in case anyone ever needs them.

asm1061.zip (109 KB)

DonGeg97 · December 13, 2020, 7:29pm

Hello Guys! I currently have an X79 ASRock Xtr4, with an onboard ASM1061 sata controller that isnt working at all. i bought the mobo used and since day 1 it wasnt working. Anyone can help me to update the OROM of my motherboard bios? Is flashed to 3.40 latest beta bios. I really need this SATA3 port since my motherboard has only 2 sata3 and 4 sata 2.

onuracengiz · February 11, 2021, 7:05pm

Asmedia ASM-106x/R Sata 6G Controller Firmware v190920
Asmedia ASM-106x/R Sata 6G Controller Firmware v190920 (Raid)
Asmedia ASM-1x6x Sata 6G controller Drivers Version 3.3.5.0 (win 8 and up)
Asmedia RAID Manager Tool (ASM-1062) v3.130 or Recommended AHCI/RAID and NVMe Drivers

Please back up first,test it,then share the result with device info (id) so others can benefit

kyriacos · February 13, 2021, 4:03pm

Is anyone using a SD-PEX50055?

https://www.sybausa.com/index.php?route=…&product_id=177

Is this card bootable?

onuracengiz · February 13, 2021, 4:09pm

can’t say for sure,depends on the motherboard.there is a possiblity that some old boards may not see it as bootable and since SATA interface shows empty you may not be able to use it
things you may need are CSM,Launch Storage OpROM Policy,UEFI mode

kyriacos · February 13, 2021, 4:24pm

Need them how?

MDM · February 13, 2021, 6:17pm

Need them how?

What you asked - to boot…

kyriacos · February 13, 2021, 7:43pm

I can’t find CSM in the bios.

MDM · February 13, 2021, 7:47pm

If you do not have UEFI, you wont have CMS as option; because it will only bee CSM…
Its all under BOOT option always.

kyriacos · February 13, 2021, 7:56pm

It seems that I need to choose Windows 8 in Windows 8 Features for CSM option to appear. But what if I don’t use Windows 8 (or 10)?

MDM · February 13, 2021, 8:52pm

It seems that I need to choose Windows 8 in Windows 8 Features for CSM option to appear. But what if I don’t use Windows 8 (or 10)?

Things you ask are too basic and not for this thread - so off-topic (inform yourself first in other threads).

kyriacos · February 14, 2021, 11:37am

Maybe I should have been more specific. I already have a different ASMedia controller and it boots fine with none of the suggested options enabled in the bios. Why would I need them enabled for the controller I am asking now?

MDM · February 14, 2021, 10:53pm

You even already answered yourself…

kyriacos · February 15, 2021, 6:31pm

The controller is from a different manufacturer, but the chipset is the same.

boombastik · February 15, 2021, 7:37pm

@kyriacos
-https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/…51uxhH93eWS.pdf

It is bootable only in legacy mode no in uefi mode.

Squall_Leonhart · April 11, 2021, 2:25am

@Fernando

I’ve got a Rampage IV bios with 0.93.1, this seems to be stuck in IDE mode, the controller is configured for ahci and force bios is specified but in windows its displaying as 2 Standard PCI IDE controllers (which means it enumerated to IDE)

Any ideas?

nvm, seems it was a fault with 0.93, replaced with 0.97 and ahci works now