It was your choice and not my suggestion.
It will be necessary to correct this message.
In this BIOS, there are no known OROM and EFI files. Only EFI GOP Aspeed.
@weaker :
Here is my statement to your report:
- The UBU tool is well approved. I cannot even remember 1 single report about a bricked mainboard, which definitively had been caused by an UBU bug.
- Flashing a new/updated BIOS is generally risky und should only be done, when the expected benefit is worth the risk of a failure.
- Nobody is forced to update all BIOS modules, which are offered by the UBU tool. Only really in-use BIOS modules should be updated/replaced by better ones.
- The newest BIOS modules are not always the best (especially not for old systems like yours).
Since I doubt, that your reported problems were caused by the UBU tool, please answer the following questions:
1. Which source BIOS version did you use (ASUS offers 2 different variants of the BIOS 3603)?
2. How did your flash the modded BIOS?
Thanks!
Hi Fernando,
I didn’t want to blame the UBU Tool in any way. I am fully aware what I do and that it is risky.
Neither wanted I to blame you 
. Probably I used the 13.1 ROM because I had good experiences with it on other systems in the past and only saw later that in your suggestions thread for Z68 systems v12.x was recommended. It was late at night 
.
Of course, but with firmwares and BIOSes "new is always better" often applies. This is why I prefer to have most recent ROMs.
I partly disagree. The newest of its generation (such that it remains fully compatible) are most often the best (due to the bugfixes). In many cases the manufacturer just doesn’t release any more updates and rather wants to sell a new board.
The Win7/Vista-variant. Although I think that the only difference between the XP variant and the Win7-variant is the newer Intel RST ROM, which is probably unsupported by drivers in WinXP.
Using the BIOS-integrated EZ-Flash. I avoid Windows-based flashing whenever it is possible. I prefer old-school flashing. In the case of bricked BIOS, I extracted the chip and flashed it with the EEPROM CH341A writer on another PC using Linux and flashtool.
I am in contact with @Lost_N_BIOS and showed him, what I did. And to repeat: I don’t want to blame UBU in any way, I just want to preserve people without an EEPROM writer to brick their board by choosing the latest and greatest.
Best regards
weaker
@weaker - flash program tools are so cheap (usually $2.50 for a cheap programmer + $3.50 for SOIC8 test clip cable if needed), that everyone should have a set no matter what, especially if they are modifying BIOS.
Flashing stock BIOS can brick a board, even using manufacturer standard suggested procedures, with a good valid BIOS that doesn’t brick other boards, so it’s always a risk and the tools are so cheap everyone should order a set.
From your PM, I don’t think it was quite summarized here, I think you narrowed the issue down to the replacement of the Intel GbE PXE ROM 1.3.72 >> Update to >> 1.5.62 (I checked this, it appears to be inserted properly, so maybe just in compatible with the board?)
Hi Fernando,
I also have this problem.
The JMicron ROM seems to be the very first in the boot order. When I tried v1.08.01 I saw nothing on screen, v1.07.28 showed a message and even detected an attached disk, but booting didn’t continue.
In the case of UBU 1.69.17.2, we could upgrade to 1.07.28. However, in the case of 1.73.2, the same problem as the above sentence occurred.How is this
The way was the same as weaker.
Fernando,
UBU_v1.69.17.5_without-MMTool linked to MEGA can not be used without invoking bios. Please fix this. Thank you.
@nobi - if you didn’t also update Intel PXE rom, then you may have found the culprit.
From what you mentioned, J.Micron rom is the issue, I wasn’t sure based on some comments @weaker said, suspected it initially but I moved past it and suspected Intel PXE rom after he said xx j.micron rom was used and showed disk detected and then BIOS failed after that, so I assumed the Intel PXE instead.
Sounds like the j.micron rom works partially, then fails after it shows the detected disk.
@weaker @nobi
Thanks for your additional reports, which verify for me, that your issue is not UBU tool related, but obviously caused by the integration of bad or not completely matching Option ROM modules into the BIOS.
I repeat: It doesn’t make sense to update all Option ROM modules, which are within the related BIOS, because the chipset manufacturers do not care about the compatibility of their Option ROM modules with all related chips, which are put into the different mainboard models.
Why did you update the JMicron Option ROM at all?
This module is only required for the booting off a HDD/SSD, which is connected to a JMicron SATA port. I cannot imagine any reason for the connection of the system to a third party SATA port, because any SATA port, which belongs to the MB’s chipset, is much better performant.
An update of any third party SATA Controller Option ROM only may make sense for systems, whose third party SATA Controller is running in RAID mode.
This statement is valid for all third party SATA Controllers Option ROMs. In this case the mainboard manufacturer knows the best by having tested it, which Marvell, ASMedia or JMicron Option ROM version works properly with the related MB model.
Btw - I have made my own bad experiences while trying to update the ASMedia SATA Option ROM of my formerly used PC. None of the later released ASMedia modules worked.
@nobi :
There is nothing to fix. The download link works fine by doing a right-click onto the related file and choosing the “Standard download” option.
@Fernando
The reason for the update is simple, because it was updated with UBU 1.69.17.2
I understand what you are saying.
However, I am puzzled that the update failed in UBU 1.73.2
There is nothing to fix. The download link works fine by doing a right-click onto the related file and choosing the “Standard download” option.
I’m sorry. This is not that sense. UBU 1.69.17.2 can be launched
When launched with UBU_v1.69.17.5_without-MMTool
https://imgur.com/a/8UI1J3q
Please correct it as it becomes this.
@nobi :
The UBU tool v1.69.17.5, which I am still offering within my MEGA account, is the latest UBU version of the v1.69 platform.
If you should have gotten better results with an older UBU build of the v1.69.17.x series, it is fine for you, but I cannot upload it, because I have currently no access to other old UBU tool versions.
The oldest UBU versions, which are currently accessable for me, are v1.60.17.4 and v1.69.17.5. The latter version is available at my MEGA account, the previous one can be uploaded by me, if there should be any request. The date of the UBU.bat within both UBU versions is the same (05/01/2018), but the tools UEFIExtract, UEFIFind and UEFITool have other versions.
@nobi It’s not very easy to understand what you mean.
I happen to have some old versions of UBU and I can confirm that 1.69.17.2 does read your bios and 1.69.17.5 doesn’t. The reason is an updated UEFIfind.exe in 1.69.17.5.
That’s not rocket sience to find out- I simply checked for different (exe-)files in both versions and copied the older files from 1.69.17.2 one by one into the folder with 1.68.17.5 and checked after each copy if UBU would work.
=> Use UEFIfind from 1.69.17.2 in 1.69.17.5 and it will work.
In addition I don’t understand the worries about UBU 1.73.2- it works with your bios just fine (see the pictures)
Or download and use the UBU v1.69.17.4, which has just been uploaded by me to my MEGA account.
@Fernando
Thank you Fernando will be happy to use it. As there are things that Bios does not support UBU v1.69 or more If you use a new UBU then it’s probably microcode
@lfb6
I know how to do that. But I dare to ask Fernando to fix it.
If you look at your photos at the site, it looks like the UBU 1.73.2 update is successful
But I failed to update UBU 1.73.2
The JMicron ROM seems to be the very first in the boot order. When I tried v1.08.01 I saw nothing on screen, v1.07.28 showed a message and even detected an attached disk, but booting didn’t continue
I’m jealous of this problem.
Did you succeed in updating the JMicron ROM?
If anyone cares or is looking for, i can upload ubu 1.69.16. (contains alot of modules for IRST aswell). It is the oldest version i still have.
According to ASUS specification the JMicron controller serves the eSATA port on the back-panel. The Rom will only be used if you boot from an external disk connected to this port- Do you boot from an external SATA disk?
Anyway: It is possible to let UBU update the JMicron Rom, yes. That means that UBU seems to exchange the modules properly. But those modules might- despite of being properly inserted- still be incompatible to your bios!
Would you mind describing your setup?
- Which controller is your boot- disk connected to?
- Is your boot disk a raid?
- Are there other raids in your system?
@Gnarz77
Thanks for your offer, but I don’t think, that anyone is interested in even older versions of the UBU v1.69.xx series.
@lfb6
According to ASUS specification the JMicron controller serves the eSATA port on the back-panel. The Rom will only be used if you boot from an external disk connected to this port- Do you boot from an external SATA disk?
Excuse me. I have not used it.
Anyway: It is possible to let UBU update the JMicron Rom, yes. That means that UBU seems to exchange the modules properly. But those modules might- despite of being properly inserted- still be incompatible to your bios!
Does it mean that you updated without any problems? I am hesitant to update because I do not have a usb programmer. By the way, what happens when updating to v1.08.01?
Would you mind describing your setup?
- Which controller is your boot- disk connected to? It is a normal sata port.
- Is your boot disk a raid? No, I do not use raid.
- Are there other raids in your system? There is nothing in particular.
Thanks for the quick answer. My point here is that you don’t use these modules at the moment.
As Fernando tried to explain in #129: These Oproms are only needed if you want to boot from an IDE, AHCI or RAID controller that’s not part of the (Z68-) chipset itself.
For the SATA ports of the Z68 Chipset: Intel RST Orom is used if (and only if) you select ‘RAID’ for ‘SATA Mode’ in bios (‘advanced/SATA Configuration’)- if you choose IDE or AHCI here the Orom is not used and it’s without any relevance if this module is newer or older.
Mavell Oprom is used if you’d want to boot from a disk connected to the corresponding (dark blue) SATA ports. If you just connect a data disk to these ports the controller should be enabled in bios but the Oprom isn’t needed.
For the Jmicron (eSATA- port) it’s the same. Here offers the Bios according to manual the option ‘Display OptionRom in POST’. Meaning here that the Oprom is not only loaded but has a way to be controlled by the bios. Maybe some of the (all?) the newer modules included in earlier UBU versions aren’t compatible with this option/ were designed for bios without this option?
In addition: The modules offered by UBU are 32kB and all have RAID option. The module extracted from your ASUS bios doesn’t have RAID option and is 16kB.
Point being here:
You are trying to update modules which are with a very high probability never in use on your system.
Especially those JMicron modules seem to have a quite high probability of being not compatible with your bios.
JMicron.
Not so simple under the moon.
1) Many manufacturers do not recommend using third-party controllers as a boot.
2) OROM may not be compatible with a specific controller chip.
– Therefore, on some boards, version 1.08.xx and higher does not work.
Added:
By the way, I do not advise at all and do not recommend connecting SSD drives to old third-party controllers. TRIM in such controllers does not work.