[Gigabyte EX38-DS4] Successfull bios mod with intel OROM 13.5

BIOS/UEFI Modding BIOS Modding Guides and Problems
1

EDIT 23 March 2015 : added modded bios with recommended intel OROM 11.2

Hi,

First i would like to thank Fernando and all contributors here. I learnt how to mod an Award Bios :slight_smile:

Original EX38DS4 F6D bios :
raid rom : 8.9.1
ahci rom : 1.20e
jmicron rom : 1.06.59
rte rom : 2.09

My modded version :
raid rom : 13.5.0.2164 with trim trick
ahci rom : 1.20e
jmicron rom : 1.07.28
rte rom : 2.61


Original layout

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 No. Item-Name         Original-Size   Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
  0. System BIOS       20000h(128.00K)  14A90h(82.64K)  tt.BIN
  1. XGROUP CODE       0E3C0h(56.94K)   09F23h(39.78K)  awardext.rom
  2. ACPI table        04D72h(19.36K)   01912h(6.27K)   ACPITBL.BIN
  3. EPA LOGO          0168Ch(5.64K)    0030Dh(0.76K)   AwardBmp.bmp
  4. GROUP ROM[18]     037F0h(13.98K)   025BEh(9.44K)   ggroup.bin
  5. GROUP ROM[20]     02A20h(10.53K)   01F58h(7.84K)   ffgroup.bin
  6. YGROUP ROM        0E170h(56.36K)   085CCh(33.45K)  awardeyt.rom
  7. GROUP ROM[ 0]     08080h(32.13K)   0302Ah(12.04K)  _EN_CODE.BIN
  8. PCI ROM[A]        13E00h(79.50K)   0BF79h(47.87K)  ICH9RAID.891
  9. PCI ROM[B]        04000h(16.00K)   02B45h(10.82K)  ICH8AHCI.BIN
 10. PCI ROM[C]        07A00h(30.50K)   04479h(17.12K)  JMB59.BIN
 11. MINIT             0EDE0h(59.47K)   0EE0Ch(59.51K)  MEMINIT.BIN
 12. PCI ROM[D]        0C800h(50.00K)   079FDh(30.50K)  rtegrom.lom
 13. LOGO1 ROM         00B64h(2.85K)    00520h(1.28K)   dbios.bmp
 14. LOGO BitMap       4B30Ch(300.76K)  099B5h(38.43K)  ds4.bmp
 15. GV3                022ADh(8.67K)   00BD6h(2.96K)   PPMINIT.ROM
 16. OEM0 CODE         02AEBh(10.73K)   01FCCh(7.95K)   SBF.BIN
 


13.5 rom is quite big, so i replaced the old one with this new, and adding a dummy (uncompressed) rom to fill the gap. Then i put the original AHCI in place of old rtegrom.lom, with again a dummy to fill the gap. I put the jmicron and rterom at the end. I used uncompressed dummy roms, it was simpler to find the correct size to not shift the MEMININT offset.
Here is exactly what i did, with cbrom155.exe :
On rom.tmp1 : Add raid 13.5 rom
On rom.tmp1 : Add dumm1.bin
On rom.tmp2 : Add ahci.rom
On rom.tmp2 : Add dumm2.bin
On rom.tmp3 : copy and paste from tmp1 13.5 rom/dumm1.bin @ offset 300DFh (replace)
On rom.tmp3 : copy and paste from tmp2 ahci/dumm.bin @ offset 51E21h (replace)
On rom.tmp3 : Add jmicron 1.07.28 rom
On rom.tmp3 : Add rte 2.61 rom

New layout

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 No. Item-Name         Original-Size   Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
  0. System BIOS       20000h(128.00K)  14A90h(82.64K)  tt.BIN
  1. XGROUP CODE       0E3C0h(56.94K)   09F23h(39.78K)  awardext.rom
  2. ACPI table        04D72h(19.36K)   01912h(6.27K)   ACPITBL.BIN
  3. EPA LOGO          0168Ch(5.64K)    0030Dh(0.76K)   AwardBmp.bmp
  4. GROUP ROM[18]     037F0h(13.98K)   025BEh(9.44K)   ggroup.bin
  5. GROUP ROM[20]     02A20h(10.53K)   01F58h(7.84K)   ffgroup.bin
  6. YGROUP ROM        0E170h(56.36K)   085CCh(33.45K)  awardeyt.rom
  7. GROUP ROM[ 0]     08080h(32.13K)   0302Ah(12.04K)  _EN_CODE.BIN
  8. PCI ROM[A]        1D800h(118.00K)  10E0Eh(67.51K)  RAIDTRIM.135
  9. NoCompress ROM    02101h(8.25K)    02129h(8.29K)   DUMMY1.BIN
 10. MINIT             0EDE0h(59.47K)   0EE0Ch(59.51K)  MEMINIT.BIN
 11. PCI ROM[B]        04000h(16.00K)   02B45h(10.82K)  ICH8AHCI.BIN
 12. NoCompress ROM    04E86h(19.63K)   04EB8h(19.68K)  DUMMY2.BIN
 13. LOGO1 ROM         00B64h(2.85K)    00520h(1.28K)   dbios.bmp
 14. LOGO BitMap       4B30Ch(300.76K)  099B5h(38.43K)  ds4.bmp
 15. GV3                022ADh(8.67K)   00BD6h(2.96K)   PPMINIT.ROM
 16. OEM0 CODE         02AEBh(10.73K)   01FCCh(7.95K)   SBF.BIN
 17. PCI ROM[C]        08000h(32.00K)   046B2h(17.67K)  JMB.10728
 18. PCI ROM[D]        11800h(70.00K)   09C6Ah(39.10K)  rtegrom.261
 


IMPORTANT Before flashing the bios, i had to uninstall the Windows 7 Loader hack (the "daz" one), it was causing a boot failure after bios update. May be it is something relative to SLIC signature, i dont know.
Updating from RAID 8.9.1 to 13.5 didnt affect my RAID1 array. Everything was OK after update. I didnt change anything. It just worked.
I checked the Realtek rom : PXE is working
Jmicron ROM is loading correctly but i cannot test it without a PATA HDD on it.


Procedure:
On an usb FAT32 stick : copy your current bios rom (if something goes wrong) and this modded one.
Reboot
Go to QFLASH (press del then F8)
Flash the bios and clear DMI data
Reboot
Re config all your bios settings
Reboot
Dont forget to remove USB-HDD in boot sequence (mine is first in sequence by default)
Reboot
Reinstall windows 7 loader hack (but you have a legit copy, right ?)
SUCCESS

Unfortunetly, Trimcheck 0.7 reports that the TRIM function doesnt work. I have a crucial M4 128GB (single drive), and a RAID1 array. May be it's my setup, or ICH9R ?


Just for you to know : i tested EVERY raid rom from 10.1 to 13.5 and All roms were loading and working with this motherboard. ROM 10.1 didnt require to uninstall the Windows loader hack, but the 10.6+ requires it.

[[File:IMG_6082b.jpg|none|auto]]
[[File:IMG_6085.JPG|none|auto]]
2

@ bugsan:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum, congratulations for your great success and thanks for your detailed report about how you managed the modding and flashing procedure!
My personal comment: Hats off! French people would say: "Chapeau!"

Since your report may be very useful for other users with a similar system resp. Award BIOS, I would like to get answers to the following questions:

  1. Why did you update the Intel RAID ROM to the latest version?
    Note: You probably know, that the newest Intel RST(e) drivers and RAID ROM modules have been designed for Intel 8- and 9-Series Chipsets.
  2. Which Intel RAID driver are you running?
  3. Why did you integrate the TRIM in RAID0 modded RAID ROM, although you have a RAID1 array?
    Note: Only RAID0 arrays are supported by the TRIM modded Intel RAID ROM/EFI RaidDriver modules.

By the way:
Interesting for me were the names, which Gigabyte had given to the inserted Intel AHCI and RAID ROM modules (ICH8AHCI.BIN and ICH9RAID.891).

No, TRIM should work (provided, that you are using an appropriate Intel RAID driver), but only within your Crucial M4 SSD, which is not member of the RAID1 array. Maybe you will have to trigger TRIM or to do the manual TRIM test by using an Hex Editor (look >here<).

Thanks again for your contribution!

Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)

3

Thank you, but i would have not succeed without all informations on this forum!

1 Why did you update the Intel RAID ROM to the latest version?
Just to test if i can insert the latest OROM… A lot of people didnt succeed at it. It was said because OROM 10.5+ are too big. The only one problem i encountered was a boot failure caused by Windows Loader hack By Daz.

2. Which Intel RAID driver are you running?
The latest, v13.5.2.1000. Should i downgrade ?

3. Why did you integrate the TRIM in RAID0 modded RAID ROM, although you have a RAID1 array?
At first i flashed with the non-trim OROM.
Trimcheck still reported that trim was not enabled. My SSD is in single drive mode (non-raid), and the “fsutil query…etc…” command reports TRIM as enabled … So i tried this modified OROM. Just in case.


Yes the name ICH8AHCI.BIN for an ICH9R chipset is strange. May be it’s just a COPY/PASTE from a lazy engineer… :wink:


I will try the manual TRIM test that you’ve provided.
Thank you

4

@ bugsan:
Thanks for having answered my questions.
As you can read >here<, I would prefer the Intel RAID driver/OROM combo v11.2.0.xxxx for an Intel ICH10R system, but if you are satisfied with your current configuration, you should stick with it.

5

I did the manual TRIM test.
TRIM is working, the sector has been zeroed …

Well, trimcheck cannot be trusted… Someone has to code a better tool :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Ok, that is what I expected.

The TrimCheck tool is good and very easy to use, but sometimes not able to detect low TRIM activity.

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Helleo
Where did you find "Original EX38DS4 F6D bios". i am searching for using Xeon on this mainboard.
Many thanks

8

@ChrisRegis - you do not need F6d for Xeon, you can use F6c, either one would need modified probably, depending on what your Xeon model is
Or, you can just use one of the modified and tested F6d BIOS attached in post #1 - Tell me your CPU model and I can tell you if BIOS is compatible, if not I can mod one of the above for you, or F6c.

This board/BIOS is very old, and OP has not posted here in long time, but we can tag him and see if he gets a PM notification email
@bugsan
@genius239 may also have a stock copy I see from google (all your links out there are dead now genius )

9

Many thanks for your replay.
My Xeon is E5450
I read on a page that I had previously saved on my computer (but I can’t reach the site) that F6d is recommended
the link for download is http://speed4up.com/hi53o2crxqv8.html but i can’t reach it
Thanks again

10

Here is the official F6D

Also, since my 4 years old post (lol), i made a batch script to automatically mod a bios file, given selected modules. It does the replace/add modules, copy/paste data at offset, automatically. It’s just 80 lines script.
I dont know if people are still interested by this.

ex38ds4_f6d.zip (519 KB)

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