I have no experience at all with 8 DIMM boards, and the 4xDDR3+4xDDR4 boards like TF-Q are even more special. Assuming that you have an external programmer like CH341A and a backup, this is what I would do in your situation:
- First try flashing the stock Huananzhi BD4 BIOS and test. Note: Both BD4 and TF-Q use 8x series chipset and 9.1.x ME. Hence it is very likely enough to just flash the BIOS region (fptw64.exe -f X9BD4006.bin -BIOS)
- If the stock BD4 works, you can go ahead and try my modded BD4 BIOS. If you want TBU, flash the B2 BIOS. In all other scenarios, flash the B1 BIOS
If the BD4 BIOS does not not work, then you can try the JGINYUE X99-8D4/2.5G based BIOS (will absolutely require an external programmer).
Good luck, and please post back in the other thread if you have success with the BD4 BIOS!
1 Like
I think I need to start on a high level here: What is your overall goal?
- As you can see in this thread, there is very little hope to get TPM 2.0 functionality (only TPM 1.2) with an official BIOS.
In your particular situation, I would actually start in a very different end:
- Are there any known working TPM 2.0 branded (ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock) X79 boards? If so, I would start by trying to crossflash such a BIOS. The bad news is that you have an ASUS boards. Quite often ASUS adds special chips for âproduct differentiationâ, which makes crossflashing that much harder.
1 Like
I believe that so far there is no board from these brands mentioned with functional TPM 2.0. There is a topic about an ASRock Z97 board that the company provided a BIOS adding support for TPM 2.0. I know they are different sockets, however, this made me positive. There is also a report from a user who requested a Gigabyte BIOS, leaving TPM 2.0 functional, so I hope that soon there will be a more concrete update on this
Ok. Quite often in life, you need to push for the change that you want. So I will simply give you some homework here, since you are the one with the actual hardware in hand:
- Download UEFITool 0.28.0
- Extract all modules that has either âTcgâ or âTPMâ in their name, from the Angxun BIOS (use âas isâ and save as .ffs)
- Replace the corresponding modules in your ASUS BIOS
- Flash your new BIOS and test. It is very unlikely to show correct data in the BIOS, but if you are very, very lucky, it might work in Windows
1 Like
Do you think you could do this? (I can try, but I have less experience with it.) As for the risk, donât worry. I have a recorder in case of any error. I think thereâs a high probability of it working.
I have now done some work for you to test
- It is very, very likely that it will not work
- If it does not work and you are indeed serious about getting TPM 2.0 working, then I have already given you instructions for what to try next. In other words: I will not swap/add modules for you. It is not that difficult to do, but it is very time consuming
Basically I have 3 items that you can test
-
ASUS X79 (DESC, GBe ME), merged with an extra-padded Angxun X79-V5.7 BIOS region
-
Stock Jginyue X79M PLUS V2.7. Although it only supports TPM 1.2, the whole point here is to see if your board can boot with a more standard Chinese X79 BIOS (link to info)(link to BIOS)
-
Jginyue X79M merged with Angxun X79-V5.7 BIOS region (link to info)(link to BIOS)
Some other thoughts
- If you really need TPM 2.0 and want to re-use CPU and RAM, then buying one of the Angxun X79 boards could be an option.
- Another budget oriented solution would be to buy an X99 board that supports DDR3 RAM, paired with one of the select few 26xx V3 or V4 CPUs that support DDR3. But you are probably better off just selling what you have as a kit (mobo, CPU, RAM) in that case
- You probably could make money with either approach, since top notch X79 boards like the ASUS Deluxe are still quite expensive
1 Like
Updates
I tested the BIOS merged with Angxun, and it returns error 9A. I changed all the âTCGâ and âDXEâ modules, and it returned the same error. I added the following DXE modules: âtpm20acpiâ and âtpm20platformdxeâ and replaced âamitcgplatformdxe.â The motherboard worked perfectly, but still didnât recognize TPM 2.0.
Any Suggestion?
Note: I would really like to keep the platform because I have an i7 4960x and 32GB 1866MHz RAM, and the features the Deluxe offers are great.
Excuse any mistakes, Iâm using a translator.
There is one thing I really donât understand here:
- The Angxun BIOS region already contains âtpm20acpiâ and âtpm20platformdxeâ
- So in exactly what BIOS did you add these modules, and where did you take them from?
Using my original list, is my understanding of what you have tested correct?
-
- Gives error code 9A
-
- Not tested
-
- Not tested
Believe me, I am all for using things for as long as possible. The 4960x was amazing for its time. But if TPM2 is absolutely needed, then buying an Angxun board is probably your best best here.
I removed them from Angxun and added them to the Asus BIOS, using the UEFI tool. With these three modules, it started. I was thinking about testing one module at a time until I saw which one gave error 9a, but I donât know if thatâs the best way. As for the BIOS, Iâve only tested the first one for now, not the other two. However, the version merged with Angxun and the one where I added the DXE and TCG modules, as you requested, both show error 9a in the debug.
Ok. However, running a quick check with UEFIExtract tells me that there are more differences than just what you have listed. Module swapping is not so easy, you need to match it with the NVRAM as well. And the ME regions are two major revisions apart (6.x vs 8.x), that will probably cause a lot of issues on its own.
Anyhow, I am very sure that practically speaking you have only a few options here:
- Find a BIOS from a Chinese X79 chipset board with TPM1.2 support, and swap the BIOS region with the Angxun BIOS listed here (basically item 2+3 on my list)
- Find a BIOS from a Chinese X79 chipset board with TPM2.0 support, and try crossflashing that (by far best chance of working on your X79 chipset ASUS board). See this post for some examples
- Buy a Chinese X79 board with TPM2 support, and just use it
Personally I held on to my Ivy Bridge PC for a long time (same gen as your 4960x). Once overclocked, performance was not a big problem. But it became too frustrating with new games being compiled with AVX2 instructions required, so I upgraded in the end.
1 Like
Hello, good afternoon, can you help me? I need BIOS mod x99 b9, secure boot on.
Hello! Sure, you need to get an external programmer and follow what I did in the second post. Secure boot is enabled by default in my modded BIOS. If you are willing to do hardware modifications, you can as demonstrated even get a TPM 2.0 module working.
There is now a VG5 BIOS available from Angxun:
@Tris @WGPoseidon
Hello, thank you for notifying me about the Angxun VG5 BIOS. I tried several modifications to the BIOS modules; in a certain combination, the menu appears in the BIOS as in the photo, but Windows still doesnât recognize it. Also, please take a look at the Asus Z87 Sabertooth, as it was the only similar motherboard that received the TPM L 2.0 update. Perhaps using these two as a basis, you can give me some suggestions.
I already gave you my recommendation in this post (forget module swapping). It hasnât changed. Now I have even provided you a link to an actual X79 chipset based BIOS to test. So why donât you try that?
Glad to see you are doing some research, and the Z87 Sabertooth info might be useful for some people. As a side-note (things I have ran across recently while researching new X99 BIOSes): The latest BIOS for both Huananzhi B85-ITX and B85 PLUS seemingly also have TPM2.0 support.
