[Guide] CoffeeLake CPUs on Skylake and KabyLake mainboards

i don’t know exactly since I didn’t use the 1440 pin Chinese mutant mod, but from what I gather this modded CPU is equivalent to a 9900K in most specs but with a few caveats, it does not support all of the memory speeds that the desktop version does (maxes out at 2666 or somethin like that) and the base clock is 2.10Ghz instead of 3.60.

The latter fact sort of suggests that in order to make this mutant cpu behave like a real 9900K, you will need to manually (and perhaps very tediously) tinker with voltages.
Ideally you should be able to boot into BIOS and then increase the voltages at the BIOS, however your idea of the switcheroo might work. i am not sure because I don’t have this.

but of course, make sure that your modded coffeetime bios has all the patches installed. Also, I think the part of the BIOS that says “HAP bit” for the Intel ME has to be set to Disabled. And you have to use the Intel ME Corporate Cut, not the consumer. The instructions are sneakily found on balloon pop ups when you hover the mouse over each setting.
You, in all likelihood, missed this part in your modded BIOS, since the instructions are so hidden and unclear.

I would recommend posting a screenshot of your coffeetime mod settings. so we can look at them

Thank you for your help :slightly_smiling_face:
I have managed to get the CPU running. I don’t know what exactly the problem was, but my PC boots now.
I can operate stable at 4400 MHz without tinkering with the voltage settings.
This is way faster than my 6700k while less power consuming!
So I can wait with further overclocking until I really need the extra power.

The info you provided was very helpful. I am very glad I had my head magnifier, a craft knife, and tweezers. The bios flashing was no problem. It seems the system has been running stable for a while.
I was able to upgrade my OS and everything went ok. THANK YOU!!!

Hi all,

I’m trying to modify my MSI Z170A gaming pro M7 to run with an i9 9900KS. I don’t yet have the new CPU in hand; I’m just trying to flash modified BIOS. I’ve used coffee time 0.99 to modify the latest BIOS (7976v1L). Using the GUI I changed the Intel ME version from 11.8.50.3399 (Enabled) to 11.8.77.3364 (Disabled). All other fields were set so that they’d display as green.

First I tried flashing with the motherboard’s flashback utility (a feature similar to that on ASUS boards). Everything seemed to boot okay, but the BIOS interface still displays the ME version as 11.8.50.3399. I tried again using FPT with the same result.

Is checking the ME version a valid way to determine whether the BIOS mod was successful? Is there another way besides testing the new CPU?

If I’ve missed a step or done something wrong, please let me know. Thanks a lot.

Good afternoon guys, I need some help. I have a Maximus IX Formula, Z270, I made it the BIOS MOD using Cofee Lake 0.99 and I’m using a QQLS. I recorded the BIOS via Asus Flash Back and with my G4560 it works perfectly but with QQLS the PC turns on error 00 and turns off. someone could help.

IMG_20220402_144309.jpg

Hi bf3itu,

quite funny. I m having the exact same symptom, although i think of me being a little further.
I modified my Bios with Coffee Time and tried the QQLS and a 9980HK. Both didnt work (00 and shutdown). I deactivated Intel ME using me cleaner and just got them to boot - unfortunately just for one time after a CMOS reset. When not being exactly after the CMOS reset there s the error 00 and the shutting down.
Ouh and for me: Its not an ASUS, but a MSI Z170 XPOWER (MS-7968).
Any hints for one of us?

Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone, this is my first post on the new forum and it looks wonderful so far. I come here to ask if anyone have experience on the mod working on the ASUS Z270-K? I have successfully made a successful mod on the Maximus VIII Ranger and presently running an i7 9700K at 5.1 GHz (previously tested working with a 9600KF and 9600K as well) and over time, I have made enhancements to the BIOS as well (latest F0 microcode, LAN ROM version to fix WOL, update ME to 11.7.0.1261 and adjusting default settings via AMIBCP to make Win 11 compatible by default).
I have already prepared the BIOS for the Z270-K. I don’t have the board yet but want to try to make sure if everything looks okay. Here’s the link. Any help is welcome.

I have an Asus z270f gaming and want to know if this guide can get the board to use a 8400 (6 cores no HT)

Bios version: 1301
ME version: 11.7.0.1040

I know the board does not have flashback and only has crashfree3 (not sure if it’s useful or not)

Does anyone know if pin isolation is needed for this board? I plan to do find the pin 102 and ground it for the superIO.

Is there a way to flash the modded bios safely without bios programmer? If I screw up, only way to get it back is via bios programmer? I heard most of the programmer out there can’t do the needed 3.3v, 5v will kill the bios chip??? Any cheaper programmer with clip that works with 3.3v?

This forum has changed a lot since my last visit.^^
Could someone point out to me whether the same is true for CoffeeTime?
I would be especially interested in a download link for the most recent version which I fail to find in this new layout. :slight_smile:
Also, have there been further improvements regarding suitable UEFIs? I want to finally switch over my private VIII Ranger to 9900K use and last time I checked, there were still issues with IME and 16-thread compatibility in the newest ASU UEFIs, so use of older versions was recommendable. But there were already improvements over the initial “2202 only” limitations, which leaves quite a lot of possible candidates for best starting point.

Heyho Torsten,

latest Coffee Time can be found here (Post 1416 if link does not work).

Compatibility with Z170 is now nearly flawless. Running mine 9900k on Asus Z170 Deluxe with latest Bios 3801, all Cores working, HT working. OC to 5,2 allcore. Make sure to include the latest microcode with UBU to get rid of the AVX downclock bug. Without the latest microcode the clock does drop -0,1 Ghz on AVX loads.

Only problem I have is with the integrated TPM module, which does not activate, no matter what I tried. There is a relative long thread about that topic (couldn’t find it right now). On some boards it could be activated with lots of hassle, on some others it doesn’t. Bought an external module for 15€ for Win11.

2 Likes

Thx a lot. TPM does not bother me and AVX will be power limited anyway (550 W PSU, fanless watercooling,GPU might draw 350 W => I will probably not go beyond PL1 150 W/PL2 200 W). But I will keep the issue in mind. More pressing though: To reach >5 GHz as well and to finally coax more than 6700K-compatible DDR3200 out of my B-dies. :slight_smile:

@svarmod or anyone else:
Are there any known limits to replacing IME with Coffeetime 99? Being on 11.8, I have to downgrade and I get shown the correct “processing” and then “Replace ME: Done” when I try to do so. But than CoffeeTime reports the same 11.8.5 as before for the supposedly modified image. Some older modded BIOS images and .caps sourced directly from Asus work. (Both contain lower IME, though, 11.7. for the former; 11.6 for the latter.)

Also has anybody experience with drive recognition problems? After failing to modify my own file, I used the one provided by @itsakjt above ([GUIDE] Coffee Lake CPUs on Skylake and Kaby Lake motherboards - #1456 by itsakjt). But I got some UEFI-side initialization error when trying to boot from an SATA disk (being Win11, this might have some other problems with my system) and NVME disks where not even listed as boot devices, despite being accessabile as drive when running some live Linux. (I tried both my normal Seagate XF1440 U.2 and an M.2 image of the same system.)

Right now I have backflashed over itsakits file with some three year old 2202 based image made with Coffee Time 0.7, which, according to CoffeeTime .99 is missing half the patches. But at least I can boot into windows now. My SATAe attached front panel is not working, however, monitoring readouts are all over the place and don’t get me started on voltages. So I would really like to find sth better. :slight_smile:

(I CH143-flashed one of the UEFIs with uncessful IME downgrade but all other patches when still running the old CPU and back than everything worked fine. Except the 9900K obviously, so I guess a successful mod of my own BIOS image should solve most of the problems as neither IME nor CPU change should influence M.2./U.2 and SATAe of the PCH.)

@PCGH_Torsten - Which motherboard are you using? I have sometimes seen CoffeeTime failing to replace ME when the internal files of CoffeeTime are not renamed properly or are not present.

The matching board for your file upload – Maximus VIII Ranger. And I did not tinker with Coffeetimes files and obviously these are the same when I (successfully) mess with your file and when I fail to mod my own dumped BIOS.

1 Additon to the list of errors: System now failed three times in a row to shut off properly.

BTW @itsakjt: When running the same CPU on the same board (though with newer UEFI) as me,
did you observe any abnormalities with hardware monitoring and CPU settings?

  • I now use a -200 mV offset of the boards default 1.5 V Vcore (which do are not even close to any 1151 CPU) and I get 1.22 V under load and 1.32 V idle. Which is more akin to 1.3 V fixed preset on a board with really bad Vdrop than anything using an offset on actual turbo behaviour.
  • EIST and turbo modes seem messed up as well: My clocks vary between 2.9 and 3.6 GHz on all eight cores simultaneously.
  • Package power ain’t any better at 2.7 W acording to HWInfo 7.22, but the board does seem to know a more realistic value. At least my PSU reports 155 W on 12V1 which is about as close to my settings (150 W PL1) as above voltages are.
  • VR VCC temp is given at up to 93 °C under load with a fast but rather small reduction on reduced CPU activity to mid-eightyish values. Normalle VR VCC should stay much closer to the temperature of its neighbouring MOSFETs, which are at a watercooled 45 °C.

I am not even quite sure at the moment whether my readouts are trash or my board.

(Also my SATAe front panel now works for 30 to 120 seconds after powering on with drives vanashing in midoperation later. WTF? I guess will have to find that one other guy in the world that is acutally using SATAe.^^)

Hi @PCGH_Torsten,
I have upgraded the CPU now to an i7 9700K clocked at 5.1 GHz 24x7.
For your questions:

  1. I had to use an offset as well for that and it is actually quite common on ASUS boards. Do not worry about it. This was the case with both CPUs (9600KF and 9700K)
  2. I use a manual overclock as mentioned with quite high voltages (1.48V on load) and have left the EIST and turbo settings at Auto. They work perfect.
  3. I use AIDA64 for monitoring and it seems to report perfect values. For the vCore, I have measured on the vCore chokes and get same reading with multimeter.
  4. VR VCC temp for my unit is reported at lower 80 degree C on idle. I have researched on this and it is normal and is basically the temperature of the voltage controller inside the CPU. Do not worry about it as long as your CPU is cooled properly.
  5. As for SATAe, I have never used that on my board. I use a Samsung PM981a 1 TB NVMe SSD along with a 480 GB Kingston SATA SSD and a 2 TB 7200 RPM HDD from Seagate and they work fine,

Also later, I have updated the BIOS further more and fixed an issue with Wake on LAN not working (option was greyed out in UEFI) by updating the Intel LAN OPROM. I have also updated the CPU microcode to the latest F0 revision. I have also made changes via AMIBCP tool to make CSM disabled and secure boot enabled by default to make it Windows 11 ready by default. I also needed the ASUS TPM-M R2.0 card to have TPM support since the ASUS Z170 ROG boards typically have Intel PTT disabled through the FPF on the chipset (FPF = Field Programmable Fuse - Basically a one shot fuse). I spent 6 days on that and figured out that it is not possible to enable PTT on my particular board without physically replacing the chipset.

M8R_4502.zip (8.2 MB)

Please use AsProgrammer for flashing the BIOS with CH341a.
AsProgrammer_V2.1.0.13_XiTongZhiJia.zip (2.0 MB)

Please try this new file and let me know the results.

Also please let me know if you are setting your board data correctly (UUID, SN, MAC address) with Coffee Time.

Also, did you isolate any of the CPU pads? If so, you can safely remove them because this board do not have those reserved pins connected anywhere (my CPU socket is still in mint condition even after almost a year of heavy usage). Isolating the pads might have something to do with the false readings.

With the symptoms your PC is having, it looks like the BIOS is not getting flashed properly. AsProgrammer should fix it (select the chip model as on your board - typically Winbond W25Q128FV)

I still use this system as my daily driver and it still works great. I wish you will be able to run it perfectly as well. All the best and keep us updated.

Hi.
I was using SkyGz CH341 Programmer 1.4 free so far. If it did any errors during flashing, it sure made the same during verification. CPU is not isolated, just sktocc modded. (I aint that good and flimsy soldering, so modding the board seemed to be the less safe option.) UUID/SN/MAC were successfully transplanted into the BIOS I flashed based on your older file, with exception of the 2nd MAC that for some reason was found in my own dump despite there being no 2nd LAN controller on M8R. (It was identical to the 1st one anyway.)
AIDA package power makes a lot more sense, at least it goes up into tripple digits under load instead of going down as reported in HWInfo. However 114 W seem a bit low for an 9900K at 2.9 GHz and 1.22 V (which in itself is definitley too low for an 9900K given 200 W headroom) and would imply a terrible VRM efficiency, if the 152 W supply power reported by my PSU are correct.
I will try your new BIOS and software next, hoping for improvements. (Though I do not intend to let Win11 near my PC and in fact need CSM :-))

BTW: PC just did it first proper shutdown since switching the CPU. Well - too late now pal to show some good will! :stuck_out_tongue:

Nice work you did on your BIOS. Current LAN options, did even set the correct CPU voltage. But darn: Switching CSM back on did nothing for boot device recognition, my mbr windows installation remains unbootable on both NVME drives (tried M.2 and PCIe x4). An Win 11 GPT drive, however, is recognized. On 2nd thought this might have been the same problem I had with your older image, when I didn’t think to test any new installation specifically. Could it be that parts of your CSM hard deactivation overrule settings made in the BIOS?

BTW I just noticed your specific SSD: The PM981 was that one exception which brought its own option rom, making it bootable as an AHCI or PCIe device without need for functional NVME support, wasn’t it? I always wanted to try Win98 on one of those. :slight_smile: But more importantly it might be that your system skips the whole NVME recognition that could be involved in my problems.

I am now trying to advance my crude 2022 based attempt. With all CoffeeTime mods applied it did at least recognize an USB stick in the SATAe front panel as a boot device, though the very same drive was absent in windows 30 s later. More on stability, performance and shut downs (or lack thereoff^^) tomorrow.

Update on 2202 improvements:

  • EIST fixed
  • Turbomode stayed unavailable.
  • Shutdown problems rarer, but still there. Hang up often occured so late that windows did not remark on it in next boot. Once I got a bluescreen indicating power management - perhaps ACPI tables weren’t the only thing off?
  • USB/SATAe will work after deactivating and reactivating USB device in windows. Can’t be driver issue, though, because windows just sees a generic PCIe link and and ASMedia controller - the very same setup used with the very same driver for M8Rs own USB 3.1 ports without causing trouble there.

Next attempt: Got CoffeeTime99 to replace IME in Asus’ 3802.cap and backflashed that one. (still no chance of modding my original 3802 dump, though)

  • Vcore now too low, immediate errors in Prime95 and instability afterwards caused UEF corruption. Had to manually reset - and now feel confirmed in giving bonus for external reset switches (which M8R lacks) in my reviews.
  • +100 mV ended in 1.46 V in Prime95 and overheating.
  • +50 mV gives 1.42 V under load and 1.12 idle. Seems stable, but really: 1.37 without offset were insufficient for 4.5 GHz?? I had planned to overclock and the 92 °C core temperature with 30 °C water intake observed at 1.42 V are already unsustainable.
  • Turbo is still broken. While the system goes to 4.5 GHz now (3.9 before) all cores are still synced, making high single core clocks at reasonable energy conversion impossible.
  • HWInfo package power now moves in the correct direction and deviates only about 10% from AIDA. But both appear too low, indicating 190/210 W with 8 core Prime95, while PSU reports 310 W input into VRM. Considering the temperature problems, the PSU readings seem more realistic.
  • Front panel seems fine (for) now
  • Shutdowns: We’ll see.