Thanks for the GOP explanation, i kinda figured out the stuff about the header while comparing gop hexes in HxD so I’ve gotten on with that. So the microcodes are now the order of work, i have two currently and Im trying to add/replace one with kaby lake and or coffee lake suport. I am a bit oblivious as to which codes support which processors, even after a few hours searching im still not sure which codes will support my i5 7500. This shows the current codes
This is after i added a code (presumably for kaby lake but i could be wrong)
so i went ahead and tried flashing my bios with the vbios and gop driver update and i get an error stating: “undefined ROM image bios version” I’ve downgraded my bios to the oldest i could find from 29-Dec-17 so im not sure if its a security issue within the bios or if the ubu extraction and updates are recognized. i tried multiple bioses to confirm whether its the gop update or the vbios update or just the microcodes but none of the bioses make it past the first check and get the error. any help is appreciated.
So im digging around the forum and it seems i need to flash my bios using another method not the ‘correct’ method otherwise the security checks will make the flash fail.
Trying to use AUFDOS.exe but getting an error reading the file. Im gonna keep trying tomorrow, gotta go home from work so hopefully i’l get results.
To find which CPUID microcode supports what, look up the CPU on CPU-world.com, and in the details find the CPUID for that CPU, that is the microcode CPUID/same. It’s usually in the top section right beside core stepping under S-spec section, but since your CPU is so new it’s currently only in the bottom area right now = 906E9 http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/In…%20i5-7500.html
To flash modified BIOS you often need to flash differently than usual. What is your motherboard then I can link you to proper flash method for modified BIOS. It could also mean it’s a badly modified BIOS is why it wont flash, hard to say.
On your micrcodes, now that you provided image, you are often space limited, but not always, so you might be able to have one of the old and the new one, possibly both. You’d have to link me to your BIOS so I could do it and let you know. If you can only keep one of the older CPUID’s, which do you want to keep 506E1 or 506E3?
Thanks for all the help so far, really appreciate it. there must be a huge time zone difference since i see my post time as 11:05pm but im sure its 4:30 here. You’re right i checked cpu world for my processor microcode but its not there so i assumed its too new. I’d Keep the code that supports Sky Lake i3 6100. Its the only 6th gen processor i currently have access to. My motherboard is from a Lenovo m700 10GS. IH110MS is printed on it so chipset is H110. I’ve tried aufdos.exe but this string of checks return an error:
Read Flash … Done ME Data Size Check … Ok FFS Checksums … OK Check RomLayout … Ok Loading Capsule to secure memory buffer… done 18-Error . Secure Flash ROM Verify Fail
There is no header in the bios for security and the ME version is 11.0.18.1002
You’re welcome! About the CPUID ay CPU-world, it’s there just not up top like normal since it’s so new, it’s down in the bottom section. I hoped you would say Asus or Asrock etc, OEM systems like HP, Dell, Lenovo can be very tricky if not impossible to flash mod BIOS sometimes. Sorry, there is no method for me to link you too, other than general AFU thread maybe, which you probably already noticed. I will look at BIOS, and stock flasher though and let you know, probably best to use FPT if you can.
What all are you modifying exactly, please make a list. Usually you wont be able to write to certain sections of the BIOS, mainly ME region, but sometimes you can depending on BIOS internal settings but not likely on Lenovo since you probably can’t use the stock flasher to update mod BIOS.
Do you already have CH341A flash programmer? If not, order one now and SOIC8 test clip jumper cable, in case you do flash but it goes badly. They are only $3 for the programmer and $2 for the cable. Go ahead and order now, I’m sure you will need, especially for this mod thread since ME change is critical for this mod to work.
Please download Intel System Tools V11 from section C2 at link below if you have not already, and run the following commands from FPTw and zip all the files up and upload here Intel Management Engine: Drivers, Firmware & System Tools
Can you please link me to your exact system product page or BIOS download, so I can check stock BIOS and do the microcode mod for you and upload back here. I found way too many m700 10GS to know which exact one is your model Unless they all use same BIOS? Is this you, looks like same BIOS covers many Gxx systems? - https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds111845
yup thats the exact page where my bios is located. this older one im working with
i’l order the stuff you specified, was hoping i wouldnt need to do that but its cool im comfortable getting down with hardware. i’l need to install windows before i use the IME tools right. so the results will take some time since im only trying to get the kaby lake processor working before i install windows and use the board. im trying to update the GOP driver, Vbios and add the microcode for kaby lake and possibly coffee lake in the future.
hold up can i run the commands you specified from DOS without installing windows? wait you specified i run FPTW so i gotta install windows. so should i do win 7 or 10?
question about the flash programmer and cable, i’d like to support you guys here in the forum so is there any of you that offer them for sale say on ebay or such? we order stuff all the time in guyana, takes a while to ship but its worth the wait.
You might not, but be ready to have to. I’ll check your BIOS and you can try a simple quick flash with modified BIOS only with microcode update right now, then you’ll know how easy or hard it is for flashing mod BIOS on your board.
Ahh, all the tools are in that thread, so we should be set! Yes, you can run FPT from DOS too, just use the version in the DOS Folder.
I will edit this post shortly with BIOS updated with microcodes only, so you can attempt to flash and see what kind of error you get. We’ve tried and or updated a few Lenovo recently, I just can’t remember what all problems we had or what solutions we came up with. Give mea few to look over these tools, to see if I can edit to make work on your system, and then I’ll make you quick mod BIOS for flash testing attempt.
Ohh! I remember one Lenovo now, M58p on overclock.net, we had to use non-Lenovo DOS phlash instead of Lenovo phlash. I will include that too! Never mind, your BIOS updates with AFU, so you should use non-Lenovo AFU!
On the flash programmer, I am not sure if anyone here sells them on ebay, maybe but not that I’ve noticed.
@DannyZ8818 - Sorry but I am unable to edit this BIOS for microcodes, no matter what move I make (add only two like original 506E3+906E9, add three 506E1+506E3+906E9, make single like you did with UBU 906E9), no matter what the FIT table gets broken and I cannot correct it like I normally would. I don’t know what’s going on there, but someone better than me at editing BIOS is going to have to help you. I’ve never seen FIT table act like that! Why can’t all manufacturers just be nice and use same simple methods!
This means the BIOS you have modified with UBU for single microcode almost certainly has broken FIT Table. You can verify that by opening in UEFITool NE Alpha, open stock BIOS and then mod BIOS side by side, see FIT Tab and you will see it’s broken in mod BIOS and is not even selectable tab. Normally we edit FIT table, correct microcode locations and or amounts, and it’s all fixed. This break is not the same as usual, normally you can still select FIT tab, but microcode entries after #1 are empty until you fix, this is totally different and fixing like usual changes nothing.
I only have rc6 and rc1-up1 versions of UBU, so I can’t test exact same version you have. But I am sure your FIT table is broke on that file, verify with EUFITool NE and see - please upload that BIOS here if you are unsure about all that, I will show you.
I get error even trying to do single microcode update user picked, with version 1.70 RC6 - File tmp\mcode.ffs not found - I assume maybe due to mcodefit can’t open this file, it crashes? I tried to use it to check or fix the FIT originally, before I came to see how you inserted the single ucode only. Here is stock BIOS SoniX if you have time to look into this - https://www.sendspace.com/file/6fobn4
There is only the description bin, and an error file which I don’t know what it belongs to. Maybe run the other two again (not -desc) and post two images here, separately so I can see what command gives what error) Never mind, I can see from your description dump, that you can write to the BIOS region and GbE region only with FPT. You can probably run the ME FW update tool to update your ME as the final step though, but lots of other changes need done in BIOS First, starting with the microcodes and correcting the FIT table.
Did you check your modified file yet, for the FIT table issue I mentioned?
Here’s what I mean, others here who know will better understand, and hopefully someone can help you fix this And please tell me when you do, whoever helps, very unusual FIT table compared to all others I’ve corrected before, never had one break the FIT Tab.
I may have found the issue! My mistake too! Will elaborate once I redo the mods, sleep mod’n is the problem here Nope, wasn’t it I missed the ucode footer, thought that was the mistake, but nope, no change to issue once corrected and all redone. Using two codes runs right up before the FIT Table, so I can see three will not fit, but there is room for the two updates ucodes, just need to figure out what is breaking the FIT Table entirely.
nope i don’t have that area in my uefi tool. all it says are messages down there i have to download the linked one you posted. Downloaded your uefi alpha tool
as you can see the FIT for both the original (left) and updated kaby lake (right) are shown
so here’s how i added my code, i used ubu and chose the option for user selects only 1 microcode file and selected the microcode file 06-9e-09 obtained from intel (the ones in the ubu folder doesnt work for some odd reason) and i selected the option to replace with uefitool. its 2:45 pm here so im half way through my work afternoon. i think i’ll try flashing with fpt just the updated GOP and VBIOS for now until we can get both microcodes in the bios. wanna keep my sky lake functionality in case the kaby lake upgrade doesnt work and there is no post.
Finally got some copper tape. It was a little bit tricky to put a piece of suitable size on the right place.
Unfortunately when I was cleaning the previous pencil mod with plastic eraser and denatured alcohol I managed to tarnish/erode some gold layer around the pads to be shorted. I know I was dumb but hopefully this is just a cosmetic problem.
@Dnatwork If I got it right your i7 works with the original SKU? Did you clean ME region?
I have the H110M-STX, i7-8700, original SKU, started with the last bios from ASRock with ME 11.6 (October 2017). Not sure what you mean by cleaning, but I left the ME alone because it was 11.6.
I tried the Z370 SKU first because people said it had to be done for anything to work. In my case, it made everything stop working. USB was messed up, all benchmarks were very low and erratic, drives were wonky and computer would hang.
I went back to original SKU (started with fresh bios mod, just deleted the one with Z370), and all problems went away.
I’m guessing any other board maker would need the extra steps (cleaning, SKU).
@Dnatwork I tried to run the i5 8400 again but the symptoms remained the same. Hence this must be a ME issue which is strange since this is an Asrock h110 series board too. I think that those isolated extra pins aren’t causing problems since they should be reserved. So probably the next thing to try is ME cleaning.
Maybe I still check if just changing the SKU does any difference. After following the instruction posted in this thread outimage.bin was created. But according to ME Analyzer the only difference is
Flash Image Tool 11.6.0.1126 > Flash Image Tool 11.8.50.3460. Am I missing something?
Changing SKU will result in changing some bytes in the "Descriptor region" (not ME region). You should flash the image using SPI method to make changes to Descriptor/ME regions.
@s.napi I haven’t flashed this outimage.bin yet and my original question concerned to the validity of this image file/SKU changing process. By SPI method you mean to use an external SPI programmer? I think there is an alternative method (see the post #122).
You need some file compare tool for comparing two binary images, not ME Analyzer. If you do not have hardware SPI programmer you should (re)consider messing with modded BIOSes. With software flashing, even if it is capable of writing whole image/all BIOS regions correctly, you got only one try. You screw something and your board won’t start. Then you will need hardware programmer for recovery.
Nope, wasn’t it 
I missed the ucode footer, thought that was the mistake, but nope, no change to issue once corrected and all redone.
