How roll back Coffeelake mod done on Maximus IX Apex (Intel Z270)?

BIOS/UEFI Modding BIOS Modding Guides and Problems
21

@MeatWar Wasnt there another way to unlock the bios by shorting a pin? I remember doing somethig like that in the begging.

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Yes…on Pluto’s guide, E1. HDA_SDO/GPIO33 (a.k.a. “Pinmod”) you need to identify the correct Audio Codec IC package and pin assigment.

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@MeatWar

So I took the board out today and put in my old 6700k cpu in the Apex. Used a stock cooler. Anyhow it wouldn’t boot or post. So I wasn’t sure if board was dead or damaged or something wrong with the bios. Maybe I needed to use both 8 pin power connectors but my spare psu only had one. Read all you really need is one.

After reving heatsink I noticed the cpu wasn’t correctly oriented and I thought thats it I must have fried it. So I fix the orientation and press power and it goes on and boots into a copy of windows from another Z270 board I had and I load up CSME and do a bios dump and low and behold all my descriptors are unlocked!

Considering was able to load windows and it felt stable not sure if worth the roll back. Haven’t checked other bios on other side though.

Thanks

Edit: After pressing the dual bios button switch it seems like both sides are Apex X bios and not Apex 9. At least descriptors are unlocked. Maybe should use jumper instead.

Thanks again

2 Likes
24

Well found an update bios version on HwBot forum. Probably same place where I found the original mod. This one version 2603 included manufacturer support for Resizeable bar support. Considering my system is already modded if I was to upgrade the mod I could just fptw64 -bios -f upgrade.bin?

Going to try tomorrow. If @MeatWar can you please comment if you think will work. Also not sure how dual bios will affect the process.

Thanks.

25

Then FPT tool should write allowed.

I think it will only write to the current select bios IC.
You can always use USB BFB feature for flashing mods.

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I decided in the end not to roll it back and instead used fptw64 to flash bios region to version 2603 provided by dsanke on HwBot forum. The reasoning was due to fact this newer version brought Resizeable Bar menu option on the bios level. Next I’m thinking of finding an i3 9350K B0 stepping as it will not need pin modifications according to others and I don’t want to go through what happened with the instability from the 9700K. Windows 11 support also a bonus. However in my case if I was to roll back and to satisfy the title of the thread all I would really need is to use fptw64 as luckily I thought ahead by unlocking all those descriptors. Thanks.

1 Like
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Still playing around with this board and have decided to upgrade the bios to the latest release which is version 2701 for Apex X. Confused about what I need to know on how to cross flash a newer models bios on an older board and what I need to do to make it work. Will try to run the Coffeetime 0.99 mod tool on the latest bios release for the Asus Apex X (running on the Apex IX). The previous version was made by @Dsanke who I have not been able to contact. So will try to update it myself. Anyhow not sure if running Coffeetime on the Apex X latest 2701 bios release will accomplish the same thing as what he was able to accomplish. I already have his 2603 Apex X mod running.

Also my plan is to make the mod and just ‘fptw64 -f -bios biosregion.bin’ instead of the whole bios file as I already have 11.7 ME and FD regions already unlocked.

Appreciate any advice please.

Thanks

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@MeatWar please pm me. Need help on upgrading the bios. Sorry to bother you.

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Explain the current status, do not omit any details if you please, and what are you trying to do now.
Dinner time for me now.

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Essentially backport Asus Apex X z370 bios onto Apex IX z270 motherboard. Have ver 2603 made by Dsanke but ver 2701 was never modded by him and he is MIA. Not sure what edits and firmware modules need to removed such as LED ETC. Enjoy dinner. Thanks.

31

Sorry me neither and imagine this (backports) is a bit time consuming task(s), that should require at hand same board model for providing the rigth directions, i do mainly repairs…not “deep” modding as this and never a backport.
You need it NOW… but not all users are online every day or week, you should pm him and ask him if is avaiable for this.
Who knows… he could already saw your posts and already had made his decision, only he knows what had to be done and if it was easy or not…
Regards.

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Ok thanks appreciate it. Also he hasn’t contributed here since last year so its like another one dropped off the face of the earth.