Intel Nuc 8i5BEB-need help

Well, there’s a mentioning of a retracted version 0097 in NVRAM, but bios seems a lot older, according to ME 0083 or 0085

µcodes are 3 years back

and MEA is behind, too:

EDIT: Could you check for a folder \windows\firmware since the machine still boots?

Hello and thanks very much for your answer!
Do you mean on nvme with win 10 install? With it attached it boots but hangs on boot splash screen when “Prepare Automating Repair message” appears.Trying to boot something else like a live os from usb stick to acces that way hangs also and I cannot acces it,maybe in another machine.But why if new bio file from asus official site can be flashed without problems is not updating ME and MEA?Or these are not part of the .bio file?
L.E And yes I have tried with v 97 also but acts the same; v97 was retracted for some reason from asus site…

OK, I did understand that differently. Might have been inteeresting for the disk which was in the machine when the possible update happenend.

Have a look into the marked EFI volume- right side update file, they have all volumes separated. This volume has some compressed raw volumes with pics in it, maybe someone ‘was here’.

Otherwise NVRAM looks a little messy and maybe ME should be reinitialized.

Yes you are right!I have noticed that bios splash image is not original “Intel Nuc” it was customized.

You might want to try this file:

reco.zip (6.5 MB)

FD and GbE regoin transfered from old bios
ME region replaced with region from update 0085
NVRAM emptied except for Defaults and machine specific data
First code EFI volume replaced with stock from 0085

THis should be a stock 0085 firmware which should be updateable to latest firmware. MIght need several reboots / might boot longer. Should work and have machine specific data. But of course no warranty!

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Thank you very much! Will try in a moment!

So,flashed and I got a strange message :slight_smile: “System in manufacturing mode”


Yes v 85 reported but trying to boot from hdd or usb installer still freeze as can you see in last image.Maybe its hw related failure,Idont know.Is that anything I can try next?Anyway thanks for your help,I own you a beer or a coffe!

Thanks for the feedback!

Seen that before, should disappear after some reboots (and did in his case):

System freezing when booting is now no longer firmware related (if there’s not a hint in the history that tells us that 0085 had a boot error…)

Check the usual suspects- memory, cpu, all accesories, try to start with as little as possible attached to the mainboard, one stick memory only and so on…

(I wouldn’t try a firmware update in this state, a memory error might corrupt your firmware)

Will do so,thank you very much for the support!

Hello!
I am back with fresh news!
I got the unit up and working,this is the good news.The bad news is windows boot up only after disabling 3 cores of the cpu so only with 1 core! …it seems my cpu failed… :pensive:
Anyway thank you once again for your help! :vulcan_salute:

Soldered cpu, that’s bad! Did you check the PSU and VRMs? Might as well be a power problem?

So Ive looked up the board vcore voltage which seem ok at boot 0.8v and identified 3 coils that has this voltage.Seem stable voltage at boot and then when windows start voltage is dropping and rising,I guess is normal behavior.I will investigate further,maybe can find something…

Good luck!

Hello @lfb6,
First off, I’d like to thank you very much for your help since it solved my issue. I was doing such a trick for the first time and there is so much info regarding INTEL BIOS repair procedure. A few days ago I accidentally bricked NUC8BEH when installing some WINDOWS 11 optional updates related to the INTEL hardware: I didn’t pay attention that those updates are BIOS Firmwares. By selecting a wrong update, the system reflashed the device and it was not booting anymore. I tried to restart by pressing the power button - no success, then tried to clean up BIOS dynamic data by switching the yellow jumper - no success, also tried to disconnect the battery (CR2032) - still didn’t work. Instead, when it is switched on, the PC tries to access SSD (blinking) and suddenly reboots and repeats the same infinitely. I started suspecting BIOS issues: all this time no HDMI or USB-C video signal was received from the PC, wired USB keyboard didn’t blink (no reaction on F2). After googling, I learned that there is a few ways to re-flash: 3 secs power button with amber light or fully automatic when removing the yellow jumper. Shortly: neither was working. I have prepared a new fresh USB key (FAT32 with the one single BE0095.bio inserted into the “yellow” USB socket). The first approach gave me a very weird result: the LED blinked for a moment in amber and PC turned off. When pressed again: the amber light, then the blue light, the fan spins, but nothing happens - the same black screen, no output. The second one: when the jumper is removed: the PC also ‘works’ spinning up the fan, but also no output. I waited for 20 mins in hope it was updating, then switched off and ultimately it was still the same brick with no progress. So, the searches led me to this post and I ordered a CH341A kit. I used the clip (luckily no soldering at all) with no 1.8 adapter needed (JFYI, I learned that the modern Chinese 1.8v adapters are sold faulty and need some fix (IC flip) to get working correctly). The PC contains at least two chips: WINBOND 25Q80 (1MB) and one 25B127DSIG (16MB). I connected to the 16MB and it was recognized by “NeoProgrammer” as GD25Q127. I successfully read the content into a file and then re-flashed with the one from you. When it was finished, I connected the HDMI and in a few second I saw the menu!!! It WORKED! The only the pity is that now I have my NUC with the parameters hardcoded in the “reco.rom” for @ne0. Now my NUC runs well WIN11. Then, I finally installed BE0095.bio.

As a bottom line: it really works fine but would it be possible to make my PC data (UUID, MAC, SN, etc.) come back? Could you, please help me with this?

KR,
Alexander.

Well, I wrote what I did:

Use UEFIToolNE for addresses, UEFITool 0.25 or UEFITool 0.28 or a hex editor (HxD for example) for exchanging regions and emtying NVRAM and corresponding GUID store.

Post a link to / attach your old dump to see what’s left of this information.

Hello @lfb6,
Here is a link:

The relevant parts of your dump look OK.

That’s the file you used from the forum and the marked parts are the regions and entries you have to replace with the corresponding parts of your dump.

Your own dump with the parts you need to transfer marked:

  • GbE is from 0x1000 to 0x3000 (your GbE has it’s MAC address at 0x2000 (adress for the complete file, 0x1000 for the region)

  • The entries in NVRAM are from 0x800090 to 0x800348 (adresses for the complete file)

The new file reco.rom should look absolutely identical in UEFIToolNE after the exchanges.

Post the file again when ready if you wish for a check.

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Hello @lfb6,
I’ve reflashed again the chip and now I have the System Information corresponding to the box sticker data (SN, Version), but the “Board information” doesn’t repeat the same values.
Do you know if it is normal?
I attach a screenshot.

Expected- see your own dump. Machine serial ≠ board serial

Hello @lfb6,
Thank you a lot.
Indeed, it is clear from the dump.
I think we can close this topic.
KR,
Alexander.