Is manually adding Raptor Lake support on old BIOS a fools errand?

BIOS/UEFI Modding BIOS Modding Guides and Problems
1

Hi, I recently obtained a DFI ADS310 from eBay. The motherboard is LGA1700 socket, and in the data sheet it supports 12 and 13 Gen CPUs. However, the BIOS on the motherboard is an old version (Sep 22) and DFI does not provide BIOS downloads to the public, and upon emailing them as per instructions on their website, they refused to provide the BIOS update unless the motherboard was bought from them directly.

Now, the BIOS chip is WSON8 and it is socketed, so flashing the BIOS with a hardware flasher is quite easy. The BIOS also had no boot guard enablement, and additionally the chipset is in manufacturing mode, so no issues on those front as well. However, as I read various threads here and in bios-mods forum, I’m not sure if this is feasible.

Currently, there are 2 microcodes in the BIOS with no room for more, for the Alder Lake 90672 (AFAIK 8P+8E) and 90675 (AFAIK 6P+0E) in the BIOS. I can remove 90675 and add B0671 (Raptor 8P+16E), but I’m somewhat confident if just a microcode swap does the trick, I should be able to run 90672, 90675, B06F2(8P+8E Raptor rebrand), B06F5(6P+0E Raptor rebrand) and B0671 CPUs as the 90672/B06F2 microcodes contains all the CPUs except for the “true” Raptor Lake 8P+16E configurations (13600K and above, B0671). However, I’m not sure if I’m missing anything. For example, do I need to update the ME firmware to a certain subversion? I believe Raptor Lake is still using version 16. Members at bios-mods forum also stresses that adding microcode does not add new CPU support and in many cases a new BIOS is the only way, although I’m not sure if it applies here. Is this attempt futile? If enabling “true” Raptor Lake 8P+16E is indeed impossible, how about the other “Raptor Lake” rebrands based on the old Alder Lake silicon? Would it resemble unlocking Coffee Lake on Kaby Lake compatible systems?

Appreciate any input on this matter.

2

All your assumptions are correct, so a definitely answer, only from a user with same mb and mod, all other possible fails can be due to specific locks/build of the OEM, regarding bios and hw board design.
You got a programmer so it’s your choice to procede as long as you can read correctly the current SPI content.
Depending on the current bios ME FW but the 16 can be updated, some fw updates are in the ME 16 section of the forum.
Good luck.

3

I see, it appears that the only way is to flash and try with a new CPU, which I don’t yet have yet. The BIOS looks quite vanilla and barren, hopefully it will work out, fingers crossed. Thanks for the input!

4

Welp, ordered a 14700K and it arrived, unfortunately, while the system POSTed, PCIe connectivity to the CPU (First NVMe and the x16 slot) are not working (semi-expected this, someone in LTT forums iirc forgot to update their BIOS for 13Gen (the lower end ADL “refresh” variants below 13600K), and experienced the same thing), the IGP UHD 770 driver cannot load, some sensors broken etc. Since the board only has 1x x16 slot and the IGP isn’t working well, unfortunately the Alder Lake CPU is going back to this board. The ME version and the microcode are already very recent if not the latest versions, so this is a bummer. I have not tested other functions like AMT (Both chipset and CPU supports it) but at this stage it is not really usable for normal usage. Seems like a proper BIOS from the manufacturer is still necessary, albeit unavailable.