MSI X99A Gaming 7 Pcie Bifurcation Bios Mod

Thread regarding creating Pcie Bifurcation supported Bios Mod for MSI X99A Gaming 7 Motherboard.
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I made changes in bios file and saved it and flashed it. When I flash with M-flash it shows my bios with new date and flashes it but when system reboots, It show the original BIOS build date and changes are not there… :frowning: I don’t expect to behave it like that. Please help if you know or have any Idea what can we do here.

I will soon make a new thread for this motherboard pcie bifurcation.

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Please help me in creating this BIOS MOD.

@demail2006 - Please edit your post if you need to add more thoughts or questions and no one has replied yet, thanks. No need for another thread, you have this one here

Changing BIOS build is not a simple thing, and not something you need to be concerned with really, unless it’s super important to you for some reason??

How are you editing BIOS what tools, what changes are you making that you expect to show up in BIOS (not about date)?
MSI BIOS is often very tricky to edit, and very unusual how to edit compared to other BIOS, but it does depend on what you’re trying to do and how, as to if it may work that easily or not

Please link me to the stock BIOS you are using, at MSI’s site, or is it HH2 version? If yes, no need for link, I have already

Sorry, I still have not figured out how to link to IntelRCSetup in the BIOS, or make it visible.
Best you can do for Bifurcation edit on this BIOS is to make the changes you want directly in the optimal column of the BIOS per what port you want to change the bifurcation on, then save and flash
You cannot make visible, well I’m sure you can but I do not know how yet. Some boards if you remove all microcode then you can see IntelRCSetup in BIOS, but this is not ideal way to run, and you risk it bricking board if your board wont boot without microcode.

Thanks for your reply.

I will say can we start with older HF0 BIOS which opens in amibcp and we can edit and save changes there. Link https://download.msi.com/bos_exe/mb/7885vHF.zip. I changed bios settings and saved and flashed bios but no change was visiable i.e. I did not see any pcie bifurcation happening.

Please can you check this version of bios, Do we need to correct any bios checksums when we save it.

Finally I got the bifurcation working. I got that what BIOS build date it is showing is nothing to do with pcie bifurcation. First tried with all slots set to x4,x4 or x4,x4,x4,x4 modes and in the both optimal and fail safe settings, Then I dialed back to auto for the slot I need bifurcated. I find out that maybe hwinfo and bios tool show cards in reverse order, Hence I was not able to achieve it earlier.

However I done it on old BIOS, I will be grateful if I get Any help to achieve same on newer BIOS. Is there a chance if there is a newer AMIBCP tool available which can open newer BIOS files without error?

@demail2006 - Opening in AMIBCP does not matter to me, I can edit latest BIOS just fine. I don’t need to use AMIBCP, only mentioned it so you can test edits, until you find exactly which slots work for what settings, then you can tell me and I can do same changes on latest BIOS for you
Yes, it’s not how it looks in BIOS/AMIBCP compared to actual slots on board, sometimes confusing, especially if it’s your first time messing with this.

So, now that you found which settings work for you on which slots, tell me exactly, or show me images of your edit on the older BIOS in AMIBCP, then I will do the same edits for you by hand (ie 100% hex edit + UEFITool) on latest BIOS instead and you’ll be all set

There is an edited AMIBCP you can open these BIOS with…
But it’s not fully compatible >> ie much of the text is garbled garbage, and you must remove all language strings before using it to save any changes, then you have to pull AMITSE/SetupData module from edited BIOS + NVRAM from edited BIOS in 2-6 separate modules/locations, then place all that into a fresh BIOS
So, it’s not really an ideal use thing for most people, unless you really know about BIOS editing, mainly due to all the possible NVRAM swaps that need done, sometimes in unconventional ways. Ideally, this edited AMIBCP should only be used for inspection, not actually doing any edits.

Hi
This is really cool, I just got the "asrock ultra quad m.2 card" to support x4 nvme2 SSDs… However I only have two SSDs ( x4/x4).
Also I have the 5820k (24lanes) + the MSI x99 gaming 7 motherboard. And just discovered that this asrocks card need bifurcation x4x4x4x4 to fully work (using 4xSSDs).
Didnt even know what bifurcation was 3hours ago… even less this forum&this thread created a day ago! =)

So I know(as I understand) x4x4x4x4 will not work with my 5820 due to lack of pci-lanes. but as I only have two SSDs, perhaps that is enough and could work.
So my setup is that on the PCI-1 express I have my graphics card 1080TI, which I want to remain to be x16.
But on the next PCI express, which is x8? if that could be modded to x4/x4 (instead of x8 as of now?) ?

Could any of you be pleased to help me with a mod like that ? using the latest MSI BIOS:7885vHH2

Possible to request an bifurcation mod of bios:7885vHH2 on slot PCI_3 to x4x4 ? instead of x8

@Broccoli76 - I can make the change, but not based on the info you provided, I need to know what IIO slot that is for the PCIE slot you mentioned
Maybe @demail2006 can write us out a chart since he’s tested all this on older BIOS and should know which setting in BIOS applies to which slot.

Cool, Maybe I can do some prototyping how to identify the IIO slots ? ( if demail2006 doesnt replies)

@Broccoli76 - plug a card into any slot, then find in HWINFO64 in large window on left in “Bus” section.
Use came card when you test each slot, this way you can watch it move around to the different slots in HWINFO64
Write down what each slot is #-wise on HWINFO64, then in BIOS, change one thing at a time to limit to something low you will recognize (like limit slot to x4 or PCIE 2.0 etc) and then move card around until you find which slot the change applied to.

See also post #1-2 here, shows some info about this and how to recognize
[Guide] - How to Bifurcate a PCI-E slot

The info in post one here may help as well
[GUIDE] Adding Bifurcation Support to ASUS X79 UEFI BIOS

Hello! I came across this while doing a search and was hoping you could do a modded bios for the MSI X99a Gaming Pro Carbon? I’m using the 7A20v151 Bios. msi com/Motherboard/support/X99A-GAMING-PRO-CARBON#down-bios (Edites as it won’t let me post the link)

Thank you in advance!!!

@Shin-Gouki did you ever find a way to mod your BIOS? I have the same motherboard and looking to mod it with Turbo Unlock, registered ECC RAM support and possibly bifurcation support. This would make an awesome motherboard.

Ditto here. Looking for bifurcation support.

See 3 post above.

Thanks. I wondered if there was a compiled one given the posts immediately above and then found a work-around.