[Request] Asus P6X58-E WS BIOS, Xeon X5680 support

[palanthas]

Hello everyone,
I’m using an Asus P6X58-E WS with an i7 920 as a test lab and wanted to give it an upgrade.
I knew it supports X5600 “series” and its BIOS can be easily modded so it boots from a PCIE NVME. What I didn’t check before ordering was which 5600 series it supports out of the box, which are the 95W 5675 and the 130W 5690.

So I got Samsung ECC RAM and a 5680, did a BIOS reset but was greeted by a black screen and no beeps. Putting back the Non ECC and the i7, it worked fine again.
I am guessing the BIOS needs the X5680 added to its list of supported CPUS?
It should be able to support it since it works fine with X5675 and the more demanding X5690 without any hardware mod.

This is a link to the latest BIOS which I have installed.

Asus P6X58-E WS BIOS V.301

If anyone can mod this to include support for the X5680, that would be amazing.
I also need NVME booting support, but that’s something I can add on my own and I don’t wish to be a further burden.

Thanks to anyone who can assist bothered to read this.
Cheers!

[MeatWar]

Cpu micro codes for 5650/5675/5680(C1/C2)/5690 on latest bios C0/C1/C2
You can try to update them… but this maybe some kind of Asus lock or other issue.
NVMe guide is in the forum or already made and shared by an user.

EDIT: Correct and correct, if theres a specific lock, im not aware of what is it.
X5680 uses both 206C1/C2
I didnt search for any specific info on this, but im sure theres something similar/or close motherboard model with same request on the forum, take some time and do a search.

[palanthas]

Hey, thanks for the reply! I’m really very, VERY beginner with bios modding, it’s the one thing I never touched.
I have the latest BIOS (301) already installed and I checked the file using MC Extractor.
I get the following:

P6X58-E-WS-ASUS-0301.ROM (1/1)

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║                                            Intel                                             ║
╟───┬───────────┬───────┬────────────┬──────────┬────────────┬───────┬────────┬─────────┬──────╢
║ # │    Type   │ CPUID │ Platforms  │ Revision │    Date    │ State │  Size  │  Offset │ Last ║
╟───┼───────────┼───────┼────────────┼──────────┼────────────┼───────┼────────┼─────────┼──────╢
║ 1 │ Microcode │ 206C2 │  03 (0,1)  │    13    │ 2010-09-07 │  PRD  │ 0x1C00 │ 0x40020 │  No  ║
╟───┼───────────┼───────┼────────────┼──────────┼────────────┼───────┼────────┼─────────┼──────╢
║ 2 │ Microcode │ 206C1 │  03 (0,1)  │    6     │ 2009-12-22 │  PRD  │ 0x1800 │ 0x42020 │ Yes  ║

I’m guessing that’s the C2 you’re referring to is the 206C2 which already includes 5680 according to CPUID?

So it’s either a weird Asus lock which I can’t bypass through BIOS or the CPU is busted?

Sorry for the questions and thanks for your time.

[palanthas]

Ok, looking further into the forum and google I think I’m catching up. I see three platforms 206C2 which are according to the specs of the m/b, i.e. 5650, 5675 and 5690.

I am trying to follow this guide:

[Guide] How to update the CPU microcodes on a non-UEFI Award/Phoenix BIOS

The need: I had to search everywhere on the internet to find a step-by-step walktrough that teach how to update the microcodes in the NCPUCODE.BIN of my BIOS. (I have an Award non-UEFI BIOS on a Gygabite GA-X58A-UD9 motherboard) This should work with Phoenix Bios too. The problem: Almost all guides on the internet are related to UEFI Bios and tell you to use MMTool or UBU to do it, but it is unfortunately useless on non-UEFI Bios… And for most of the rest of the guides out there, those are har…

…which is a bit outdated on the MC Extractor part (it’s moved to python since then).

Extracted cpu206C2_plat03_ver00000013_2010-09-07_PRD_62F14FDF.bin is 7168 bytes and latest cpu206C2_plat03_ver0000001F_2018-05-08_PRD_77DADA73.bin from github is 11264 bytes.

I’m guessing this is the one I should inject in the BIOS according to the instructions above?

Thanks in advance. Still learning but I’m making progress.

[MeatWar]

Yes follow his guidance…if not mistaken in your case its the P6 module, MMtool will give you errors.
On older bioses…not all and depends on vendor, its also possible to edit the mcodes with Hex editor, but i think he adresses that. Adding 0x400 to 0x00 will get them working on MMtool if i recall it correctly. Read his notes carefull.
If you have an SPI programmer, since the SPI is socked, i would take it off and make some dumps first.
good luck.

[palanthas]

Thank you! BIOS is AMI after all so I should be using this guide:

[GUIDE] AMI INTEL CPU Microcode Update Guide

[**********. Caution: Possible outdated content ********** ] [GUIDE] AMI INTEL CPU Microcode Update Guide Edit: Use this guide with caution and possibly if you have flashback feature or usb rom programmer available just in case. If possible try using MMTool ‘CPU-Patch’ feature instead as it is a whole lot easier. For now as of 1/31/2021 have discovered issues that require further investigation with the advanced method. Use only as last option when all others fail. I am writing this gui…

I do have and SPI programmer and I will take your advice and go the safe way and take some dumps. If I succeed, I’ll post the results and a link to the modded bios here.

Thanks for the help!