REQUEST Bios Flash for ROG ASUS Apex XI Z390

You’re welcome, have a good flash!

@Lost_N_BIOS hi man, a friend of mine tried my modified 0805 on his xi apex, it worked fine without issues, sadly ha tried latest bios which should be 1305 and it updated his mc to 0x96. The latest bios is overall worse than my modded one, now he rollbacked again to my 0805 with Rev70 mc but apparently his microcode is still 0x96 and we can’t figure out how to properly rollback.
his second bios isn’t working either because he flashed it too
Do you have any suggestions?

Hey! @Cancretto - How did he rollback BIOS? Dump BIOS in there now with FPT and check it to see if it has the microcode you expect to be there or not.
If it’s there then BIOS flash and microcodes when in properly, but windows is loading that 0x96 microcode, to stop that see this post

I assume USB Flashback would put in BIOS as you give it, leaving in place only system specific details such as Serial, UUID, LAN MAC ID etc.

If he used AFU, well there you go… Too late now, if he did, tell him to do it again but use /N flag as well this time

If he did not use AFU ever, good! Tell him to make BIOS dump with FPT, send to me, and I will put whatever microcode you want in there (tell me again, specifically CPUID and version), and then show him how to unlock BIOS lock so he can FPT flash his mod BIOS dump back in
[GUIDE] Grub Fix Intel FPT Error 280 or 368 - BIOS Lock Asus/Other Mod BIOS Flash

@Lost_N_BIOS 0x96 is showing also in bios so it’s not the os forcing the new mc, also he flashed the bios via USB flashback, he even tried afudos but it stays that bios sizes are different. He’s using the BIOS you modded for me so it should have the Rev70 microcode but somehow the 0x96 is overriding it

@Cancretto - Is the rest of the changes there, can he confirm somehow? Sorry, I don’t remember what all we edited. I’m thinking maybe USB Flashback didn’t happen, are you/he sure it worked?
Sounds to me like it probably didn’t, and he thinks it did, since you also were using latest BIOS with 96 before you USB Flashback’d the mod BIOS I sent you, correct?

Tell him make sure USB is FAT32, BIOS is flashback named, and in root of USB (no folders). Smaller USB is best, older/cheaper also best. If he has large or new USB, tell him to format it to 1GB or find smaller/older/cheaper. Also needs to be USB 2.0, and some boards, you have to use certain slot, check the manual to confirm
then, go over with him how you see USB Flashback react on this system, how board/button LEDs act and how USB LED acts is his has one.

If worse comes to worse and he can’t get it, don’t let him use AFU and especially not some SUPER old AFU that allows /GAN
Have him get on here, and I will help him dump the BIOS via FPT and then I will mod his board specific BIOS and then tell him how to flash it back.

@Lost_N_BIOS actually no I was rollbacking from 0x9A which I think is the version right before 0x96. Also he can’t even use afudo cause it says that bios files are not of the same size and can’t flash. The flash drive might be but I’m personally not that sure tbh. I was thinking what if he completely erease the bios with afudos or something and then flash it back with flashback?

Anyways thanks a lot lost for helping out

Also I’ll tag him here @FR33THY

Well, still same, you were on much newer microcode that 70, and you USB Flashback’d it in there without issue. That’s good he can’t use AUFDOS, it shouldn’t be used for this at all, especially any old version that allows /GAN. Tell him to stop now while he’s still ahead!!!
I see people all day long can’t get flashback working properly due to no compatible USB, some boards I’ve had to try 10 before I found one that worked. I assume this is the issue here.

Can he see the new settings we revealed at PCH (HPET, TCO, SPD Write)? If not, then flashback never flashed his BIOS yet and that is the issue.

Actually yes he can see tco hpet unlocked but microcode does not change, it seems that the flash went well but somehow the newer microcode is overriding the one on the bios you modded

Well that is a new one! Tell him to come here, if he doesn’t know how to dump BIOS region with FPT. It he does, then tell him dump BIOS region with FPT and send to me, I will modify for him and send back, with instructions on how to flash it back in and erase current BIOS region at same time.
Is he sure he didn’t flash that BIOS in with AFU instead of flashing by USB Flashback?? Sounds like this is what happened, since AFU will leave microcodes in place if newer there sometimes, or if /N flag not used.
I suggest AGAINST the use of AFU for mod BIOS, due to this requires (decade) old AFU not made for modern series of BIOS and it causes issues later with other BIOS flashing stuff, not ideal at all.

Yeah I’ll tell him to come here for sure, also yeah he flashed with physical USB flashback button. Also dude sorry to bother you but how are you modding these .cap files since standard tools apparently don’t work for these files?

I’m asking cause I’d like to mess a bit myself with the bioses without always bothering you

Good to know it was USB Flashback only, strange it works for you but not him though…?? So something different here. No problem though, we can sort it out for him with personal FPT flash from his dumped BIOS
I mod BIOS with all kinds of tools, what do you mean .CAP BIOS doesn’t work with BIOS tools? What tools are you wanting to use that .CAP BIOS doesn’t work with? See post #91, there is these BIOS in two tools (MC Extractor, UEFITool)
I remove BIOS from capsule before modifying with any tool anyway, then insert back when I’m done, but plenty of tools will modify the BIOS in capsule as is, but that isn’t ideal and often breaks the capsule (makes it unsigned).
So I just remove before getting started, much easier that way since I do with all .CAP BIOS so to me it’s like unzipping a file which I do before I get started

Or, did you mean more specifically, since you can’t mod the BIOS with AMIBCP, what am I using? If yes, I am using UEFITool, Universal IFR extractor, and hex editor to make same changes that you would make in AMIBCP.
I linked a post at #104 of this thread to explain a little about how that works for Doc.Brown, follow that link and then in that post near bottom of the explained items you’ll see me discuss AMITSE/SetupData edit when AMIBCP doesn’t open properly.

It’s easy, once you do it a few times and get used to how it all works. Don’t let it intimidate you, and I bet you’ll figure it all out pretty easily if you’re comfortable poking around in hex

@Lost_N_BIOS hi lost, I was wondering is there any way to disable or at least partially disable ME by further modding the already modded 0805 with 70 mc?

@Cancretto - Sorry, I missed your post until now Yes, ME FW can be disabled, or 70 MC can be inserted (or both, but those are unrelated)
Please clarify what you need and I can make if for you

Hello, I’m really new to this. I was looking for a custom bios for my Z390 hero XI in order to enable-disable HPET, please @Lost_N_BIOS is there a way you could send it to me, any version should be fine, thanks mate.