I have this OEM board, was looking to be able to update to the latest retail bios but it doesn’t work with the current bios is OEM. I want to be able to upgrade CPU to i7 9700 it currently doesn’t support it and I need to update the bios to the retail MSI one. My current bios is 2.M4 for the B360 A-pro
Below is a screenshot of the bios type
There are several models from different brands including MSI, that some users here on the forum, have achieved successful cross flash bios by SPI programming, a cheap CH341A will do the job.
Of course, these are dangerous waters and it’s a choice/risk for whoever takes it.
Regular know tools to flash will not work, due to security/id between files.
Good luck.
I see well that sucks I guess I’ll have to find a i7 8700 instead. I wish these things worked like crossflashing or editing job… I don’t even have soldering tools. Oh well thanks anyways.
Depends… does the bios have the mcode 906ED? Adding mcodes is editing the bios, still there could be other OEM locks that prevent it.
It could then be flashed with FPT tool or M-Flash.
And im going to correct a bit my previous post…
The Intel FPT tool can write on SPI anything that we tell him…this can also be an option to a CH341…but then we have the same dilema, what if the new bios /mod kill the motherboard…this is where the CH341 works as only possible recover.
The Intel FPT tool needs the access to bios regions for reading and writing, some bios are locked to write operations, thats why many mods are flashed with a CH341 when not possible to unlock the bios regions on the SPI.
I’m not sure… I did look at hwinfo and it shows this. If somebody knows where I can look that up I can post another screenshot.
The mcodes present on a bios are not all displayed in HWinfo, you need to share a dump or original bios download from the OEM.
And what is your assumption that the i7 9700 can’t work on your motherboard, based on what?
I was able to get a copy of the OEM bios
OEM B360 A-PRO MS-7B22
(Micro Electronics Inc - G Series, bios version 2.M4 - 06/04/2018)
E7B22IZ1.2M4.rar (8.2 MB)
Indeed the only 2 mcodes present are for 8Th Gen cpus.
bios.bin (1/1)
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Intel ║
╟───┬───────────┬───────┬───────────┬──────────┬────────────┬───────┬─────────┬──────────┬──────╢
║ # │ Type │ CPUID │ Platforms │ Revision │ Date │ State │ Size │ Offset │ Last ║
╟───┼───────────┼───────┼───────────┼──────────┼────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼──────╢
║ 1 │ Microcode │ 906EA │ 22 (1,5) │ 84 │ 2018-01-21 │ PRD │ 0x17800 │ 0xE8DCC0 │ No ║
╟───┼───────────┼───────┼───────────┼──────────┼────────────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┼──────╢
║ 2 │ Microcode │ 906EB │ 02 (1) │ 84 │ 2018-01-21 │ PRD │ 0x18000 │ 0xEA54C0 │ No ║
╚═══╧═══════════╧═══════╧═══════════╧══════════╧════════════╧═══════╧═════════╧══════════╧══════╝
These microcodes are in your BIOS file
GUID 17088572-377F-44EF-8F4E-B09FFF46A070
So you can add or replace an mcode, from that bios file and try to use M-Flash or from a dump with Intel FPT after confirmation of writing permissions.
Still, as every mod, there ALWAYS the chance of a death motherboard after any flash mod, understood?
Get a cheap CH341 first BEFORE any attempts.
Good luck.
Thank you so much for looking into this appreciate it.
