Hello everyone,
I was looking through the forum for solution to my problem and in the end I’m not 100% sure what to do.
Problem:
I have Asus H170m-plus which have BCLK function included, I was even using it, but few days ago I have decided to upgrade BIOS (just because I wanted to have all newest updates). Because of this update I have lost BCLK functionality (I know that Intel blocked this by microcode).
From looking through the forum I understood that:
- I have to change the microcode to one that still supports BLCK
- I have to change ME (how?)
Do I also have go back with BIOS version? Does Kabylake cpu’s also support BCLK or was it blocked on hardware (cpu silicon)? Im asking because im using skylake, but wanted to upgrade it to kabylake i7.
Do you need some more informations regarding this question?
I know that I need:
- Uefi tool (not sure which version),
- Intel AFT Blocking for unlocking the bios?
- Intel FPT for flashing
- Uefi editor?
- lastly FPTW for bios dump (just in case).
Im not sure if BCLK was deleted in module or just hidden, because when I was looking through AMIBCP on my current BIOS (in AI tweaker section), this function was not there. When I looked at last BIOS that still supported BLCK it was inside AMIBCP (version 2002, last version before Kabylake upgrade).
If possible, could someone please help me?
Kind regards, X
@Xaran526 Hi, do you remember the BIOS version you had originally?
To get BCLK overclocking back you will need to reflash your previous BIOS (including ME FW).
This is difficult to do on Asus motherboards due to the BIOS locks, which will also stop you downgrading ME firmware.
The older CPU microcode alone does not allow BCLK overclocking, you also need a specific Skylake only BIOS and older ME firmware.
You can check here for the older BIOS:
[OFFER] Skylake Non-k OC BIOS Archive
I believe that you need BIOS 8001 but you will likely need a hardware programmer to flash it (flashing the BIOS with software such as FPT won’t work due to BIOS locks).
Also note that the file is encapsulated (as indictated by .CAP) so you will need to remove the capsule header before you can flash the file with a hardware programmer.
Please note that you can overrwrite/erase your MAC address, motherboard serial number and UUID if you don’t add them to the BIOS before flashing with a hardware programmer.
You can use CoffeeTime v0.99 to add your MAC address, motherboard serial number and UUID to the BIOS (as it come with the FD44Editor tool) and then save the BIOS as a binary file (.BIN) so it can be flashed with a hardware programmer (i.e. not encapsulated).
I highly recommend to make a complete backup of your current BIOS before you flash anything to the motherboard so that you can recover you motherboard if anything should go wrong.
The backup should include your motherboard’s MAC address, motherboard serial number and UUID, which you will need to transfer to the 8001 BIOS.
Hello, thanks for reply.
Im not 100% sure which version of bios i had previously, but I think it was 0602:
https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/h170m-plus/helpdesk_bios/
For now I have the newest one 3805. You say version 8001, but which one is it (I do not see it on the Asus website).
Sorry my mistake, last one with BCLK was 1805 (that’s the last version that AMIBCP shows function “BCLK frequency”).
I know that ASUS has locked bios’es, I was looking through this quide made by @rofikkernel GUIDE (he used Asus motherboard as example, he also did video to this guide).
I was also looking at this GUIDE
And this guide regarding flashing GUIDE
and Here Lost_NBios also explained a lot regarding activating BCLK funcionality LINK
It’s not a problem for me to buy a hardware programmer, I was already considering CH341a (it should be ok right?, bios chip is Winbond and it’s removable from mb, no soldering needed).
So I assume, can I make backup/dump using methods mentioned in those guides and then maybe try to flash with ch341a (of course after taking your hints into cosideration)?
X
@Xaran526 My apologies, I read the motherboard model wrong and was looking at Z170m-plus instead of H170m-plus.
How far could you take the BCLK on the H170? Does this board have an external clockgen?
It’s not a problem for me to buy a hardware programmer, I was already considering CH341a (it should be ok right?, bios chip is Winbond and it’s removable from mb, no soldering needed).
That is the way to go for sure. You could even buy another BIOS chip and do testing with it and leave the original intact.
So I assume, can I make backup/dump using methods mentioned in those guides and then maybe try to flash with ch341a (of course after taking your hints into cosideration)?
Correct.
- tbh I never tried maxing bclk on this mb, I was on 120mhz whole time (I set it years ago when I was young and stupid and too scared to touch bios settings
) with i5-6600 (non K).
I will check if this mb has external bclk generator, but from what I know, back in the beggining of the skylake it was widly possible to bclk non K cpu’s. It was later on that Intel had pain in @ss that people could do it, so they forced microcode block for it.
This mobo even has usb-C on the back IO, which is not so common for 6th gen mobos (especially for H chipset).
Ok, so I will order programmer (and spare chip) from “my friends” from Ali and then I will probably ask some more questions.
X
Well, I have found something weird.
This mobo has Asus AI Suite 3, but version provided by ASUS is for Win10 and Im using freshly installed Win11. So, version from Asus wasn’t working and I downloaded newer version of Ai Suite 3 from different board from Reddit.
This suite has “Dual Intelligent Processors 5” function which is mostly for OC. I have tried it annnd somehow it OCed my multiplayer to like 45x (and it could go on and on for like 50ish even).
After looking in BIOS the multiplayer is also set to 45 (for tests I have used i7-6700K which have 42x max for 1 core, 40x for all). I could even change cache ratio to 45x.
Question is, does it help me with something when I will unlock BCLK? Theoretically with higher multiplayer I don’t have to set BCLK frequency to high values.
Still, weird thing is that Ai Suite has possibility to set multiplayer over CPU limit on H170.
Last thing, this change in multiplayer does not have any influence on the CPU clocks itself, max I got was 4200Mhz and 4000Mhz on all turbo.
