The only thing “modded” about the Ukranian BIOS is there is microcode removed, that is not possible with newer versions. The only notable difference is newer BIOSes have support for V4 processors but maybe there was some security added. Here is the rom I downloaded from overclockers.ua like I said a while ago in this post there is a kind of sus reference to a random website somewhere in this BIOS but that is what it was like when I downloaded it unlock z440.rom - Google Drive
It is actually very confusing above. Not clear if this was tried or not …
Apparently, an older version boots with the mods. Is it possible to surgically copy the entire chunk of code from the old to the new?
Btw, do you know much about protected range registers and where these sit? It’d be nice to remove those somehow. HP has a jumper which seems to enable writing to “BootBlock”, but I wonder if that’s actually the protection for the entire BIOS region.
Cool were on at the same time! I tried moving all sorts of crap bro honestlly I wasted a lot of time. I tried moving microcode over from different versions, deleting stuff puting it back every single time it was bricked.
I think I tried the tweak i don’t know if I remember, I didn’t really trust editing a random hex number no offense so I might have left it alone.
So you are saying that in a clean experiment where you:
-replaced the unused microcode for the other generation with a different one
-no other changes
So such a modded BIOS would not boot?
The key is to impact something that’s irrelevant, and see if there is indeed a checksum protection there.
P.S. Many thanks for the ukrainian BIOS !!!
Yes I remember now, I specifically downloaded older versions of microcode and swapped it in and I would either get the 8 beep code thing or fan spinning all the way like it was going to take off!
Older versions of your microcode? Or the 2nd microcode that’s in that BIOS but is not used since your cpu is different? It has 2, one for 3rd gen, 2nd for the 4th gen.
I guess you matched sizes and padding properly?
The question is - does this BIOS have a checksum protection in the later versions, or not?
This is the only time I have attempted BIOS modding, I made some mistakes so I might have at first not had the padding in the right place etc lol. If you look in the Ukranian BIOS you will see there are no microcode patches whatsoever, so even replicating that setup in the newer BIOS by deleting both the V3 and V4 microcode was something I remember trying resulting that resulted in a brick. I’m guessing it does have checksum protection because when I tried inserting drivers into it without modifying anything else it didn’t work, but I could be wrong it could have been my inexperience.
I guess it would be good to do a more proper experiment, but I really don’t want to use my computer as a guinea pig. This was kind of a PITA for me to do and im just happy I got a decent setup now. I’m currently running a 1660 V3 at 4 GHZ
I also have a very old stock BIOS too if you want that but I don’t think its a full rom its the part you use with the HP flasher
Yeah, please do share this one!
I understand not wanting to use your current setup that is working for any testing - has to be strictly voluntary, LOL!
Did you keep your trial versions somewhere? I can take a look at what was modded there.
These things are pretty cheap now on ebay someone should buy like 10 of them to abuse
Alright. I started doing basic analysis. overclockers.ua = UA .
UA Bios is 1.65, the one you provided is 1.62. Close enough, and good! Since we now have some semblance of stock UA.
UA 1.65 killed FIT entirely - no FIT table, no microcodes.
ME region does not seem too far from what Z620 has, if you need to fix it, we can try. ME requires only the FDO jumper move, no clip.
Below is some info from the UEFI_NE tool. It sort of resembles Z620 in many places, but of course, there are differences too.
Fixed: Yes
Base: 0h
Address: FF000000h
Offset: 0h
ReservedVector:
FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
Full size: 1000h (4096)
GbE region offset: 1000h
PDR region offset: 3000h
ME region offset: 5000h
BIOS region offset: 600000h
Region access settings:
BIOS: 1Bh 1Ah ME: 0Dh 0Ch
GbE: 08h 08h
BIOS access table:
Read Write
Desc Yes No
BIOS Yes Yes
ME No No
GbE Yes Yes
PDR Yes Yes
Flash chips in VSCC table:
EF4018 (Winbond W25Q128)
20BA18 (Micron N25Q128)
1C7018 (EON EN25QH128)
C22018 (Macronix MX25L128)
1F4900 (Unknown 001F4900h)
1F8900 (Unknown 001F8900h)
P.S. I meant to say you can crop your original ME from your very 1st backup, and simply flash it to the ME area after moving the FDO jumper, and using fpt under DOS [fpt.exe -ME -f me_crop.bin ] . ME region runs 5000h-5FFFFFh. Of course, you’d back it up first 
Backup - [fpt.exe -ME -d me_bckup1.bin]
So UA v1.65 wiped out FIT and any microcodes. That’s pretty harsh, as you noticed, crypto keys got lost, etc.
It’d be easy to borrow pieces from v1.62 stock BIOS and repair UA v1.65 into what it used to be. Except - it’s not a particularly good starting point !
A better test of course would be to grab the latest BIOS from HP, and manually replace cpu406F1_platEF with something like cpu406F0_platEF, but touch nothing else.
So this would replace 4th gen microcodes that don’t matter if you are running 3rd gen Xeon.
If this does not boot - that means there is checksum verification in there.
Anyway, I think whoever touches this next could debug it fully but trying carefully designed BIOSes.
I dont.
Moreover, if you think I understand how uefi works, that’s not true.
I think I do not have first backup of my unmodified BIOS anymore so if I were to fix my ME I would have to rebuild it using some guide like the one on this forum. Seems like too much work too me. Reason I say its broken is because every time I try to turn on AMT in the setup its goes back to being disabled after I save and exit. While having everything working as intended is a good thing, I don’t really have a use for it and a lot of people say its spyware anyway so idrc. bibikalka you have a good idea about just replacing the v4 microcode but I think im going to leave my system as it is.
If you have any other questions about the z440s hardware or its BIOS feel free to ask!
Ok, thanks!
I think I am good for now - without actual testing it’s kind of pointless.