I am neither the owner of the Forum nor the boss within this thread. My only intention was and is to keep "my" threads (those, which were started by me) clean from extended off-topic discussions.
It was drewstew656, who started this discussion with the words "I have bricked my mainboard…". Within the first reply Lost_N_BIOS stated the following:
This reply was the proof for me, that there was no direct relationship between the bricked mainboard and my guide resp. the linked NVMe modules.
Since the initial problem (the bricked mainboard) has been solved now, the discussion can be continued within >this< thread.
I agree with Lost_N_BIOS: We are very interested in answers to my questions in post #15.
@Fernando I think you are referring to post #15 as per @Lost_N_BIOS comment. No, I cannot boot from NVMe natively yet. It works only if I use Clover installed on a secondary SATA drive. The reason of first mod attempt failure is unknown, modding was done using UEFITool 0.26 as I already mentioned previously. On two occasions (first original flash with MFlash using UEFI, second with a programmer after fixing the board using stock bios) board was bricked. Hence the conclusion it wasn’t bad flash, just bad BIOS. Hence I am on stock BIOS now. I will probably attempt it once more after @Lost_N_BIOS comments that my other Bios mods look ok, they are different on the binary level than the first. I will not hesitate to share my findings.
The bricked BIOS was possibly due to your guide he was following and asking about initially, which I assume is why he posted his question there, and to me meaning even more reason that the reply/discussions (All) should remain in thread Bricked BIOS was resolved at post #7, where we picked up yesterday and precisely where the posts were split off to it’s own thread. No way am I moving this topic (nor part of it) back to another thread now, that was my point of laughter above at post 18+20 Split topics/discussions and moving stuff around at the drop of a hat drive me crazy, I know you enjoy that though it’s your style, so up to you to do whenever you see fit. Please pay no attention to my replies about this kind of thing if they bother you, I know we all have our style of doing things
@drewstew656 - Yes, if you programmed in 26 and it bricked too, then it’s a bad flash. Try M-Flash of BIOS you edited with v25 I edited in my thoughts after checking both at post #20
I hope you dumped your BIOS with FPT and or programmer before you erased it, so you can later fix your serial and if necessary Ethernet MAC ID too (Since you mentioned programming in some stock edited BIOS it sounds like)
@Lost_N_BIOS : Since we do not yet know the real reason for drewstew656’s bricked mainboard, I don’t want to (re-)move any post. If it should turn out, that - against expectation - there was a relationship between the failed BIOS flashing and my guide about “How to get full NVMe support for all Systems with an AMI UEFI BIOS”, I will put the related post(s) into >this< thread, where they would belong to.
But, you already removed it, from the original location, that was my point However, it seems he used UEFITool 26, and then reconfirmed that mod BIOS bricks the board later with a second flash. And I doubt your guide tells anyone to use UEFITool 26, since I know you prefer AFU editing method I always advise against anyone using UEFITool 26, it makes too many issues in random BIOS edits that V25 doesn’t (not always), but that can apply to all tools/version too, so there can’t be a general warning against v26 either, but I do always use and suggest v25 and I never use v26 except to confirm error for someone.
So the MMTool bios worked and after flashing it I had to edit my uefi boot entries with EasyUefi. Guess fresh reinstall would do the same but i had already working configuration. There is "PATA:" device visible in bios but that would load OS in legacy mode. So on this board (MSI-Z68A-GD55) best to boot into UEFI as it is a prerequisite for EasyUEFI to run. Now it boots from NVMe drive into Clover on EFi partition and then loads MAC OS, so guess you can also say your method for modding works on a Hack8ntosh. Disclaimer: no drives, no data and no hardware was broken but use at own risk and backup before attempting it.
Transfers are pretty dire. It is Samsung Evo 970 1Tb after all. I was expecting twice as much but I am guessing that is due to hardware and OS driver and has nothing to do with modding BIOS, right?
Remove clover, otherwise no point in mod BIOS. Slower than expected speeds may be due to PCIE 2.0 and what lane width you’ve given it (probably can only use x2 or x4 lanes anyway), but real speed on these come from PCIE 3.0 (Doubles 2.0 bandwidth results usually) Ideally, do a clean install to NVME, with no other drives installed into system, then fix or edit BCD later if you need to add other OS links.
@Lost_N_BIOS. If I remove clover my hackintosh will not boot. That is the whole point of it to run MacOS from it. I can boot directly from UEFI into windows bypassing Clover (it is on another drive) to test the transfers if you are interested. About UEFITool v25, no I haven’t tried that Bios after all even though it was ready. The reason is - MMTool mod worked to my expectations.
@Lost_N_BIOS the need for NVMe driver in UEFI is so it boots Clover and the OS from one and the same drive. The other drive can be removed. Initial setup was that one drive was used to load clover (SATA) and the other to load the OS (NVMe). Hope it makes sense that new setup is more resilient, as SATA drive failure or removal doesn’t affect NVMe drive.
Here are disk transfers on EFI volume under Windows (booted into Windows directly without Clover)
@drewstew656@Lost_N_BIOS After having done a deeper look into the original BIOS and the linked ones, which were modded by using the UEFITool 0.25 and 0.26 I probably have found the reason for the bricked mainboard:
As you can see here, the original BIOS has a Pad-file at the downmost end of the DXE Driver Volume:
Result after having used the MMTool v4.50: The Pad-file is intact and the NVMe module has been inserted properly.
By the way: Here are 2 excerpts of my guide:
Chapter "This is what you need" point "b) CodeRush’s UEFITool":
Chapter "This is what you should do" point "b) Guide for the usage of the UEFITool":
[quote="Fernando, post:1, topic:30901"]
Warning: To avoid later problems after having flashed the modded BIOS, I recommend urgently to compare the original and the just modified BIOS regarding the undermost listed modules of the "DXE Volume" (for details look >here<). The only difference should be, that a new DXE driver named "NvmExpressDxe_4" resp. "NvmExpressDxe_small" has been added. All other listed modules should be untouched by the BIOS modification. If you should realize, that one or more natively present modules are missing within the undermost DXE Volume part of the modded BIOS, post a report into this thread, but don't flash this modded BIOS.
[/quote]
Conclusion: a) drewstew656 either didn't read my guide properly or didn't follow my urgent advices. b) Lost_N_BIOS obviously hadn't compared the modded BIOSes with the original one, when he posted his inspection results within the posts #2 and #20.
@Fernando - Yes, I looked at padding’s when I compared stock vs 25/26, but I missed that one! Good catch This issue can be worked around, and I certainly would have noticed and fixed it if I did the actual edit myself with UEFITool v25, and BIOS would be fine. But yes, for normal end user, on this BIOS, MMTool is suggested, UEFITool 25 can do it, but you have to do special dance dedicated to the BIOS gods to leave that padding file in place
@Lost_N_BIOS : Since it now turned out, that drewstew656’s bricked mainboard has more to do with >this< thread than I expected, I have a problem: Which posts shall I (re-)move? For me this specific story has an important consequence: Before I will give any statement whether a user modded BIOS seems to be good or not, I need the original and the modded BIOS.
@Fernando - See, that’s why I said all along we should have left in place. My opinion is to leave it all here, or move it all back, and try to not be so quick to jump on splitting/moving posts in and out of threads
And again, just how I feel about all this, it’s very confusing for all involved when post are moved, especially while people are actively working on solving something, and I do not feel it would ever help anyone in the future like you may think I mean, no one is reading huge threads page by page, and whatever search result you get if you actually use search and get valid results, does not matter if the discussion is in xx thread or zz thread. Sure, maybe that day or next, someone might have to scroll by a few extra posts that don’t apply to their question, but that’s the internet and we have scroll by stuff to get to what we wanted Plus, everyone has to scroll past others in a thread like that anyway, since it’s not their own specific thread and many people asking questions/replying
And yes, I always download stock BIOS with or without user giving me a link, and compare that, and or or ask for stock FTP dump to compare with mod if I am checking mod for someone. Along with the padding you noticed here that I missed, you always also have to check all padding (or lack of) above microcode volumes (added, or removed, either can cause issues “Sometimes” depends on the board/BIOS) >> GUID 17088572-377F-44EF-8F4E-B09FFF46A070 And, always watch for some BIOS stock or dump, have a "Non-UEFI Padding file in last PEI volume of BIOS too, if it’s removed then often brick too (but not always). It would be nice if there was a hard line on these things, but it always varies! One board might brick if you remove or add a padding, other board might dare you to do it again and boot just fine
@Fernando@Lost_N_BIOS thanks for your help it all turned out ok. i just need to inspect if i can release some pcie hardware and if that will give more lanes to NVMe. I think that is the reason of it being at half speed. In retrospect why i might have missed information on the padding is because I initially followed the guide when nvme v3 of the driver was around with older UEFITool version. I had that bios modded and left it on a drive. Took my a while to actually get around doing the mod and in the meantime v4 came out. i just jumped into it and didn’t read it again also the guide could have been updated. however in glimpse i remember you actually advised you prefer MMTool, hence i tried that last and it worked. Bios with v3 of the driver that I had made in the past actually did post the board, but I think i noticed some other strange issues with my computer and decided not to keep it. It could be perfectly usable bios but I flashed it when I was battling with booting issues and didn’t see much of a reason to spend time on it. however it would prove the point that previous versions of uefitool might have worked better. anyhow you can keep my working bios for others to download if you wish to and report it works in some other summary threads, i think i have seen something like this on the forum. it might not be for everyone as i haven’t updated cpu microcodes. don’t see much of a reason to slow my machine. last question i have for you is, how can I actually adjust bios version reported by the computer? is there a tool for something like this.
@Lost_N_BIOS My opinion regarding this point is totally different from yours.
After having found the exact reason for drewstew656’s bricked mainboard, the Forum users and the Forum Team may benefit from the separation of this specific thread:
It illustrates in a compact form the risks of a bricked mainboard/mobile system while flashing a (self-)modded BIOS.
Additionally it verifies the necessity a) for the Team: to put specific warnings and advices how to minimize the risks into the related guides and b) for the users: to read the related guide very carefully and to follow the included warnings/advices.
That is why I decided to let everything as it is now and to put a link to this thread into >this< guide.
@Fernando it’s not the same bios with nvme driver as a stock one hence the question. why wouldn’t you want to show for example v25.8+nvme. what’s wrong with that?
