[TOOL] Easy automated Mod tool for Coffee Lake bios

[chinobino]

@NeroTheDawn Hi and welcome to Win-Raid forums.

The Asus Maximus Extreme 8 appears to have a very good 8-phase VRM - which is a good start if you are thinking of running a 6 or 8 core CPU.

Asus motherboards usually have protection against flashing a modified BIOS so it is highly recommended to purchase a hardware programmer (such as the ch341a) to flash the BIOS EEPROM and to be able to recover from a potential brick.

You should also make sure you have a complete backup of your BIOS chip that contains the motherboard serial number and ethernet MAC address for the Intel Gigabit ethernet adapter.

You will need to modify a BIOS that has Kaby Lake support, so you will need BIOS 2202 or later.

You can use CoffeeTime v0.99 to easily modify the BIOS as it has a nice GUI and there are fields to insert the serial number and MAC address.

You will need to make sure that the ME FW is version downgraded to 11.7.1xxx (or 11.6.xxxx) and swap the relevant CPU microcodes depending on which Coffee Lake CPU you buy. Make sure to leave the microcode for your Skylake (506E3) or Kaby Lake (906E9) CPU for testing.

Coffee Lake CPUID:
906EA = 6 core
906EB = 2 or 4 core
906EC = 8 core
906ED = 8 core

If you need help with CoffeeTime or have any questions just ask.

Once you have backed up your current BIOS and made the modified BIOS you are ready to flash it to the motherboard. Note that using software to do this is extremely difficult on Asus boards as the Flash Descriptor is often locked and difficult to bypas (read this) so a hardware programmer is highly recommended.

Once the modified BIOS has been flashed you need to test it with your Skylake/Kabylake CPU first and then insulate the motherboard pins before inserting any 6 or 8 core Coffee Lake CPU. There is a diagram of the pins you need to insulate in the CoffeeTime folders (CoffeeTime_0.99\data\info). It is easiest/best to insulate the pads on the back of the CPU with Kapton tape.

You will also need to connect the 2 pins that tell the motherboard that the CPU socket is occupied, for which a car rear window defogger repair kit can be used (although you can use graphite from a lead pencil for initial testing).

[NeroTheDawn]

@chinobino

I tried to find a ch134a programmer, but when i google it, i only find the ch341a - will this one work as well? Is there anything i have to be aware of when buying one? I am currently looking for a i9 9900k as it seems to be the most powerful version that i can find which should work.

Thanks by the way for the REALLY informative answer, it really helped me and i will surely give it a try!

[chinobino]

@NeroTheDawn Hi, yes I made a mistake - I should have said ch341a, my apologies.

Here are some good guides for the ch341a in case you are interested:

[GUIDE] Flash BIOS with CH341A programmer

[Guide] How to Use a CH341A SPI Programmer/Flasher (with Pictures!)

I can’t say for sure that your motheroard will be able to run the 9900K with all core boost @ 5GHz, as it will depend on the ability of the VRM circuitry and the heatsink to keep it cool, however if there is any Z170 board to try it on yours would be at the top of my list (as the VRM and cooling looks very good).

[firem]

Hey. Just tried using CoffeeTime 0.99 and the most important options are greyed out. What’s up?

[panosxidis]

what is PCIE patches?what is that on coffeetime?

[mcf]

It’s been a while since visited here last time. Anyway I got bored and found an Asus board (H110M-K) board from my stocks. Although the board has a weak VRM-section it’s probably fine with stuff like i5 8400/8500 as long as everything is kept at stock speeds.

I used Coffeetime 0.99 to mod the latest official bios update with ME 11.6.10.1196 (mod.rom) and added board specific data (SN,UUID etc.) to mod.rom by using F4DD editor.

I unlocked FD/ME write protection according to this guide. Then I flashed mod.rom to SPI by using AFUWIN 3.05.04 with /GAN command as I did years ago with another Asus board. After that I dumped the newly flashed image file (dump.rom) by /O command and this is what I got

So it looks like that either AFUWIN is incapable to rewrite the FD-region or Asus bioses have separate lock for descriptor. I highlight that ME itself has been changed (originally it was 11.8XXXXX).

I am pretty sure that the mod works fine with B0-revision CPUs but since SKU-modification is not present in the dumped image the system won’t boot with U0 rev. stuff. To be fair, I haven’t yet tested the system with any new CPU.

Other possibilities are to use Intel’s FPT to rewrite FD-region or flash mod.rom with a CH341A -programmer. For the latter option the bios chip is socketed (Winbond 25Q128FV) and I have a programmer but not sure if it’s safe to use. Data lines draw 5V and instead of CH341A it has marking CH341B on the controller chip.

EDIT: As I suspected FD is locked separately. FPTw64 was able to re-flash ME-area but not FD

Error 451: The host CPU does not have write access to the target flash area. To enable write access for this operation you must modify the descriptor settings to give host access to this region.
FPT Operation Failed.

Apparently launching GRUB from efi.shell and then off-setting the re-flash variable only unlocks ME-area in this case.

[Jason.exe]

Hi, not sure if you will reply to this post but i will get a dell micro 3050 soon, it has a i5 7500T and i want to know if it would be possible to modify the bios with coffeetime to support 8/9th gen and ES processors.

Hi, i will get a dell micro 3050 with a i5 7500T desktop cpu soon (B250 Chipset), and i want to upgrade the processor in the future with the QTJ1 but i want to confirm if it’s possible. I always used Coffeetime and to make this work i would need to add the ‘906ED’ microcode and disable ME. Do you have exoerience with this model or similar ones?

[mcf]

A little update on my previous post. Couldn’t figure out how to unlock FD region without an external programmer and almost bricked the board in the process. So I ended up flashing the SPI using the “bad” programmer with AsProgrammer and eventually it worked. In the case of AsProgrammer, pay attention to which version of you are using. For some reason certain older version couldn’t flash the image properly (verification failures).

[ehapo]

Hello, Im new to this this forum and the topic of BIOS hacking/mods…

Is there any way to make a 8th/9th gen CPU to work on my motherboard?

I currently have a G4560 and i want to upgrade to an 8th/9th gen CPU, MSI website says it only supports 7th/6th.

I seen people with modified bios running 8th/9th gen on H100 or H200 motherboards and i wonder if i can get mine to work aswell.

[Koekieezz]

Try this: E7A15IMS Mod.rar (5.5 MB)

.1C1 = ME 11.7 Enabled, no xeon or mutant bga 1440 support
.1C2 = ME 11.8 Disabled, Any LGA 1151 cpu supported (except skylake/kabylake engineering sample)

Added support for Rebar if Rebar option in the bios is not available but Above 4G Decoding/Cryptocurrency is available in the bios (works for turing gpus too).

Also here is the pin shorting guide for 8-9th gen on LGA 1151:

[BossPegasus]

Hi people! I tried to make a i5-8500 work on a MS-B9071 motherboard. It is not working.

I moded the original bios i got from the website of MSI. I used Allinone_tool because CoffeTime said that my motherboard was not suported. Allinone_tool moded the bios without a problem. I flashed the BIOS using FPT and that went well as well.

I moded the cpu pins for MSI first to try it. It wouldn’t get power because #SKTOCC wasn’t shorted so I applied the pinmod for ASUS.

Now what happens is that the pc tries to boot. It runs for a second and turns off. I checked the rams, no problem. Tried to run it without GPU to see if the power was the issue but no. It boots up fine when I put the old CPU back in.

Does anybody know why this is? Can anybody help?

EDIT: Turns out it was tottaly my fault. I disabled windows defender but it quaranteened some Allinone_tool files anyway and that was the reason thait it didn’t work.

For anybody with a MS-B9071 motherboard; you have to use Allinone_tool and you have to do the ASUS pinmod. Even tho it is a MSI motherboard you still need to short SKTOCC.

[ViRazY]

Hey, I’m having an issue with an i7 8700k on an ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K4/D3 and was hoping people here might be able to help.

Basically, the CPU temperature is very high and I feel like it might not be using the correct sensors for it.

In the BIOS, the temperature rapidly rises after boot until it stabilizes at around 60°C. When booting an OS (Windows 10 and Linux Mint tested), the temperature rises even further until it hits the 90-100°C range and starts throttling to stay there. After idling in the OS for a few minutes (at least Windows, I haven’t double-checked it on Linux yet), the core clocks and voltages go down to idle state, so around 800 MHz, and the temperature goes back down to “stable” 60°C.

This is obviously not correct and how this CPU should run. I initially only covered the pads with kapton tape on the left inner edge, the recommended reversed “L”-shape, as well as the 2 additional pads underneath for safety, however I re-applied the mod and covered all pads shown here, but without luck: https://imgur.com/uEoK5lx

I tried to re-mount the cooler multiple times. I also de-lidded the CPU, but I only used normal thermal paste on the inside for now, since the liquid metal I ordered hasn’t arrived yet. I also have a small 120mm liquid cooler on the way, just to rule out the possibility that somehow my air cooler isn’t making any contact whatsoever, despite it squishing the thermal paste nicely (yes there is no plastic film on it).

Regardless though, none of that changed the issue even a bit. I also tried to disable all but 2 cores, limited the CPU to 3 GHz and reduced the voltage, but even all of those changes at once still didn’t change anything and the behaviour is exactly the same, with the CPU temperature rising to +90°C in the OS right away.

I tried it with and without a dedicated GPU too. No change.

I am using CoffeeTime for this, since the AIO tool in this post doesn’t seem to work for me. Despite the temperature issue however, the system and mod seem to be working. I did try to re-do the BIOS mod multiple times and I always enabled all the patches that mentioned being required for more than 8 threads or coffee lake CPUs. I’m using the latest BIOS version and it seems like BIOS versions 1.x or 2.x don’t work at all. I haven’t tried any other 7.x versions.

I made some screenshots of HWInfo64 for reference. This is with only 2 cores, 3 GHz limit and reduced core voltage (the last picture is after a few minutes at idle): https://imgur.com/a/dxC0TXv

Any idea? Could it be that it’s missing a patch or two that haven’t been necessary on other boards?

Thanks!

[chinobino]

@ViRazY What Vcore is being supplied to the 8700k?

[ViRazY]

The board doesn’t have an indicator in the BIOS, but when left on auto, HWInfo64 shows around 1.44 - 1.47 for vcore, which is obviously too high. In the screenshot I sent, I set it to fixed 1.35 in the BIOS, which results in 1.344 vcore according to HWInfo64. That is with load line set to 2.

I also tried to put in a Pentium G4560 today to check the temps on that with both a stock and a modded BIOS. Interestingly enough, in both cases it sits at ~50-60°C, which is clearly too high for that CPU and much higher than what it was when it was running in another SFF system with a tiny cooler for a while. That same SFF with the same tiny cooler currently has an E3-1270v5 (so basically an i7 6700) in it sitting at 30°C when idling and doing small tasks in the OS, so yeah.

That makes me think that it might really just be a cooler issue. I’m using an Arctic eSports 34 Duo, which should definitely be good enough to keep that Pentium close to 30°C when idling, but somehow it does not? I got it second hand and the cold plate was fairly warped, so maybe more is wrong with it?

Either way, liquid metal and an AIO should arrive tomorrow, so I’ll give those a try and report back.

[ViRazY]

Looks like it was indeed the cooler. How a normally fairly decent CPU cooler can get damaged enough to get the CPU to 100°C on boot is beyond me.

Either way, I properly delidded it with liquid metal now and put a simple 120mm AIO with 2 decent fans on it, which brings the temps to around 50-60°C when running Prime95, so I can’t complain about that.

[chinobino]

@ViRazY Glad you got it sorted out.

[Geret]

Hello,

I have my i7 6700k and my MSI z170 Gaming m9 ack since 2016 and wanted to perform an Coffee Lake mod with an i7 9700k. But im still unsure with some things.
Some say that you need to set the ME Version to 11.7xx but mine is already on 11.8.50.3399 on the latest Bios file from the Website. Im also unsure what way of flashing works on this Board. It has the Bios Flashback with the Button, the M-Flash Utility and ive got an CH341a.

https://download.msi.com/bos_exe/mb/7966v1D.zip

Would be very nice if someone can help me with this and clear things up or maybe mod me an Bios

[68k-dude]

Hello @Geret ,

Before you do anything, make sure you can backup the BIOS flash chip. Then flash the backup back to it. Once you can reliably and safely do that, then you can FAFO to your hearts content.

Looking at thee board, I can see an SPI header. The BIOS chip, Winbond 25Q128FVSQ, is next to this. Having a search for JSPI1, I found this picture on a Japanese forum.

Here is the link to the datasheet, Winbond 25Q128FVSQ https://www.winbond.com/hq/support/documentation/downloadV2022.jsp?__locale=en&xmlPath=/support/resources/.content/item/DA00-W25Q128FV.html&level=1

Once you have read the IC and verified several times, open it to check that it was a good read. Something like MMTool or AMIBCP should work as a basic integrity check.

After you can read and write to the Chip safely, then you can start the mod.

Best regards and good luck,

-68k

[Geret]

Thank you for your response. I will try this tomorrow when the new CPU arrives. Hopefully it will work. What about the Voltage can i just solder the Wires from the CH341A to the Pin header? Ive read that the Chip has 3,3v so it should work without frying it.

And what should i do about the ME Version? Should i use 11.7 or 11.8? and should i disable or enable it? On what version should i do the VBios and GOP?

[68k-dude]

Do you have the jumper wires or a 12 way header block?

The Winbond 25Q128FVSQ is a 3.3V part

Are you using Coffeetime to do the mod? It should have everything you need. There are little tooltips that can help if you hover the mouse pointer over the fields. There is a pinmap too if you need to do that.