I flashed the bios, it still boots with the i7-7700, but the i7-8700 (with pad mod) didn’t work.
So… the MSI z270-A Pro I just bought to go with an 8700k will not work? Even with pin mod?
Can someone confirm this for me?
Thank you!
edit
@revlaay your patcher (thank you by the way) did absolutely everything it was supposed to with an MSI z270-A Pro UEFI file. No errors. Especially at the 8400/8700 portion of the patch… I’m confused now. The post on the first page says an 8700 will not work with “Microstar”… Nobody calls MSI “Microstar” even though that is their name “Microstar International”. This is referring to MSI correct? Also, is that every MSI board too?
My ME version is 11.8.50.3399 as well. I assume this needs an SPI flash??? (Not a problem, I have multiple Ras Pi lying around)
Just want to be sure that my board will not work with an 8700k, buying the CPU tomorrow. 
how did you flash your bios，because me region and descriptor region cant be flashed with normally way， you can use fpt to verify：
fptw -desc -verify flashfile
or post your dump file （fptw -d bios）
@revlaay just looking for a simple answer bro, I don’t mean to be a pest but I’ve seen you login at least twice… answer someone else and not me one of the times.
Again, not trying to be a pest… I am going to pick an 8700k at 9pm and I need an answer by then or there isn’t much point in me getting it.
Everything else I can figure out for myself, I just want to know why you stated “Microstar” doesn’t work with 8700. That’s just not enough information… Please let me know brother. Especially when your tool worked flawlessly with the MSI BIOS I presented it. Not a single error.
Or anyone else, if they know why revlaay here states an 8700k will not work with MSI boards. Just doesn’t make sense TBH.
Thank you!
sorry ，bro
yes ，microstar mean MSI，there are some known issue about MSI board cant boot on 8700k with HT enabled，you can still use it with HT disabled，use AMIBCP change default bios setting.
you can use "fptw -f bios" command to flash bios, no need other SPI programer.
@nexxusty
From this post by dsanke;
I don’t know if anything has changed since he posted that but I would stay away from 6/8 cores with HT on MSI desktop boards just in case.
fix vbios update error.
i checked, Zotac’s efi shell use ami flash tool ,try use intel fpt,if not work,you should try with SPI hardware programmer.
No problem brother. I appreciate the response.
I have the MSI Z270 Board here with me and I’m picking up the 8700k tomorrow. I can get a full refund on the Z270 board and get a Z370 board for $30 more. While this would have been fun, it’s not worth the hassle for $30 of course.
I don’t know if anything has changed since he posted that but I would stay away from 6/8 cores with HT on MSI desktop boards just in case.
Thank you VERY much for this post.
Interesting that no Z270 MSI boards are mentioned though. Not many Z270 boards are mentioned at all in fact. Lol.
I am thinking it’s worth me trying the 8700k with the patched BIOS I’ll put on the Mobo with my G4600 if you guys want me to. Let me know, I am willing.
[[File:QQ??20181107182753.png|none|auto]]1106 ver. also vbios file missing in Win10 64bit.
Hello, you can help, patch fails, it gives errors.
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LG…7640.1537438282
checked，no error found，try add program path to the antivirus whitelist.
Is there any incoming patch that remove the requirement of the CPU mod?
delete this post
no
Thanks for the info. So I block out 2 pins and short 2 pins. I read somewhere that it’s not necessary to block the pins but should I do it anyway?
@Digital_Anomaly
Many people have tested Coffee Lake 6 core CPU’s on many different motherboards.
They discovered that some vendors do the right thing and follow the rules, while others have connected some reserved/unused pins in the CPU socket, but only on certain motherboards.
I have made this image so people can reference the differences between Skylake and Coffee Lake (6 core).
The two top diagrams show Skylake vs Coffee Lake (6 cores) pinout, notice that there is more red in the Coffee Lake diagram.
Red = VCC = more power delivery!
The 2 bottom CPU photos show which pads you need to insulate to avoid burning the corresponding pins in the motherboard socket, Kapton tape is ideal for this.
If you have a non-Gigabyte board then you have less pins to worry about insulating, as you can see in the left CPU photo.
If you have a Gigabyte board it is recommended that you insulate all of the pins shown in the right CPU photo.
Not all Gigabyte boards will burn these pins so you must decide if you think it’s worth the cost of potentially damaging your motherboard/CPU by not insulating the pins.
The pad mod image below was posted on HWBot for the Asrock Z170 MOCF;
This is the bare minimum - if you only insulate these 2 pins while using a different vendor/motherboard you might still burn other pins!
For most Skylake/Kabylake motherboards you will need to also short (connect) the 2 pads on the CPU (AC35 & AB35) for the motherboard to detect that a Coffee Lake CPU has been inserted.
It would be best to test the connection (resistance) with a digital multimeter (set to ohm meter) to ensure that some current flows through (i.e. there’s low enough resistance) otherwise you’ll have to do it again.
I don’t know how much resistance is too much - maybe Dnatwork knows as he measured it when testing.
Thank you for the incredibly detailed response!
I have one last question. Would it be correct to assume that the process for 6-core CPUs is also the same for the 8-core ones (ie. 9900k)?
In theory yes, but you know what they say about assumptions…
I haven’t seen any confirmation for any 8-core CPU on a Skylake/Kabylake chipset.
The 9000 series CPU’s are in short supply and expensive so no-one has posted any results that I can find on the web yet.
If I come across anything I will update this thread.