Z87 Sabertooth NVMe bios mod help

BIOS/UEFI Modding BIOS modules (PCI ROM, EFI and others)
21

@AOX - Flashing for one minute or so sounds correct, on modern systems it gets faster as it nears the end, unsure about on older systems.

Great you got it sorted out finally

22

@Lost_N_BIOS :

I found some differences regarding the BIOS code, but I donā€™t know the reason for these differences.
I am sorry for my late reply.

23

Thanks @Fernando - I wish there was a way for us to tell in advance when MMTool should be used

24

@Lost_N_BIOS :
Due to the problems I had obverserved with some AMI Aptio IV BIOSes after having inserted the NVMe module by using the UEFITool, I prefer the usage of the MMTool v4.50 for this specific kind of BIOS modding.

25

Thanks, so never any issue at all with Aptio IV and MMTool 4.5? If not, the I will always use MMTool for Aptio IV and UEFITool only for Aptio V, then I wont have to wonder if MMTool should be used on the older BIOS or not.

26

Hello again @Lost_N_BIOS , I figured Iā€™d keep this in the same thread incase the 10 other people with my board come looking for help too. I have used the bios mod you made for me for a few months now- sometimes it lasts a little bit, but since Iā€™m re-hackintoshing my PC I have to reboot a lot. Currently I have to reflash the bios every time I reboot no matter what boot drive is selected. I made several more attempts using UEFITool and MMTool to make them, but none work any better. Do you know of any reason why this might be? It just seems odd that it works for the first boot and freezes on the Asus screen without going into the bios on the next attempt.

Thank you, Nick

27

@orz_nick - I read back in the thread, and I thought you ended up using BIOS Fernando made you? From about the middle of page one, I assumed you would already be sending this drive back for RMA, you havenā€™t yet?
I would have, or at least picked up a second NVME for testing to see if same issue is present or not, since they are so cheap now. What adapter are you using? And what slot do you have the device installed into?
Have you ran Memtest86+ for extended amount of time, like overnight, to see if there is no memory errors? And, have you ran any in OS stability tests for any longer amount of time, like 8-12+ hours, such as Prime95?

To me, this sounds like some memory or CPU instability, or a faulty NVME (This mainly about the NVME issues mentioned on page one) Your last comments above, sound like a possibly bad CMOS battery, or something is going bad on the board maybe, or some instability as mentioned.
Why do you have to keep reflashing exactly? What happens if you wait on that second reboot at the Asus screen, does it remain there forever? Does it do this same one reboot OK, second frozen, if you remove the NVME from the system (Physically) and boot to USB or other HDD/SSD? << Please test that

28

@Lost_N_BIOS
Yes the drive was sent in, all is fine with that as far as weā€™re aware of. Maybe around the holidays Iā€™ll pick up another, or a different adapter (the one I have now is just one off amazon, no name brand).
As for the stability, Iā€™ll run tests, but Iā€™m completely stable playing games for several hours at a time in Windows and donā€™t have any side affects regarding that through normal and heavy use. The drive never randomly goes out either, which I believe should eliminate the issue of a bad adapter and drive.

What Iā€™ve now noticed is that when it doesnā€™t boot, the read/write light doesnā€™t flash at all- but I know itā€™ll load if the light flashes quickly in a few seconds of booting. This leads me to believe the BIOS doesnā€™t detect it sometimes.

I tested taking it out:
Stops loading bios, freezes on post screen, no drive activity
- Take out the drive
Nothing happens, canā€™t enter the bios
- Plug it back in
The post screen goes away for a second and the drive light flashes, but it returns back to the post screen and I am not able to access the bios once again.
- Everything is fixed by reflashing the bios.

Iā€™ll use my friends CMOS battery and see if it stops freezing- that does make sense.
If none of this sparks interest or a direction Iā€™ll run stability tests.

Thank you for coming back and responding!

29

Hi

I currently have the same motherboard Asus Sabertooth z87
Ive tried moding the bios using both the UEFItool and the MMTool, I have even tried the mod that was posted earlier in the post (was able to see the drive for 1 boot)

these are the steps that I have tried

-download latest bios version from asus site
-Using the UEFItool, followed the steps and added the Nvmecpress file at the end of the bios in the dxe section
-used the asus bios renamer to rename the bios
-copied to usb and shut down to flash bios, usb is inserted into flashback port pressed the bios flashback button (starts blinking blue)
-when i use the UEFItool it will keep blinking for around 1min to 1.5 min and there is usb activity. after that the light turns off.
-after powering on the machine i have to re-config bios, but drive is not there.
-the only time i saw the drive is when i used the mod that Fernando created but after a reboot it disappeared.

when using the MMtool, after trying to do the flashback with the usb, it lights up for a few blinks and then the usb doesnā€™t show activity and the flashblack light stays solid.

I have tried using several usbs ranging in size from 16gb-512mb

Am I missing a step?

Thanks

30

Hi all
Great forum. I stumbled across it because I have a z87 sabertooth that Iā€™d like to install an NVME drive into.

Iā€™ve followed all the steps and windows 10 canā€™t find the drive when it comes time to install.

What Iā€™ve tried:
Flashing BIOS modded according to Fernandoā€™s method in the guide;
Flashing BIOS @Fernando uploaded to this thread;
Flashing older BIOS version (to make sure that my USB drive could be used for flashing).
Switching to a different PCIE slot.

Disable CMS, Fast boot, Security Boot and set SATA mode to AHCI pre-install.

I booted into am ubuntu linux liveCD and it canā€™t seem to find it either, although my experience in Linux isnā€™t great so I canā€™t state this definitely!

31

U modded the bios urself? Checked if NVMe module is present in mod, again opening mod file?
Flashed via Asus Bios Flashback? Z87ST.CAP
Model of ur NVMe SSD?

32

Hi MeatWar

@MeatWar : Thanks for replying, sorry I missed it at first.

I used the BIOS uploaded by Fernando posted on page 1 (after my I couldnā€™t see my drive with my own BIOS mod).

Yeah, I used the Bios Flashback and am fairly sure that I can confirm that the flash was successful. My test: I flashed to an old BIOS, then to the Fernando BIOS and checked that the version number changed in the BIOS settings.

My NVME drive is a SANDISK X600 M.2 2280 256GB (P/N SD9SN8W-256G-1006)

Thanks

33

Iā€™ve shared a Modded Sabertooth Z87 BIOS in secrtion ā€œOffers: Already modded special BIOSesā€
Hope this can help.
[OFFER] ASUS Sabertooth Z87 2302 with NVME support + Update (Microcode V28 / GOP driver / Intel Gigabit for I217)


Iā€™ve seen some fellas talking about the problems of their modded Sabertooth Z87 BIOS. However, Iā€™ve never encounter any problem with my modded BIOS.
I modded my first Sabertooth Z87 BIOS with NVME support back in 2018, it has been 2 years to now that I never encounter any problem. So I just took my modded BIOS out again and update it with latest microcode and drivers, share it with everyone, hope it can help some people who has problem modding it.

34

This helped out alot. I had the exact same problem. i was using a 32gb flashdrive, it kepted blinking from a min to 1.5 min, then just went a solid blue, ill post a link to where if anyone needs the Bios renamer for Bios flash back. also Key note i had to go buy another flashdrive usb its 8 GB and it worked the first time thankfully the USB exactly was called swing 8GB URIREX2.0. apparently you can only do it with im guessing 2GB to 8GB. The website for the bios renamer is https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Sysā€¦BRenamerl.shtml