Unlocking the new Asus 3xxx Sandy/Ivy Bridge bios

[Greggen]

Anyone tried the new 4xxx BIOS for P8Z68-V LX (and maybe some other boards, dunno)? Any reason to upgrade from 3xxx from a hackintosh pow?

[beta992]

Anyone tried the new 4xxx BIOS for P8Z68-V LX (and maybe some other boards, dunno)? Any reason to upgrade from 3xxx from a hackintosh pow?

I think you should wait before updating your BIOS or you need to be sure that you can revert to the old version if getting issues.

[Greggen]

I think you should wait before updating your BIOS or you need to be sure that you can revert to the old version if getting issues.

 

Yea, that's why I asked =D I run modded 3703 now and afaik everything, that I'm interested in, works so... I'll wait patiently ;D

[cyf]

Thank you for this thread, this is the most clear&concise description of exactly what to do to get native power management for newer uefi systems.

..., and won't wake back up) so I'm not sure what else I have to do here. Probably some special usb setting is necessary? Hints anyone? suspend&resume work fine under linux.

 

You'll probably still have to edit your DSDT.

 

BTW, I have a Zenbook UX21A --i.e., no flash back and I'm stuck at the point where I can't flash my modded ROM using the bupdater, AFUDOS or the UEFI utility (basically I think the error message says it's locked). Would you recommend using flashrom? I have the HM76 LPC controller, and it's not an "official" supported chipset (Not sure what the EC is).

 

Should I try the flashrom anyway?

[bcc9]

You'll probably still have to edit your DSDT.

Would that I know what edit is necessary... Seems to be hd graphics 4000 related; oh well off topic I suppose.

BTW, I have a Zenbook UX21A --i.e., no flash back and I'm stuck at the point where I can't flash my modded ROM using the bupdater, AFUDOS or the UEFI utility (basically I think the error message says it's locked). Would you recommend using flashrom? I have the HM76 LPC controller, and it's not an "official" supported chipset (Not sure what the EC is).

 

Should I try the flashrom anyway?

Since dumping & flashing your rom are two separate steps with flashrom, with plenty of steps in-between, you'll know if flashrom was able to dump your chip correctly before it's time to flash it.

Does that guarantee that it'll be able to flash write it too? No, but it's likely if the read operations worked right.

[cyf]

I actually extracted the bios using the afuefx64.efi tool from EFI shell, so I haven't even tried flashrom except I tried to originally extract the bios using DPCIManager from within OS X, which has flashrom built into it, and that's when it said my chipset was unsupported, and if I wanted to try and flash it, it would be at my own peril--i.e., the skies would rain fire, dogs and cats would live together, etc.

 

Using bupdater.exe on a bootable USB stick I created using one of the guides here, I get "Failed to find the update module." Using the same afuefix64.efi tool (or the afudos.exe tool on the same USB stick), I get a "Problem erasing flash.0080000" message. I don't have flash back on this, as it's a laptop.

 

My issue isn't verifying the ROM, it seems to be right. I'm pretty sure I captured the ROM and modified it correctly because I checked it with phoenix tools again (i.e., deleted everything but the modded ROM, and dumped it out) and verified the right hex portion had been modified.

 

Well, I'm hoping someone has an idea.

 

Would that I know what edit is necessary... Seems to be hd graphics 4000 related; oh well off topic I suppose.

 

Common things to add are HD4000, USB (sleep issues), and DTGP. Audio too. I'm still working on mine, but was hoping to at least eliminate another complication.

[bcc9]

1) flashrom says pretty much the same thing for my h77 chipset, but it does work.

2) it *is* at your own peril

3) DPCIManger is at r1612 of flashrom last I checked, current is r1623; z77 support was added in r1613 for example. Bottom line, you may want newer bits than what DPCIManager bundles.

 

As for dsdt, I'm aware of such modifications, I have just been unable to find a set of necessary&sufficient changes. Still have sleep issues on my asus h77 (and gigabyte z77 too).

 

Well, I'm hoping someone has an idea.

My idea is still that you try dumping your rom with the latest flashrom

[cyf]

1) flashrom says pretty much the same thing for my h77 chipset, but it does work.

2) it *is* at your own peril

3) DPCIManger is at r1612 of flashrom last I checked, current is r1623; z77 support was added in r1613 for example. Bottom line, you may want newer bits than what DPCIManager bundles.

My idea is still that you try dumping your rom with the latest flashrom

I will do so, but just so there's no misunderstanding, the other tools allowed me to download my bios, just not upload it. Time depending, I may just wait to reflash the bios when ASUS releases a new one for the latop, which seems to be very few months--it's coming up soon. I have other issues like DSDT to clean up. Speaking of which...

 

As for dsdt, I'm aware of such modifications, I have just been unable to find a set of necessary&sufficient changes. Still have sleep issues on my asus h77 (and gigabyte z77 too).

There's probably a slew of these changes. As you know, DSDT defines what events the computer system (e.g., motherboard, devices, etc.) needs to process from the OS, as well as generate events that the OS can handle, so that's probably why USB causes so many problems...

[davidm71]

Hey guys,

 

I successfully patched the 3603 Bios for the Asus P8Z68 Deluxe (Gen 1) board to have PM working in Mnt Lion. If anyone wants

a copy PM me. Also has Trim support in Windows 7 with 11.6.0.1702 modded orom...

 

[Doublepranks]

hey guys ive just got an Asrock z77 pro3 ! Could someone please patch its new bios?

z77pro3

 

Thanks a lot!

[tapeton]

Hi everyone,

 

I've a P8P67 PRO revB3 Bios 3207 (stock), and andy's bootcd make my computer restart before I can reach any SL installation screen. My bios version are compatible for making hackintosh ? I dunno how to make it work, this is so lazy to walk all around the web and many answer I've find goes in all direction.

 

Thanks a lot for your help

tapeton

[xpamamadeus]

Hi everyone,

 

I've a P8P67 PRO revB3 Bios 3207 (stock), and andy's bootcd make my computer restart before I can reach any SL installation screen. My bios version are compatible for making hackintosh ? I dunno how to make it work, this is so lazy to walk all around the web and many answer I've find goes in all direction.

 

Thanks a lot for your help

tapeton

 

Your GTX 670 arent supported in SL.

Install ML to get your hack full working.

For bios take this one becouse u will have applehda full working with dsdt and u dont need nullcpupowermanagment.kext with that bios.

http://bios.zmac.net/asus/P8P67-PRO-REV31-ASUS-2103_modified.zip

http://biosrepo.wordpress.com/asus/p67-2/

[Thinkcat]

Hello

 

I have Asus P8C WS, and have been out of luck. I have a couple of patched BIOS files, but every conceivable way to flash them runs into some kind of write protection called security check. I once thought that I succeeded, but then someone quickly informed me that I had only found a modified BIOS for that Windows piracy thing, and that I was back to square one.

 

FTK runs into the write protection. P8C WS has some kind of "crashproof" flash feature, but seems like it's just the EZ-Flash part of the BIOS somehow protected from harm. There are no buttons next to any USB ports. I wonder if I should 1) install linux, 2) buy another mobo (with Xeon and ECC support, there are Supermicro X9SAE and Asrock C216 WS) or 3) just keep hoping that someone gets around the protection or 4) learn to program BIOS chips using custom hardware, 5) buy a known working motherboard with no ECC support.

 

Funny that search for P8C WS gives no results. Nobody has wanted a machine with E3 Xeon and ECC before?

[bcc9]

Funny that search for P8C WS gives no results. Nobody has wanted a machine with E3 Xeon and ECC before?

I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is no. A xeon processor & ECC memory take you far from the hobbyist sweet spot on the price/performance curve.

 

I assume you tried flashrom, like I did here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/278208-unlocking-the-new-asus-3xxx-sandyivy-bridge-bios/page-3?do=findComment&comment=1866111

 

In any case, coderush's new thread http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/285444-pmpatch-uefi-patching-utility/

is closer to the state-of-the-art in flashing locked Asus bioses.

This thread is more the do-it-yourself technical details of the patch itself.

[bdv]

Funny that search for P8C WS gives no results. Nobody has wanted a machine with E3 Xeon and ECC before?

 

I have one:

P8B WS with Xeon E3-1230 v2, 16GB ECC ram, Radeon HD6850, 256GB Samsung 840Pro Series.

Once correctly configured (DSDT, SSDT an smbios) it is a great rig: rock stable, sleep & PM working as well as USB3 and Firewire.

I am very pleased with it as I daily use it for work and everyday stuff, even if (as a sandy bridge board) it is only PCIe 2.0 and ASMedia USB3, not Intel (works fine at USB3 speed with latest GenericUSBXHCI kext). Only glitch so far is limited PowerManagement: only get few PStates (typically 6 or 7 including lowest and turbo: x16, x21,x27,x33...x37). No big deal as  the genuine iMac is no better).

 

The problem with these boards (P8B and P8C) is that they do not support USB Bios Flashback which is the only easy method AFAIK to flash patched recent asus bios due to the "Secure Bios protection".  So you must use older bios dating back when Asus did not use this protection, or an other method.

 

I use 2106 bios (latests) on my P8B WS, but I read that P8C WS recent bios are already using this bios protection mechanism.

 

Did you try flashing using CoreRush FTK method?

 

http://biosrepo.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/how-to-flash-unsupported-motherboards-via-ftk-and-dos/

 

Or perhaps trying with a former bios?

[Thinkcat]

Did you try flashing using CoreRush FTK method?

 

Or perhaps trying with a former bios?

 

I think I did the FTK method wrong at first. Now it seems like I succeeded.

 

I tried former BIOS versions, but it only accepted 3xxx, so I never got to find out if the earlier versions would have changed anything.

 

But now I think I don't need to. I don't have much time, so I have done some quick tries, but haven't been able to boot into login screen yet. But I will keep on trying.

 

Edit: Was able to boot into the installed system. AFAIK there is no patched power management anywhere, so I guess the modified BIOS is there and works! I have loads of problems left to solve, but I know this thread is not the place for that.

[falanx]

Thanks. This method worked for me on my Asus K56CA laptop. After flashing the patched bios, I tried to turn on my laptop, and as I pushed the power button it restarted. On the second try it booted the bios. Then I couldn't boot into OS X 'cause of I got AICPUPM KP. After booting into safe mode(after two KPs) I simply restarted normally and I got working PM without patched kext. Thank you. It was a little bit bumpy and scary road but I finally arrived where I wanted. Thank you very much.

[401K]

I get Phoenixtool 2.58 and MMTool 4.50 to modify my own ROM following the tutorial.
I've modified the PowerManagement module and then recompiled but I have an error saying "Unable to resize module" when I press Go.

It occurs when I choose 'Allow user to modify other modules' and 'No SLIC' options in Advanced menu as indicated.
Then I give a try with the "Preserve module size" option untick and it finally builds the ROM as expected.

So now I would like to know if there is any risk of brincking motherboard by flashing BIOS with the ROM where the modified module has been shrinked (by 3 bytes) ?

 

I work with bios 3806 of an Asus P8H67-M Pro.

[chriz74]

First of all I'd like to say credit where credit's due. This has been a joint work, the crucial link being provided by Revogirl. Read and learn how it's done so you can unlock your own bios, google to find the tools you need. Remember that this tutorial is using my bios as an example. The byte strings in yours may be different.

 

This is a risky procedure, do not attempt unless you are confident with modifying and flashing your bios. A mistake could easily brick your board

 

Use Phoenixtool in a Windows VM to dump all the EFI modules in your bios (a folder called DUMP will appear on the desktop when Phoenix tool runs). Then look at your bios in Aptio MMtool to get the GUID of the powermanagement EFI module. Now look through your DUMP directory until you find the ROM module with the same GUID. In my bios it's called 8C783970-F02A-4A4D-AF09-8797A51EEC8D_1_393.ROM. There will be two files with the same GUID, choose the larger one. This is your powermanagement module that needs to be fixed. Disassemble it using objdump on either Linux or Windoze (using MinGW shell). Google MinGW for more info:

 

objdump -m i386 -b binary -D 8C783970-F02A-4A4D-AF09-8797A51EEC8D_1_393.ROM > pm.asm

 

 

Open up pm.asm with a text editor. Remember we are looking to allow writes to MSR register 0xE2. Bit 15 is the lock bit, 15 in hex is 0xf. So we look for an instance of 0xE2 followed shortly by a bts (bit test and set) of 0xf. Sure enough, in my bios it appears here:

 

 

30e4: b9 e2 00 00 00 mov $0xe2,%ecx

30e9: e8 06 11 00 00 call 0x41f4

30ee: 48 dec %eax

30ef: 89 44 24 30 mov %eax,0x30(%esp)

30f3: 0f ba f0 0f btr $0xf,%eax

30f7: 89 44 24 30 mov %eax,0x30(%esp)

30fb: 80 fb 01 cmp $0x1,%bl

30fe: 75 08 jne 0x3108

3100: 0f ba e8 0f bts $0xf,%eax

3104: 89 44 24 30 mov %eax,0x30(%esp)

3108: 48 dec %eax

3109: 8b 54 24 30 mov 0x30(%esp),%edx

310d: b9 e2 00 00 00 mov $0xe2,%ecx

3112: e8 e9 10 00 00 call 0x4200

3117: 33 c0 xor %eax,%eax

3119: 48 dec %eax

311a: 83 c4 20 add $0x20,%esp

311d: 5b pop %ebx

311e: c3 ret

 

 

We need to change the jump highlighted above in blue:

 

30fe: 75 08 jne 0x3108

 

into:

 

30fe: eb 08 jmp 0x3108

 

To make it jump unconditionally as we don't want to set the lock bit. So open up the rom module in your favourite hex editor and search for the byte string:

 

75080fbae80f89442430

 

and replace it with:

 

eb080fbae80f89442430

 

then save. Now re-run Phoenixtool on your bios, when it has finished unpacking then go into Advanced options and tick the box that says 'Allow user to modify other modules'. Also tick 'No SLIC', then press Done. Now copy over your modified ROM file into the DUMP directory and agree to overwrite the original. Now press Go in Phoenixtool. Phoenixtool will insert the modified rom into your bios, fixing any checksums as it goes along. Flash the fixed bios and native speedstepping is all yours

 

Please no PM's about fixing your bios. If you learn how to do it yourself then you can always fix any updated bios in the future. That is, until this:

 

http://www.projectos...t=0

 

Hello. I am trying this procedure but the phoenixtool you talk about also perform a modification in SLIC whatever which I don't think is needed at all. I don't want to perform this mod. Any hint?

The latest phoenixtool is downloadable here -> http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/13194-Tool-to-Insert-Replace-SLIC-in-Phoenix-Insyde-Dell-EFI-BIOSes?highlight=phoenix+mod+tool

[Pike R. Alpha]

Google for "UEFITool" or "UEFIPatch"

[davidm71]

Hi,

 

Was just out of curiosity trying to learn how to decompile and mod bios files manually for the sake of knowing how and not using a utility. I also got that unable to resize module error myself and I also unchecked preserved module size. Someone care to comment if that is correct?

 

Also is it just as safe to extract the powermanagement module from mmtool as opposed to Phoenixtool? MMtool seems easier..

 

Thanks.