[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

Sapricot · Jun 18, 2021

CaseySJ said:
I would recommend Pi 4 first without the supplemental procedure. Attaching the clip to the chip must always be done very gently and with excellent near sightedness. If you are naturally near sighted and need glasses or contacts for distant objects, those corrective lenses should be removed. Also use a flashlight to align the clip to the chip and confirm that pin 1 on the clip is oriented with the tiny dimple on the chip.

The “flashrom” command needs to be tweaked a little. When you’re ready to proceed, the first thing we’ll do is attempt to read the chip. The SOIC clip may need to be adjusted (i.e. reseated on the chip) slightly until flashrom detects the chip.

The flashrom command to read the chip is:

Raspberry Pi:
sudo flashrom -p linux_spi:dev=/dev/spidev0.0,spispeed=4096 -c MX25L12835F/MX25L12845E/MX25L12865E -r bios-1.bin

CH341a USB reader/writer:
sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -c MX25L12835F/MX25L12845E/MX25L12865E -r bios-1.bin

This should be done three times, each time incrementing the digit in “bios-1.bin” by 1. So second time it will be bios-2.bin. The existing contents of the chip will be read and saved into the bios-x.bin files.

Ok. Just so I've understood you fully: I should follow the guide you linked to including Y-splitting pin 17 (Pi) to pins 3 and 7 (clip)? Can this be done with the jumper wires or do I need to actually splice the wire?

I could get some reading glasses to get closer, though I think I'm pretty steady (I used to do Warhammer modelling/painting and I once OC'd a PowerMac G3 by literally cutting off the trace for one of the jumpers on the MB with a scalpel :lol:

).

Should I disconnect other stuff like nvme drives or can I leave it in?

Oh and can you share the correct bios.bin? Should I just use the official F9i or something else (like the original F7 to match what I had)?

NorthAmTransAm · Jun 18, 2021

Sapricot said:
I could get some reading glasses to get closer, though I think I'm pretty steady (I used to do Warhammer modelling/painting and I once OC'd a PowerMac G3 by literally cutting off the trace for one of the jumpers on the MB with a scalpel ).

Absolute madness! Love it.

Sapricot · Jun 18, 2021

NorthAmTransAm said:
Absolute madness! Love it.

Took it from 300 to 450 MHz

CaseySJ · Jun 18, 2021

Sapricot said:
Ok. Just so I've understood you fully: I should follow the guide you linked to including Y-splitting pin 17 (Pi) to pins 3 and 7 (clip)? Can this be done with the jumper wires or do I need to actually splice the wire?

Jumper wires will suffice, and that alternative is preferred. Splitting the pins can be error prone.

Sapricot said:
I could get some reading glasses to get closer, though I think I'm pretty steady (I used to do Warhammer modelling/painting and I once OC'd a PowerMac G3 by literally cutting off the trace for one of the jumpers on the MB with a scalpel ).

Okay, you’re not a rookie at this! Now I feel better.

Sapricot said:
Should I disconnect other stuff like nvme drives or can I leave it in?

Those can be left in.

Sapricot said:
Oh and can you share the correct bios.bin? Should I just use the official F9i or something else (like the original F7 to match what I had)?

The BIOS files cannot be used! I have extracted the image from my chip and will send that image to you. But please read the existing contents of the chip three times, compute their checksums with the shasum command, and post those checksums.

Will post BIOS image once I’m home. Enjoying a lovely latté at the moment.

CaseySJ · Jun 18, 2021

@Sapricot,

Attached is the flashrom BIOS image for Designare Z390. This is F9i with latest Intel Microcode and can only be applied with SPI Flash ROM programmer.

Note that both read and write times for this chip can be large. It may take a full 2 or 3 minutes to read the chip. Just give it time...

UPDATE: Slight change of plan (based on reply from Elias immediately below).

Once you've extracted your BIOS image, please compress and post it.
I'll make the modification mentioned by Elias below and post the updated file.
Then delete the BIOS image from your post (simply "edit" your post and delete the file).

Elias64Fr · Jun 18, 2021

CaseySJ said:
Jumper wires will suffice, and that alternative is preferred. Splitting the pins can be error prone.

Okay, you’re not a rookie at this! Now I feel better.

Those can be left in.

The BIOS files cannot be used! I have extracted the image from my chip and will send that image to you. But please read the existing contents of the chip three times, compute their checksums with the shasum command, and post those checksums.

Will post BIOS image once I’m home. Enjoying a lovely latté at the moment.

UPDATE:
BIOS F9i flashrom image (with latest Intel Microcode) is attached. This can only be applied using an external SPI ROM writer.

@Sapricot @CaseySJ

Like said in my previous post here, you loose your Onboard Gigabit Ethernet MAC address if you flash Gigabyte downloaded BIOS firmware (Personal MAC address is written on GBe Region @ 0x1000)

You should read current corrupted firmware, open it with Hexedit, jumps to 0x1000 address and extract datas from 0x1000 to 0x2FFF, then copy them on same field on the downloaded BIOS firmware (.. maybe 6 first byte should be good enough but not tested)

@CaseySJ, please don't post your personal firmware with your included MAC address

Snoots · Jun 18, 2021

Does this process you are currently working on/describing mean that if you are successful we could flash the BIOS with the existing Gigabyte tool and have full Thunderbolt capability or do you still have to flash the Thunderbolt firmware separately.

NorthAmTransAm · Jun 18, 2021

Snoots said:
Does this process you are currently working on/describing mean that if you are successful we could flash the BIOS with the existing Gigabyte tool and have full Thunderbolt capability or do you still have to flash the Thunderbolt firmware separately.

You still need to flash Thunderbolt firmware separately.

CaseySJ · Jun 18, 2021

Elias64Fr said:
@Sapricot @CaseySJ

Like said in my previous post here, you loose your Onboard Gigabit Ethernet MAC address if you flash Gigabyte downloaded BIOS firmware (Personal MAC address is written on GBe Region @ 0x1000)

You should read current corrupted firmware, open it with Hexedit, jumps to 0x1000 address and extract datas from 0x1000 to 0x2FFF, then copy them on same field on the downloaded BIOS firmware (.. maybe 6 first byte should be good enough but not tested)

Hello Elias,

When you say "copy them on same field on the downloaded BIOS firmware" do you mean the BIOS file I posted above, which was extracted using CH341a SPI ROM reader?

Elias64Fr said:
@CaseySJ, please don't post your personal firmware with your included MAC address

Once @Sapricot downloads the file, I'll remove it.

CaseySJ · Jun 18, 2021

Snoots said:
Does this process you are currently working on/describing mean that if you are successful we could flash the BIOS with the existing Gigabyte tool and have full Thunderbolt capability or do you still have to flash the Thunderbolt firmware separately.

Please see this post: