Thanks @Aureliano - what's that second mod shown at the guide, the connection beside the PCIE slots?
Comparing your image, to the one in the guide, you circled the position above the one in the guides image? In your image above, there is already a resistor in position the guide says to connect, below what you circled

Thanks for the help guys!

The other hard mod using a wire is equivalent to shorting pads on the CPU.

The layout around the USB Flashback chip is different across boards. I just shorted the only two bare pads near the chip. And it worked.

@Lost_N_BIOS : I have never systematically checked for this, but whenever I flashed a BIOS with old ME using the independent flashback on a ROG board, ME was successfully downdated as well. (Note that Asus uses the term "flashback" also on Strix and Prime models which often do not have an independent system for flash but need the CPU. This "flashback" is nothing more than a onboard button to activate automated EZ flash and can't do anything special)
However flashback cannot write protected FD unless there is a flashback pinmod for the board used.

I guess it all comes down to protection levels: Write restrictions in FD are chiplevel hardcoded and Flashback adherese to these. So it will not write to MAC region or FD itself, though technically it has all the capabilities. But ME region cannot be protected this way because it is occassionally updated by EZ flash, which does not have the capabilities to overwrite chiplevel locks. So ME has its own protection mechanisms on firmware level instead which are loaded during POST, but can be deactivated by software for legitimate updates (or by modders fidling with audio coded pins). These firmware locks prevent EZ flash, AFU, ... from writing illegtimate updates/downdates to ME region. But Flashback cannot be stopped by firmware because flashback does not POST at all and thus ME never gets loaded.

Zitat von Aureliano im Beitrag #922

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Zitat von Lost_N_BIOS im Beitrag #921

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@Aureliano - are you saying, if you remove that GUID in BIOS, this will cause USB Flashback to re-write ME region during it's process?
If yes, great tip, thanks. And if yes, do you know if that applies to all Asus, generally?

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Once the pinmod is done, USB Flashback can flash any ME in the modded BIOS. I think what @davidm71 said "Flashback always reverted my ME" is due to GUID 63F23E9D-5FDA-415E-9C2A-64C4E2A6ECE8 which is an ME 11.8 update.

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Zitat von davidm71 im Beitrag #935

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Zitat von Aureliano im Beitrag #922

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Zitat von Lost_N_BIOS im Beitrag #921

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@Aureliano - are you saying, if you remove that GUID in BIOS, this will cause USB Flashback to re-write ME region during it's process?
If yes, great tip, thanks. And if yes, do you know if that applies to all Asus, generally?

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Once the pinmod is done, USB Flashback can flash any ME in the modded BIOS. I think what @davidm71 said "Flashback always reverted my ME" is due to GUID 63F23E9D-5FDA-415E-9C2A-64C4E2A6ECE8 which is an ME 11.8 update.

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@Aureliano

Confused about what that GUID has to do with being able to revert?

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Ok I have almost everything I need to go ahead with this mod. Got my motherboard and my usb flash programmer working. Only missing a cpu so was wondering what cpu do you guys recommend I purchase?

Thanks

There are BIOSs already for M9A.
https://community.hwbot.org/topic/184577...ffee-lake-cpus/

Anything between i3-6100 to i9-9900KF should work.

Waiting for 9350K. Hope its released soon!

Zitat von PCGH_Torsten im Beitrag #912

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Depending on the board it is possible to run 8 core/16 threads (I did this on Asrock B150M Pro4S -not recommended-, Maximus VIII Ranger and Z170 Sabertooth) and many people do own high quality Z170 boards which are not that cheap/easy to replace with something new. Especially if one has some specific add-ons installed, e.g. I got water coolers and an SATA-E attached USB 3.1 front panel. Replacing all this would easily cost 400 bucks new and getting such parts second hand in good condition is as much struggle as modding the old system. Also these efforts started before there was any second hand market for Z370 at all. Nowadays the prices have dropped and for most people it is more a hobby and less a financial descision. Mind how many people are playing around with Core i3, which are slower than a 6700K or 7700K.

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Using Asus z170m-plus and 9600k. Modded bios made by Coffee Time. All works fine. I can do only 4.6ghz safely because of the temp of vrm, but it's totally sufficient for me.



https://valid.x86.fr/hn3cbq

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this!

Is this silver ink pen conductive I wonder: https://www.michaels.com/krylon-leafing-...cB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Thanks

Hey you guys do you think copper tape is best for splicing two pads together?

Used pencil and its working fine but for how long...

Thanks

Zitat von davidm71 im Beitrag #943

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Hey you guys do you think copper tape is best for splicing two pads together?

Used pencil and its working fine but for how long...

Thanks

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My Windows installation just became corrupted. Wasnt a fresh install. Had pulled the drive from other machine just to see if windows would work and was able to get in windows a few times but made a change to XMP profile and all of a sudden have an Inaccesible boot device blue screen. Going to have to reinstall. Possible auto settings not stable. Board auto overclocked the chip to 4.5 ghz. Probably next time going to have to manually dial in settings. Thanks.