@malucul

Strange it gives me the option and im in the UK. I was was state side id happily send a board over but imports/exports etc would be a real pain!

You can message him here, from his account, not from the contact seller link on the listing - https://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...computer.buying (Select, "not about an item" just in case)
I too, can directly ask a question from the listing, so maybe due to location you can't message him from the listing @maluul ? Says "Shipping to United States" only, everything else is excluded.

Thanks Lost. I sent them a message.

@avd any news yet?

Just jumping in here as i have been pretty much following you guys behind the scenes. when i saw the ebay post i caved. i have been following along trying everything but still no bueno. I actually was working on this for a friends board but found a deal an the exact same board so i have been talking with the seller from ebay and he said for both boards he should have a turn around within 3-5 days of receiving them. IO am sending him both board and i ordered 2 6136 for myself as my new work station. i will keep you all posted when i get them back. I should be ghetting my Asus sage c621e tomorrow and then i will send both boards the following day.

@TechStream Hi. Well actually yes, it works, tested with different CPUs for a while in different modes. Here's the rom image
You still need to use SPI programmer like this - ali ebay. As for the software I recommend AsProgrammer, it is simple and works perfectly (google it). Use one of the following methods to connect programmer to the EEPROM chip:
a) SOIC16 clip like this - ali ebay. You might have to modify the header accordingly to the programmer pinout.
how it looks like:

@avd

Thats amazing, can you confirm what you changed in the bios and also which CPUs you used?

Also one other question @avd

You say ecc udimms no longer work, dont suppose you could check with some none ecc memory.

@TechStream
1. You have to have the new seccore and microcodes - that's it.
2. tested with ql1l, ql1k. ql1f for 1-2 weeks.
3. I meant ecc udimms, of course, and i have tested the same sticks which were tested and worked on the same c621e with original bios and retail xeon 6152 cpu. And the same sticks works great on Supermicro x11 with b0 cpus. But on the c621e with b0 they don't. It makes sense because according to the postcodes all the problems with b0 stepping are memory-related - incompatible Supermicros show post code 53 which is a mem error, Asus showed bb after cycling of b1-7 or something which are also memory-related, and so on. AFAIK the problem was something related to memory training on very initial stages of initialization (a guy from apple uefi dev dep tried to help me and told me that). But i'm not an expert in low level engineering, especially with this platform as there are a lot of platform-specific asm code. Anyway, udimm ecc sticks don't work as well as non-ecc and i haven't try non-ecc with retail cpu but pretty sure it wouldn't work as well. Don't think it's a big problem, noted about it just FYI.

Seems to work for my QL29s. I am having a little trouble booting, when the OS (Linux or Windows) tries to start, the machine resets. Not really sure what is causing this, haven’t had time to play yet.

Thanks for caving in @sochotek _ was going to ask you to provide the BIOS dump once your board arrived back, but looks like @avd did this right after your post - thanks to you both!

I will dissect the BIOS and see what has changed, then I can do same changes on latest BIOS for you guys, unless this is already latest BIOS (*Confirmed this is latest BIOS).
Now, we need someone who has not sent in their board, to program in this BIOS and confirm it works without that seller touching your board. @malucul - are you confirming this now??

@Lost_N_BIOS it at least POSTs, which is substantially more than it was doing before. I haven’t actually managed to get an OS to start yet though. I’ll play some more tonight, this could well be something weird about my particular setup.

Update: Just found a few minutes to have another look. I am about 90% certain that it’s a memory problem.

@malucul - thanks for reporting back. How did you flash in the BIOS, via flashback or FPT, or programmer? Be careful guys, if you use programmer or FPT you will loose you serial, UUID, and LAN MAC ID

Here's my comparison report on the mod BIOS vs stock, with about an hour or so dig in
BIOS Version = 5503 - 2/15/2019

Changes I see vs stock -

_FIT_ table is sloppily re-constructed (maybe accidently, or on purpose?)
To me, it looks like it was simply poorly edited by someone that is unfamiliar with editing this file, doesn't look like something Asus would do or anything that would allow/help this mod work, but someone would have to test if these CPU's still work if I fix this.
Anyone that knows about editing FIT, will be able to look at the file and see the same as I do I assume, poor edit and moved bottom entries to just below microcode entries but done incorrectly/all messed up

Microcode for 50654 (Rev 2000057) is removed
Microcode for 50655 (Rev 3000010) is removed

Microcode for 50656 (Rev 4000017) is replaced by >> Rev 4000010
Microcode for 50657 (Rev 5000017) is replaced by >> Rev 5000010

Microcode for 50652 is inserted (rev 8000037 - 2/5/2017)

ME version 4.1.4.251 is replaced with older >> 4.1.3.237 (Still need to dive into settings to see if anything aside from version is changed)

FD region is exact match - so USB Flashback can be used, provided it also updates/downgrades the ME region

DevExp1 Exact Match

PTT region, this contains Data - stock one does not (all FF), this is solely due to this being a dumped BIOS vs stock thing. I need a dump from someone's unmodified board using 5503 BIOS to compare with and see if anything different for the mod.

A NVRAM stock volume, standard defaults, contains changes and 3 additional module entries (IPConfiguration + ServerSettingVarName -both may be unrelated + AMIFwConfigSrvSetup module entry which I assume is related) + many Changes inside some entries that are in both (I assume much of this mod related)
@ Setup entry (many changes), @IntelSetup 5x changes, @ SocketMPLinkConfig x1 change, @SocketMemoryConfig x36 changes, @ SocketPowerManagementConfig x3 changes, @ SocketProcessorCoreConfig x1 removal, @ServerSetup x2-3 changes, @FakeVar x1 change - @GUIDStore 30 bytes removed
+ 10 bytes different (assumed all due to these additions and changes, not related to mod directly)

Comparing BIOS dropped into FITc to compare ME's just by XML settings output, I see the following And these may solely be due to the ME FW version differences, unsure.

The box, to the left of PCH + Platform by default says Full with mod BIOS and SiEn with stock BIOS (That may be due to version differences, or dump vs stock?)

This is removed twice from stock BIOS (removed in mod BIOS/ME)
<variable name="NmEnabled"
value="false"/>

This is removed once from stock BIOS (removed in mod BIOS/ME)
prev <file name="PchHybridProfile"
enabled="true">
<variable name="LCPLL_SSC0_BCLK"
value="0x0010051c"/>
</file>

Can't compare ME using ME Analyzer - adv mod BIOS above ME FW seems broken when dropped on MEA >> MFS Low Level File xxx which has not been parsed (Error maybe 50+ times and that's all)

plutomaniac will have to check that out


First, 2nd and 3rd BIOS volumes (below NVRAM volumes) are hex identical
First padding differs, but this may be due to dump vs stock

4th BIOS volume (Main BIOS DXE Volume) has many changes - some I assume mod related, but possibly not all, hard to know when you're comparing dump to stock BIOS
Due to volumes and everything being compressed, I don't know how to easily compare modules (except extract one by one and compare in hex) vs extract volume and compare in hex (which is comparing compressed modules as an entire compressed file).
If I could easily compare just the volumes side by side, uncompressed it would be easier to see what all is different, what might be mod vs stock and what is stock vs dump etc.

Padding (last in open region) which contains _FIT_ also has MANY other differences
Last BIOS volume has some changes (many)

Here is textual output of all BIOS settings and their default values, if anyone wants to compare
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil...929118443252951

I assume, the seller put this BIOS on mainly via USB Flashback if your serial, UUID, LAN MAc all same, unless he took the time to copy that out and then back in once done which can be tedious vs flashback = painfree.
Then once done with flashback, used programmer to put in ME Region. I assume flashback used for main BIOS re-do as it's easier to keep all system details retained that way, and then either unlock FD via programmer or simply write in the ME region only via programmer and be done.
However it could be done many different ways I assume, but I do assume it can be done via flashback (provided your board will downflash ME, or you have applied hard mod to enable FD/ME re-write via flashback
(As discussed here) - [GUIDE] Coffee Lake CPUs on Skylake and Kaby Lake motherboards (62)

Pinmod could also be done to quickly unlock FD/ME and downflash the ME too, user prerence how to get the ME Backflashed, but it's possible without programmer, and possible without using USB Flashback too (or with flashback as well)

Ok, so I pulled one chip (because I only have one stick of 2133 RAM) and changed the memory to a Kingston part (KTN-PL421). I got 10 minutes into memtest and it didn’t fail (previously it was dying almost immediately). I have also managed to boot into Linux from SRCD. I will try the other CPU in a bit to try and rule out that being the issue.

Dump from /proc/cpuinfo if anyone is interested - https://pastebin.com/69E7EnTe

Ok, I reseated everything and now appear to be running correctly with both sockets populated using Kingston KVR24R17S8. I’ll install windows now and fire up CPU-Z, Cinebench etc

@mitdal369 @levelud @maxdata @levelud @myio @Branen @Onyxx1606 @Moomoo @Kaboooom2000uk @Onyxx1606 @dahuoxia <<< Bump for any of you not subscribed, see above for BIOS ^^