I hope someone can point me in the right direction, as I'm new to this. The tl;dr is that I flashed a modded BIOS to my X9DA7 to enable NVME, installed windows too many times (maybe?), and now it won't boot anymore.
I edited a BIOS downloaded from supermicro.com to include the nvme uefi driver,flashed it onto the board, installed windows on a corsair drive in a m.2-to-pcie adapter, and things worked just fine for a little while, then there was a windows update that broke booting. I reinstalled windows, blocked the update (the april 2019 rollup, i forget the kbXXXX...). All was fine untill the May rollup, at which point the problem re-occurred. It took a few tries to get it right (I tried the 1903 build to see if maybe the problem, whatever it is , was fixed there, but no), and block the right update, maybe 5 re-installs in all. At the last reboot, i went into the BIOS setup, and saw that there were two instances of "Built in UEFI shell" in the boot options, neither of which could be deleted. There was also 15+ instances of "Windows Boot Manager", neither of which could be removed. I went to the last page and loaded setup defaults, saved and rebooted. Now, when it boots, it shows the RAID controller BIOS (I can ctrl-r into it if I want), then shows the Supermicro logo for a split second, then the Intel PXE bios comes up (and I can ctrl-s into that, if I want), then it goes back to the Supermicro logo stuck on "B2". No amount of "esc"-ing or "del"-ing will get me into setup, and "F11" or "F12" do not work, as well.
I tried Supermicro support, both at their email, and opening a case with Supermicro Europe, but they wouldn't/couldn't help me. They did say that "B2" has to do with legacy modules. Otherwise they had me resetting the CMOS, which I have done approx. 1000 times, to no avail.
I've also tried emergency flashing (which has saved this particular motherboard once before), but it doesn't work. Holding ctr-<HOME> while booting seemingly does SOMETHING, as the keyboard goes dark, the usual last beep doesn't come, and instead there's a long pause, followed by two beeps. The keyboard lights up, and the flash drive is accessed. I get no video output, the keyboard and the flash drive goes dark, and the machine reboots.
So, after all of that I went into the basement to find my RS232-to-USB adapter to see if the serial port on the motherboard does anything, and it does! It sends out first one error, and a couple of seconds later, while seemingly frozen, another one:
Supermicro assures me that these are irrelevant, and my only option (as my warranty is long expired) is to buy a new computer.
So I suppose I need a SOIC8 clip, a flash programmer, some sort of flash editing program. But I also need a bit of help, and I would really appreciate it.
@torstefi - Installing windows 1 billion times wont make your board not boot, so this can't be the issue or even related
Yes, this is legacy rom loading error or still scanning for boot devices, common in Supermicro board if you google this, a few I noticed said due to bad power down or bad shut down (Forcing it to shut off by pulling power, holding down power button etc, instead of waiting) If you remove all hard drives, can you then access BIOS? How about with that same thing done, remove all but one stick of memory, then try to boot again, can you enter BIOS? Same again, but put in a single stick of some other memory you hadn't been using previously, can you get in BIOS now? If none of that works, unplug your monitor and try again, do you see it boot past the B2 code then? If CPU has graphics in chip, remove your PCIE graphics card if you have one, so no monitor connected at all, and then try again, does it boot past B2? If yes, try connecting monitor to onboard GPU temporarily until you can reflash. More info here, last post of page one, this is a common graphic card related BIOS bug on many boards sometimes it seems - https://www.overclock.net/forum/8-intel-...ror-7950-a.html
When trying your USB recovery, did you have USB Formatted to FAT32, put BIOS on root of USB, name it SUPER.ROM? See post #28 here for detailed recovery method (in case you hadn't seen yet) - https://forums.servethehome.com/index.ph...e-2#post-114519 See also, last post here for another method - https://superuser.com/questions/706795/s...-no-any-externa They also mention being able to login to BIOS via IMPI and reflash from Web IMPI etc, if your system has that you can try that too if you haven't already.
Can you boot to DOS, on USB or CD? Try F11 many times as it starts up to get boot menu. If you can boot to DOS, we can fix via FPT, if this is Intel based system When you created your mod BIOS, what was the source, a dump from your BIOS or a downloaded "BIOS update file"? Do you have any actual backups or dumps from the BIOS? If you cannot boot to DOS, then yes I think you'll need a SOIC8 test clip with cable if the BIOS is soldered to the board and a CH341A or other flash programmer.
Please don't send PM's for help on BIOS edits, I can't help with BIOS in PM's. Please make a thread and I will try to help as soon as I can - thanks! If you appreciate my efforts and are willing to donate to help improve my hardware, gift cards work for me (Amazn, NuEgg, eBa) - send me a PM I view the forum like this, please bump your thread 1x every 24-48 hours if no reply
Zitat von Lost_N_BIOS im Beitrag #2@torstefi - Installing windows 1 billion times wont make your board not boot, so this can't be the issue or even related
I won't argue that with you, it seems very far fetched. A boot option gets written to the flash though, or am I wrong about that?
Zitat von Lost_N_BIOS im Beitrag #2 Yes, this is legacy rom loading error or still scanning for boot devices, common in Supermicro board if you google this, a few I noticed said due to bad power down or bad shut down (Forcing it to shut off by pulling power, holding down power button etc, instead of waiting) If you remove all hard drives, can you then access BIOS? How about with that same thing done, remove all but one stick of memory, then try to boot again, can you enter BIOS? Same again, but put in a single stick of some other memory you hadn't been using previously, can you get in BIOS now?
I have zero devices connected, except the two cpus, the RAM and the graphics card.. I haven't tried pulling the ram sticks, I can give it a go. As this board uses (very expensive) ECC/REG ram, I don't have any other sticks I can try, except the ones already in the board. EDIT: I tried with just 1 stick of RAM; no change.
Zitat von Lost_N_BIOS im Beitrag #2 If none of that works, unplug your monitor and try again, do you see it boot past the B2 code then? If CPU has graphics in chip, remove your PCIE graphics card if you have one, so no monitor connected at all, and then try again, does it boot past B2? If yes, try connecting monitor to onboard GPU temporarily until you can reflash. More info here, last post of page one, this is a common graphic card related BIOS bug on many boards sometimes it seems - https://www.overclock.net/forum/8-intel-...ror-7950-a.html
I haven't tried holding the graphics card, I can try that as well. This board has no integrated graphics, and without a graphics card the boot block stops with 5 beeps (supposedly, it can be made to boot by enabling console redirection to serial, but to do that, I have to get into the BIOS setup...) I have tried without the monitor connected, and connected to all of the outputs, and I've tried 5 different graphics cards.
EDIT: No amount of fussing with the graphics card does anything.
Zitat von Lost_N_BIOS im Beitrag #2 When trying your USB recovery, did you have USB Formatted to FAT32, put BIOS on root of USB, name it SUPER.ROM? See post #28 here for detailed recovery method (in case you hadn't seen yet) - https://forums.servethehome.com/index.ph...e-2#post-114519 See also, last post here for another method - https://superuser.com/questions/706795/s...-no-any-externa They also mention being able to login to BIOS via IMPI and reflash from Web IMPI etc, if your system has that you can try that too if you haven't already.
No IPMI, sadly. I followed the flash recovery instructions very carefully.
Zitat von Lost_N_BIOS im Beitrag #2 Can you boot to DOS, on USB or CD? Try F11 many times as it starts up to get boot menu. If you can boot to DOS, we can fix via FPT, if this is Intel based system When you created your mod BIOS, what was the source, a dump from your BIOS or a downloaded "BIOS update file"? Do you have any actual backups or dumps from the BIOS? If you cannot boot to DOS, then yes I think you'll need a SOIC8 test clip with cable if the BIOS is soldered to the board and a CH341A or other flash programmer.
I try opening the boot menu, but it just says "invoking boot menu..." in the lower left corner while hanging on B2. I downloaded a BIOS file to mod, since I thought that could be done as an ordinary flash. It seemed to work fine. I do not have any dumps. I realize (now) that I should have, but I didn't think I'd need to. :| The bios is indeed soldered. I'm pretty sure I've found it, though, as there's one 8 pin chip with a label on it "X9DA7" soldered in the middle of what looks (to my inexperienced eyes) very much like pads for a flash chip socket.
I got a reader, a EZP2019. Verified that it works with a different (unsoldered) SOIC8. When I clip on to the chip on the MB, all I get is no chip detected. Is there some special trick to this? Pin 1 is marked, so I'm pretty sure I got the correct orientation.
Sorry I didn't get a reply to your previous post! No, nothing is written to flash/BIOS for a windows install.
Did you test single CPU?
Now, onto latest reply. Do you have the cable connected to the EZP2019 correctly? Some systems may need power supply connected, try again with both power cables attached to the board (Not powered on, just connected)
Pin 1 is marked on the PCB by dot or arrow, or the chip itself? If the chip you mean, then OK, if the board you mean, then confirm on the chip as it may be marked on the board incorrectly. Chip itself should have dot indented or painted
Please don't send PM's for help on BIOS edits, I can't help with BIOS in PM's. Please make a thread and I will try to help as soon as I can - thanks! If you appreciate my efforts and are willing to donate to help improve my hardware, gift cards work for me (Amazn, NuEgg, eBa) - send me a PM I view the forum like this, please bump your thread 1x every 24-48 hours if no reply
Yes, I took out everything except cpu1, one stick of ram and the graphics card.
The chip has a little dot painted on it, that corresponds to a tiny triangle silkscreened onto the board, so I think that has to be pin 1. When I try this with the board attached to power, the chip gets recognized as a "93_eeprom", but that cant be correct, can it? I did try specifying a Winbond w25q128, which I thought should be correct, as that's the type of the replacement BIOS chip I bought on ebay, but after reading for a long time, the software just says that the chip is empty. I also have a TL866II Plus reader, but that one can't identify the loose chip, so I haven't tried it on the board yet.
EDIT: I've tried both of my readers now, both with the board connected to power and unconnected. In the unconnected state, neither reader even detect the chip. With power connected, I get "93_eeprom" with the EZP2019 or "Unknown device" with the TL866II Plus. When I get a good grip on the chip (Surprisingly hard!), both readers read the chip as empty. I don't think I've fried anything, as I've seen no magic smoke escaping and the computer still gets to the same B2 error.
Is it possible that the board has protections against BIOS chip tampering?
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Sun May 26, 2019 7:22 pm
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No, nothing is written to flash/BIOS for a windows install.
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X9DA7 bricked
