I've recently got a new EVGA x299 FTW K to substitute an older (now gone) Asus X299 motherboard.

Looking around in the BIOS options, it seems that EVGA defaults CFG Lock to "true", with no option to disable it and to allow MSR 0xE2 to be unlocked.

The BIOS (v1.21) can be found here (direct link).

I've reached out to them and asked them to expose this option, but received no helpful response.

0x4BC1B 	Form: View/Configure CPU Lock Options, FormId: 0x2734 {01 86 34 27 24 01}
0x4BC21 		One Of: CFG Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x4AE, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0x180, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 C7 02 C8 02 80 01 01 00 AE 04 10 10 00 01 00}
0x4BC32 			One Of Option: Disabled, Value (8 bit): 0x0 {09 07 04 00 00 00 00}
0x4BC39 			One Of Option: Enabled, Value (8 bit): 0x1 (default) {09 07 03 00 30 00 01}
0x4BC40 		End One Of {29 02}
 
 

@Lost_N_BIOS I'm eager to learn how to expose this option, if at all possible. I've gone as far as using UEFITool and ifrextract to know that CFGLock for this particular version is stored at 0x4AE I'd love some help to make either expose this option in their GUI, or I guess I can continue to use this modified grub to set the variable.

Thank you in advance for your help!

@v10x - Yes, option can probably be changed directly via grub/setup_var as you mentioned, but if you want it exposed in BIOS I need to see image of your Advanced BIOS page (Root)
And, any additional images covering what you can see inside each of these submenus (if you can see any) up until the one where you don't have next
Advanced >> Power & Performance >> CPU - Power Management Control >> CPU Lock Config >> CFG Lock

Also, check bottom of main page, and tell me if you see Access Level, and if so, what does it say your access level is?

@Lost_N_BIOS Thanks for your response! I'll be out for a couple of days, but I'll get the images as soon as I'm back. Not sure if that helps, but there is a video walkthrough of another EVGA X299, which has a very similar BIOS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXOA_VOskuc

I tried loading up the BIOS in AMIBCP 5.02.0023, .0025 and .0031, but I don't see any tab other than the general info with the version.

Yes, AMIBCP not compatible with this BIOS, all edits must be done manually. I am on limited internet, but if that video is short enough I will download it. I doubt it has what I'm asking though, you really need to screenshot from BIOS (You can use F12 usually)
Hey! At least it's only 1.5 minutes! I will check, but doubt it covers all I wanted to see, maybe we'll get lucky, if so I'll post mod BIOS for you shortly

* Edit - It showed enough, if your BIOS is like that one. You can't even see first submenu inside advanced, so all needs enabled up to CFG lock.

* Edit @v10x - There is a "Hide Items" function in these BIOS, we discussed here, and it enables a lot.
On this thread, he was wanting to hide some items, while enabling others, after having revealed "too much" with this setting I'm talking about, so ignore all the issues we tried to work out
[REQUEST] Hide Specific BIOS Options for EVGA Z370 Classified K

So, we can either do the actual edit you want and only that.... Or I can send you one BIOS up front first with just this "Hide item" set to disabled and then you can see what all is made visible, and if what you wanted it part of that or not
If it's not, then I can further make visible for you to what you wanted, or we can do only what you wanted and set that back (in case it's too much visible)

That’s great!! I’d love to start with a BIOS that has all the things enabled first. This will allow me to tinker a little more :) if it becomes too much that I can’t even use the bios I might start hiding things.

@v10x - I'm not sure if it enables "All the settings" but seems to be a lot since chinobino didn't like it, or maybe he mainly didn't like some of it and how it was structured etc.
Anyway, anything still missing we can enable, don't worry

Here is said simple edit BIOS, disabling the "Hide Item" option (should reveal a lot) - http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil...294029297113030

Advanced >> Hide Item (unsuppressed) + Default set to Disabled (Orig = Enabled)
Flash BIOS, load optimal defaults, save and exit, reboot back to BIOS, make any changes you need, then check out advanced and let me know if you can now navigate to (if not, how far in can you get, then I will fix rest)>>
Advanced >> Power & Performance >> CPU - Power Management Control >> CPU Lock Config >> CFG Lock

Let me know if too much revealed, if so, we can put back and just do the edit you wanted.

* Edit - "hiding things after this" that's the dance we went through in the other thread. If you want something like that, we start over and not do this, then we unhide things you want one at a time
Doing that will keep us sane

That’s great, I’ll test this out as soon as I am back. Thank you so much for your help! I’ll be back in a day or so and report back!

OK, let me know how it goes once you have a chance to test

@Lost_N_BIOS Out of curiosity, how did you manually modify that flag to disable Advanced >> Hide Item? Is there a guide somewhere that I can use to learn for future modding?

@v10x - I modified it in two areas, however it may only need one edit to setup (not 100% sure if that alone works or not) You'd have to test
Here is the setup PE32 edit

Before
Advanced, FormId: 0x2712 {01 86 12 27 1D 00}
0x48233 Suppress If {0A 82}
0x48235 True {46 02}
0x48237 Checkbox: Hide Item, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x1364, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0x39 {06 8E 68 16 02 00 39 00 01 00 64 13 00 02} << Search this string in hex of Setup PE32, edit is before and after
0x48245 Default: DefaultId: 0x0, Value (8 bit): 0x1 {5B 06 00 00 00 01}

After
Advanced, FormId: 0x2712 {01 86 12 27 1D 00}
0x48233 Suppress If {0A 82}
0x48235 False {47 02} << To make visible to you in BIOS On top of this change, it may also need access level edit in AMIBCP / AMITSE/SetupData, which I didn't do here, was waiting to ask you if this alone made it visible or not
0x48237 Checkbox: Hide Item, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x1364, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0x39 {06 8E 68 16 02 00 39 00 01 00 64 13 00 02}
0x48245 Default: DefaultId: 0x0, Value (8 bit): 0x0 {5B 06 00 00 00 00} << To set "Disabled" as default

Here is the AMITSE/SetupData edit (what AMIBCP changes when you use that, it also changes NVRAM defaults, but I didn't do that in this edit)
Extract AMITSE/SetupData BODY, so you have exact same offsets

Edit @ 000124EC + 000124ED, change both 01's to 00 (this is Fail Safe and Optimal Defaults for this setting)


See also, my post here and check the image, for more info on this kind of edit
[Request]Maximus XI Hero - Unlock AMIBCP

@Lost_N_BIOS, thank you so much for the in-depth explanation. I really appreciate it.

I was able to flash the BIOS and found (and disabled) the Hide Item flag, a lot showed up and this seems great!
Although I couldn't find the CFG Lock under CPU Power Management, I've attached a screenshot of the Advanced page.

One more question, to free up some runtime memory I'd like to reduce the size of this BIOS. Is it possible to do so by removing some of the modules / functionality?

@v10x - thanks for the quick test and report back. Great to see you can now see and enable/disable the hide item function.
So, since you cannot see CFG lock still, that simple means we need to unsuppress it either by directly nulling the suppress in front of it, or moving it outside the suppression constraints
I think that is what we had to do for other one, but not 100% sure because he was more wanting to hide things and move things around etc

Please zip those images for me Never mind, I downloaded them , and I will make you two new BIOS using above mentioned methods, then you can let me know which works (test both, so I know if both ways works for this BIOS type)
Then I will show you the edits after you let me know results

Looks like you don't even have Advanced >> Power & Performance submenu visible either, so I will have to make entire menu visible first, then if needed further unsuppress CFG lock in another edit after this one.
* Edit @v10x - here, can you now see Power & Performance submenu? If yes, CFG config inside there, if you don't see in there, show me all contents inside there.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fil...216077645038337

@Lost_N_BIOS Trying now :)

@Lost_N_BIOS Confirmed it works! I was able to disable CFG Lock!!

@v10x - Great If anything else missing you need, let me know and I can help!

@Lost_N_BIOS The only thing I can't get past is that the memory map seems too fragmented and OSX doesn't want to boot, do you know what can be done about that?