Hello, My name is Isaac, a wannabe modder.

I need advice or confirmation about if this is gonna work:
I want to update the microcode for intel T9900 for my acer extensa 5635z,
I have already upgraded from T4300 to t9500 without modifications but the T9900 does not work, so I think it is maybe because of the old microcode (cpu seems to be fine)

I know how to flash bios. I have done it 5 or 6 times, 2 of them with minor modifications applied
I have directly used the hex editor (no CBROM worked) and updated CPUID=1067A manually on my bios file as a preliminary test:


BEFORE-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> AFTER




I used as source the file ncpucode-mobile-lga-775-microcode.bin, md5sum 1606219827fcca467c929cc16e493da0

As you can see intelmicrocodelist recognises the change and so do phoenix bios editor (it recompiles without errors). Original and modded bios files are 2.150.400 bytes.

So my question is: Is it that easy? do you think I'm going to brick my mobo?

I truly beg your advice, I think I'm missing something. Thanks :)

No, it's not that easy, you can't directly hex edit BIOS like that always, only some BIOS this may be OK. Otherwise you will break some checksums and BIOS will be invalid and fail to flash, or brick the system.

Link me to stock BIOS download page, I will do the edit for you, or see if it's that simple on this BIOS etc. Is this this one - https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/su...roduct/1199?b=1

And, CPU "Seems to be fine" means nothing, it could be DOA CPU, you can't know for sure unless you see it run on another system (no one reselling would be able to tell you for sure either, unless they directly test and show you image of proof of that test)

* Edit, I checked the BIOS from above windows EXE - BIOS1.WPH << Is this what you are direct hex editing? If yes, I cannot be sure it's OK, only a flash and risk of brick would tell you for sure. It looks OK when that is done, opens properly after edit in Phoenix BIOS editor PRO, so may be OK

What is the SSPEC of your T9500, read off top of CPU, this will tell you which CPUID/Microcode you need to insert
671 (QZOR)
674 (Q4GG)
676 (Q9WW)
10676 (SLAQH, SLAYX)

Then replace one of the ones you do not use (same size) with the new microcode and test. This is not ideal if you do not have flash programmer to recover, so I'd suggest you order this in advance. Check the BIOS chip and it's ID, so you know what kind of clip you need (if it's general SOIP BIOS, then you need SOIC8 test clip + CH341A programmer)

Thank you Sir, your answer is more than satisfying, I have to study it (your answer) before I make you waste your time (again), I thought I know more than I actually do.
Thanks again