Hello!

I am once again trying to reach out to someone who would have the skills to help me with my project.

I own a Dell G3 3579 laptop that has AMI Aptio 5 BIOS. I already have BIOS dumps and some attempts at modding the BIOS.

What I am trying to achieve is a successful CPU upgrade from i7-8750H to i9-9880HK. From my understanding, hardware-wise, it should be 99% compatible. I can also say that the hardware part of the mod is done (CPU replaced).

Here is a rundown of what happened after the CPU swap:

1.) With the new i9 CPU installed, I tried to boot without any BIOS modifications. It didn't work (as expected). The computer would turn on for a brief 1-2 seconds before turning off without any sign of life at all - aka fans not spinning, HDD not receiving power, none of the chips getting hot etc. Other than the power light turning on and keyboard backlight turning on for 1-2 sec nothing else would happen.

2.) Expecting this to happen, I had already done some research and concluded it needs a CPU microcode update. So I dumped the BIOS chip with CH341a and downloaded the UBU tools. Then used that to replace the CPU microcode from the 906EA to 906ED that corresponds to the 9th gen mobile CPU's. Finally, I flashed the new BIOS and did my boot test again.

3.) When testing with new microcode, the PC had more signs of life happening. It would start flashing the RAM error code to indicate that RAM has not been installed (which it was not), and it would stay on rather than turning itself off after 1-2 seconds. The CPU would start to get warm, and fans spun up accordingly after some time to cool the CPU. After installing RAM, the computer would recognize it, and I would hear the HDD starting to receive power, and it looked like it is booting up as it should. However, it appears stuck in a boot loop. The screen would flash for a brief second, and the whole computer would do a soft restart that keeps going infinitely. HDD spins up, fans spin up screen flashes for a second and soft restart, again and again, and again.

To me, this seems like a software issue rather than a hardware one. I'm sure the BIOS probably needs more work before the computer can successfully boot the new CPU up. That's why I am explaining with as much detail as I can, so maybe someone with better knowledge can step in and help me. Hopefully, someone can help me with my project. I understand this is a very unusual and rare occurrence. I am willing to donate both to the users and this website for help if we could manage and get it working.

Hopefully, someone can help, and if someone has any questions or maybe need more explanation, I can do that. Also, If someone wants, I can provide BIOS dumps, videos of the actual PC stuck in the boot loop etc.

Thanks!