Forum - BIOS Modding Guides and Problems » Does FPT Flash Erase Mac Address?

#1 | Does FPT Flash Erase Mac Address? datum

Tue Oct 12, 2021 9:23 pm (Last edited: Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:22 pm)

Hello,
I mod bioses without problem using the guides of this wonderful forum.
I mod the bios, I restore the mac addres manually with hex editor and I flash the whole bios using the fpt tool.
At some point I noticed that even if you don't restore mac addres and flash whole bios with fpt:

the mac addres will remain preserved. Why?
My motherboard is a evga z270 itx.

Thank you.

Edit by Fernando: Thread title shortened

Laptop:
Dell XPS 13 9350
Desktop:
CASE: NCASE M1 (custom watercooled), CPU: intel 6700k, M/B: Evga Stinger Z270, RAM: 2x8Gb G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4-3000, VGA: Evga 1080, SSD: 512gb samsung 960pro, SOUND: Realtek ALC1150, PSU: SilverStone SX800-LTI, MONITOR: dell u2713hm, KEYBOARD: Deck Hassium Pro mechanical, MOUSE: corsair vengeance m60, SPEAKERS: logitech z 5500

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#2 | RE: Intel FPT flash doesn't erase mac addres? (educational question) datum

Tue Oct 12, 2021 10:57 pm

Its present in GBE bios region

Donations via PAYPAL / REVOLUT, if u think the guy deserves it, else to the Win-Raid community on the bottom of the page, as it deserves for all the gathered information.

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#3 | RE: Intel FPT flash doesn't erase mac addres? (educational question) datum

Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:34 pm

Zitat von MeatWar im Beitrag #2
Its present in GBE bios region

Thank you for your answer, but I thought fpt tool flashes the whole bios chip including the gbe region.
the command that I use in fpt is: "fptw64 -f bios.rom"

Laptop:
Dell XPS 13 9350
Desktop:
CASE: NCASE M1 (custom watercooled), CPU: intel 6700k, M/B: Evga Stinger Z270, RAM: 2x8Gb G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4-3000, VGA: Evga 1080, SSD: 512gb samsung 960pro, SOUND: Realtek ALC1150, PSU: SilverStone SX800-LTI, MONITOR: dell u2713hm, KEYBOARD: Deck Hassium Pro mechanical, MOUSE: corsair vengeance m60, SPEAKERS: logitech z 5500

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#4 | RE: Intel FPT flash doesn't erase mac addres? (educational question) datum

Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:35 pm (Last edited: Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:36 pm)

This is a dummy address that's present in most firmware updates when containing a GbE region. There's nothing preserved, that Mac was already overwritten.

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#5 | RE: Intel FPT flash doesn't erase mac addres? (educational question) datum

Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:42 pm

Zitat von lfb6 im Beitrag #4
This is a dummy address that's present in most firmware updates when containing a GbE region. There's nothing preserved, that Mac was already overwritten.

That's what I thought too! but when I put ipconfig /all in windows it shows the original mac addres even thought I have erased the whole bios

Laptop:
Dell XPS 13 9350
Desktop:
CASE: NCASE M1 (custom watercooled), CPU: intel 6700k, M/B: Evga Stinger Z270, RAM: 2x8Gb G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4-3000, VGA: Evga 1080, SSD: 512gb samsung 960pro, SOUND: Realtek ALC1150, PSU: SilverStone SX800-LTI, MONITOR: dell u2713hm, KEYBOARD: Deck Hassium Pro mechanical, MOUSE: corsair vengeance m60, SPEAKERS: logitech z 5500

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#6 | RE: Intel FPT flash doesn't erase mac addres? (educational question) datum

Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:56 pm

GbE isn't the only place to store a MAC address...

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#7 | RE: Intel FPT flash doesn't erase mac addres? (educational question) datum

Mon Oct 18, 2021 10:35 pm (Last edited: Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:20 pm)

Ok, some update:
because motherboard(evga z270 stinger) has socket chip bios and is not soldered, I have spare bios chip, so I can play and experiment safely with bios modding.

So I downloaded bios from evga and flashed directly with external programmer(ch341a) to chip without modding or alteration of rom(the mac was 88 88 88 88 87 88).
After succesfull flashing, putting chip to motherboard and restarting I immediately took a bios backup with fpt -D and the mac was preserved!
I don't know what is going on!

Also I noticed something while flashing with FPT.
When I simple flash, everything goes well:

If I first erase and THEN flash I get a warning(but if I emmediately flash again, I won't get this warning.
It's so weird.

Any ideas about this behaviour?

Laptop:
Dell XPS 13 9350
Desktop:
CASE: NCASE M1 (custom watercooled), CPU: intel 6700k, M/B: Evga Stinger Z270, RAM: 2x8Gb G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4-3000, VGA: Evga 1080, SSD: 512gb samsung 960pro, SOUND: Realtek ALC1150, PSU: SilverStone SX800-LTI, MONITOR: dell u2713hm, KEYBOARD: Deck Hassium Pro mechanical, MOUSE: corsair vengeance m60, SPEAKERS: logitech z 5500

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