X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[Alien Grey]

maybe... however we cant find out right now, since currently 10.6 rom is not working with rampage formula... tryed it few days ago.

What do you mean with not working?

Do you mean that you couldn't replace it with the 10.6.x or do you mean that it doesn't work with your configuration?

If you mean that it doesn't work for you maybe it does work for someone else.

I have done myself minidump debug also.
Sometimes it is VGA related or so (dgmms something at stack) and other times no possible explanation.
All are VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT for sure, but no particular process is repeated at stack trace

VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT is also something that I noticed but I still think that it has something to do with the CPU implementation in the BIOS because the time before I run in to a 0x124 BSOD is longer when I give the CPU more voltage. I wish there was a way to try it with a BIOS that doesn't have these MSR fails to see if it fixes the 0x124 BSOD issue.

[SoLoR]

What do you mean with not working?

Do you mean that you couldn't replace it with the 10.6.x or do you mean that it doesn't work with your configuration?

If you mean that it doesn't work for you maybe it does work for someone else.

not working as not booting... it never gets past intel raid rom in boot procedure... I can even enter in raid setup but it will never gets past, so i doubt it would work for anyone else, its just some incompatibility like i saw them before... i have a feeling that they slowly stop bothering with ICH9R/X48 support. For example: between option roms 8.0-10.0 there was like 80% of intel option roms (the ones that i tryed) working with our mobo without issues, now from 10.0-10.6 there where like 2 out of 8 or 9....

[Alien Grey]

not working as not booting... it never gets past intel raid rom in boot procedure... I can even enter in raid setup but it will never gets past, so i doubt it would work for anyone else, its just some incompatibility like i saw them before... i have a feeling that they slowly stop bothering with ICH9R/X48 support. For example: between option roms 8.0-10.0 there was like 80% of intel option roms (the ones that i tryed) working with our mobo without issues, now from 10.0-10.6 there where like 2 out of 8 or 9....

The reason that I'm asking this is that maybe they only work if you use a RAID card. Maybe it's worth a try for those who can't use your latest BIOS MOD.

[Alien Grey]

Maybe I've found some help after all.

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-ASUS-Rampage-Formula-BIOS-MOD


While you're there have a look on that forum you'll be amazed what these guys are able to do with a BIOS.

[Senator]

Great find Alien Grey! Lets hope they can work some magic!
Maybe you want to upload the BIOS into your post, so they can take a look at the code.
Only a suggestion, since others have gotten help this way....

[Alien Grey]

Great find Alien Grey! Lets hope they can work some magic!
Maybe you want to upload the BIOS into your post, so they can take a look at the code.
Only a suggestion, since others have gotten help this way....

I leave that for SoLoR. It's his MOD BIOS and he can add a link to his BIOS if he wants to do that and maybe also add a link to his Supreme FX II drivers.

[SoLoR]

I leave that for SoLoR. It's his MOD BIOS and he can add a link to his BIOS if he wants to do that and maybe also add a link to his Supreme FX II drivers.

just feel free to do it if you want. I know i wont be messing with things like this on my own because you can easly brick your mobo....

[JohnZS]

Interesting site Alien
I am curious to see how you get along. I have not got anywhere in my quest to resolve the MSR errors on my Rampage Extreme.
So far I have incorporated the latest Microcode revision (60F) for my QX9650 and this did not resolve the MSR issue.
Have also tinkered with the BIOS ASUS provided me with (the one with the manual multiplier fix for QX9650 and 10.1 Option ROM). The 10.6 Option ROM appears to work on my board, HOWEVER DPC latency is increased so I rolled back to the original BIOS ASUS provided me with, but modded with the latest microcode for the QX9650 (60F as opposed to 60C)
I am pretty much at my wits end with latency and MSR test results and I think this is not going to be fixed by BIOS mods as we need the source code.
I have Option ROM 11.x for ICH10R however I have not tried putting this on my board yet as I am not confident it will work properly as these new 10.5+ ROMS seem to be optimised for Z68 series boards as include a lot of things for Performance features (caching) which rely on board features our systems just do not have.
In my mind the last proper ROM for our boards is the one ASUS provided me with inside a BIOS (10.1) However your milage may vary on the 10.5+ ROMS, however I fear you may encounter memory mapping issues with other Option ROM's as the size is quite big (119KB Vs 85KB).
So some users may have luck as they have more onboard devices disabled.
SoLoR is a BIOS mod expert and I think he maybe referring to those sorts of issues with the 10.6 ROM where offset hacking etc might be requried to even get it to work on some boards.

As unXtreme as this sounds if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. The 10.1 ROM is very good for my SSD's :P
John

[Alien Grey]

just feel free to do it if you want. I know i wont be messing with things like this on my own because you can easly brick your mobo....

Maybe I do that and make a new thread in the AMI BIOS Unlocking Request forum. Posting in the General help forum seems to lead to nowhere.

Interesting site Alien
I am curious to see how you get along. I have not got anywhere in my quest to resolve the MSR errors on my Rampage Extreme.
So far I have incorporated the latest Microcode revision (60F) for my QX9650 and this did not resolve the MSR issue.
Have also tinkered with the BIOS ASUS provided me with (the one with the manual multiplier fix for QX9650 and 10.1 Option ROM). The 10.6 Option ROM appears to work on my board, HOWEVER DPC latency is increased so I rolled back to the original BIOS ASUS provided me with, but modded with the latest microcode for the QX9650 (60F as opposed to 60C)
I am pretty much at my wits end with latency and MSR test results and I think this is not going to be fixed by BIOS mods as we need the source code.
I have Option ROM 11.x for ICH10R however I have not tried putting this on my board yet as I am not confident it will work properly as these new 10.5+ ROMS seem to be optimised for Z68 series boards as include a lot of things for Performance features (caching) which rely on board features our systems just do not have.
In my mind the last proper ROM for our boards is the one ASUS provided me with inside a BIOS (10.1) However your milage may vary on the 10.5+ ROMS, however I fear you may encounter memory mapping issues with other Option ROM's as the size is quite big (119KB Vs 85KB).
So some users may have luck as they have more onboard devices disabled.
SoLoR is a BIOS mod expert and I think he maybe referring to those sorts of issues with the 10.6 ROM where offset hacking etc might be requried to even get it to work on some boards.

As unXtreme as this sounds if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. The 10.1 ROM is very good for my SSD's :P
John

Today I've flashed my BIOS back to 1002 R0 to see if there's any difference in performance of my SSD. The performance is almost the same with a very small gain with BIOS 1002 R1 (Option ROM 10.5.x). I also checked my HDD and SSD for errors after a few weeks with Option ROM 10.5.x and everything looks fine. Maybe it's just like you're saying. I've got a few things disabled in the BIOS and maybe that's why it's possible to use Option ROM 10.5.x.

Did you notice any difference in performance or stability with updating the Microcode?

[JohnZS]

Good idea on that post in the AMI forum Alien

Did you notice any difference in performance or stability with updating the Microcode?

Well I have not noticed anything, but the good news is I have not had any issues. Seeing as Intel released the update officially on their site and it was incorporated into the latest XEONS on the 775/771 platform I think it is probably worth implementing as microcodes from their very definition are bug fixes.

Sadly I cannot find a changelog

(Will see if it is on a document anywhere). Needless to say the 60F revision was the last microcode for C0 QX9650 CPU and Quad Core Xeon.

Out of curiosity I tried that latest Option ROM 11.x I cannot BOOT with this as the RAID Option ROM does not work
It appears my "theory" is true, BIOS released for X58 you can use the Option ROM for ICH9/10R however BIOS released for 6 series motherboards are highly unlikely to play nicely with our boards (unless the Option ROM has also been ratified for X58).
10.6.1091 is an X58 ROM as is the only 10.5 ROM which works on our boards...
John

BTW this is the official Microcode File I used
Oh and this Tool here to extract the microcode

BE VERY VERY VERY VERY CAREFUL

[SoLoR]

Out of curiosity I tried that latest Option ROM 11.x I cannot BOOT with this as the RAID Option ROM does not work
It appears my "theory" is true, BIOS released for X58 you can use the Option ROM for ICH9/10R however BIOS released for 6 series motherboards are highly unlikely to play nicely with our boards (unless the Option ROM has also been ratified for X58).

Well you have rampage extreme right? for rampage formula 10.6. is not working, but 10.5.1.xxxx is.... i didnt try 11 version yet since i was working until whole day and didnt find a time.... i will tomorrow....

about that microcode update, i dont feel like updating that if it doesnt fixes anything, because if something goes wrong and you cpu doesnt get recognised anymore you can brick your mobo...

[JohnZS]

Well you have rampage extreme right? for rampage formula 10.6. is not working, but 10.5.1.xxxx is.... i didnt try 11 version yet since i was working until whole day and didnt find a time.... i will tomorrow....

about that microcode update, i dont feel like updating that if it doesnt fixes anything, because if something goes wrong and you cpu doesnt get recognised anymore you can brick your mobo...

Yep, I do have the Rampage Extreme.

The early 10.5 Option Roms (which were released for the Z68 exclusively) did not work, however 10.6.0.1091 does work and one of the later revision 10.5 Option Roms does work, however I am using 10.1.1008 as this is what ASUS provided me with in a BETA BIOS, and I found this seems to (for me) work slightly better than 10.6.0.1091.

Oh yes Microcode is VERY risky business, I only tried it myself as I knew the revision of CPU I had and where to patch it and that the patch was compatible (I tested the patch via software using BITS as you can test your microcode in a software environment there and it was only then after booting from BITS into Windows and messing around for an hour or so that I felt confident in patching the code into the BIOS). AND only then...because I have a spare BIOS chip which I can fallback to if all goes wrong.

I would not be taking such a risk if I did not have so many countermeasures.

qx9650microcode.jpg

I am curious to see if you have any luck with the 11 Option ROM as I had no luck at all

Either way you are very much the expert in this field and I am sure like many of us on the forum I would like to thank you for your persistence in keeping the Option Rom's updated where ASUS have failed. (I only dabble, you are an artist!)

John

[SoLoR]

1002b-R2 with working intel raid option rom v11.0.0.1124.

[JohnZS]

Kudos on getting Option ROM 11 to work, I could never get it working
(perhaps I messed up my extraction).
John

[Spyrus]

Anyone test it yet?

[Alien Grey]

1002b-R2 with working intel raid option rom v11.0.0.1124.

Thanks SoLoR. I can confirm that it works for me.


I also updated the Microcode for my Q9650 E0 from A07 to the latest A0B.

[SoLoR]

Alien Grey;4914310I also updated the Microcode for my Q9650 E0 from A07 to the latest A0B.

I did this for my cpu as well... from 705 to 70A.... however i dont just want to go and replace all... so if anyone have any request what CPU microcode to update for R3, write here and ill do it (you need to give me cpuid), but i wont just go update all 36 microcodes....

[Alien Grey]

I did this for my cpu as well... from 705 to 70A.... however i dont just want to go and replace all... so if anyone have any request what CPU microcode to update for R3, write here and ill do it (you need to give me cpuid), but i wont just go update all 36 microcodes....

I tried that but it's almost impossible to do it without the AIDA64 CPUID information. Some of them are easy to match with the old ones but others are almost impossible to find the updated microcode without the CPUID. Maybe there's an easy or logical way to update them all but I don't see it.

[papatsonis]

if possible please update for E8500 (SLB9K) CPUID : 01067Ah

[Spyrus]

E8400 for me if you can to update microcode but what the reason to do it?

[JohnZS]

I hope you do not mind me asking, but are you using RAID0?
If I get the time this evening I will try and repatch my BIOS with the 11 Option ROM as I think I may have messed up my extraction
(seem to have difficulty extracting the new Z68 BIOS compared to the X58SO2 BIOS).
I am such a n00b compared to you guys :P
John

[SoLoR]

if possible please update for E8500 (SLB9K) CPUID : 01067Ah

i have already done on my local copy for 01067Ah and 010677h... i also went thrue all updated microcodes and here is the list:

microcodes.png

if you see you cpuid among listed ones i can update microcode and you should poke me... but i wont just update all, since there is always risk of bricking mobo for that cpu...

[SoLoR]

E8400 for me if you can to update microcode but what the reason to do it?

honestly no idea, tryed to find somekind of changelog but i couldnt... but im sure there was a reason intel released new version of microcodes.... what exactly microcode does you can read on wiki...

I hope you do not mind me asking, but are you using RAID0?
If I get the time this evening I will try and repatch my BIOS with the 11 Option ROM as I think I may have messed up my extraction

thing is, on some efi bioses some header is added in this option roms that needs to be removed. I didnt extract this 11 version my self, so i dont know what was original format.... but im my bios there is "clean" version so if you extract from my bios it should work unless its really incompatible with your mobo...

[Alien Grey]

I think that I've found a bug with the new Option ROM. It won't let me use the Official Intel WHQL RST driver Version 10.6.0.1002.
Don't ask me what's wrong but trying to install the drivers fails with an error telling me that some stuff couldn't be installed.

Anyway I could fix it with using the Intel WHQL RST driver Version 10.5.1.1001. This one can be downloaded from Station-Drivers.

[SoLoR]

I think that I've found a bug with the new Option ROM. It won't let me use the Official Intel WHQL RST driver Version 10.6.0.1002.
Don't ask me what's wrong but trying to install the drivers fails with an error telling me that some stuff couldn't be installed.

are you trying to install whole package or just drivers? because i never install whole package...