X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[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.

[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.