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error-id10t, you can try pinmod of HDA chip to remove lock, but I don't know if it works on 8 series systems. Or you can by any cheap SPI programmer form Ebay and don't bother about any locks anymore.

New versions uploaded, sorry for temporary absence.

I will update the guide in a pair weeks, because it's got a bit old and a pair of new things must be added for sure.

This is freakin' interesting. Don't know if it's about CPU support module, or just marketing for making people buy "K" processors.

Faulty chip is a very rare case. It was NTFS who broke it, so bying a programmer is the best option. For pinmod, search for this AudigyHD chip, I'm not 100% sure, but it must be similar to other HD Audio chips, and you will find HDA_SDO line there.

1 - Yes, this is a right tool, but you must use a bit different commands, because this BIOS has no data structures to preserve and normal commands will fail. 2 - Yes, you need to pinmod your HDA chip, as described here. Or you can use external SPI programmer to do that. More to say, BIOS file...

I didn't tried it myself, because I have no access to a board with locked BIOS, but I think it's OK to flash modified BIOS image without capsule header with AFU. If not - add it manually with hex editor (0x800 bytes from original BIOS file), because FD44Editor will strip it out anyway.

That block is probably a descriptor region in the beginning of SPI chip. There is no user data there, so you can try using FD44Editor to prepare a BIOS file for flashing, and then flash it with AFUWIN. If AFU can flash BIOS with protection regardless of it - that is really great.

ASUS locked all other regions on their new boards, so no disasters this time, but, if anything goes wrong with ME - you must unlock it first with pinmod, or reflash with SPI programmer. If you are not experienced to do both - you are f*cked up.

cisco_guy, flashrom doesn't work on locked BIOSes, I have tried it already. But it can first erase all unprotected regions (Descriptor and ME in this case) and then exits with error, making BIOS unbootable after the reboot. I don't recommend trying it now.

I tried using that 10$ programmers - they are utter crap. One of the cheapest normal USB SPI programmer is this one. I'm working on my own cheap SPI programmer with some new features (first revision is already sold out), but it will take about a month before it goes to the market, I think.

Seller flashes you anything you want. But I think that SPI programmer is much better option. It's like giving fish and teaching how to fish. :)

Valky, actually, UPS can be a problem too. For ME firmware to reset, you must unplug your computer for about 30 seconds after ME reflash (or use dedicated poweroff command, it makes special art of reset capable of resetting ME, that is why I included it).

Valky, I think that all Turbo-related problems can be solved by reflashing ME region with merefl command. Have no fear for warnings like "Could not communicate with HECI", they are totally normal on system with corrupted ME. And merefl must be working on that locked BIOSes. Can you please try...

From 19xx and later - no. Only SPI programmer or hotswap on different unlocked board.

Right you are, CG, 19xx is where the protection crap started, so back to 18xx is an option.

Use USB BIOS Flashback to flash BIOS 18xx or earlier, then flash your prepared.bin using flashprp command.

No. Just use merefl command to reflash your ME region and poweroff command to run the new version of it. After automatic power-on, go to BIOS setup and try your Turbo. It must be working now.

Valky, you can add any symbol you want, it doesn't make much difference. If will still boot even without any individual data, but problems with software products activation may appear. I will ask people with this new boards tomake a backup and send it to me, so I can fugure out, what symbol...

Realtek MAC is normally costructed from Intel one during boot. On boards with Intel+Realtek only Intel MAC is stored in BIOS.

Derek, it's simple. Use FD44Editor to prepare your BIOS file, as described in the first post. Transfer all individual data from stickers on board to BIOS file and flash the resulting 8192Kb file to the chip using your SPI programmer. If you read the first post a bit better, there will be no...

Injen, you have downloaded wrong version of FTK, use FTK for DOS. :)

Injen, your stick is C:. Just enter commands and they will work.

kevindd992002, MSR 0xE2 is a power management register, that is used by Mac OS X CPU driver to change CPU multiplier and state on the fly. Windows and Linux use UEFI EIST driver, so they don't need a write access to this register. This register is locked for writing by BIOS on startup (this is...

It's simple. This "protection" has software nature and present only in new 19xx BIOSes, so if we downgrade BIOS to 18xx or earlier - protection is gone. USB BIOS Flashback or hardware SPI programmer can be used for this downgrade, but UBF is easier to perform. I don't know. ASUS can implement...

Guys, stop, you all are right! error-id10t, this new protection in 19xx BIOS file prevents you from using biosrefl and reflash commands. On Z77 reflash is checking for protection before erasing anything, so nothing can be damaged. On X79, hovever, it erases descriptor and ME and then fails...

SLIC changes "was merely a setback". In the latest Z77 and X79 BIOSes ASUS introduced new type of BIOS region protection, that prevents FPT from writing to BIOS region. The main problem is that other regions are not protected, and therefore reflash only fails after erasing descriptor and ME...

Updated FTK to 0.9.6.1, solved bug with missalligned SLIC modules introduced in 0.9.6.

I have no idea why they did that, because it will have no impact to users of software activators. Maybe they had no free space in volume 01 and decided to replace big MSOA module with small DummyMSOA, I don't know. All I know is that I must add pubkey and marker modules to volume 01 and the deed...

Removed.

FTK 0.9.6 is out. - SLIC transfer to new 18xx Z77 BIOSes works normally now.

cisco_guy, then it's up to us to make one "semi-perfect" version from 34xx line fro every P67/Z68 board used, with all possible modules updated and all visible bugs described. There is almost no difference in P67/Z68/Z77 UEFI structure and settings, but updates are only for Z77 now, and in 3...

Conditioned, try 3402 and return to 0402 if it will be worse. This two versions are good. Don't try the latest 36xx - it is buggy and we are waiting for another update to come.

I wish I have English good enough for doing that. :) It's hard to write good guide without instruments like [multistring_spoiler] tag and so on, so I will probably post the new guide somewhere else and post a link it the first post. Probably. Anyway, I don;t have time for reworking the guide now.

Thanks for your support, guys. I don't know how to begin this rework. Text seems soooo long and boring. :) I think I must split this guide for 4 separate guides: "Solving problems by reflashing BIOS, ME, GbE", "Using FD44Editor to restore lost data", "Unlocking locked BIOS regions" and...

FTK 0.9.5 is out. Changes: - FD44Copier updated to 0.6.8 - empty FD44 module in bios backup doesn't block flashing process anymore, making data restoration step optional. - biosrefl command tries to make BIOS region backup only, so it will work on boards with locked Me and/or GbE regions (B75...

d,N,x, a bit correcter way: 1. make DOS-bootable USB-stick with FTK 2. download the desired BIOS from ASUS page and rename it simply to 'bios.bin' (even if it's .ROM or .CAP file). 3. boot from the stick and perform a 'biosrefl' (faster) or "reflash" (ME and GbE will be updated too), then...

Thomas, interesting behavior on H67-V. Dunno what it was. :) Another example of "good" code quality of UEFI, I think. Thank you for lock removal instructions, will repost it in my PMPatch topic.

This toolkit is not meant to use on notebooks and will not work in 95% chance. Ask for apropritate tools on mydigitallife of bios-mods forums. Sorry.

Time for some interesting observations: ASUS M5A9x and similar ROG and Sabertooth boards are having FD44 module too. More to say, the BIOSes can be opened by FD44Editor and the data can be copied with FD44Copier, which is something I haven't expected at all. :) Now I need BIOS backups from this...