Flashing Bios from a different motherboard? Asus p8h61-i

Chaos666 · 1 Oct 2017 at 23:35

any experts on bios here?
I bought Asus motherboard on ebay. It's OEM board from an RM machine.
motherboard is marked as ASUS P8H61-I/RM/SI ... it works fine with me i5 2400s but when i put an Ivy bridge CPU it doesn't work because it requires newer bios.
RM education doesn't provide any new bioses for this mobo. Asus does have a bios from 2013 but when I try to flash it in EZ Flash it says integrity check failed...
that RM motherboard looks exactly the same .. its just missing a HDMI and 2 usb ports...
is it possible to force flash a bios from P8H61-I and get support for newer CPUs? or it will kill the board

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P8H61I/

https://www.asus.com/media/global/products/nT9c3CJq6itMyvuE/ttSJKUHeJXg95OT0_500.jpg

** Do Not Hotlink Images **

BaroUK2 · 2 Oct 2017 at 00:39

Use below link to backup your current bios and upload it somewhere and post the link here, i can take a look at it and see if i can modify it by comparing both bios files from yours and Asus.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/universal_bios_backup_toolkit.html

Chaos666 · 2 Oct 2017 at 16:38

BaroUK2 said:
Use below link to backup your current bios and upload it somewhere and post the link here, i can take a look at it and see if i can modify it by comparing both bios files from yours and Asus.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5MD_-QTnglRVzhIUUgyMjN1Nnc

let me know if it works

BaroUK2 · 2 Oct 2017 at 16:54

Here you go, if it doesnt allow you to flash it let me know i ll look for alternative way to flash it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B24hTBQxw6SWZzJpRWllNVFvcG8

Chaos666 · 2 Oct 2017 at 17:10

i appreciate your help.. but could you explain to me what you did with that bios? I really don't want to brick this board

EZ Flash says "selected file is not an EFI bios"

Edit: it flashed from fat 32 formated drive but it's still showing same version...

BaroUK2 · 2 Oct 2017 at 17:37

Added ivybridge microcode support to your bios file which you ve uploaded.
Basically your bios only had support for sandybridge. See section 7.

Added Ivybridge Microcode

Sandybridge: Microcode 0206A7 - Which is Family 6, External Model 2A, Stepping 7
Ivybridge: Microcode 0306A9 - Which is Family 6, External Model 3A, Stepping 9

As always with any bios flashing, things can go wrong so use it at your own risk.
If you want to go ahead make sure usb disk is formatted as fat32 and bios file is the only file on it and use flash utility in bios itself. If it doesnt work alternatively you can use AMI utilities to flash your bios ( Afudos or Afuwin ) or by using third party bios chip programmers.

Alternatively if you want to read about bios editing or do it yourself see below link for bios modding forums and guides. Good luck.
http://www.win-raid.com/f16-BIOS-Modding-Guides-and-Problems.html

Chaos666 · 2 Oct 2017 at 17:39

hmm ... ok... I'll see if my 3770 boots up

Chaos666 · 2 Oct 2017 at 20:26

Nope... Still no boot...

BaroUK2 · 2 Oct 2017 at 20:34

is your i5 2400s working fine with new bios ? also did you do clr cmos to make sure defaults are loaded?

Chaos666 · 2 Oct 2017 at 20:44

Yes.. 2400s is working fine.. I loaded default bios settings and clear the CMOS with the jumper :/

BaroUK2 · 2 Oct 2017 at 20:54

With I7 installed did your board power on at all and no display or was it not starting up at all, just making sure if it also required vbios support or not. If its not powering at all then i am guessing board is not compatible with Ivybridge due to voltage etc...

Chaos666 · 2 Oct 2017 at 21:00

Fans spin up but no post.

Is it possible to modify original asus bios

BaroUK2 · 2 Oct 2017 at 21:05

It may be possible, but there is higher risk using different motherboard bios then using original bios , although they might look a like but it might not be compatible at all. I ll try adding vbios to your file which is video bios for the processor to rule out if it was starting but no video post. Meanwhile if you can check whether your keyboard lights such as numlock or capslock is working when you press those keys after you turn on your pc with I7 installed.

Chaos666 · 2 Oct 2017 at 21:14

I can use external gpu if you think that will help

BaroUK2 · 2 Oct 2017 at 21:18

Yea if you dont mind trying it to rule out video issues.

Chaos666 · 2 Oct 2017 at 21:23

I'll to that tomorrow.. I'll try booting with external gpu and check if keyboard lights are working.. I'll get back to you tomorrow it's to late today.. I need to get up early for work

P. S: I don't know if that has anything to do with the problem but motherboard doesn't post if I set ram to 1600Mhz... 1333 works fine.. As soon as I set the ram to 1600 it doesn't boot. Ram is 1866

BaroUK2 · 2 Oct 2017 at 21:33

Might need to adjust voltage for 1866 settings...

Chaos666 · 2 Oct 2017 at 21:35

So I couldn't leave it..
No boot with external gpu as well and keyboard lights do not work

BaroUK2 · 3 Oct 2017 at 07:53

Here is another attempt at adding microcode support to your bios file with another method incase previous attempt didnt stick. Its a rar file so uncompress it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B24hTBQxw6SWVXBwZGRsUnRKbmM

Last thing you can check is inspect cpu pins in socket itself to make sure there are no bend pins considering this is removed from a RM machines. Alternatively you can force flash Asus bios unless you are ok with the risks by making a bootable usb freedos and using Afudos utility. Let me know how it goes...

pastymuncher · 3 Oct 2017 at 09:18

If that doesn't work there is one other thing you could try. Asus still use removeable bios chips on their boards so although I can't see yours (it's behind the cmos battery) it should be the same as the board above. You could go on Ebay and pick up a bios chip for the P8H61-I which has been flashed to the latest bios and swap it over with your boards chip. That way if it bricks the board all you have to do is swap your own bios chip back. Cost would be less than a tenner.