Meltdown and Spectre Patched BIOS for X58 Motherboards

[Caesar007]

This latest round of MS security patches is really bringing down the performance. I mean the Spectre Meltdown patching was ok especially with the microcode updates posted here on this forum. Thank you @Regeneration ! But these latest MS patches are BS!
Stuff that worked smoothly before (using Spectre patched BIOS and W10 1809 MS parches) have now all of a sudden become painfully slow even at the GUI level - it's crazy!
The MS s/w patches that have been rolled out cannot be the answer! They have to fix at another level than nuking the whole machine. My understanding is that, for the attacks to be effective, the attacker need local access and the logical entry point is through the browser e.g. inject the attack in javascript or other internet connected s/w. Seams like the browsers and s/w that use network should be the focus for patching. If not patchable they need to fundamentally rearchitect the s/w so networked S/W runs in a complete sandbox walled off from the rest of the OS stuff.
I agree with @fullinfusion, this is BS. The MS patching is killing legit s/w like games just because of a potential attack through the browser. They should fix the browser and networked s/w, not nuke the machine.

Also for those that have the Rampage III Extreme board, I've updated the BIOS that @Regeneration built on page 1 with more recent versions of the Intel RAID, JMicron SATA, Marvel SATA 6G, Intel Ethernet BIOS modules. Here is the content of the BIOS:

r3xrnjm.rom:
0) ROM base: @Regeneration modded 1502 BIOS on page (micro codes for 206C2 (2018-05) and 106A5 updated to mitigate Spectre)
Updates applied:
1) Intel ICH10R RAID ROM - V8086 D2822 - v13.5.0.2164 - with RAID 0 TRIM CTL0 patch - (size: 118K). It's is 1K SMALLER than Original 1502 v10.5.0.1034 (that 1502 comes with)
2) INTEL 82567V-2 Gigabit Network - V8086 D10CE - v1.5.50 - (size: 66KB) consensus, on various BIOS modding forums (www.win-raid.com), is that this is the best for this generation of MB/chips. It's 8KB larger that Original 1502 V1.3.10 @ 58KB but it works
3) JMicron JMB36X SATA - V197B D2363 - v1.07.24 - (size: 33KB) consensus, on various BIOS modding forums (www.win-raid.com), is that this is the best for this generation of MB/chips Size is the same as Original 1502 v1.07.14
4) Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller module - V1B4B D9123 - v1.0.0.1038 - (size: 33KB) consensus, on various BIOS modding forums (www.win-raid.com), is that this is the best for this generation of MB/chips. Size is 1KB larger that Original 1502 v1.0.0.1019.

Tested with:
1) Intel RAID enabled in BIOS (instead of just AHCI)
2) Network enabled
3) HD audio enabled
4) Marvell SATA 6G enabled in AHCI mode
5) Firewire is diabled - do not need it
6) JMicron is disabled - do not need it
Add in card:
7) Marvel based dual RAID card Apicorn Duo with 2 SSDs in slot 3

Able to boot into ICHR10 Raid screen with ctrl-I
Able to boot into Apicorn Duo's Marvel RAID card configurator and set up a RAID 0 card ctrl-m
Able to boot into ASUS BIOS and conifigure as i wish

Migth be worth a try for those that want.

Can you do the same for Asus P6T7 WS Supercomputer?

Please!

 

[Lev00]

This is my first post, I registered just to say thank you @Regeneration , your work on this is much appreciated. I've updated a two GA-X58A-UDR3 motherboards (rev2.0 and rev1.0) and a GA-X58-UD4P.

In regards to the GA-X58-UD4P, I noticed you have tested this board extensively. I've tried a x5650 and x5660. The BIOS detects the CPUs correctly. No matter what BIOS version I try, the motherboard will not reboot or shutdown when using a Xeon.

Except for this reboot/shutdown problems, everything else works great with the Xeon. Windows 10 boots normal and is completely stable. If I switch back to a i7-920 then reboot and shutdown work normally. I'm not sure what the difference is.

Have you experienced this? If you haven't, would you have and idea what the potential cause may be and how to troubleshoot?

 

[Regeneration]

In regards to the GA-X58-UD4P, I noticed you have tested this board extensively. I've tried a x5650 and x5660. The BIOS detects the CPUs correctly. No matter what BIOS version I try, the motherboard will not reboot or shutdown when using a Xeon.

Nope. The only known issue with Gigabyte X58 motherboards and Xeons is with memory multiplier.

 

[icy]

Just registered to share a bit more info on the issues I was(/am) having with the GA-X58-UD4P board and a Xeon X5675.

First of all thank you @Regeneration for keeping the X58 alive. Excellent work.

Basically there are 2 main problems with my setup:

1. Overclocking the BCLK in the BIOS to a value above 150 does not work. It doesn't really matter how other settings are set, the moment I raise the BCLK above 150 and hit save-and-exit, the system reboots and immediately shuts down. Then it starts again by itself but all the overclock related settings were reset to some safe defaults and an error message is displayed regarding an instability.

I remember reading somewhere that it is possible to go beyond 150 BLCK by using the EasyTune program. I tried it a few times but it only froze my system (or was it BSOD?).

2. As @Lev00 said- restart doesn't work. If I try to restart the system by using the reset button for example, or selecting restart from a running OS, or even simply hitting alt-ctrl-del while in DOS or in the BIOS menus, the screen will indeed go black and all the LEDs on the motherboard will light up, but the system will not boot. It will remain "frozen" like that until I forcefully power it down. The annoying part is that when I power it up again, the BIOS will detect that the previous boot was unsuccessful, so of course it will reset-to-default all the overclock related settings forcing me to reload them again.

I tried flushing probably most of the known BIOS versions available for this board, but these two issues always remained. I even tried cross-flashing with several BIOS versions for the GA-X58-Extreme board (which is very similar btw). Exact same results.

Using one of those cheap PC Analyzer Diagnostic Cards I noticed that when performing a restart the BIOS was actually stuck in an endless loop going through the same series of boot codes over and over again.

Other than that the system is perfectly stable and it is running 24/7 for quite some time now.

 

[R-T-B]

PPL and their tinfoil hats hey! God bless America!! But seriously

M$ gives me a microcode update and I just nuke it, problem solved.. One thing I need to add.. I own Intel cpu sadly and I'm an AMD fan Boi and I refuse to disable HT.. Why? Because honestly im not afraid nor do I care, I have no reason to concern myself with this over hyped bull shit.. I have a gaming rig and nothing more, it isn't a server hosting Google, Amazon, ect... so why should us petty users be concerned?

But thanks for the list on page one

Wrong thread dude. Actual security concerned types at work here...

If not patchable they need to fundamentally rearchitect the s/w so networked S/W runs in a complete sandbox walled off from the rest of the OS stuff.

Javascript and networked code IS typically sandboxed. MDS is a sandbox breaking exploit.

They should fix the browser and networked s/w, not nuke the machine.

I hate to tell you this but the MDS patches aren't your issue. They won't run if unsupported and Sandy Bridge is the earliest supported chip.

 

[Regeneration]

Just registered to share a bit more info on the issues I was(/am) having with the GA-X58-UD4P board and a Xeon X5675.

First of all thank you @Regeneration for keeping the X58 alive. Excellent work.

Basically there are 2 main problems with my setup:

1. Overclocking the BCLK in the BIOS to a value above 150 does not work. It doesn't really matter how other settings are set, the moment I raise the BCLK above 150 and hit save-and-exit, the system reboots and immediately shuts down. Then it starts again by itself but all the overclock related settings were reset to some safe defaults and an error message is displayed regarding an instability.

I remember reading somewhere that it is possible to go beyond 150 BLCK by using the EasyTune program. I tried it a few times but it only froze my system (or was it BSOD?).

2. As @Lev00 said- restart doesn't work. If I try to restart the system by using the reset button for example, or selecting restart from a running OS, or even simply hitting alt-ctrl-del while in DOS or in the BIOS menus, the screen will indeed go black and all the LEDs on the motherboard will light up, but the system will not boot. It will remain "frozen" like that until I forcefully power it down. The annoying part is that when I power it up again, the BIOS will detect that the previous boot was unsuccessful, so of course it will reset-to-default all the overclock related settings forcing me to reload them again.

I tried flushing probably most of the known BIOS versions available for this board, but these two issues always remained. I even tried cross-flashing with several BIOS versions for the GA-X58-Extreme board (which is very similar btw). Exact same results.

Using one of those cheap PC Analyzer Diagnostic Cards I noticed that when performing a restart the BIOS was actually stuck in an endless loop going through the same series of boot codes over and over again.

Other than that the system is perfectly stable and it is running 24/7 for quite some time now.

Maximum BCLK on X58 motherboards is a matter of luck.

You can try to boost IOH core voltage, QPI PLL to 1.2v, and raise PCIe clock by 1-3 MHz. Try to play with the memory multiplier, and reduce QPI strap to x2.2.

If nothing works, you can always find a cheap Xeon W3680 with unlocked multiplier on eBay.

 

[icy]

Maximum BCLK on X58 motherboards is a matter of luck.

You can try to boost IOH core voltage, QPI PLL to 1.2v, and raise PCIe clock by 1-3 MHz. Try to play with the memory multiplier, and reduce QPI strap to x2.2.

If nothing works, you can always find a cheap Xeon W3680 with unlocked multiplier on eBay.

Regarding the 150 BCLK barrier, I tend to believe that this is a bug in the BIOS. Back when I just purchased the X5675 I did numerous tests, but unfortunately no matter what the other overclock related settings were set to it always failed to post the moment i raised the BCLK above that 150 magic wall.

Also the restarting problem seems like a bug in the BIOS that gets stuck in an endless loop.

I remember reading about others having the exact same problems with a GA-EX58-UD4P and a X56xx Xeon.

In general as far as I understand it Gigabyte EX58 boards like GA-EX58-UD4P, GA-EX58-EXTREME, GA-EX58-DS4, GA-EX58-UD3R were not very good with regards to compatibility with the X56xx Xeons. The X58A series of boards were much better.

 

[Lev00]

Nope. The only known issue with Gigabyte X58 motherboards and Xeons is with memory multiplier.

Thank you sir.

In general as far as I understand it Gigabyte EX58 boards like GA-EX58-UD4P, GA-EX58-EXTREME, GA-EX58-DS4, GA-EX58-UD3R were not very good with regards to compatibility with the X56xx Xeons. The X58A series of boards were much better.

Thank you for the details.

Just to follow up on the answer I confirmed to my own question, I tested my x5650 and x5660 that I had and both worked great in GA-X58A-UD3R and P6X58-E WS motherboards. My troubles were isolated to the GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard only.

 

[darz82]

Hi, and thank you for the mods

Any chance you can mod the last beta bios for the GA-X58-USB3? I've always had a strange boot loop issue using Bios F5C running a Xeon X5680 when performing a warm reboot, although I don't seem to have this issue using the F5f bios.

F5f bios can be found here: https://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-beta-bios.html or http://www.mediafire.com/file/9v71b4hamzdnuo5/X58USB3.5f.zip

Cheers,

 

[numanair]

Hi, and thank you for the mods

Any chance you can mod the last beta bios for the GA-X58-USB3? I've always had a strange boot loop issue using Bios F5C running a Xeon X5680 when performing a warm reboot, although I don't seem to have this issue using the F5f bios.

F5f bios can be found here: https://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-beta-bios.html or http://www.mediafire.com/file/9v71b4hamzdnuo5/X58USB3.5f.zip

Cheers,

I just registered to say thank you so much for posting this. I have a GA-X58-USB3 that I have been using with my e5540 on BIOS F3 since I got it. I had the same boot loop and other issues when trying newer BIOS versions, but the only discussion about such things I found had people RMAing boards. I recently got a x5660, but I couldn't use it without a newer BIOS. The one you linked to allowed me to finally use this CPU!
Anyway, I too would like that version modded.

 

[Delicates]

I have GA-EX58-UD4P with Xeon W3690 (CPUID 206C2), and can confirm the annoying reboot not working issue with the original Gigabyte 14P BIOS mentioned by @Lev00 and @icy.
Haven't tried this BIOS mod yet.

@Regeneration: Looks like for GA-EX58-UD4P you updated the Intel ICHARAID OROM in this mod from v8.9.1.1002 to v10.1.0.1008 (makes sense to update it since ICH10R is part of the X58 chipset).

Question 1: Can you please confirm whether this ICHARAID OROM is Intel's original, or modded to enable TRIM?
Did you get it from Win-Raid Forum by any chance?

AHCI & RAID Option ROM Modules

@ experienced and courageous users, who are searching for a suitable AHCI/RAID ROM module for their mainboard BIOS: Preliminary notes This thread is designed for users, who want to update the AHCI/RAID ROM module of their mainboard BIOS according to any of my guides, which can be found within...

www.win-raid.com

Question 2: Why not a newer version such as v11.2.0.1527?
As I understand, the latest version that supports ICH10R is v11.7.4.1001, though I don't know if this OROM version can be found:

Intel Rapid Storage Technology - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I wonder if there are mods out there for this board with all OROMs updated to their latest versions.

What led me here - I'm trying to figure out if it is possible to get this BIOS to boot into NVMe drive such as Samsung 970 EVO Plus (with a PCIe-M.2 adapter card) without EFI bootloader workarounds.
The 14P BIOS seems to detect it as a "Bootable Add-in Card", and rumour has it some EVOs can present themselves in AHCI mode (which may explain why BIOS is able to see it), but it doesn't boot.

Also does anyone by any chance know if this board has ECC traces to be able to use more than 48 GiB of RAM? Xeon W3690 memory controller does support ECC and has a 40-bit PAE addressing.

 

[agent_x007]

You can't (NVMe "module" for usual BIOS doesn't exists).
Board can see it, because device needs IRQ and other stuff to work.
This forces it to be visible under devices (it also means device works at boot and should work from BIOS point of view).
Not sure why it's such a problem, use small partition on one of the data drives for chainload software of Your choise, and you are good to go.

 

[Reeta242]

To what degree do the BIOS patches alone affect performance? Has anyone done a benchmark with the BIOS patch applied but the Windows Spectre/Meltdown patches disabled?

I am contemplating disabling Windows-side patches but keeping the BIOS patch, however I may flash a non-patched BIOS if benchamrks prove a significantly inferior performance.

 

[Regeneration]

To what degree do the BIOS patches alone affect performance? Has anyone done a benchmark with the BIOS patch applied but the Windows Spectre/Meltdown patches disabled?

I am contemplating disabling Windows-side patches but keeping the BIOS patch, however I may flash a non-patched BIOS if benchamrks prove a significantly inferior performance.

None without OS interaction. If you wish to enable/disable protections, you can do it from the OS (registry).

 

[Reeta242]

A few things remain unclear to me. Why are these BIOS patches needed if my Westmere (GA-EX58-UD5) shows itself to be protected with InSpectre.exe without the modified bios? That is to say, I get a ''yes'' beside both ''System is Meltdown/Spectre protected:'' without the BIOS patch.

Secondly, why despite flashing the new BIOS - which you said protects against all forms of Spectre - does the program say I'm unprotected from Spectre even if it's protections are disabled on the OS level?

Finally, what do you know of "mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll" located within C:\Windows\System32? Ought it be disabled along with the tool provided by InSpectre.exe if I want to maximize performance?

 

[realcapone]

Can anyone confirm the issues with the Gigabyte X58 boards? I have an X58a-UD3R and would like to try the modded bios but would not generally want to have the restart/shutdown issue as well as the limited BLCK. I can try it right now but just need confirmation that we can revert it back if we flash it using the official bios.

 

[Regeneration]

Can anyone confirm the issues with the Gigabyte X58 boards? I have an X58a-UD3R and would like to try the modded bios but would not generally want to have the restart/shutdown issue as well as the limited BLCK. I can try it right now but just need confirmation that we can revert it back if we flash it using the official bios.

There no issues with Gigabyte X58 motherboards. One or two old models have a few bugs with Gulftown in the official BIOS.

 

[realcapone]

There no issues with Gigabyte X58 motherboards. One or two old models have a few bugs with Gulftown in the official BIOS.

Thanks for confirming. I'll update if once I get the chance to update my Bios. Currently running the F8b beta on X58a-UD3R board with a Xeon Westmere-EP Proc. Thanks once again.

 

[adam]

hi all,
dose this bios add support for the 6 core xeons on the msi x58?

 

[Zyll Goliat]

hi all,
dose this bios add support for the 6 core xeons on the msi x58?

Well I don't have any problems with 6 core Xeon and this moded bios but my mobo is Asus P6X58D Premium

 

[adam]

hi,
for me on the msi x58pro E and xeon x5650 the multiplier cant go over 20 can this bios update fix that problem or is there a potential to fix that problem
thx for answering

 

[Ranmamez]

hi,
for me on the msi x58pro E and xeon x5650 the multiplier cant go over 20 can this bios update fix that problem or is there a potential to fix that problem
thx for answering

You can't go over 20 because on x5650 is its own/max multiplier: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Xeon/Intel-Xeon X5650 - AT80614004320AD (BX80614X5650).html

 

[adam]

actually no u can go up to 22 or 23 as in this yt vid

at this time or this one

and i mean overclocking in general, like for me to hold 3,97ghz i have to raise the qpi volt to 1.5 and that isn't that stable when i raise the multiplier to 21 but it shows up as yellow idk why but its like that for other msi x58 pro E users too

 

[Paraffine]

Any chance of seeing an unofficial bios update for the Intel DX58SO2 before it reaches the End of Life and its BIOS gets removed from the intel website by the end of the current month?

 

[R-T-B]

A few things remain unclear to me. Why are these BIOS patches needed if my Westmere (GA-EX58-UD5) shows itself to be protected with InSpectre.exe without the modified bios? That is to say, I get a ''yes'' beside both ''System is Meltdown/Spectre protected:'' without the BIOS patch.

Secondly, why despite flashing the new BIOS - which you said protects against all forms of Spectre - does the program say I'm unprotected from Spectre even if it's protections are disabled on the OS level?

Finally, what do you know of "mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll" located within C:\Windows\System32? Ought it be disabled along with the tool provided by InSpectre.exe if I want to maximize performance?

You need both the os mitigations and the microcode patch. Do not disable the windows mitigations or this bios update will do nothing.

actually no u can go up to 22 or 23 as in this yt

I used to own a Xeon W5690. It wasn't unlocked either. It certainly strikes me as odd what this youtuber is claiming

Any chance of seeing an unofficial bios update for the Intel DX58SO2 before it reaches the End of Life and its BIOS gets removed from the intel website by the end of the current month?

I asked this like a year ago. He told me that the Intel checksums are too tricky to bypass.