So... I decided to finally get off my butt and post instructions & such...
These instructions will let you...a) Boot an X2 Processor.
OR
b) Properly Identify your LE-Whatever in the device manager (for that warm fuzzy feeling)
Why I can't just provide a pre-modded bios fileIP rights aside, your bios contains at least your unit's serial number and maybe other keys & license stuff. It would look bad if everyone was running around with my unit's serial number & (possibly) WHS license key.
The Risk.Provided you're following the instructions provided the risks are no greater than when you flash the bios on any piece of hardware... So if your power goes out or your MSS shuts-down for whatever reason during the actual flashing process there's a good chance your MSS will be bricked (ie: unusable)
I will not be held responsible should anything go wrong. I'll try to help but that's about it.
On the upside, If you happen to brick your MSS... There should be a way to unbrick the machine using the JTAG headers or possibly the CN10 pins... I'm not familiar with it so you'd be on your own but at least you'd learn a whole lot in the process and when you've pulled it off you can share what you learned with the rest of us! (yay!)
Tools Needed1) Bios Flasher Software. Either WinFlash (
Here) or AWDFlash (
Here)
2) CBROM 1.82 (
Here)
Winflash is windows. AWDFlash is dos. For dos you need a USB floppy or bootable thumbdrive and a VGA cable to see what you're doing (or alternatively a one-liner autoexec.bat).
Donor Bios Files1) Shuttle SS21T Bios (For ACPITBL) (
Here)
2) Abit AN9 BIOS (For AGESACPU) (
Here)
The Shuttle bios contains the AGESACPU module as well but I used a more recent AGESACPU module from the abit AN9 bios linked above.
Similarly the Abit bios linked contains awdflash 8.80 but the earlier link contains 8.90 (and an otherwise unrelated bios for a DFI x48 board).
In the past I said you could use any current AGESACPU file... since then a new variation on the AGESACPU file has appeared that is not compatible. Stick to what's proven.
Instructions -- using winflashIf you intend to install an X2 chip you must perform these instructions before switching chips... WHS will not boot an X2 on the stock bios.
0) Connect to the MSS via remote desktop connection. Create a folder on your desktop called "bios" and copy all the needed programs & donor files into it.
1) Run WinFlash. Go to File>Save Old Bios. Click Save, accepting the default file name. Click Backup. (Done)
2) Go to Start>Run. Type "cmd". Click Ok. (Command Prompt Window will appear)
...
From this point forward, when I say 'type' in the context of the command prompt I mean press enter at the end of the quoted command.3) In the command prompt window Go to your newly created folder (ie: "cd Desktop\bios")
... a) Type "copy awdbios.bin awdbios.bak" to make a copy of your bios. I suggest making an additional backup to another computer, hotmail or gmail etc.
... b) Type "cbrom182 awdbios.bin /d" To display the bios contents which should look like this:
Code:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\bios>cbrom182 awdbios.bin /d
cbrom182 V1.82 [04/11/07] (C)Phoenix Technologies 2001-2007
******** awdbios.bin BIOS component ********
No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 13BCEh(78.95K) SJD4.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0F920h(62.28K) 0A236h(40.55K) awardext.rom
2. CPU micro code 02000h(8.00K) 003EFh(0.98K) CPUCODE.BIN
3. ACPI table 044B5h(17.18K) 0186Ch(6.11K) ACPITBL.BIN
4. EPA LOGO 0168Ch(5.64K) 002AAh(0.67K) AwardBmp.bmp
5. YGROUP ROM 0B0D0h(44.20K) 05991h(22.39K) awardeyt.rom
6. GROUP ROM[ 0] 04960h(18.34K) 0219Dh(8.40K) _EN_CODE.BIN
7. SETUP0 01A90h(6.64K) 00A9Eh(2.65K) _ITEM.BIN
8. VGA ROM[1] 08000h(32.00K) 03FFFh(16.00K) 761GX.ROM
9. GV3 03E12h(15.52K) 01000h(4.00K) AGESACPU.ROM
10. PCI ROM[A] 0A800h(42.00K) 06254h(24.58K) 191PXE.BEV
11. OEM0 CODE 00257h(0.58K) 0018Dh(0.39K) int15_32.bin
12. NoCompress ROM 009A8h(2.41K) 009DBh(2.46K) rom32.bin
(BB) Compress BT-VGA 08000h(32.00K) 03E98h(15.90K) 6330VGA.ROM
Total compress code space = 59000h(356.00K)
Total compressed code size = 34090h(208.14K)
Remain compress code space = 24F70h(147.86K)
** Micro Code Information **
Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID
------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
0062 0414| 0068 040A| 006D 041B| 0083 0680
4) Type "cbrom182 SS21S10J.BIN /acpitbl extract" and press enter when prompted for the file name.
Code:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\bios>cbrom182 SS21S10J.BIN /acpitbl extract
cbrom182 V1.82 [04/11/07] (C)Phoenix Technologies 2001-2007
Enter an extract file Name :(ACPITBL.BIN)
[ACPI] ROM is extracted to ACPITBL.BIN
5) Type "cbrom182 M601B_18.BIN /GV3 extract" and press enter when prompted for the file name.
Code:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\bios>cbrom182 M601B_18.BIN /GV3 extract
cbrom182 V1.82 [04/11/07] (C)Phoenix Technologies 2001-2007
Enter an extract file Name :(AGESACPU.ROM)
[GV3] ROM is extracted to AGESACPU.ROM
6) Type "cbrom182 awdbios.bin /acpitbl ACPITBL.BIN"
Code:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\bios>cbrom182 awdbios.bin /acpitbl ACPITBL.BIN
cbrom182 V1.82 [04/11/07] (C)Phoenix Technologies 2001-2007
Adding ACPITBL.BIN .. 36.8%
7) Type "cbrom182 awdbios.bin /GV3 AGESACPU.ROM"
Code:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\bios>cbrom182 awdbios.bin /GV3 AGESACPU.ROM
cbrom182 V1.82 [04/11/07] (C)Phoenix Technologies 2001-2007
Adding AGESACPU.ROM . 25.8%
8) Type "cbrom182 awdbios.bin /d" To display the bios contents after the changes you've made.
Code:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\bios>cbrom182 awdbios.bin /d (Should look like the following).
cbrom182 V1.82 [04/11/07] (C)Phoenix Technologies 2001-2007
******** awdbios.bin BIOS component ********
No. Item-Name Original-Size Compressed-Size Original-File-Name
================================================================================
0. System BIOS 20000h(128.00K) 13BCEh(78.95K) SJD4.BIN
1. XGROUP CODE 0F920h(62.28K) 0A236h(40.55K) awardext.rom
2. CPU micro code 02000h(8.00K) 003EFh(0.98K) CPUCODE.BIN
3. EPA LOGO 0168Ch(5.64K) 002AAh(0.67K) AwardBmp.bmp
4. YGROUP ROM 0B0D0h(44.20K) 05991h(22.39K) awardeyt.rom
5. GROUP ROM[ 0] 04960h(18.34K) 0219Dh(8.40K) _EN_CODE.BIN
6. SETUP0 01A90h(6.64K) 00A9Eh(2.65K) _ITEM.BIN
7. VGA ROM[1] 08000h(32.00K) 03FFFh(16.00K) 761GX.ROM
8. PCI ROM[A] 0A800h(42.00K) 06254h(24.58K) 191PXE.BEV
9. OEM0 CODE 00257h(0.58K) 0018Dh(0.39K) int15_32.bin
10. NoCompress ROM 009A8h(2.41K) 009DBh(2.46K) rom32.bin
11. ACPI table 04360h(16.84K) 018F5h(6.24K) ACPITBL.BIN
12. GV3 03FCAh(15.95K) 0109Fh(4.16K) AGESACPU.ROM
(BB) Compress BT-VGA 08000h(32.00K) 03E98h(15.90K) 6330VGA.ROM
Total compress code space = 59000h(356.00K)
Total compressed code size = 341B8h(208.43K)
Remain compress code space = 24E48h(147.57K)
** Micro Code Information **
Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID | Update ID CPUID
------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------------
0062 0414| 0068 040A| 006D 041B| 0083 0680
9) Close the Command Prompt Window. The hard part is done. Wasn't that easy?
10) Run Winflash.
... a) Check "Update ALL" (Which will check other things for you) and Check "Clear CMOS" (For Good Measure).
... b) Go to File>Update BIOS. Select awdbios.bin, Click Open. Click Update. (It updates the bios). Reboot the computer.
At this point let the computer startup normally again. Then shut it down, swap the chips, and start it back up again... and that's it.
Edit: Actually you may need to reboot once more after that for WHS to change from the single-processor kernel to the multi-processor kernel
Lastly... if you try an X2 chip please share your results in this thread.
I'm succcessfully running a 3800+ X2 EE SFF (35 Watt, 1V, 90nm chip). Orthos Small FFTs stable for 10+ hours. See Page 5 for details.
Followup: I've attached the needed files below in case they ever go down for good (abit for example keeps talking about getting out of the motherboard business entirely). Please continue to report if any of the above links stop working and use the attachments only as a last resort. Thanks.
Update Sept 2009FAQ: Which dual core processor should I get? Will 'this' processor work? How about this processor? etc etc...Answer: Get either the BE-2300 or the 3800 X2 EE SFF - anything else has a high probability of not working. Your best chance of finding them at this point is on EBay.
FAQ: I can't find the 3800 EE SFF anywhere! (help!)Answer: The product code for the 3800 X2 EE SFF is ADD3800IAA5C. I suggest setting up a saved search on Ebay with the term "
ADD3800*" -- ebay will alert you via email when an auction appears that meets your search criteria.
That said, the 3800 X2 EE SFF is becoming so rare now you might have better luck buying a whole OEM (ie: HP or Acer) system that comes with the 3800 X2 EE SFF and discarding/repurposing the rest of the hardware.