Edit:
This is ONLY for mainboards with Intel 82579V onboard LAN.
The BIOS components/regions are INTEL SPECIFIC as they are used the way I describe it, by using FPT. It MAY also work with the i217V, the newer cousin of 82579V, but the chip will appear as 82579V if you are not getting a newer firmware specifically for the i217V....
Since the i217V is the newer chip, using a 82579V GBe ROM may rather be a DOWNGRADE than an UPGRADE!
This will NOT work with network chips of ANY other brand, i.e. Marvell, Atheros, Realtek, Via, Broadcom! Check your mainboard's specifications before trying the following:
GBe Firmware Update for Gigabyte X79 mainboards (Potentially most others)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, here we go. My Howto. Please forgive me that it might not be as thoroughly written up and all but it'll do the job.
I found on monday that for some reason my IP adress in my LAN wasn't right, and it took me a while until I noticed that my MAC adress has been overwritten somehow, and set to 88-88-88-88-87-88. Which had me confused because only a few days ago I had been confronted with the FPT.EXE tool denying me to write to the GBe region. Apparently somehow during my experiments with the ME region I had done something that did write the GBe region too.
µcode recommended to approach CodeRush at HardOCP forums who very willingly provided me with some background info on the MAC and using the FPT tool. It was a very nice brainstorming with him, actually.
So here comes my HOWTO:
We are facing three problems here:
-- Gigabyte's BIOS flashers don't overwrite the entire flash ROM, they skip the ME and GBe regions and more. It is really a BAD JOKE the unmodded F13t BIOS for the X79-UD5 even contains the ME firmware 8.1.10.1286, but it just NEVER GETS FLASHED! I checked this with the Intel's FITS tool. So flashing the original Gigabyte BIOS via ex. 'fpt -bios X79_UD5_mod.f13t' would actually update your ME!
-- Intel's FPT flashtool overwrites the ME region with the -me parameter, however not the GBe region using fpt -gbe -f . fpt -i still states that there is no write protection active.
-- Even when flashing the GBE region, this would overwrite the MAC adress.
I found out later that the GBE region can indeed be overwritten, but only when writing the *ENTIRE* BIOS. What we have to do is to copy the GBE firmware 1.5 over the 1.3 in the original ROM and then replace the default MAC adress with the original one of your mainboard.
First: Get the Intel flashtool (x64) and the gbe15.bin HERE:
GBE15modkit_win64_x79.zip
Second: Get the Hexeditor HxD HERE:
HxD - Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor | mh-nexus
Third: Get the desired BIOS file for your mainboard in the BETA BIOS thread or Modified BIOS thread:
GIGABYTE Modified Bios
GIGABYTE Latest Beta BIOS
My recommendation are the modified BIOSses by virtualfred for X79 boards with updated microcodes.
1) Start HxD and load your BIOS into it, and then load the GBE15.bin from my GBE modpack into another tab.
2) The MAC adress of the onboard Intel LAN can be obtained by running ipconfig /all in a DOS prompt. Look for the 6 bytes MAC of the 82579V network connection, looking like 50-ab-13-44-ff-01. Also you might find it on a sticker on your mainboard if it has gotten lost somehow.
3) Find the location of the start offset of the GBe firmware within the original BIOS. Currently it is located at 1000h and the MAC adress is located at the very beginning of the GBe15.bin ROM, offset 0h-5h. You will find "88 88 88 88 87 88" there. This might be different in other BIOSses. To find the location you can always search for 888888888788 in your BIOS.
4) Copy the entire content of the second tab (GBE15.bin 0h-1fffh) over the GBe region in the first tab at offset 1000h-2fffh (Or the respective different offset for your BIOS) using paste-write (CTRL-B) in HxD.
5) Return to 1000h (Or your BIOS' GBe offset if different from that) and enter your MAC adress at 1000h-1005h.
6) Save the file to yourbios.bin and copy it into the FPT flasher directory.
ATTENTION: Only perform the following steps on the SECONDARY bios (BLUE on boards with a BIOS switch!) to reduce risk.
7) Backup your current BIOS by using backup.bat.
8) Flash your BIOS using 'fpt -bios -f yourbios.bin'
At this point, after flashing, the ME driver will stop working until after a reboot.
On mainboards with a BIOS switch (green/blue) and UEFI BIOS:
In case of a not working modification, you can enforce a BIOS reflash from the PRIMARY bios by holding the power button down for ten seconds or longer.
This is ONLY for mainboards with Intel 82579V onboard LAN.
The BIOS components/regions are INTEL SPECIFIC as they are used the way I describe it, by using FPT. It MAY also work with the i217V, the newer cousin of 82579V, but the chip will appear as 82579V if you are not getting a newer firmware specifically for the i217V....
Since the i217V is the newer chip, using a 82579V GBe ROM may rather be a DOWNGRADE than an UPGRADE!
This will NOT work with network chips of ANY other brand, i.e. Marvell, Atheros, Realtek, Via, Broadcom! Check your mainboard's specifications before trying the following:
GBe Firmware Update for Gigabyte X79 mainboards (Potentially most others)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, here we go. My Howto. Please forgive me that it might not be as thoroughly written up and all but it'll do the job.
I found on monday that for some reason my IP adress in my LAN wasn't right, and it took me a while until I noticed that my MAC adress has been overwritten somehow, and set to 88-88-88-88-87-88. Which had me confused because only a few days ago I had been confronted with the FPT.EXE tool denying me to write to the GBe region. Apparently somehow during my experiments with the ME region I had done something that did write the GBe region too.
µcode recommended to approach CodeRush at HardOCP forums who very willingly provided me with some background info on the MAC and using the FPT tool. It was a very nice brainstorming with him, actually.
So here comes my HOWTO:
We are facing three problems here:
-- Gigabyte's BIOS flashers don't overwrite the entire flash ROM, they skip the ME and GBe regions and more. It is really a BAD JOKE the unmodded F13t BIOS for the X79-UD5 even contains the ME firmware 8.1.10.1286, but it just NEVER GETS FLASHED! I checked this with the Intel's FITS tool. So flashing the original Gigabyte BIOS via ex. 'fpt -bios X79_UD5_mod.f13t' would actually update your ME!
-- Intel's FPT flashtool overwrites the ME region with the -me parameter, however not the GBe region using fpt -gbe -f . fpt -i still states that there is no write protection active.
-- Even when flashing the GBE region, this would overwrite the MAC adress.
I found out later that the GBE region can indeed be overwritten, but only when writing the *ENTIRE* BIOS. What we have to do is to copy the GBE firmware 1.5 over the 1.3 in the original ROM and then replace the default MAC adress with the original one of your mainboard.
First: Get the Intel flashtool (x64) and the gbe15.bin HERE:
GBE15modkit_win64_x79.zip
Second: Get the Hexeditor HxD HERE:
HxD - Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor | mh-nexus
Third: Get the desired BIOS file for your mainboard in the BETA BIOS thread or Modified BIOS thread:
GIGABYTE Modified Bios
GIGABYTE Latest Beta BIOS
My recommendation are the modified BIOSses by virtualfred for X79 boards with updated microcodes.
1) Start HxD and load your BIOS into it, and then load the GBE15.bin from my GBE modpack into another tab.
2) The MAC adress of the onboard Intel LAN can be obtained by running ipconfig /all in a DOS prompt. Look for the 6 bytes MAC of the 82579V network connection, looking like 50-ab-13-44-ff-01. Also you might find it on a sticker on your mainboard if it has gotten lost somehow.
3) Find the location of the start offset of the GBe firmware within the original BIOS. Currently it is located at 1000h and the MAC adress is located at the very beginning of the GBe15.bin ROM, offset 0h-5h. You will find "88 88 88 88 87 88" there. This might be different in other BIOSses. To find the location you can always search for 888888888788 in your BIOS.
4) Copy the entire content of the second tab (GBE15.bin 0h-1fffh) over the GBe region in the first tab at offset 1000h-2fffh (Or the respective different offset for your BIOS) using paste-write (CTRL-B) in HxD.
5) Return to 1000h (Or your BIOS' GBe offset if different from that) and enter your MAC adress at 1000h-1005h.
6) Save the file to yourbios.bin and copy it into the FPT flasher directory.
ATTENTION: Only perform the following steps on the SECONDARY bios (BLUE on boards with a BIOS switch!) to reduce risk.
7) Backup your current BIOS by using backup.bat.
8) Flash your BIOS using 'fpt -bios -f yourbios.bin'
At this point, after flashing, the ME driver will stop working until after a reboot.
On mainboards with a BIOS switch (green/blue) and UEFI BIOS:
In case of a not working modification, you can enforce a BIOS reflash from the PRIMARY bios by holding the power button down for ten seconds or longer.
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