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X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

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  • X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

    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.
    Last edited by Amurtigress; 04-03-2014, 10:48 PM. Reason: Corrected typos. I am so used to "FTP"...

  • #2
    Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

    Thanks a lot !

    Using your tutorial I flashed my main bios successfully (first test without backup).
    MAC address and GBE firmware are located exactly at the same place in my Z77X-UD5H BIOS (offset 1000 to 1FFF).
    FPT tool flash entirely BIOS and reset settings, then i reflashed MEI firmware :

    Click image for larger version

Name:	Flash_GBe1.5.JPG
Views:	1
Size:	88.0 KB
ID:	753847

    It is really useful to complete and keep your PC Specs or Signature up to date in Settings /My Profile (motherboard, CPU, BIOS version modified or not ...) - Thank you all .
    Main rig : Z77X-UD5H BIOS F16 mod11 - Core i7 3770K @4.5GHz 1.30V - Noctua NH-D14 - GSkill TridentX 2x8GB @1200MHz CAS10 - Club3D HD5750 noiseless @800/1300 - Silverstone FT02S - Seasonic X-series 650W
    2x Intel 510 128GB RAID0 - 2x Samsung F3 500GB RAID0 + Samsung F3 1TB - Dell U2713H - Logitech Illuminated & G500 - Focal XS Book - Windows 8 Pro 64bits UEFI
    2nd rig : Z77X-UD3H BIOS F20e mod - Core i5 3470 @4.0GHz - Noctua NH-D14 -
    Crucial BT 2x4GB @933MHz CAS9 - Club3D HD7750 noiseless @stock - Lian-Li PC-A05FN - Seasonic M12II 520W
    Crucial M4 128GB - 2x WD10EALX RAID1 - Dell 2408WFP - Logitech Illuminated & G5
    - Bose Companion 20 - Windows 8 Pro 64bits Legacy
    HTPC : EG45M-UD2H BIOS F5a mod - Core2Quad Q8200 @2.8GHz undervolted to 1.10V - Noctua NH-C4 passive - OCZ 4x1GB @500MHz CAS5 - AMD HD6450 passive - Antek NSK2480 - Antec Earthwatts 380W
    Intel SSD 330 60GB - 2x WD WD30EZRX 3TB RAID0 - Logitech K820 - Windows 8 Pro 64bits + XBMC12
    Gigabyte Modified BIOS & About ME firmware

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

      Yay! I also got a report of a X79-UD3 doing this successfully, from Fernando.

      Out of curiosity, what about LNS and UNS? Any idea about the purpose? Some don't have them, I got both at 7.sumfin , ....

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

        Does the X79-UD3 have a secondary BIOS? If so, how do I flash to it?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

          Originally posted by ZzBloopzZ View Post
          Does the X79-UD3 have a secondary BIOS? If so, how do I flash to it?
          Of course you have DualBIOS, but you can only flash the main one.
          Originally posted by Gigabyte's manual
          However, if the main BIOS is corrupted or damaged, the backup BIOS will take over on the next system boot and copy the BIOS file to the main BIOS to ensure normal system operation. For the sake of system safety, users cannot update the backup BIOS manually.
          It is really useful to complete and keep your PC Specs or Signature up to date in Settings /My Profile (motherboard, CPU, BIOS version modified or not ...) - Thank you all .
          Main rig : Z77X-UD5H BIOS F16 mod11 - Core i7 3770K @4.5GHz 1.30V - Noctua NH-D14 - GSkill TridentX 2x8GB @1200MHz CAS10 - Club3D HD5750 noiseless @800/1300 - Silverstone FT02S - Seasonic X-series 650W
          2x Intel 510 128GB RAID0 - 2x Samsung F3 500GB RAID0 + Samsung F3 1TB - Dell U2713H - Logitech Illuminated & G500 - Focal XS Book - Windows 8 Pro 64bits UEFI
          2nd rig : Z77X-UD3H BIOS F20e mod - Core i5 3470 @4.0GHz - Noctua NH-D14 -
          Crucial BT 2x4GB @933MHz CAS9 - Club3D HD7750 noiseless @stock - Lian-Li PC-A05FN - Seasonic M12II 520W
          Crucial M4 128GB - 2x WD10EALX RAID1 - Dell 2408WFP - Logitech Illuminated & G5
          - Bose Companion 20 - Windows 8 Pro 64bits Legacy
          HTPC : EG45M-UD2H BIOS F5a mod - Core2Quad Q8200 @2.8GHz undervolted to 1.10V - Noctua NH-C4 passive - OCZ 4x1GB @500MHz CAS5 - AMD HD6450 passive - Antek NSK2480 - Antec Earthwatts 380W
          Intel SSD 330 60GB - 2x WD WD30EZRX 3TB RAID0 - Logitech K820 - Windows 8 Pro 64bits + XBMC12
          Gigabyte Modified BIOS & About ME firmware

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

            Just trying the tutorial, but after flash the bios and make a cold boot, i'm still on 1.3, so i can say it doesn't work on my UD3.

            Ghostearth.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

              So if Fernando doing this successfully, i've to try again because i trust him.

              Finally Abracadabra my Gbe version is 1.5.

              Thanks Amurtigress, good tutorial.


              Ghostearth.


              Originally posted by Amurtigress View Post
              Yay! I also got a report of a X79-UD3 doing this successfully, from Fernando.

              Out of curiosity, what about LNS and UNS? Any idea about the purpose? Some don't have them, I got both at 7.sumfin , ....
              Click image for larger version

Name:	Gbe 1.5.PNG
Views:	1
Size:	38.2 KB
ID:	753861

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

                Yeah on my X79, i don't have LNS AND UNS drivers installed, why :

                - If i look on the drivers Cd provided when i buy the motherboard or at the gigabyte website, they only provide the MEI drivers.

                - Next, If People run directy the setup file, they will have LNS and UNS drivers (each time you start your computer, two services are loaded, Jhi services and a other one (i don't remember the name).

                So in my case i always install the MEI drivers manually, as i think i don't need the others and follow what gigabyte provided.

                My Two Cents.

                Ghostearth.

                Originally posted by Amurtigress View Post
                Yay! I also got a report of a X79-UD3 doing this successfully, from Fernando.

                Out of curiosity, what about LNS and UNS? Any idea about the purpose? Some don't have them, I got both at 7.sumfin , ....
                Last edited by Ghostearth; 08-15-2013, 09:44 AM.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

                  The included support DVD you say? Hmmm. I'll try but my support CD is certainly going back to at least Feb. 2012...might be something I should delay until I got my new SSD and Win7 installed on it from scratch. Now, where did I put that DVD....

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Thanks

                    Worked perfectly as instructed. Thank you Amurtigress.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Thanks

                      Welkies, Mac!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

                        Hi, would this work on the GA-Z87-D3HP?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

                          Originally posted by JeanHarris View Post
                          Hi, would this work on the GA-Z87-D3HP?
                          I think you'll have to try it and see.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

                            It did!

                            Windows installed a new hardware after reboot but everything seems to work.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: X79 Intel GBit LAN GBE firmware update HOWTO (...also socket 1155/1150?)

                              Thanks for this guide Amurtigress!

                              I didn't need to upgrade my GBe firmware, but I did need to restore my original MAC.
                              I followed your guide and everything is fine now. Yay!

                              Comment

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