DELL Precision 690 microcode update

[sbergeron]

Post screenshots of first (CPU) & third (Mainboard) tabs of CPU-Z.

Motheboard:
Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
Model: 0MY171 Rev: A01
Chipset: intel 5000X Rev: 12
Southbridge: Intel 6321ESB Rev: 09

BIOS Properties
BIOS Type Phoenix
BIOS Version A08
System BIOS Date 04/25/08
Video BIOS Date 09/26/09

I've analysed latest BIOS (A8) for DELL Precision 690 and found block of microcode on offset=0x52DB5 of hdr-file.

Code:

CPUID Offset Core (Stepping)
0F61 0070 Dempsey (B0)
0F62 0840 Dempsey (B1)
0F63 1010 Dempsey (B2)
0F64 17E0 Dempsey (C0)
06F1 5320 Woodcrest (A1)
06F4 62F0 Woodcrest (B0)
06F5 23B0 Woodcrest (B1)
06F6 3380 Woodcrest (B2)
06F7 72C0 Clovertown (B3)
06FB 8290 Clovertown (G0)

Only two bytes are used for CPUID. And all microcodes haven't headers.
Note: Dempsey - Xeon 5000-series, Woodcrest - Xeon 5100-series, Clovertown - Xeon 5300-series.
P.S. I think this motherboard don't support 45-nm core CPU.

What's kind of X5355 you have? Please tell S-spec of it.
Did you try to boot system with this CPU?

To be perfectly honest, I was trying to figure out before I bought the CPUs so I wouldn't be wasting money on them. If it's likely I would be able to get it working, I could find a set of CPUs that I would get and get the exact code for them if that's necessary for getting the bios to work with them. I'm pretty sure that support for x54XX CPUs was attempted and failed, but what I'm finding is that although in the A08 BIOS supports the x53XX CPUs that I'm hoping to use, a couple people (a significant percentage, but certainly far from reliable data) have reported that the x53XX CPUs will only work on the A08 BIOS with the latest board revision and not the original MY171 A00 and A01. I'm looking at these for what I would get: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Matching-Pair-of...SwEeFVJMP7 so the S-spec I'm pretty sure would be the "SLAEG" term on the CPU

[DeathBringer]

X5355 (SLAEG) must work on your motherboard. BIOS has microcode for them. Give me links to failed attempts to boot these CPU on your motherboard.
Xeon 5400-Series are not supported!

[sbergeron]

X5355 (SLAEG) must work on your motherboard. BIOS has microcode for them. Give me links to failed attempts to boot these CPU on your motherboard.
Xeon 5400-Series are not supported!

OK so I'll get them and see if they work. Thanks for the help, I was worried from what a couple people said that I wouldn't be able to use them.

[COUWK]

Any luck with adding E54xx Xeon support to the A08 Dell BIOS?
I have a E5420 specifically.

[DeathBringer]

No, Xeon 5400-series aren't supported by hardware.

[sbergeron]

X5355 (SLAEG) must work on your motherboard. BIOS has microcode for them. Give me links to failed attempts to boot these CPU on your motherboard.
Xeon 5400-Series are not supported!

A link to someone talking about it can be found in the description of this Youtube video, and some other Dell forum that I'll have to dig up.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk_eRS8C-L0

EDIT: Here is the Dell forum thread I was talking about: http://en.community.dell.com/what-do-i-b...?pi41074=2
Hopefully that helps.

[DeathBringer]

OK. It's usefull

Posted by SpeedStep on 12 Oct 2011 8:58 AM
The Information seems to vary almost YMMV

DT029 Earliest 690 motherboard revision, not quad capable. (rejects Xeon E5310)
F9394 Revised 690 motherboard,not quad capable. (rejects Xeon E5310)
MY171 Revised 690 motherboard,quad capable.

Look for a sticker on the MB with a code like:
CN-ODT029-13740-67S-0044
The version is in the secound Part -ODT029 in this case.

The trick to getting some upgrades to work was to remove the button cell battery on the motherboard for a minute or so and then replace it. When you power on the machine you will be asked to go into setup and set the date and time. After doing this the machine would boot with A06.
The problem is that if you ever remove the power cable, or switch off at the wall, then your 690 won’t boot again and it will give the “Incompatible processor detected!” message again.
So while I had a working machine I downloaded the A01 version of the BIOS from ftp.us.dell.com and installed it. After this my machine is fully functional again.

I don’t have the time at the moment to do a test of all BIOS versions between A01 and A06 to see where the problem starts.
XEON 5410 tried with biosA07 and MY171. Not working.
XEON 5420 tried will biosA06 and DT029. Not working.
For those of you that don't know, you can get a both a DT029 and F9394 motherboard 'working' with quad-core CPUs.

For F9394 motherboards: Any BIOS revision can be used, when you get the "incompatible processor detected!" message unplug the machine from the mains and remove the clock battery. Wait for at least 30 seconds before re-inserting the battery and then restore the power. The machine will operate normally up until the point where it is unplugged from the mains, at which point you will have to repeat the procedure.

For DT029 motherboards: The same as above except you must be running BIOS revision A01 (A02 is a possibility but untested) or lower. If you only have a quad-core chip you will need to find a dual-core CPU to downgrade the machine with, the battery removal trick will not work if you have upgraded the BIOS past A02.

Posted by King George on 17 Jun 2013 4:31 AM
THIS IS THE ANSWER! Speedstep's answer is only partially correct. There are two revisions of the MY171 motherboard. Rev A01 indeed does not work with any quad cores with BIOS between A02 AND A08. I tried everyone. And I got the incompatible CPU message every time. When I attempted to use BIOS A01, the flash did not go through properly and my mother board was bricked! This does not happen to everyone. I was just lucky that day. I am not a quitter, so I went online and bought another MY171 mobo from txcesssurplus.

This time, the company sent me a Rev A02 MY171 mobo. I replaced the old REV A01 MY171 board, put in my dual e5345, and the CPUs work just fine under bios A07. THIS IS THE ANSWER. This is why some people with MY171 boards get the quads to work and others do not. I SUSPECT EVERY ONE WITH PROPERLY WORKING QUADS IN THE MY171 BOARD HAS MOBO REV A02 AND EVERYONE WHO HAS HAD NO/LIMITED SUCCESS WITH QUADS HAS MOBO MY171 REV A01.

I do not know about the F9394 or the DT029 as I never used one, but I suppose Speedstep's post is accurate about them and they do not work properly with e5300 series cpu. Buying a REV A02 MY171 mobo from ebay is difficult as no one lists the mobo revision number. I got lucky really. Ask the seller to look at the revision number before you buy it, or just buy one from the seller I mentioned above and hope for the best.

I am in 8-core heaven now and will make a lot of money with this computer starting this weekend doing video editing and rendering. I spent a total of $120 on it, so I suppose it was worth the hassle. I still hate dell and am very angry they did not post this info in their description of this product.

The problem is “Incompatible processor detected!” message. May be it's only BIOS limitation like in Dell Optiplex GX520/620.
But to check it you must have Xeon 5300-series.

[DeathBringer]

I found code in module 0B_9.ROM that verify CPUID and set error status to 0x16 (Alert! Incompatible processor detected.).

Code:

9FD8    push    eax
9FDA    mov     eax, 1
9FE0    cpuid                
9FE2    and     ax, 0FFF0h    
9FE5    cmp     ax, 0F60h     ; Dempsey
9FE8    jz      short 0A00Ah  
9FEA    cmp     ax, 6F0h      ; Woodcrest & Clovertown
9FED    jnz     short 0A00Ah
9FEF    call    sub_AE1D      ; reading byte in 0F000h:4D73h
9FF2    cmp     al, 3
9FF4    jb      short 0A00Ah
9FF6    mov     al, 50h ; 'P'
9FF8    call    0F000h:0F18Ch ; reading CMOS memory
9FFD    cmp     al, 30h ; '0' ;
9FFF    jnb     short 0A00Ah
A001    mov     cx, 16h       ; set error status to 16h
A004    call    sub_B7A5      
A007    jmp     732Bh         ; jump to halt state
A00A    pop     eax           ; continued normal

The segment 0F000h is the concatenation of 01_2.ROM and 02_3.ROM modules
Download SYMCMOS and run in native(!) DOS:
SYMCMOS –v2 –lOLD.TXT
Post file old.txt

Code:

usage:                                                  
   SYMCMOS <options>                                    
      -?                show this help                  
      -D                program BIOS default values    
      -S[filename]      produce symbolic report file    
      -L[filename]      produce literal report file    
      -U[filename]      update CMOS using script file  
      -C[filename]      combine build files            
      -F[filename]      use combine file for report    
      -V0               disable logging                
      -V1               enable error logging (default)  
      -V2               enable verbose logging          
      -V3               No CMOS update and verbose logging

[duracellttu]

X5355 (SLAEG) must work on your motherboard. BIOS has microcode for them. Give me links to failed attempts to boot these CPU on your motherboard.
Xeon 5400-Series are not supported!

OK so I'll get them and see if they work. Thanks for the help, I was worried from what a couple people said that I wouldn't be able to use them.

sbergeron, did you ever try out the Xeon 5300 series processors with your Precision 690 MY171 rev A00 mobo and A08 bion?? 

I am in the same boat as you with the hardware and bios setup.  Looking to run quad cores is possible.  Thanks in advance!

[DeathBringer]

Did you tried to boot with Xeon 5300 series? Please tell S-spec of it.
And I need the result of SYMCMOS.