Dell 435mt microcode Xeon update: did I do this right?

[BeemerBiker]

I have uATX Dell 435mt same chipset as the full ATX 435t but Dell did not bother to update the bios with new CPUs such as Xeon like their ATX version

I used mmtool as follows: 

Dell 435mt.rom shows exactly two CPU IDs: 06A4 and 06A5. I dont know what the 6A4 is but the 6A5 is my i7-920 cpu

Dell 435t.rom shows exactly 10 CPU IDs including that older A4 and A5. The Xeon I want to use is the X5675 which is a low power equivalent to the i7-950. It's ID seems to be 206c2 and sure enough the last entry in the dell 435t bios is 06c2.

I extracted the 06c2 module from the 435t bios using mmtool 3.22 (version 5 mmtool did not work)
Using 3.22 mmtool I deleted the 06a4 module from the 435mt and added that 06c2 module. 

Rom is ready to flash. Chip arrives probably in a week so I have a week or 2 to think about what could go wrong and how to recover. Anyone done this before? Got any suggestions?

Thanks for looking!

[DeathBringer]

Please tell sSpec of your Xeon X5675.
Post screenshots of first (CPU) & third (Mainboard) tabs of CPU-Z with current CPU.
What happens exactly when you try to boot up with your Xeon & native BIOS?

[BeemerBiker]

The top left "435mt.rom" came from Dell's 435-114.exe bios upgrade for my uATX studio
which contains a very hot i7-920 and a small water cooler I got from AliExpress

Bottom left "435t.rom" came from Dell's XPS435T-A16.exe bios upgrade for their ATX studio and
I read here that the 435T was upgraded to handle xeon chips but not the 435mt.  I have only the mt.

Top right is from my Rampage II gene.  It is also a uATX and has a very hot i7-950 and a
huge air cooler that makes a lot of noise.  Both my Rampage II and that 435T can accept
the xeons so I ordered one from AliExpress.

I thought I could try that X5675 in my Dell XPS 435mt studio and see if it works with this microcode upgrade.  
if it does not I will just use it in the Rampage II as it should work fine according to Asus forums.

While that Xeon has not arrived yet, I can still try the modified bios in my 435mt to confirm the mod was good.
Looking at 435mt and 435t they both have the same version "011h" 06A5 code but the newer Rampage has only version "0Fh"
on the other hand, the Rampage has a newer version "013h" 06C2 code compared to the 435t.

My guess is that I should keep the 06A5 in the 435mt bios and add that 06C2 from the Rampage II.

I must use the binary rom to flash the 435mt but Dell provides only executable programs.
  Looking at that xps435t-a16.exe I see the following

 Directory of C:\Users\jstateson\Local Settings\temp\S2S0BTLD
11/13/2017  11:19 AM              .
11/13/2017  11:19 AM              ..
11/13/2017  11:19 AM           180,224 AFUWIN.exe
11/13/2017  11:19 AM            90,112 GLM7x.dll
11/13/2017  11:19 AM            91,648 gzip.exe
11/13/2017  11:19 AM            28,672 NTGLM7X.SYS
11/13/2017  11:19 AM            44,344 NTGLM7X64.sys
11/13/2017  11:19 AM           102,512 Ucoredll.dll
11/13/2017  11:19 AM            15,432 Ucoresys.sys
11/13/2017  11:19 AM             7,840 Ucorevxd.vxd
11/13/2017  11:19 AM            14,632 Ucorew64.sys
05/12/2010  12:00 PM         4,194,304 v-a16.bin
11/13/2017  11:19 AM             5,515 Wipeall.exe

However, AFUWIN.exe is a windows program and I will need a DOS as I want to set up an auto boot floppy in case I have to recover.

[DeathBringer]

Thanks for screenshots but I asked you about sSpec too.

[BeemerBiker]

SSPEC of my i7-920 is SLBEJ according to HWiNFO64 and

the SSPEC of the xeon I ordered should be SLBYL but it has not arrived yet.

[DeathBringer]

Adding microcode doesn't add support for new CPU.
First try to boot Xeon & native BIOS.

[BeemerBiker]

The X5675 is one of the 32 nm (Gulftown) series, smaller and uses less wattage then the Bloomfield 45nm so I am concerned it will not work on my XPS 35mt studio. There was some discussion of the possibility in the Dell community so I thought I might try it.\

I will first boot the new xeon using the native bios like you suggested and if that works then possibly try the mod'ed bios which hopefully is not a "brickbringer" ;<)

Will report back when the chip arrives.

Thanks!

[DeathBringer]

I've analysed current BIOS 1.1.4 and now I think your system can't boot with any 32-nm CPU. Adding microcode will not help.

[BeemerBiker]

The Xeon arrived today after all.

OK, you are correct, the only thing I ever saw on the monitor was the change from "check cable" to "no signal" when I powered the dell up with that Xeon.

The good news is that it did work on my Rampage II. I swapped out its i7-950 and put that into the Dell 435mt. While there was no change in frequency with the X5675, the Rampage did move from 4 cores to 6 cores and dropped from 130 watts to 95 watts. In addition, the Xeon chip can run at 81 degrees unlike the i7-950 which had problems at 67c.

The i7-920 that was in the Dell might have some cosmetic value and could be glued onto my motorcycle helmet next to the "Intel Inside" sticker.

If you think the microcode change might help, let me know and I will try it.