[REQUEST] Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC BIOS Unlock

[tempest22]

Hi everyone, I have successfully extracted the 306 bios via the CH34A1 programmer from the GL702ZC laptop bios chip. Would anybody be able to assist me in what needs doing to unlock the bios menus as below like Roland83 has done?

[StevenTech7]

Can it work if i use a bios dump from AFUWINGUI? Or the only option is the ch programmer?

[Odin Vex]

@Roland83 I ****ing hate this forum's backend, I never get e-mails or notifications for replies here. As for what it'd take to add Zen 2 support, you'd have to find out while exploring the BIOS modules after comparing a pre-Zen2 to a post-Zen2 update made by a manufacturer. My GL702ZC's USB-C port always acted ***ed up (finally died altogether), and it's too difficult to find a new screen for this, plus I despise the stupid clocking that ASUS did for this, so I've decided to avoid ASUS from now on. Just tired of their **** support and the USB-2 webcams too, the lack of updates and artificial limitations...

[tempest22]

I now have the unlocked bios as well thanks to user genious239 who unlocked the hidden menus in the bios and to roland for providing us the guide on how to do this.

[Odin Vex]

I now have the unlocked bios as well thanks to user genious239 who unlocked the hidden menus in the bios and to roland for providing us the guide on how to do this.

Can you post here without your board details for others to tinker, trying to Zen2 it?

[Roland83]

I now have the unlocked bios as well thanks to user genious239 who unlocked the hidden menus in the bios and to roland for providing us the guide on how to do this.

Can you post here without your board details for others to tinker, trying to Zen2 it?

The gl702zc uses Agesa SummitPi 1.0.0.7. This only supports 1. gen ryzen (1xxx) series cpu. Other variants will not work because of missing cpu id´s and other related things. The laptop will turn on, but nothing more. Even the screen isn´t powering on. I have tested this with my ryzen 5 3600. I have attached a screenshot from ryzen cpu checker. There you can see what cpu´s could run with summit pi agesa.

Forget to mention that the smu moddules had to be updated as well because there is all the information stored for the cpu´s.

[tempest22]

In case someone missed the discord link from the gl702zc owners notebookreview forum thread, here's the link to discord where we've continued it - https://discord.gg/BqEk84Kq. PM me for a new discord invite since the link expires.

[Odin Vex]

I now have the unlocked bios as well thanks to user genious239 who unlocked the hidden menus in the bios and to roland for providing us the guide on how to do this.

Can you post here without your board details for others to tinker, trying to Zen2 it?

The gl702zc uses Agesa SummitPi 1.0.0.7. This only supports 1. gen ryzen (1xxx) series cpu. Other variants will not work because of missing cpu id´s and other related things. The laptop will turn on, but nothing more. Even the screen isn´t powering on. I have tested this with my ryzen 5 3600. I have attached a screenshot from ryzen cpu checker. There you can see what cpu´s could run with summit pi agesa.

Forget to mention that the smu moddules had to be updated as well because there is all the information stored for the cpu´s.

To be clear for others, these are the System Management Units, aka the modules used to interface with a CPU *generation* specifically about power-management, such as turning on/booting. **Unrelated to microcode**. (Only pointing it out because so many keep thinking a microcode insertion will add support, which is 100% false, you can have no microcode and simply have an appropriate (generation) SMU which handles the initialization (init) routine for that generation. BIOS won't recognize the CPU (and sometimes some features in a BIOS are locked out or disabled or flawed because of it, very rare), but it will boot. That's the most important part.) To add another bit: CPUs already come with a microcode flashed from the factory, a known-good that is always applied first. The BIOS or anything later (OS such as Linux, Windows, et cetera) can always load microcode (temporary per boot, always). It “overlays” the stock microcode. That's all past Init, which is what this laptop is limited in at the moment. If someone can find an SMU for the generations they want, they could slowly patch any external symbolic references to 'drop-in-replace' the stock Gen1 SMU and pray it works...

The laptop is limited to a 65W TDP. Only CPUs with the correct TDP and SMUs will work. Possibilities for its socket and TDP maximum are (best of each generation):

Ryzen 7 1700, 65W TDP, Summit Ridge, Zen (Gen1), A320/B350/X370/B450/X470.
Ryzen 7 2700, 65W TDP, Pinnacle Ridge, Zen+ (Gen2), A320/B350/X370/B450/X470/X570.
Ryzen 7 3700X*, 65W TDP, Matisse, Zen2 (Gen3), A320/B350/X370/B450/X470/A520/B550/X570.
Ryzen 9 3900**, 65W TDP, Matisse, Zen2 (Gen3), A320/B350/X370/B450/X470/A520/B550/X570.
***

“Relative” Performance: Ryzen 7 1700 < Ryzen 7 2700 < Ryzen 7 3700X < Ryzen 9 3900

The board configurations are the only ones known to support across the generations that coincidentally also support the GL702ZC's B350.

* The Ryzen 7 3700X would be a much better choice over the Ryzen 7 2700.
** The Ryzen 9 3900 would be the absolute best choice of all, with more cores and CPU-cache than all the other generations.
*** I did not list one last generation that is compatible with the socket, the Zen3 (Gen4) Vermeer series Ryzen 9 5900 and Ryzen 7 5800, because there is no B350 board that has ever supported those.

If anyone could grab a B350 BIOS from before *and after* the upgrade to a new Generation, it would reasonably increase any chance of attempting this.

Another friendly note: If you get BSOD machine-check exceptions (or segfaults on Linux), you most likely have a bad-batch series of CPU. The 1700 (possibly the 1600 as well?) had a series of bad batches that AMD said a while back that they'd replace for free. If you're unable to do that because your thermal paste totally ****ed your serial and such, you can most likely fix the issue by disabling C6 state and any kind of throttling/turboing. For Linux users, append to Grub2 command-lin “processor.max_cstate=1”, it'll disable C6. Also use NBFC for fan-curves, prevents any of those pesky fan issues. See attachment, works quite well for me (customized from NBFC defaults, but I live in a northern town).

[hannibalj2Lecter44]

New to the forum. I just purchased one these GL702ZC laptops. Is an old laptop now, but I am still fascinated by them. Just like this thread trying to get the bios modified to enable newer Ryzen, the same happened to the Acer Predator Helios 500. I believe these are the only 2 laptops ever released where full desktop Ryzen and desktop Radeons components were released to the public.

In case some do not know. The Helios 500 was released months after the Asus laptop, the difference is that the Mobo is a B450, with the 2700 and the desktop Vega 56. Great machine, and currently is my daily machine. These Acers and the Asus are unique because they can run windows, Linus and Mac OS natively. My Acer Predator is used as a Mac OS system due to having full compatibility including the GPU which is the same on the Imac Pro. The Asus uses the RX 580 which is one of the most used GPU in the mac line up, even the bas Mac pro from 2019 has a RX 580 with an 8 core/ 16 Thread  Xeon CPU.

These are great work station machines and for the price you can get them today, is definitely worth getting them.

Regarding the Bios Update/ Modification, I don't see it happening. I have been following the same process with the Helios 500 for years and that didn't yield any good results. But it seem the Asus GL702ZC seem to have more life now a days than the Helios. So interested to see if eventually success can happen

[Roland83]

I found something else interesting in the win raid forum. It seems that with an ami bios it is simply not possible to modify the bios because you have everything you need to use new cpu with it.
- you can not replace AGESA in AMI, no matter if it is AMIBIOS, Aptio4 or Aptio5. It is compiled with the rest of the source code, there is nothing you can do to replace it. In AMIBIOS it is part of System BIOS (1B module), but also in E1/E2/E3 modules. In Aptio it is spread across many files, but the important code is in AgesaDxeDriver, FchDxe, FchSmmInit and AmdProcessorInitPeim. You can try to replace those modules and you might even get lucky to have a bootable board, but what you have obtained is a franken board and not a fully operational one. Would you replace parts from your car with others from a totally different car? Not to mention that besides the initialization of important hardware components, those 4 ffs files also contain SMU and PSP firmware, another "wonderful" place to experiment with different code parts.
I think the dream is gone...