Z820 e5-2600 v2 ivy bridge upgrade - thread reactivation

[HashCollision]

Hi salsimp,

First I wanted to thank you and the other posters for sharing your knowledge over the years. I bought a Z620 v1 a few months ago and just last week flashed the boot block to 2013 with a raspberry pi and SOIC16 clamp, thanks to all the great information shared.

I'm currently collecting all the information on the internet about the Zx20 boot block, motherboard jumpers, ME v7 and v8, etc and writing a big guide on how to upgrade the boot block. My progress so far is recorded here: https://forum.level1techs.com/t/need-help-modding-bios-bin-file-never-done-this-before/131757/28

When I say big guide I mean BIG, I'm currently at 4600 words across 26 pages. I'm a Computer Engineering student throwing 3/4 of a degree at this problem 🙂

I have one question: Did you ever update your Management Engine (ME) firmware from v7 to v8? was it already at v8? Starting with BIOS 3.88 there is supposedly code to halt the boot if a v2 CPU is used (with 2013 boot block) but the ME is still v7. My test v2 CPU is shipping from China so I can't test what happens in that situation yet.

[DGroves]

please keep in mind that forcing a v2 Bios bootblock onto a v1 z620 board will not guarantee that v2  xeons will work,.. Intel had to release a updated c600 series chipset revision which supported the v2 xeons as the original chipset for some reason was not fully compatible with the v2 xeons and it's difficult to find out just what was changed in the chipset

so to sum up this post, placing a v2 xeon on a v1 board may or may not work depending on the tolerances of your v1 motherboard chipset, also even if it does fully work without any issues, it is highly unlikely that adding a sec v2 cpu will work with a v1 board due to the increased load the sec cpu adds to the board

[SalSimp]

@DGroves - thank you for the several posts you have contributed cautioning that 'forcing' a v2 bootblock on a v1 board  will not work and if it does, it will have issues. But as they say, the proof is in the pudding. It has been done without issues, not only by myself,  but also by others.

As mentioned in one of my posts, I have done a good half-dozen boards in the past (not for any commercial reasons, only for proof of concept) and they all worked flawlessly. Also as posted, the only failure was a rev. 1.00 board. Perhaps that revision had the early Intel chip set you reference.

[DGroves]

nowhere in my previous posts did i say this will not work please do not add statements attributed to me that i have not posted....... i said IT MAY NOT WORK ON EVERY v1 BOARD and explained why 

i also mentioned that trying to install dual v2 cpu's on a v1 board has a much higher chance of not working

i wrote the post because you and others who have had good results doing this bios modding make it seem that every board can run a v2 cpu and this is not the case

[HashCollision]

DGroves,

Thank you for sharing your insights on limitations of using v2 CPUs with v1 boards. Do you know of any Intel documents on the chipset revisions? I found the C600 datasheet, but that seemed to indicate that there were no revisions at all (I imagine they were just never publicly documented by Intel). Would the surface of the motherboard PCH chip have any information that could indicate likelihood of a v2 CPU working?

As SalSimp mentioned, most of his boards took the v2 CPUs without issue, so I do not feel I am significantly misleading anyone.

[HashCollision]

Hello all,

I am pleased to announce the completion of revision 1.0 of my "Z420, Z620, Z820 Boot Block Upgrade Guide".

I believe anyone familiar with the basics of using windows, linux, and breadboarded electronics will have no issue following it.

I have made a github repository (https://github.com/SuperThunder/HP_Z420_Z620_Z820_BootBlock_Upgrade) where you can download it in PDF form. I welcome any comments, questions, or suggestions.

The guide explains how to update the boot block by software (the Zx20 updates its own boot block) or hardware (hooking up an SPI programmer to the flash chip).

As I continue experimenting in the next few months I will revise the guide, in particular I will experiment with the effect of ME and BIOS versions on v2 CPU compatibility.

[DGroves]

 we never had any v1 boards in our z800/ z820's they were all v2 systems

from what i've been told by hp engineers while at my old "IT" service company (we were a HP shop) the z820's do have different intel chip revisions between the v1/v2 boards,...... we never serviced/used the z600/z620's so i can't comment on them other than point out that using a v2 cpu in any "z6/8 series " v1 motherboard is not a 100% sure thing

SDH posts here often and has experience with the z600/620 systems which as  have said i've never worked on. perhaps has some useful information,..... you might want to PM him and ask

i do know that many people, (including some on this board) have tried 56xx xeons in the z800 systems and experienced various results ranging from works, somewhat works to dosent work at all and almost all v1 boards would not work with dual 56xx cpu's 

[HashCollision]

The comments by the HP engineers are interesting - do you know if the use of newer chipset revisions was aligned with the introduction of the E14 BB header on Z820 motherboards?

I was able to find an Intel document for the Z400 motherboard chipset, X58 Express, "Intel® X58 Express Chipset Specification Update" (although I did have to download it from a dubious manuals website). It had some information on the steppings of the chipset.
It seems the Zx20's chipset, C602, does not have its specification update document available on the internet.

edit: only the z400 has X58, the Z600 and Z800 have the 5520 chipset. With Zx20 they all have the C602 chipset.

[DGroves]

the c6xx series chipsets  are closely modeled on the x58/x78 consumer chipsets but are not the same as they differ in feature sets and other unknown items

as you are finding out, trying to document intel internal engineering changes on the c600 series is just about impossible

if someone can check the c600 I/O chipset numbering on the z600/620 boards it might  be useful. however i caution people with working boards that removing the heatsinks covering the c600 chip and not properly reattaching the heatsink can result in a unstable or non working board so if you do this take care to reattach it correctly using new thermal paste

[HashCollision]

Oddly enough, when I decided to check X79 chipset revisions, I found a document that describes both X79 and C600 series revisions: https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/specification-updates/c600-series-chips.... I guess looking for 'C602' was too specific.

It's from 2013 and describes only one stepping (C1) in the errata table. I suppose there could be an implied C0 stepping? Later on there is brief mention of a B0 and C0 stepping.

I attempted to take my Z620 motherboard chipset heatsink off earlier. I removed the 4 hooks holding it to the board, but it was quite stuck on even then and I didn't want to get too forceful trying to pull it off. I'm not familiar with the details but I think motherboard model and chipset revision can be read in software anyway.