Finally: Overclocking EPYC Rome ES

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ari2asem

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
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The Netherlands, Groningen
I was wondering if there was a different track for the naples cpu vs the rome cpu with regards to the agesa version. ex. for the rev 2 mb, they use a different bios that I thought was relevant to the requirement for agesa to be < 1.0.0.3 but for the rev 1.1 mb, they use a much older bios that only refers to naples. the bios for the rev 1.1 board starts with 1.0b but the bios for the rev 2 mb starts with 2.0a. their agesa seems to be related to the generation of the amd cpu (either naples or rome.) So when you reference the requirement for the agesa to be <1.0.0.3, is this referring to the rome agesa version or both the naples and rome?
Thanks for helping me to try and get some clarification,
jp
if you have rev.1 board, then agesa for rev.1 board should be lower version 1.0.03.

what bios version has your board? maybe you can backup your bios beforen flashing any bios
 

jpmomo

Active Member
Aug 12, 2018
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if you have rev.1 board, then agesa for rev.1 board should be lower version 1.0.03.

what bios version has your board? maybe you can backup your bios before flashing any bios
thanks for that info. I think I found out why I was thinking that this differed between naples and rome agesa. The single socket h11ssl-nc has the oldest bios that I could find at 1.0a from 2/22/2018 (which already had an agesa naplespi of 1.0.0.5. But the dual socket h11dsi has a much older bios of 1.0a from 10/31/2017 which had the agesa naplespi of 1.0.0.1 patch 1. that mb didn't update the agesa to 1.0.0.3 until 1.0b (12/28/2017) I would still like confirmation that the agesa < 1.0.0.3 limitation is related to both the naples and rome pi.
thanks again for everyone's help.
 

ExecutableFix

Active Member
Nov 25, 2019
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Is this about the Rome or Naples CPU's? Please keep the thread about Rome as the other overclocking thread is about Naples :)
 

tesla100

Active Member
Jun 15, 2016
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Hi there, I am about to receive a SM H11SSL-i REV 2.00 motherboard and I was wondering, whether it will work with the AMD EPYC 7702 2S1404E2VJUG5 1.4GHz 64C ES CPU, as I've read in different threads here that these won't boot. Thanks
 

jpmomo

Active Member
Aug 12, 2018
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i believe 1.0b (I still have the board disassembled) I was hoping that when executablefix mentioned that he had pre-modded bios' for my specific mb, that meant that I could just flash that file and that would put the mb at the correct agesa version. the part that i was confused by was when he mentioned to only load the second half of file. I wasn't sure how to do that or even if i needed to as I only want to try and get my 64c es cpu to boot. just to summarize:
1. I have the 2S1404E2VJUG5 (64-core) cpu (not the ZS... which seems to be easier to get to post on most mb)
2. I am trying to get it to boot on a supermicro single socket H11SSL-NC.
3. That mb can currently boot with an older naples based ES cpu.
4. I am hoping that I can boot with the old naples based cpu, then flash the special bios that executablefix posted. I would then power off and swap the cpu with the ES rome based cpu (2S1404E2VJUG5).
5. power on with the rome based cpu and executablefix's special bios and salvage a 64c chip that I gave up on!

I do have some retail rome based cpus that I could use if the 2S1404E2VJUG5 still doesn't post
 

alex_stief

Well-Known Member
May 31, 2016
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One question if I may: the method of copying only the second half of a Rome Bios version to a rev. 1.x board: any chance that would work with retail CPUs?
 

ExecutableFix

Active Member
Nov 25, 2019
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One question if I may: the method of copying only the second half of a Rome Bios version to a rev. 1.x board: any chance that would work with retail CPUs?
It will, as you're just copying the bios. With the retail versions you can actually get a newer bios and put that on there
 
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jpmomo

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Aug 12, 2018
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I don't, sorry

Thanks for the update. when you originally mentioned "But the CPU doesn't post on my -insert brand- motherboard!!!
That's what these things do. Engineering sample CPUs just aren't supported by every board out of the box. There is a simple trick to make it work on any board, even on Rev. 1 boards."

I am assuming you meant just the ZS versions but I was hopeful that my 2S version would work when I read the comment below:

"Enough chitchat, how do I overclock this thing?
So first off, please note that this only works on CPU’s which have the “Engineering Sample” tag in their name, E.g. ZS1406E2VJUG5 (64-core), ZS1711E3VIVG5 (32-core), 2S1404E2VJUG5 (64-core), 2S1705E3VIVG5 (32-core) but also the OEM EPYCs (the ones with a normal production number with -04 at the end of the number). It will not work on normal retail EPYCs."

Was I reading that incorrectly? Which cpu was the Rome_H11SSLI_Rev1 bios file designed for? How would you use that file? ex. could you just flash the whole file to a rev1 supermicro h11ssl motherboard? I am still confused about:

"The only thing you need to do is copy the second half of the bios (the Rome part) and duplicate it on Rev. 2 boards or just upload that on Rev. 1 boards."

can you help me understand what this means and what the actual steps are to implement this?

Thanks again for helping out on this project,
jp
 

ExecutableFix

Active Member
Nov 25, 2019
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Thanks for the update. when you originally mentioned "But the CPU doesn't post on my -insert brand- motherboard!!!
That's what these things do. Engineering sample CPUs just aren't supported by every board out of the box. There is a simple trick to make it work on any board, even on Rev. 1 boards."

I am assuming you meant just the ZS versions but I was hopeful that my 2S version would work when I read the comment below:

"Enough chitchat, how do I overclock this thing?
So first off, please note that this only works on CPU’s which have the “Engineering Sample” tag in their name, E.g. ZS1406E2VJUG5 (64-core), ZS1711E3VIVG5 (32-core), 2S1404E2VJUG5 (64-core), 2S1705E3VIVG5 (32-core) but also the OEM EPYCs (the ones with a normal production number with -04 at the end of the number). It will not work on normal retail EPYCs."

Was I reading that incorrectly? Which cpu was the Rome_H11SSLI_Rev1 bios file designed for? How would you use that file? ex. could you just flash the whole file to a rev1 supermicro h11ssl motherboard? I am still confused about:

"The only thing you need to do is copy the second half of the bios (the Rome part) and duplicate it on Rev. 2 boards or just upload that on Rev. 1 boards."

can you help me understand what this means and what the actual steps are to implement this?

Thanks again for helping out on this project,
jp
I unfortunately never got to test the 2S 64-core CPU, but with the knowledge of "every engineering sample can be overclocked" I just listed it there.

Alright, so I didn't word the bios part particularly well I guess. What you need to do (to make the ZS/2S17 CPU's work on any motherboard) is:
1. Copy the second half of the Rev. 2 bios in a hex editor (or in your case download the file labeled Rome_H11SSLI_Rev1)
2. If you have a Rev1 board continue to step 3, otherwise duplicate this part in the hex editor and save the file.
3. Flash the file to the motherboard. On Rev. 1 boards this file will be 16MB in size. On the Rev. 2 it'll be 32MB.
4. And you're done! You've now managed to make the ZS/2S17 work on your motherboard.

So that's basically it. Hopefully this makes it a bit clearer and easier to understand
 

jpmomo

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Aug 12, 2018
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thanks. that does. I will give this a shot and update you with the results so that we have another data point. I do have a couple of retail rome chips that I can try and revert the mb if the 2S cpu still doesn't post. I have several of the naples es and retail chips that I would prefer to use on that mb as I have other MBs that support only the rome cpu (a sm h12) and a tyan that supports both. both of these rome MBs support pcie 4.0 which I need for most of my servers. The reason that I am trying to get this combo to work is that I have the 2S cpu that isn't working with anything right now and I had given up on getting that cpu to work until I saw your post. I don't really have anything to lose at this point (at least with that cpu!). Thanks again for putting up with all of my questions!
jp
 
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jpmomo

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Aug 12, 2018
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I unfortunately never got to test the 2S 64-core CPU, but with the knowledge of "every engineering sample can be overclocked" I just listed it there.

Alright, so I didn't word the bios part particularly well I guess. What you need to do (to make the ZS/2S17 CPU's work on any motherboard) is:
1. Copy the second half of the Rev. 2 bios in a hex editor (or in your case download the file labeled Rome_H11SSLI_Rev1)
2. If you have a Rev1 board continue to step 3, otherwise duplicate this part in the hex editor and save the file.
3. Flash the file to the motherboard. On Rev. 1 boards this file will be 16MB in size. On the Rev. 2 it'll be 32MB.
4. And you're done! You've now managed to make the ZS/2S17 work on your motherboard.

So that's basically it. Hopefully this makes it a bit clearer and easier to understand

Just to make sure as I am ready to flash the new bios. Can I just take the complete Rome_H11SSLI_Rev1 file, copy just that file as is to a usb drive and then flash as I would a normal bios image? I want to make sure that I don't need to take that file and open in a hex editor and do anything with it. Since I am only trying to get a rev 1 mb to work with the 2S cpu, I am assuming that I can just use your Rome_H11SSLI_Rev1 file as is (it is already 16MB). thanks,
jp
 

ExecutableFix

Active Member
Nov 25, 2019
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Just to make sure as I am ready to flash the new bios. Can I just take the complete Rome_H11SSLI_Rev1 file, copy just that file as is to a usb drive and then flash as I would a normal bios image? I want to make sure that I don't need to take that file and open in a hex editor and do anything with it. Since I am only trying to get a rev 1 mb to work with the 2S cpu, I am assuming that I can just use your Rome_H11SSLI_Rev1 file as is (it is already 16MB). thanks,
jp
Yes, that'll work just fine. If anything goes wrong you can reflash it via the IPMI anyway, so no need to worry about a corrupt bios
 

jpmomo

Active Member
Aug 12, 2018
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I put the flash files on a usb drive and tried to flash with your bios file.
It first went through:

"Reading flash ........done"

then issued a:

"FFS checksums..........ok"

but then had a error with:

"4 - Error: ROM file ROMID is not compatible with existing BIOS ROMID."

It then tried to read the bios again and finished with the same error msg. Then it stated:

"Moving FS0:\afuefix64.efi -> FS0:\afuefi.smc
- [ok]
FS0:\>

Do you think this is due to the agesa being > 1.0.0.3? The current bios is at 1.0c. I can try downgrading to 1.0b but I can't find anything older for this MB. So close.....but yet so far!!!
 

dassiq

Member
Jul 10, 2017
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Try it through the IPMI method.

You may need a IPMI license ( 20$ -30$ from SM) to activate Bios update feature. There is a hack available (Google it) , not sure if it works on H11 /H12 boards.


I put the flash files on a usb drive and tried to flash with your bios file.
It first went through:

"Reading flash ........done"

then issued a:

"FFS checksums..........ok"

but then had a error with:

"4 - Error: ROM file ROMID is not compatible with existing BIOS ROMID."

It then tried to read the bios again and finished with the same error msg. Then it stated:

"Moving FS0:\afuefix64.efi -> FS0:\afuefi.smc
- [ok]
FS0:\>

Do you think this is due to the agesa being > 1.0.0.3? The current bios is at 1.0c. I can try downgrading to 1.0b but I can't find anything older for this MB. So close.....but yet so far!!!