Firmware Flash X520

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Terry Kennedy

Well-Known Member
Jun 25, 2015
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New York City
www.glaver.org
Anyone have helpful advice for how to proceed about unbricking it and downgrading it to something that works?
The first thing to try is to download the latest PREBOOT utility from Intel and see if it can see the card and install the combo ROM (normally UEFI and PXE). That probably won't solve the problem of the card not getting link, though - the combo ROM is what the card exposes to the host CPU, not the card's internal operating firmware. That is called NVM and as far as I can see, Intel has never released a general-distribution NVM update for the X520. You'd likely need to find someone who had a TIGRIS account in order to find the image. You may have better luck finding the OEM diagnostic tool, CELO.EXE (DOS version) or celow64e.exe (Windows 64-bit). That will at least tell you if it thinks the card is bricked or not:

Code:
Intel (R) PRO Adapter

Using: Intel (R) PRO Network Connections SDK v2.25.8
Intel (R) PRO Adapter
End of Line Diagnostic Utility  v1.25.08.00
Copyright (C) 2002 - 2015 by Intel (R) Corporation.
Intel (R) Confidential and not for general distribution.

Found Intel(R) 82567LM-3 Gigabit Network Connection
Card 1: Bus=0 Dev=25 Function=0 MAC Address=0026B9xxxxxx IRQ=160

Testing adapter...hit <ESC> to abort.
Device Registers...PASSED
EEPROM Test...PASSED
FIFO Test...PASSED
Internal (Extended) Loopback Test...PASSED
Testing completed.
 

BullCreek

New Member
Jan 5, 2016
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Thanks! I forced LCC to install that same version 19 again, and after it rebooted the lights came back on and everything is working. Strange but breathing a sigh of relief, because i'd been reading down that same path you described and that sounded ugly...
 

hardcore

New Member
Nov 10, 2019
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3
3
for further reference:

get "Ethtool" onto it, i use it to take cards between software revisions & manufactures id's (specifically these cards & the 540's)

backup current state:
sudo ethtool -e ethX raw on > ethX.bin

then after that you can do all sorts of non-standard flash & re-flashing. (WWW search on this for specifics..)
you can change manufactures ID's (oracle,HP, intel0), write single or multi byes to any place in the eproms

believe it or not... the best place to look is on the "cloned osx" forums
they have to deal with cards from anyplace, any supplier to get them re-flashed.. .they also have a solid library of "extracted"
 

cmccallu

New Member
May 29, 2020
3
0
1
believe it or not... the best place to look is on the "cloned osx" forums
they have to deal with cards from anyplace, any supplier to get them re-flashed.. .they also have a solid library of "extracted"
Would really appreciate more details on how to do this! I tried a Dell OEM version of this card in a Synology NAS which later noticed there compatibility guide was update to say wasn't supported and hangs the device. Wondering if there is anything I can do to resolve this.

Thanks
Chris