IBM x3455 BIOS hacking

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kev009

New Member
Sep 19, 2011
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Tempe, AZ
www.kev009.com
Recently bought an IBM x3455 for dirt cheap (dual DC opteron).

I noticed the "x3455" marketing name was kept from my machine type, 7984, to a newer 7940/7941 type (dual quad core). Near as I can tell these are the same board but perhaps different BMCs. I was feeling adventurous (and the box has two jumper selectable BIOS flash blocks) so I set the machine type to 7941009 on my machine and tried the 7941 BIOS update. No luck, the updater refuses with unknown machine type. I suppose I could jump over the relevant check with a debugger and see if any magic smoke comes out.

The intent here is to enable usage of quad core Opterons.

Any pointers or perhaps someone who might be inclined to pass some info under the table? I'm aware of standard disclaimer and all, but I didn't pay much for the box and I enjoy this kind of hardware hacking.