LSI 9267-8i flashing process to IT mode prevents system from booting

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here2read

New Member
Feb 20, 2021
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HELP needed!!

Motherboard: Intel DH77EB
Controller card: NEC N8103-149 (LSI 9267-8i)

I am trying to reflash this card to IT mode so I can just get pass-through of the hard disks.
I am following this guide: Flashing SAS2208 to IT mode when sas2flsh does not detect it
  1. verified the card is detected in my system, and configuring to RAID0, RAID1, RAID6 etc works ok
  2. disconnected the drives from the card, using the guide above, I followed these steps
    1. boot into DOS
    2. megarec -adplist <<my controller is on index 0
    3. megarec -cleanflash 0
    4. reboot
    5. megarec -m0flash 0 2208_16.rom
    6. reboot
    7. megarec -readsbr 0 smc2208.sbr
    8. megarec -readspd 0 smc2208.spd
    9. megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
    10. megarec -cleanflash 0
    11. reboot into EFI shell << stuck here

Everything worked as expected until step #10; all success
When I tried to reboot after that, the system gets stuck on the first screen (which says Intel desktop board); I can't even get into bios setup at this point.
I have tried removing the card and system boots fine, I am able to get into bios settings etc
There is no option on this board to disable option ROMs from booting, or to hook interrupt 19h to pass back the control to system
I have tried putting a jumper on SBR Firmware Recovery header on the LSI card, but that doesn't help.

Appears like step #9/10 somehow bricked the card. Is there a way to
  1. either bypass option ROM on this board (Intel DH77EB)
  2. recover the LSI card back? All I need is the IT mode on this card.
Any help is appreciated.
thanks