[REQUEST] Dell PowerEdge R210 ii Server PCIe Lock Removal

[theunknownas]

Trying to enable all PCIe Cards (GPU's primarily, within power limits) in Dell Servers.

Currently only some  cards work, and there doesn't appear to be a pattern to those that do...

Ref: https://forum.level1techs.com/t/dell-pow...und/134343

With UEFITool I was able to enable PCIe Hot-Plug on my R210 ii which has allowed me to test that standard GPU's do in fact work by hot-plugging the GPU after Windows has loaded. If the GPU is installed at POST, the system halts with a static cursor _  and doesn't boot. I have even managed to insert the card after the device check and before the POST screen and have it recognised in the EFI Setup Screens, so clearly there is some arbitrary check stopping the use of 'non compute cards' at boot.

There are many Dell server models with a similar issue, so once a patch is found it will hopefully work with other models. My specific case for testing is as follows...

Model: Dell PowerEdge R210 ii
BIOS Version: 2.8.0 (Home Lab, don't need the performance hit of the later patches).

2.8.0 Download
https://www.dell.com/support/home/au/en/...dge-r210-2

2.10.0 Download (Includes Spectre & Meltdown patches for those that need them)
https://www.dell.com/support/home/au/en/...dge-r210-2

I've had a look around IDA, tho my assembly knowledge is limited and figured I should ask for some pointers. I don't believe the lock is Device ID related, but rather something else.

So far I have found a halt subroutine (sub_18006DC40) in SetupUtil that *might* be somewhere to start, but I'm not entirely sure what i'm looking at so I may be way off. If a solution is found, I would be very curious to know how it was found.

[theunknownas]

Further information on the above.

After lots of reading and testing, I believe the BIOS is checking if VRAM is <= 1GB, anymore and it won't post.