01-13-2017, 03:29 AM
Hello!
I currently own two ASUS P6T Deluxe and one P6T Deluxe V2 mainboards, which are Socket 1366 boards based on the X58 chipset. Both boards lack ECC support for the DDR3 memory in BIOS. The processor in use is a Xeon X5690, which has an ECC-capable IMC with a 40-bit address bus.
To verify that the hardware isn't the culprit, I read the following data sheets:
- [i7 900 and LGA1366 specifications]
- [Xeon 5600 specification datasheet vol. 1]
- [Buffalo DDR-III UDIMM specifications]
- [Tyco Electronics DDR3 DIMM socket specifications]
Based on those, I determined the according ECC pins that should be connecting the CPUs IMC and the DIMMs:
![[Image: LGA1366-ECC-pins-identified-305x300.png]](http://wp.xin.at/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/LGA1366-ECC-pins-identified.png)
ECC lands in the S1366 (click to enlarge)
![[Image: DDR3-DIMM-pins-identified-400x91.png]](http://wp.xin.at/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/DDR3-DIMM-pins-identified.png)
ECC pins on the DIMM sockets (click to enlarge)
The presence of the ECC traces can be partially confirmed visually on the rear of the mainboard, but to make sure I soldered a probing cable to one of the pins and checked it with a multimeter. The ECC pins and lands are connected, so if we assume that ASUS followed JEDEC specs on how to properly route ECC traces on that board, the limiting factor should be the BIOS.
Missing ECC has been confirmed using an older version of Memtest86. There is no switch for it in the BIOS and it doesn't switch it on automatically when unbuffered ECC DIMMs are in use. Other, newer X58 boards can use ECC just fine, which is another indicator for the BIOS being the issue.
And this is what leads me here: I would like to request a ModBIOS with ECC enabled or optimally with a manual switch that lets you turn the feature on and off. I tried my luck with AmiBCP, comparing ECC capable AMI BIOSes with my own, but I couldn't find any way of changing the ECC configuration. The latest original BIOS images can be found on the ASUS website:
If you need a X58 Ami BIOS that does support ECC as a sample, you could use the latest BIOS of the P6T WS:
I could try and disassemble the BIOSes using Ida, but modification of the assembly (and most of all: Proper reassembly) are far beyond my capabilities. I don't have the tools or the knowledge for this.
So if anyone can help with switching ECC on, it would be much appreciated!
PS.: I do understand that this is risky and putting trust in ECC when it's not officially supported on my hardware sounds stupid. But I would like to take that risk. For verification purposes, the IMCs ECC error injection capability will be used from within Memtest86.
Thank you very much!
Missing ECC has been confirmed using an older version of Memtest86. There is no switch for it in the BIOS and it doesn't switch it on automatically when unbuffered ECC DIMMs are in use. Other, newer X58 boards can use ECC just fine, which is another indicator for the BIOS being the issue.
And this is what leads me here: I would like to request a ModBIOS with ECC enabled or optimally with a manual switch that lets you turn the feature on and off. I tried my luck with AmiBCP, comparing ECC capable AMI BIOSes with my own, but I couldn't find any way of changing the ECC configuration. The latest original BIOS images can be found on the ASUS website:
If you need a X58 Ami BIOS that does support ECC as a sample, you could use the latest BIOS of the P6T WS:
I could try and disassemble the BIOSes using Ida, but modification of the assembly (and most of all: Proper reassembly) are far beyond my capabilities. I don't have the tools or the knowledge for this.
So if anyone can help with switching ECC on, it would be much appreciated!
PS.: I do understand that this is risky and putting trust in ECC when it's not officially supported on my hardware sounds stupid. But I would like to take that risk. For verification purposes, the IMCs ECC error injection capability will be used from within Memtest86.
Thank you very much!
