Reading and Programming ASUS iRog chips - EPF035 / EPF 036

[artesano1969]

Well, I think this is the first time I'm sharing something here, I hope it will help anyone that, like me, is trying to repair one of those damm ASUS motherboards filled with iRog chips. I've written a manual following my experience and findings on fixing a dead ASUS Rampage IV Extreme (R4E).

The ZIP file contains the guide and (almost) all the software I've used in the project. But I think it's worthy because it took me a lot of time to find out a cheap way to work with these chips from Explore with a bare CH341A programmer, and the original EP Console program is really hard to find.

So enjoy it :-) I will come back from time to time, just in case someone needs more help with the matter.

Best regards

[huaji62]

Do I need to change the OP_MODE pin level to put him into ICP mode?

[artesano1969]

Yes. In order to read or write opmode has to be high. And it has to be set on power up. In the Asus boards I've tried, it's easy because they have headers that provide 3.3v next to opmode header. I hope it helps.

[tuananh1333]

Yes. In order to read or write opmode has to be high. And it has to be set on power up. In the Asus boards I've tried, it's easy because they have headers that provide 3.3v next to opmode header. I hope it helps.

I have 2 rampage v edition 10 (x99 platform) have issue. All voltage present exept vcore and vmem. Board stuck at code 00.
Refer to boardview file of similar board (rampage v extreme) i think enable of vcore somehow relate to the TPU chip.
i can read/write firmware to the eeprom chip, but i can not find anywhere the know-good firmware for the board.
can you give me some tips?
i think the firmware for iROG chip can get from bios file but right now i dont know how to extract it.

[huaji62]

I have 2 rampage v edition 10 (x99 platform) have issue. All voltage present exept vcore and vmem. Board stuck at code 00.
Refer to boardview file of similar board (rampage v extreme) i think enable of vcore somehow relate to the TPU chip.
i can read/write firmware to the eeprom chip, but i can not find anywhere the know-good firmware for the board.
can you give me some tips?
i think the firmware for iROG chip can get from bios file but right now i dont know how to extract it.

This requires extracting the firmware from a good motherboard and downloading it to this motherboard you have. The EEPROM connected to the EPF chip only holds the configuration file, not the firmware, the real firmware is only inside the chip.The BIOS isn't sure if it has that firmware, if it does it may be an IAP to upgrade the firmware via the LPC bus. I'm not familiar with 8051 core microcontrollers, so I can't analyze the existing firmware to see if it's upgradable.

[Roman555]

GiveMeArray utility (by koryo) may be helpful to convert dumps from HEX-format into BIN-format

[tuananh1333]

GiveMeArray utility (by koryo) may be helpful to convert dumps from HEX-format into BIN-format

Thank you. Unfortunately my mb have dead chipset. Actually 2 r5e10 boards have dead chipset.
i just order chipset from china.

[artesano1969]

Hi tuananh

I'm currently away so I cannot provide much help. I've got dumps for R5E that I can share and maybe they'll work in R5E Ed.10 boards -at least, they could work just enough to enable flashback, so you can then flash the whole BIOS using it. I haven't tested them, though.

I've got an R5E Ed.10 but I haven't got the time to produce dumps for it (it's currently in use in a "home server" so it's kind of a little hassle to extract them).

Regards

[Roman555]

i think the firmware for iROG chip can get from bios file but right now i dont know how to extract it.

That's right. Download from ASUS site or dump the BIOS and then unpack the image using UEFIExtract. Choose old versions of UEFIExtract. Next, using your favorite tools find in the folder all files of 64KiB or 128KiB size precisely. A hexeditor helps to compare iROG chip dump and those chunks. Because ASUS BIOS doesn't hold all necessary parts of iROG firmware.

Attached UEFIExtract.