Krazubu Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 I spent a few days on this, so, long story made short, starting from Catalina DP8 my P8P67 Pro motherboard got flashed by the installer. Symptoms : - Cold reboot after the update instead of the normal reboot. - All BIOS settings gone. - RAM size locked to 8Gb max, whatever the sticks/slots configuration. - 2nd PCI-e slot disabled - Sound not working anymore (in OSX only) Thanksfully I had a dump of my BIOS, so flashed it back (with a hardware flasher) and all was back to normal. I compared the dumps of the 2 BIOS, there are heavy differences, not only little settings changed here and there. Considering the computer was still bootable, I guess it didn't touch critical boot stuff, I'll try to investigate further when I feel the motivation. I noticed the same cold reboot after DP9 update, the BIOS was already screwed anyway, but it shows it messed with it again. So be very carefull, I doubt I could be the only one. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/340562-big-warning-catalina-update-flashed-my-uefi/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Careless Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 I guess my computer would be affected as well, as I have a P8P67 b3 Deluxe. is there any known way to prevent it at this point, or should we wait? Is there a particular guide you recommend for dumping the current bios and settings and restoring them should this occur in the future? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/340562-big-warning-catalina-update-flashed-my-uefi/#findComment-2692659 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazubu Posted October 12, 2019 Author Share Posted October 12, 2019 Hi, I don't know about a way to prevent it. Maybe by injecting/faking some ROM version ? I guess the installer checks that to assess if system requires flashing or not. Don't know if this feature already exist on clover or other OSX bootloader. Considering that the update does not totally kill the system, as long as you have a full dump of the original BIOS, it should be ok if you flash it back afterwards. I investigated a bit, there are basically 3 main blocks in the BIOS region of the ROM. The 1st one contains mainly NV RAM values, this one has big differences, however it is likely that over time many things get changed here. The 2nd one mainly contains device drivers, this one is also different. This is not normal IMO, and likely to be the source of issues. The 3rd contains initialization executables, this one is untouched. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/340562-big-warning-catalina-update-flashed-my-uefi/#findComment-2693275 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Careless Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 On 10/12/2019 at 5:22 AM, Krazubu said: Hi, I don't know about a way to prevent it. Maybe by injecting/faking some ROM version ? I guess the installer checks that to assess if system requires flashing or not. Don't know if this feature already exist on clover or other OSX bootloader. Considering that the update does not totally kill the system, as long as you have a full dump of the original BIOS, it should be ok if you flash it back afterwards. I investigated a bit, there are basically 3 main blocks in the BIOS region of the ROM. The 1st one contains mainly NV RAM values, this one has big differences, however it is likely that over time many things get changed here. The 2nd one mainly contains device drivers, this one is also different. This is not normal IMO, and likely to be the source of issues. The 3rd contains initialization executables, this one is untouched. do you know which bios version you have? I don't have the exact numbers maybe but; - 2602 I believe was compatible with ALC Audio codec - 3203 I believe (which is what I am using) does not have a compatible ALC Audio codec type defined, but it allows UEFI options that were unavailable in 2602 (which is why I chose to use it). I wonder if it only affects one version of the bios, because I've never had issues with it after upgrading to the 32xx series, except for audio which is not a problem considering I use headphones at all times. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/340562-big-warning-catalina-update-flashed-my-uefi/#findComment-2696342 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazubu Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 It's the last version, 3602. For your info, I found a solution to get ALC working with it : https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/276380-the-inevitable-p8p67-pro-install-guide/?do=findComment&comment=2657616 Since I made this post, all the following updates have at least reinitialised my BIOS settings, last one is 10.15.1 as of today. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/340562-big-warning-catalina-update-flashed-my-uefi/#findComment-2697030 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Careless Posted November 29, 2019 Share Posted November 29, 2019 On 11/12/2019 at 3:10 AM, Krazubu said: It's the last version, 3602. For your info, I found a solution to get ALC working with it : https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/276380-the-inevitable-p8p67-pro-install-guide/?do=findComment&comment=2657616 Since I made this post, all the following updates have at least reinitialised my BIOS settings, last one is 10.15.1 as of today. I will check out the Sound fix. Thank you for investigating and finding a solution. As for Catalina, I have not checked my BIOS, but I just updated it now after doing some EC corrections to the DSDT.aml, and aside from having to reconfigure the keyboard modifier keys, everything went super smooth. I have not yet restarted, but at the last clover boot screen before this current boot-up, it was all purple and screwed up with the r9 280x that I am using. Not sure if it will be there when I reboot, but otherwise, no real issues. I had to switch from MacPro5,1 to MacPro6,1 to get Catalina to make an appearance, but it nothing wrong there either so far. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/340562-big-warning-catalina-update-flashed-my-uefi/#findComment-2699045 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts