Intel Server W26000CR BIOS Boot problem, no EFI Shell Boot

[ABeri1]

I would like to know if anyone knows how to get an image of the BIOS for W2600CR and compatible similar Server Pedestal boards such as: S2600IP/4, S14000XX, etc.

The latest firmware for this board is BIOS: 02.06.0007 but of course manual update of the BIOS Chip requires BIN or HEX image file.

To spare you the time all Jumper recovery and Force recovery procedures have been exhausted.

The system Boots up to the screen where it shows the BIOS version, and this version is not listed by Intel as supported.

So, our assumption is that when a technician tried to update the BIOS through EFI Shell, the update failed and wrong version was administered, and in essence has lost the EFI boot section in the BIOS chip, and maybe even the BMC firmware may be wrong and the machine is bricked.

I have access to a Universal Chip programmerthat can reflash, but of course we need a BIN or HEX file format to do that or be able to extract the BIN from the Intel update CAP file using its iFlash32 utitlity that runs either from Windows OS or EFI Shell, but has no option to specify other than f0 memory.

The flasher ran a chip integrity check and it tests fine.

Ideas are welcome.

[JoseH_Intel]

Hello ABeri1, Thank you for joining the community. Unfortunately what you ask, about the HEX and/or BIN files, is not available. It goes beyond the scope of support. The only BIOS files available are .cap files and looks like the iFlash tool is for desktop boards only. Seems like the only possible options would be either to try the BIOS recovery jumper process one more time, and/or, get a good known EEPROM from another identical board and do a copy if such a thing is possible Regards. Jose A. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[ABeri1]

Hi Jose,

Thank you for your reply. The force jumper setting for BIOS recovery does not work if the system is unable to boot the EFI Shell. Intel boards with the current BIOS update procedure require a working board that can at least boot in EFI Shell. We have exhausted this option. Intel manual talks about another option through a special serial interface but it does not elaborate how is that done.

The EFI Shell as far as I know is stored in the BIOS WINBOND chip, unlike some other boards they have a hard recovery option where it can read from USB0 (first USB) to upload the new BIOS image. Intel boards don't seem to have this option or this ability to recover.

There is a UEFI tool to extract the BIN file from the CAP file but it does not seem to work on Intel because the tool is built mostly for ASUS boards that use CAP file.

[JoseH_Intel]

Hello ABeri1, Do you have any updates, questions or comments in regards to this issue? Please do not hesitate to contact us back. If you consider the issue to be completed please let us know so we can proceed to mark this thread as resolved. Regards Jose A. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[JoseH_Intel]

Hello ABeri1, I will double check with our engineering department about this serial port. It is defined as SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) and the connection is supposed to be performed in an old fashion serial connection using and SSH software (like Putty). But I need to know if there are some specific pieces of software that need to be downloaded in order to recover the EFI shell part. I will let you know as soon as we have updates from them Regards Jose A. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[JoseH_Intel]

Hello ABeri1, We got a reply from our engineering department with the following answer. SPI would be a flash component in the board, not a port. A BIOS recovery works as well, if that didn't bring results there is not much to be done for this board. Do we know if this could be an Engineering Sample, perhaps there is a PBA number. If so, there is no warranty or support for it. Please let us know if you have the PBA number that we can check Regards Jose A. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[JoseH_Intel]

Hello ABeri1, I am just following up to double check if you were able to gather the requested information. Otherwise let us know if you require more time to accomplish this. Regards Jose A. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[JoseH_Intel]

Hello ABeri1, Do you have any further details, updates, questions or comments in regards to this issue? This thread will be marked as resolved automatically in the next 48 hours if no activity is received. Regards Jose A. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[JoseH_Intel]

Hello ABeri1, We will proceed to mark this thread as resolved. If you have further issues or questions just go ahead and create a new topic. Jose A. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation