H8-1260t / IPISB-CH2 (Chicago) - Can HP add support for Ivy Bridge processors?

Question

The latest UEFI BIOS upgrade for this Sandy Bridge H67-based motherboard is 7.12, dated 10/12/2011. The chipset has the capability to run Ivy Bridge CPUs (released Q4 2011) with a BIOS update to the microcode table (add the CPUID table entries for the 306xx CPUs to the 209xx Sandy Bridge CPUs already in the table, that's all!). I have checked the BIOS using AMI's MMtool, and BIOS ver 7.12 only supports Sandy Bridge CPUs. Can customers using the IPISB-CH2 motherboard, like me, get a BIOS update to support IvyBridge CPUs? -imsai8080 ref:http://www.asrock.com/news/events/2012ivy/ Please note that ASRock is the end-user sales department of Pegatron, which made the IPISB-CH2 motherboard for HP.H67DE3 looks very like the "Chicago" board. further ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1155http://www.techpowerup.com/153756/ivy-bridge-quad-core-to-have-77w-tdp-intel-plans-for-lga1155-ivy-bridge-entry.html     

Answer 1

Big_Dave wrote:
Hi, The HP H8-1260t PC was Introduced on 13 January 2012.  HP generally will only post BIOS updates when needed within twelve months from the Introduction Date (1/13/2012).  Some manufacturers have furnished BIOS updates to support IVY Bridge processors for retail motherboards but has has not posted an IVY Bridge BIOS update for the "Chicago" motherboard.Big_Dave wrote:
Hi, The HP H8-1260t PC was Introduced on 13 January 2012. HP generally will only post BIOS updates when needed within twelve months from the Introduction Date (1/13/2012). Some manufacturers have furnished BIOS updates to support IVY Bridge processors for retail motherboards but has has not posted an IVY Bridge BIOS update for the "Chicago" motherboard.VH2:BIOS 7.12A does NOT support Ivy Bridge. I have examined the microcode and there is no support for it, though there is pleanty of room to add it. The BIOS itself is dated 10/12/2011. Simply download the update, change the file extension to .zip, look in the zip, and you'll see the actual mod date for CHG_712_Signed.rom file is 10/12/2011. All they did was update the sp56123.rtf file on 2/14/2012, and later moved it the newer Support format in 4/21/2013 (no files were changed internally). I don't know why they improperly dated it for 4/13. Hope that answers your question, although not the answer either of us wanted.Just to confirm, that's what I'm currently running on a h8-1260t, and 10/12/2011 is the date embedded in the BIOS as well.Big_Dave:Both of us understand that Pegatron is not a retail supplier, and requests for BIOS updates come from the customer, HP. The Ivy Bridge processors were released April 2012, 4 months after the intro of the Chicago board, and ASRock, the *retail* side of Pegatron, announced that all 2nd gen Sandy Bridge mobos (including the H67 motherboards) would have Ivy Bridge support added. IMHO, HP should have requested a BIOS upgrade for their 2nd gen Sandy Bridge Pegatron-based HP motherboards. Obviously, that didn't happen, since their only update is actually dated 10/2011 (see above).It doesn't seem unreasonable to me for HP to drop an request to Pegatron, a *current* motherboard supplier for HP, to cut an upgrade to support the HP motherboards derived fom the retail motherboards Pegatron already have upgraded circa 3 months after the release of the HP (Pegatron) "Chicago" motherboard, which looks AMAZINGLY like the ASRock (Pegatron retail) H67DE3 with the dual graphics support removed (standard for HP), SATA 4 & 5 moved to board edge, and HP proprietary frontpanel connector added in the original place for the H67DE3 SATA 4 & 5 <grin>. Probably a couple minutes with the right BIOS tools and updated microcode from Intel (which I also have!), to support all Chicago-based systems. I'm hoping that maybe a HP Support rep can chime in on this, or someone can tell me where to find tools to recompile to add the SAFUWIN-compatible checksums to a modded BIOS? -Imsai8080 P.S. If it wasn't for the code checksums and the nonstandard SAFUWIN flash programmer, I would already have added the Ivy Bridge microcode myself. Gave it a try, no go so far, but I might keep trying.