I have a 3 node cluster of Supermicro systems with X11SPW-TF motherboards. To update the onboard x722 Intel NICs, I downloaded the x722 update file, executed and failed at the last minute and after the update both NICs are disappeared. I spoke with Supermicro and they are not willing to do anything because the motherboard serial is more than 5 years old and OOW. But one of the Tech advised me to program this chip (AT45DB041E-SSHN) with the 722M4B.bin file at my own risk and discretion, which I did, but nothing changed. nvmupdate64e just cannot see/find these two NICs.
So what I tried next was to copy the above chip content from the second good known server and programmed the corrupted chip, but still nothing changed. The good new is that I can still install and use the server with a PCIE add on X550 card and it is works fine.
But, I still would like to get those 2 x722 onboard NICs back and I really appreciate your help regarding this and thank you in advance.
Looking on EBAY it looks like there are replacement bios chips for this board. You could also bite the bullet and replace the board itself. It’s hard to say what else went wrong during that flash and what you can or can’t get back.
Did you verify your writes? The SPI flash might have gone bad. Also did you use the efi version of nvmupdate64e, sometimes the OS version are wonky.
If the SPI flash is good and you flashed a known working firmware directly on the chip via a SPI programmer, I also think that something else must be broken.
The motherboard bios chip MX25L25673G is good as I flashed one old version and all working except the NICs. At this point I am not sure if AT45DB041E-SSHN is the chip for the Intel x722 NICs firmware.
I cannot verify the writes as the NICs are disappeared after the firmware update failed. Like I mentioned above, I copied a good known chip from another server, but it still don’t work. I used the EFI version of nvmupdate64e.
With these you can read and write the SPI flash ships holding the firmware and you can verify your writes.
I’m a bit confused I thought the AT45DB041E-SSHN was the SPI-Flash holding the firmware. But without schematics this is going to be hard. You can check every SPI 4MB or 8MB Flash chip near to the nic and read them out. At least the x710 Firmware has string like “x710” in it. Open the firmware file you got from supermicro and check for string with a hexeditor.
I have a CH341a programmer and a clip but the clip didn’t stick to the AT45DB041E-SSHN as it is too old and not for SOIC8 SMDs I desoldered the chip but CH341s still couldn’t read it. So I got a Xgecu T48 and programmed the 722M4B.bin file (5864KB), soldered the chip but still nothing came back. It has x722 string at many places in the hexeditor.
