Getting a GA-B150M-DS3H to take an 8th generation Intel CPU (Guide, BIOS included, Q&A)

THIS IS PUT TOGETHER ONLY FOR THE GA-B150M-DS3H, IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THIS BOARD THEN THIS IS NOT FOR YOU!

EDIT: I can confirm this configuration works with a GNU/Linux distribution too. Switched away from Windblows Ten and Arch installs and runs flawlessly.

    A while back someone managed to get Coffee Lake chips working on 100-series and 200-series motherboards, removing the need to ditch your perfectly working board for an... actually almost identical board. The problem was that the pinout of Coffee Lake was electrically incompatible with the 100 and 200 series boards... unless you isolated some pins. Pictured below are the pins (black) you will need to isolate for a Gigabyte board. Take some kapton tape and CAREFULLY cut it along the areas with a sharp object (I used a razor blade, there's probably a better way to do this.) (also not my photo)

NOTE THAT THE PINMOD IS REQUIRED IF YOU ARE NOT USING A B0 STEPPING CHIP!! YOU WILL DAMAGE YOUR CPU IF YOU DON'T APPLY IT. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPONENTS WHATSOEVER!!!!

 

    Normally you would have to take the latest BIOS or a dump of your current one and load it into CoffeeTime, but I've saved your time with what I was able to do.

-F22f BIOS (latest)

-All patches applied (PCIe x16, SKU hack, sync cores, Init 8+ CPUs if using an i7-87xx/8086K, ACPI tables, PCIe 1440, NVMe fix, ME Recovery removed, FD locks)

-Intel ME 11.7.0.1229

-VBIOS v1062, GOP 9.0.1107

-906EB, 906EA, 906E9, 506E3, and 506E8 microcodes*

-Unlocked 128GB RAM support for all you die-hards out there

-Will work on ANY GA-B150M-DS3H motherboard in the world. 

 

Coffee Lake (8000), Kaby Lake (7000), and Skylake (6000) CPUs are supported.

COFFEE LAKE REFRESH CHIPS (9000 series) ARE NOT SUPPORTED DUE TO LIMITATIONS!! I may upload an alternate BIOS with support only for Coffee Lake chips and CL-Refresh chips but I will be unable to test it.

To flash the BIOS, download my ROM and use a CH341A programmer and flash the M_BIOS chip. You can also flash B_BIOS but I kept that one stock in case anything went wrong on the first test.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/it6ecfindaw2483/b150mcflknew.bin?dl=0

Let me know if it goes down.

If you isolated the pins and flashed the BIOS, then you've finally got yourself a perfectly working system that can take ALL 3 generations of 1151 chips!... except refresh, of course.

If something does not work, try ensuring your programmer's clamp is set up properly. You will most likely also need to reset the CMOS by shorting out the 2 pins on the board and possibly even removing the battery.

Q: Have you tested this BIOS?

A: I have, and my 8600K is recognized with the isolated pins and the custom BIOS.

Q: Will I need a pinmod for Skylake and Kaby Lake?

A: No. Those chips were already supported by the board to begin with and do not require a pinmod. Hell, you could even just not install the BIOS if you do not plan to upgrade.

Q: Is there another way to flash the BIOS without a programmer?

A: Not that I know of, but maybe flashrom would work. I used that to flash a custom ECS BIOS onto an old HP rev 2.2 Nettle3 board to support newer K10 chips.

Q: I forgot to do a pinmod and now my system is fried! How do I fix this?

A: I hate to say it, but you fucked up. Badly.

Q: Do you have plans to patch other boards?

A: No, not soon, possibly never. This is the only board I have with the original 1151 socket. If you want a Gigabyte 100/200 BIOS modified, I can help you out. Just comment the model and I'll track down the latest image and patch it, though I will not be able to test it.

Q: Will you get LGA1200 chips working?

A: That's... like trying to force a Socket 7 board to take a Socket 370 CPU. Not gonna work, nor happen.

Q: Will the pinmod be universal across all brands?

A: Nope. Check this thread for more info: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1118475-guide-running-coffeelakerefresh-cpus-on-skykabylake-motherboards/

Q: Will this work on a GA-B150-D3H?

A: This BIOS is only available for the DS3H board, not the D3H board.

 

If everything worked for you, leave a comment. If something happened, also leave a comment.