Disclaimer
Flashing a modified BIOS is really dangerous. If you brick your PC by following what I wrote here, I am not responsible and I cannot help you. Even though this procedure worked for Asus H81M-E and B85 Pro Gamer, there is NO guarantee that it will work for other Asus UEFI BIOS. If you are not using an Asus UEFI desktop motherboard, you should not try what I wrote here at all. This procedure does NOT work for Asus laptops, do not try it on Asus laptop.
Introduction
I need to add SLIC 2.1 to an Asus H81M-E motherboard. Performing the same steps I did in the past for older (non-UEFI) Asus and Gigabyte motherboards did not work. I experienced the following difficulties:
- andyp’s AMI BIOS mod tool does not recognize the AMI BIOS of H81M-E. This turns out to be easily solved – use andyp’s Phoenix / Insyde / EFI BIOS mod tool instead.
- The real problem is that after creating a modded BIOS, it cannot be flashed due to “Security Verification Failed” error. While different solutions exist, I believe I have identified the simplest one for my situation. This was not immediately obvious to me, it toke me considerable time to read different forum threads and articles before coming to this conclusion. So I write this article in order to help other Asus UEFI motherboards users.
(Note 1: By the way, I feel that Asus H81M-E is a really nice motherboard for its ultra low price as of March 2015 – in my geographic area it costs less than 8GB DDR3, and less than one third of the price of i5-4460. Originally I feared that it might come with an old BIOS that does not allow booting up of a Haswell Refresh CPU to perform necessary BIOS upgrade, but my 2015 February-imported board came with BIOS 2105, which is far more up-to-date than I hoped. Reportedly this board can also overclock Pentium 20th Anniversary G3258 CPU, creating a combination with super price-performance.)
(Note 2: Two weeks later I bought Asus B85 Pro Gamer – the standard ATX version, not the micro-ATX version – for another PC intending to overclock it with Devil’s Canyon i5 4690K. This March 2015 imported board came with BIOS 2103, i.e. already latest. It is beyond nice – it is really impressive. At a reasonable cost it comes with visibly higher quality components, Intel LAN, shielded audio, and has 8-phase VRM that should be good for overclocking. Although some people believe motherboard VRM phases do not matter for Haswell overclocking, I think it matters, otherwise there should not be high end Z97 motherboards with 12 phases VRM.)
How to mod Asus desktop motherboard UEFI BIOS for SLIC
Note:
- There is potentially an even simpler method than what I will describe below – some people suggested the use of Asus USB BIOS Flashback to avoid the Security Verification Failed error. However, only some Asus motherboards have this feature. Besides, I read some reports of this method not working.
- For those who want to understand more, I highly recommend reading the whole thread of “How to permanently add SLIC in (newer) ASUS EFI“.
- For the purpose of this article, only the “New Module method (Guide by akcent)” is used.
- This method is permanent – SLIC remains even after BIOS update. For most people this is a very good thing, however, if some people want this removed later it is not as easy.
Procedure:
- Download the correct model and version of BIOS of the desktop motherboard from Asus web site and unzip it to get a .cap BIOS image file
- Download MMTool and run it
- In MMTool, click Load Image, change file type to .cap, then load the .cap BIOS image
- In the bottom table inside MMTool, look at the FileName column and find DummyMSOA or MSOA
- If you can find either of them, close MMTool and continue with this procedure. If you cannot find any DummyMSOA or MSOA, stop here – this procedure is not meant for you.
- Take a moment and watch this excellent animated guide by akcent carefully:
- Run the latest version of Phoenix / Insyde / EFI BIOS mod tool and select the .cap BIOS image (Note: especially for new chipset such as Z170, make sure you use the latest version. For X99, you must not use any version earlier than 2.58)
- After a little processing it may show one or more Recovery Filenames – choose one that is closest to the actual model name of the motherboard and remember it (or write it down, or even take a screen capture)
- Manufacturer: choose ASUS
- SLIC File: Since I need SLIC 2.1, I simply choose ASUS.BIN from the supplied SLIC21 folder
- SLP File: keep this blank
- Key File: although the tool came with a key file containing WUJYN1EF3JJRWYVX9ATP6HRBD , I created (via Notepad) and used a key file containing 9C134SIMF51GYI8HEDJ2F47ZW instead
- R/W File: keep this blank
- Certificate: keep this blank
- Method: choose “New Module” (not simply “Module”)
- [For Asus X99 only, click Advanced and tick “Allow FV selection with Module methods”]
- Click “Go”
- [For Asus X99, when the tool shows a list of several entries, choose the second “File Volume”]
- Find the output file, then rename it to the shorter Recovery Filename shown earlier [Note: do not skip this rename operation]
- This procedure is really for Asus UEFI desktop motherboard – if you are not using one, do not attempt to flash it!!! This does NOT work for Asus laptop!!!
- Experts say to use a DOS-based flashing utility, but I was a little lazy and just used the EZ Flash 2 from within BIOS, then access a USB flash drive containing the renamed output file (Note: If you still get a Security Verification Failed error, try the other key, and make sure you’re using the latest version of the tool, version 2.63 or later, and make sure you use the correct recovery name.)
- After BIOS flashing, load optimize defaults and reconfigure the settings if necessary
- Save settings and exit
- For those who are looking for Asus H81M-E BIOS 2107 with permanent SLIC 2.1, try this at your own risk.
- For those who are looking for Asus B85 Pro Gamer BIOS 2103 with permanent SLIC 2.1, try this at your own risk. (Important: this is NOT for the micro-ATX B85M Gamer.)
Activate Windows 7 Ultimate by Asus OEM SLIC
Other better written articles can be found on this subject, so I just summarize the key steps:
- Boot up Windows 7 Ultimate
- Download a copy of ASUS21.xrm-ms and save it to somewhere, e.g. D:\
- run cmd as Administrator
- slmgr.vbs -ilc D:\ASUS21.xrm-ms
- slmgr.vbs -ipk 2Y4WT-DHTBF-Q6MMK-KYK6X-VKM6G (for Asus only. If you need other keys, try google)
- Then check activation status by
- slmgr.vbs -dli
*** If anyone followed the procedure I wrote here, please leave a comment indicating the motherboard, BIOS version, which SLIC, which KEY, and your results. Thank you.
*** BIOS mod requests should be posted to this forum, not here.
ks said:
Thank You!!!!
bsmith said:
I had tried another method with MMTool, which didn’t work. Too much to shift through on Mydigitallife forums finding the right information for my specific motherboard. But finding your blog post did the trick on my Asus Z97-Deluxe. Thanks!
tdbone1 said:
how to unmod perm slic?
I have asus z97i-plus with perm slic bios mod
I would like to make it default like from factory
thanks
moonlightknighthk said:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/31404-How-to-permanently-add-SLIC-in-%28newer%29-ASUS-EFI/page14?p=849131&viewfull=1#post849131
Tommis said:
Works on Asus M5A97 r2.0. Thank You!
Russ said:
Works great with Asus Z97-A Bios 2401, ASUS.BIN SLIC and key 9C134SIMF51GYI8HEDJ2F47ZW. Thanks 🙂
ribs said:
Success with Asus Maximus VII Hero!
Preamble:
Bought the Asus Maximus VII Hero back in Jan 2015, it had an old BIOS revision (the 2nd official release, 0508).
Since then I’d flashed it to version 2601 in May. BTW, for some reason the BIOS Flashback function (With a FAT USB stick in designated USB port with M7H.CAP and holding the Flashback button for 3 sec while in Soft Off mode) didn’t work, so I had to use the in-BIOS EZFlash2 utility, which worked fine.
Just recently (2015.05.27) ASUS have released a new firmware version, 2702, and I decided to update and fool around with SLIC injection while at it. Had to register at MyDigitalLife and go through dozens of pages, lots of info, but no concise instructions anywhere! Got as far as obtaining the OEM Win7 certificates, the corresponding keys, but was unsure which tool to use to mod the latest CAP file from ASUS. I was almost about to give up and ask for one of the gurus in Mod Request thread to mod the BIOS file for me, but, luckily, stumbled across MoonLightKnightHK’s page and learned that the last piece of the puzzle was the Phoenix Tool.
Success story:
Ran PhoenixTool259 (current version, available at MyDigitalLife), opened MAXIMUS-VII-HERO-ASUS-2702.CAP which produced the following messages:
Information: Recovery filename: M7C.CAP
Information: Complete SLIC (2.0) (A M I OEMSLIC ) (x1)
Followed this article’s instructions to the letter, created a new key.txt with the suggested key, 9C134SIMF51GYI8HEDJ2F47ZW
Clicked Go:
Information: SLIC performed successfully. BIOS file is C:\phoenixtool259\MAXIMUS-VII-HERO-ASUS-2702_SLIC.CAP
Copied the modded BIOS file to a flash disk as M7H.CAP (just now noticed that PhoenixTool suggested using M7C.CAP, LOL, it worked anyway)
Copied the Asus certificate provided in this article, H81M_E_2107_SLIC21.zip/ASUS21.XRM-MS to the same flash disk. BTW, this is the same certificate as ASUS-NEW.xrm-ms found in certificates.zip that I’ve downloaded earlier from a link on MyDigitalLife. Also prepared SLIC_ToolKit_V3.2.EXE for verification.
Took this flash disk to the system to be modded, with a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate x64 UEFI/GPT installation (Win7 not yet activated, with grace period active).
Just to be safe, inserted the flash disk into the BIOS Flashback USB port (the one next to the Flashback button), powered up and loaded into BIOS/UEFI. Used the EZ Flash 2 utility there to flash the modded M7H.CAP and had no issues, except for one tense moment after I clicked Restart and the system appeared to power down, with the monitor showing “No Signal” for about 10 seconds. Good thing that I didn’t touch anything and didn’t reset / power down the system – I almost thought the BIOS got bricked, but suddenly the system came to life and I rejoiced. Went back into BIOS (which was now version 2702), adjusted my settings to the way they were prior to flashing (written down everything beforehand). Exit & Save, loaded into Windows 7.
Ran SLIC_ToolKit_V3.2.exe, which confirmed that the SLIC table has been installed (there wasn’t one before):
> Dump OK ! ( _ASUS_Notebook_V2.1 )
In cmd as Administrator:
slmgr.vbs -ilc G:\ASUS21.xrm-ms
> License file G:\ASUS21.xrm-ms installed successfully.
slmgr.vbs -ipk 2Y4WT-DHTBF-Q6MMK-KYK6X-VKM6G
> Installed product key 2Y4WT-DHTBF-Q6MMK-KYK6X-VKM6G successfully.
slmgr.vbs -dli
> Name: Windows(R) 7, Ultimate edition
> Description: Windows Operating System – Windows(R) 7, OEM_SLP channel
> Partial Product Key: VKM6G
> License Status: Licensed
All set! Thank you, MoonLightKnightHK!
AndyP said:
Worked on Asus Sabertooth R2 AM3+ also.
Swapped from a Gigabyte AM2 board which had a SLIC Bios with Dell certificate running Windows 7 Pro (64) .
Used Asus.bin SLIC file with the same key provided in Modtool (not tried the one you provided).
Used up to date Bios ver 2501.
Kept the same Windows install from before.
Did not need to use any slmgr commands as windows activated as it was …Dell !
Thank you very much for your valuable info.
badgermark said:
Worked great on a Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 USB 3.1 with BIOS version 2401. Thanks!
HelloWorld said:
Can you tell me in detail how it worked for you? I have the same motherboard, but it doesn’t seem to work for me. Would really appreciate if you could help.
moonlightknighthk said:
What’s the symptom? Security Verification Failed? Did you try both keys?
0x8A63F77D said:
Thanks! Worked very well on a Vanguard B85. But I would like to find a desktop SLIC to try again.
moonlightknighthk said:
If you have already performed this procedure, you should not do it again on the same motherboard.
Markus said:
Used your instructions with Asus Z97M PLUS/BR – Bios Ver. 2802. Works like a charm. Thank you so much. I will keep an eye on your blog.
messerchmidt said:
works, thanks
moonlightknighthk said:
Which motherboard? Thanks
Greg said:
I have an asus M5A97 R2.0 and am getting the security verification failed. I have used both keys. the current bios i am on is 2501 and the new one I downloaded was 2603. Any ideas?
moonlightknighthk said:
FYI: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/57659-Solved-ASUs-M5A97-R2-0-need-help
Greg said:
Ok so I was using v 2.62 of the tool and i found version 2.63 of the tool and it worked like a charm. Thank you so much.
Marcel said:
Hello,
I just did it for an Asus H61M-A USB3 Mainboard, BIOS v 1203. First I got security verification error until I renamed the file to the shorter recovery filename, as described. After that I tried again and EZ Flash 2 did the rest. Working: Fine!
I was using phoenixtools v2.59 at least for bios modding procedure, taking the key that even was provided by phoenixtools. After configurating the Bios and rebooting Windows 7, I installed a key & certificate by opatool v0.8. Opatool does this with just a few hits on the keyboard and provides you with all keys & certificates you will need.
Even modded some older BIOS Rom’s before, this was the first time I did it for an UEFI-BIOS. Thank you for this HowTo, which has been a great help to me!
Viner said:
Not works with ASUS X99-A.
moonlightknighthk said:
Try the latest tool, “tick the advanced box to select FV [Allow FV selection with Module methods] and then [after Go] select the second one [FV]” (according to AndyP). Note that this implies increased risk of bricking the motherboard. Let me know whether it works.
ismael said:
hello probe this method motherboard asus m5a99fx pro r2.0 and worked perfect !!
I would like to know how to remove the new module if anything, I hope your answer
moonlightknighthk said:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/31404-How-to-permanently-add-SLIC-in-%28newer%29-ASUS-EFI/page14?p=849131&viewfull=1#post849131
ismael said:
hello friend this did not help me. I want to remove the new module and leave my bios as factory. You know how I can do? Cheers
Ismael said:
Gracias logre quitar el módulo y dejar la BIOS como de fábrica. No se muy buen como pero metiendo mano lo logre. El link que me pasaste me sirvió. Un abrazo y muchas gracias
mupssa said:
thx a lot, great stuff, excellent guide
FW said:
Why did you change the keyfile instead of using the supplied file?
moonlightknighthk said:
I believe the supplied key works with some models and the alternate key works with others.
FW said:
Can you share where to find alternate keys?
moonlightknighthk said:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/31404-How-to-permanently-add-SLIC-in-%28newer%29-ASUS-EFI
Das_Human said:
Thanks for the guide!
I’ve flashed X99-A/USB3.1 board with SLIC moded BIOS. Initially when I tried flashing the moded BIOS (moded using this info http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/5863-Award-amp-AMI-Bios-mod-requests/page4543?p=771336&viewfull=1#post771336 and PT2.66) via an EZ flash 2, it gave “… not a proper BIOS” error (while the original BIOS was loading perfectly). However when I moded BIOS using your hints marked as “NOT VERIFIED” the moded BIOS was recognized and flashed perfectly with SLIC present in the BIOS 🙂
For the record when prompted to select FV I’ve selected the second “File Volume…” line. That is like this:
-EFI BIOS
Padding
+File Volume
Padding
+File Volume <<selected this one
moonlightknighthk said:
Great. Thanks for the feedback.
schel4ok said:
Hello,
It doesn’t work like in your description.
Please help me.
First of all I checked with MMtools that I have MSOA in my original BIOS.
I downloaded phoenixtools 2.66 and the process of modify BIOS is not like you describe in your animated guide.
I just could select original BIOS file and the process launched automatically.
Then I got message
Complete SLIC (2.0) (A M I OEMSLIC ) (x1)
So I don’t know if everything is OK or NOT?
moonlightknighthk said:
That message should be normal. Then proceed to fill in the needed fields.
schel4ok said:
please check wheteher I did it correctly
here is the link to gif animation with my screenshots
http://picasion.com/i/2eq7M
moonlightknighthk said:
Seems ok
schel4ok said:
and one more question – how can I check sliced bios before flashing that there is slic info inside?
schel4ok said:
I don’t understand why did you change KEY? If I don’t change it will not work?
moonlightknighthk said:
It’s not me who came up with the idea of changing the key. The forum posts did. Try and report.
avalanche said:
Procedure worked perfectly with Asus P9X79 Deluxe latest BIOS 4801 – SLIC 2.1 – key:9C134SIMF51GYI8HEDJ2F47ZW – Phoenixtool 2.66
Mikhail Shelatonov said:
Works on ASUS Z170-K (bios ver.0704)
Thanks!
Dustin said:
Hi, could you please re-upload the Asus B85 pro gamer slic 2.1 bios? The link appears to be broken. It would be much appreciated.
moonlightknighthk said:
Done.
Dustin said:
Thank you for the fast response and the file.
Shokas said:
Used the WUJYN1EF3JJRWYVX9ATP6HRBD key on an Asus m5a97 2.0 Slic 2.1, followed all your instructions, worked perfectly!! Thanks for all your help.
Heino said:
Works great! THX
Asus68HM-Plus, ASUS-UEFI AMI BIOS1701, PhoenixTool2.56, used the keyfile provided by the program, also flashed from within the BIOS with EZ2 and had the slicced BIOS on C:\.
By the way: what is the Recovery Filename, I had to write down, for?
Thanks again, great job!
moonlightknighthk said:
I think certain means of BIOS flashing require the filename to be correct instead of arbitrary.
Andrei said:
Hello, please help if you know a solution.
I have installed a cracked Win10 on my Asus x555lj-xx012D, Bios AMI 6.2.
Now I have to install a licensed Windows 10 copy, but it gets stuck in getting ready. I tried with all possible workarounds and various Windows 10 builds, PID.txt etc. etc.
I assume that the only way is to remove the SLIC from bios. Can you please tell me what do you recommand using and the required steps? Or if you have another ideea.
Many thanks.
Andrei
Imanol said:
Worked for asus b150m-k d3, bios ver. 2202
Slic: ASUS.BIN
Key: 9C134SIMF51GYI8HEDJ2F47ZW
Good guide, Thank You!
Vladimir said:
Works.
PRIME Z170-A ver. 3504
PRIME B250M-A ver.1001
Slic: ASUS.BIN
Key: 9C134SIMF51GYI8HEDJ2F47ZW
Aurora said:
Thank you for these easy and precise instructions! It was the only way I was able to get my P8Z77-V LE to take the NVME module. After following them, then using UEFITool to add in the driver, I was able to use the flashback utility to upgrade.
Yu said:
Work! MB ASUS A88XM-PLUS, bios ver. 3004
Slic: ASUS.BIN
key: WUJYN1EF3JJRWYVX9ATP6HRBD – Phoenixtool 2.66
Good guide, Thank You!
Mandar said:
I tried this tutorial for Asus prime z270-AR; however, no success.. 😦
Q87T said:
Works!
MB: Asus Q87T, bios 1003,
Slic: HP 2.1
Key: 9C134SIMF51GYI8HEDJ2F47ZW
PhoenixTool: 2.73
Flasher: AMI Aptio Win64
Flash method: All blocks (flashing main block only didn’t make any change).
Thanks a lot!
Alexinho25 said:
It works for mine too!
MB: Asus H97-plus
Bios: H97-PLUS BIOS 2603
SLIC 2.1
Key: 9C134SIMF51GYI8HEDJ2F47ZW
PhoenixTool: 2.73
Flashing with EZ Flash from within BIOS
freepunk54 said:
Hello, you can reset the new link to the animated guide, the picture is not displayed.