And it's back.... EVALUATION COPY

[1stFalloutboy]

I again this evening went to restore my system image ready to update to Windows 11 and I had plans also to add Linux as a 2nd OS but the EVALUATION COPY message is back.
This time I decided to track down the cause and am slowly whittling away at what option kicks it off, so far I reset the BIOS to optimized defaults and started altering settings, the last one I altered was Fastboot and as soon as I turned it off, I got the EVALUATION COPY message.
Note other than the PC's internal hard drives no external boot drives were attached. This message occurs both under BIOS version 2401 and 2501 I am now going to see if I can revert and just turn off fast boot or if it is a combination of items that sets the message off.. Picture attached of the differences between optimized defaults and what would be required by the BIOS to return the system to optimized defaults.

 

[chrcoluk]

Fast boot hides post messages as part of speeding things up, so it didnt turn on the evalation, it simply is now showing the information after you enabled a more verbose post process.

 

[1stFalloutboy]

Fast boot hides post messages as part of speeding things up, so it didnt turn on the evalation, it simply is now showing the information after you enabled a more verbose post process.

For some reason I couldn't see my own message, and have ended up with a double post..

The two options that kick off the message.. Turn Fast boot off and Boot Logo Display off. The painful thing is - whatever it is that is an EVALUATION COPY seems to be interfering with the population of the Boot over ride menu under BIOS. and it's occurring both in the 2401 and 2501 versions.

I am going to download all versions and see if this message persists if I got right back to the original BIOS.

I just tried 2101 and its still there, I am assuming it will be the same with 2202, I wonder how far back this goes, I have downloaded all version of the BIOS and I will test 2001,1901,0405 & 0207 in the morning, it's 4.45am here and enough is enough.

 

[Solaris17]

Sure lets check.

So from the last thread I am assuming you are talking about this board.

ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha | Motherboards | ROG United States

Built to dominate the battlefield for high-end gamers and overclockers, the ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha releases the full might of the 32 core AMD Threadripper processor while keeping thermals under control with intelligent cooling and an SOC heatsink designed especially for the CPU’s monstrous power.

rog.asus.com

The link is also of the listed BIOS'

Lets try and pull it up and read the latest 2501

Nope encoded, thats fine. Lets try in UEFITool

Yup found it. looks like this sits under AMITSE driver. From a glance.

Looks like this controls alot of menu functions on the board.

Lets go to the memory address range indicated.

Yeah there is one. atleast.

Now lets see how far back it goes. this is a list of the BIOS painstakingly downloaded.

2501: Text Present
2401: Text Present
2202: Text Present
2101: Text Present
2001: Text Present
1901: Text Present
0405: Text Present
0207: Text Present

Now looks like its in all of them. Does this mean none of these BIOS are ready for primetime? No I think its just forgotten text. They all exist within the same module just at different memory addresses depending on what they changed.

If this really bothers you you should idk actually try reaching out to them. Lets export the module and take a closer look in an actual hex editor.

Looks like the one in the last memory address is whats bothering you.

Since its in the middle of the boot menu. It shouldn't actually be interfering, but maybe you haven't tries arrowing down or pressing enter to continue.

Anyway attached is the modified bios. I simply replaced the text memory address' with 0's. This will null out those addresses, not replace the text with actual 0's.

I am not sure if it will pass the asus check it should but I cant test it, so you would need to use something like flashback probably if it failed, or maybe manually if flashback checks as well.

Of course there is generally always a way out.

Guide: Flashing with a hardware programmer

Lets get physical So; you tried flashing your GPU and you didn't backup. Now you have some dude on the forum linking you a BIOS but you have no way to apply it because you don't have a spare GPU either. Well no worries friend. In this guide we are going to cover the simple procedures of...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[sethmatrix7]

Just more reason not to buy Assus

 

[1stFalloutboy]

Sure lets check.

So from the last thread I am assuming you are talking about this board.

ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha | Motherboards | ROG United States

Built to dominate the battlefield for high-end gamers and overclockers, the ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha releases the full might of the 32 core AMD Threadripper processor while keeping thermals under control with intelligent cooling and an SOC heatsink designed especially for the CPU’s monstrous power.

rog.asus.com

The link is also of the listed BIOS'

Lets try and pull it up and read the latest 2501

View attachment 304656


View attachment 304655


Nope encoded, thats fine. Lets try in UEFITool

View attachment 304657

Yup found it. looks like this sits under AMITSE driver. From a glance.

Looks like this controls alot of menu functions on the board.

Lets go to the memory address range indicated.

Yeah there is one. atleast.

Now lets see how far back it goes. this is a list of the BIOS painstakingly downloaded.

2501: Text Present
2401: Text Present
2202: Text Present
2101: Text Present
2001: Text Present
1901: Text Present
0405: Text Present
0207: Text Present

Now looks like its in all of them. Does this mean none of these BIOS are ready for primetime? No I think its just forgotten text. They all exist within the same module just at different memory addresses depending on what they changed.

If this really bothers you you should idk actually try reaching out to them. Lets export the module and take a closer look in an actual hex editor.

Looks like the one in the last memory address is whats bothering you.

View attachment 304672

Since its in the middle of the boot menu. It shouldn't actually be interfering, but maybe you haven't tries arrowing down or pressing enter to continue.

Anyway attached is the modified bios. I simply replaced the text memory address' with 0's. This will null out those addresses, not replace the text with actual 0's.

I am not sure if it will pass the asus check it should but I cant test it, so you would need to use something like flashback probably if it failed, or maybe manually if flashback checks as well.

Of course there is generally always a way out.

Guide: Flashing with a hardware programmer

Lets get physical So; you tried flashing your GPU and you didn't backup. Now you have some dude on the forum linking you a BIOS but you have no way to apply it because you don't have a spare GPU either. Well no worries friend. In this guide we are going to cover the simple procedures of...

www.techpowerup.com

I wouldn't need to go to the extent of flashing the bios with a programmer it's a dual bios system with the ability to switch. What I don't get is why you are showing a guide for flashing with 3rd party hardware video bios or is the guide device agnostic?
I am also trying to understand how just blotting out the text message is going to help with the system not populating the boot overide list , can you help me with understanding that.

 

[Solaris17]

I wouldn't need to go to the extent of flashing the bios with a programmer it's a dual bios system with the ability to switch. What I don't get is why you are showing a guide for flashing with 3rd party hardware video bios or is the guide device agnostic?
I am also trying to understand how just blotting out the text message is going to help with the system not populating the boot overide list , can you help me with understanding that.

I tried nothing and everything has failed! I also didnt post a video. Some people are absolutely helpless.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

I wouldn't need to go to the extent of flashing the bios with a programmer it's a dual bios system with the ability to switch.

Good.

the guide device agnostic

Pretty much, yes. The steps are more or less the same, even if the surrounding hardware is different.

I am also trying to understand how just blotting out the text message is going to help with the system not populating the boot overide list , can you help me with understanding that.

Blotting out the memory addresses where the text is stored, not the text itself.

Just try it and see.

 

[1stFalloutboy]

Good.

Pretty much, yes. The steps are more or less the same, even if the surrounding hardware is different.

Blotting out the memory addresses where the text is stored, not the text itself.

Just try it and see.

NP Ill give it a shot. If it works then Ill throw it ASUS's face and have them fix it on their end so they can't complain that its not an "official bios"

 

[eidairaman1]

NP Ill give it a shot. If it works then Ill throw it ASUS's face and have them fix it on their end so they can't complain that its not an "official bios"

Just contact Asus

 

[1stFalloutboy]

Sorry all I have been away for a bit, I suffer from stage 4 C.O.P.D - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, only 21% of my lungs are functional and when I have a bad day it can last a week.

Okay, finally after three years ASUS are finally taking notice, for a starter in relation to this board and the EVALUATION COPY message which is only a recent discovery but also the fact that the software for the board handled SMBios locking incorrectly resulting in whacko temps being read by BIOS and system software causing the CPU fan to be turned off, in turn cooking CPUs - which indicated a larger problem processor thermal management was not being handled properly within the system, after all software in general should never be able to kill hardware.

At this point I have decided to hold off doing anything until ASUS comes back to me to ensure that nothing can interfere while they try and figure out what the issue is, doing one thing at a time I feel is the correct approach as if I went down the path of altering BIOS as discussed here I may subvert their attempts to fix any potential issues correctly. if ASUS shrugs their combined shoulders however I will have at it.

Cheers for all the support thus far.