BIOS for Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard with support for Samsung XP941 PCIe SSD

Introduction

I have recently bought a shiny new Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard, a Samsung XP941 PCIe SSD and a 4-lane PCIe-adapter (Addonics ADM2PX4). I was hoping to install Linux and Windows on my new SSD, but unfortunately the SSD was not found by the UEFI firmware, and booting from the SSD was not possible.

After searching the Internet, I found a page where someone was able to modify a BIOS update image to include the UEFI driver for the Samsung XP941 SSD. This UEFI driver can also be included in the BIOS image for the Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard. After including it and flashing I was able to boot from the SSD!

This page describes the steps to take to update and flash the BIOS image.

Including the SSD driver in the BIOS image (optional, see download in the next section)

You will need:

• UBU_v1817.rar (UEFI BIOS Updater) package, which includes MMTool. A tool which lets you include extra driver modules in the existing UEFI firmware.
• The original BIOS image (M5A97-R20-ASUS-2603.CAP)
• A USB stick, formatted as FAT32
• UEFI Samsung M2 driver. I extracted it from the ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer BIOS, version 1.60 (ftp://europe.asrock.com/BIOS/AM3+/990FX%20Killer(1.60)ROM.zip). Open 990Kill1.60 in MMTool, navigate to the extract tab and save the SAMSUNG_M2_DXE module to samsung-m2-dxe
• A Windows PC to run MMTool (Running in Wine will probably work as well)

First, extract the UBU rar file and start MMTool.exe, click on "Load Image" and select the M5A97-R20-ASUS-2603.CAP file. Next, Click on the Browse option, next to "Module file". Select the samsung-m2-dxe file. In the "Vol. Index" field, enter: 03. Click the Insert button. Save the new BIOS image file as: M5A97R20.CAP

Flashing the new BIOS image

Insert the FAT32 formatted USB stick and copy the new BIOS image, M5A97R20.CAP, to it. Note: the name of the file is important. The USB stick needs to be inserted into the BIOS flashback port (see the motherboard manual, lowest USB port below the network interface for the M5A97 R2.0).

Make sure your PC is turned off and keep pressing the BIOS flashback button on the motherboard for about 3 seconds. The BIOS flashback LED should now start blinking, which means it is being installed. When the blinking stops, your new BIOS image has been installed. Turn on your PC, check the BIOS settings and see if the Samsung XP941 SSD has been recognized by UEFI.

More information

See the following links for more information:

• https://plone.lucidsolutions.co.nz/hardware/motherboard/p8z68-vle/uefi-boot-of-asus-p8z68-vle-with-samsung-xp941/view
• http://www.win-raid.com/t154f16-Tool-Guide-News-quot-UEFI-BIOS-Updater-quot-UBU.html
• http://event.asus.com/2012/mb/USB_BIOS_Flashback_GUIDE/

-- Ivo van Geel - 26 Dec 2017