-----------------------------------
Affected Roles: Administrator, Owner
Complexity: Medium to High
Last Edit: April 27, 2021
-----------------------------------
Some SuperMicro X9 boards with E3v1/v2 CPUs have been reported to not allow the System Administrator of the DW Blackjack® E-Rack model to enter the BIOS if the System Date is past December 31, 2020. Rather than seeing the BIOS or booting to the OS, the Server will instead display a blue screen with the error code “AB” displaying in the corner (see image below).
Typically, you do not need to update hardware drivers or BIOS updates. This should only be done if an update contains an improvement that you may need or to resolve an issue. It is important to use the exact version of the BIOS, specifically for your hardware.
This article will outline how to use a USB flash drive to update the system BIOS for an X9SAE1 motherboard.
If the BIOS file of the Server is corrupted and the unit will not boot, this method can help to recover the BIOS image using a USB storage device. A DOS-bootable USB flash drive can be used for this purpose.
**NOTE: If you must create a DOS-bootable device, you may use a portable app, such as Rufus, to format and create a DOS-bootable USB drive. Please be aware that using an external HDD storage drive will not be supported for this purpose.
To download the BIOS update files:
From the web page, enter the motherboard model (X9SAE1) into the Search tool and select the most recent search result.
Under the Links and Resources section, click on “Update Your BIOS”.
A EULA window will display. Click the Agree button to accept the EULA terms and to download the .zip file to the working computer.
Extract the files from the .zip folder and copy it to a DOS-bootable USB stick. After copying the BIOS files to a DOS-bootable USB drive, Eject the USB stick from the working computer.
**NOTE: If you must create a DOS-bootable device, you may use a portable app, such as Rufus, to format and create a DOS-bootable USB drive.
You may use the following directions to flash the BIOS and update the current version.
To use the BIOS Recovery Drive:
Once the E-Rack has been completely powered OFF, insert the USB drive that contains the BIOS update files to the unit.
The BIOS recovery should automatically begin. If it fails to start automatically, you may need to force the recovery.
To do so, while the E-RACK is powering ON, press-and-hold the CTRL and HOME keys simultaneously on your keyboard.
until the USB stick’s LED indicator light is illuminated.
Wait until the USB stick’s LED indicator light is illuminated or flashing (I/O indicator) then release the CTRL and Home keys.
The system may begin to display a message and emit beep-codes to indicate that the BIOS ROM firmware is being reprogrammed.
DO NOT interrupt this process.
When the DOS prompt displays, please use the command:
AMI.BAT BIOSname.###
Allow the E-Rack to complete the update. Once the process has been completed, a message will display confirming that the BIOS has been updated.
Clear the CMOS of the E-Rack, then reconnect the power cable to the E-Rack.
Press the F1 key on the keyboard to go to the BIOS setup screen. Once there, press the F9 key to load the default BIOS settings, then press the F10 key to save and exit the BIOS setup.