X2100 & X210 BIOS/EC

BIOS

Introduction

A full compilation for the X2100 & X210 BIOS and EC is available on Github.

BIOS updates in any machine refers to updating the BIOS EEPROM SPI chip present on the motherboard that typically looks like this and communicates with the main system over the SPI bus. The entire BIOS image is a single binary file, typically with an extension of .rom or .bin.

In order to flash in the BIOS, a flashing tool is required. The X210 and X2100 provides the Intel FIT tool that can be used to flash the BIOS in one step. Flashrom on Linux can also be used to flash BIOS updates internally.

Flashing of BIOS can be dangerous for beginners. A CH341a or a hardware flasher is highly recommended as a backup in case something goes wrong during the flashing process.

Flashing via external thumb drive (for X2100)

  • Download the appropriate ISO image.
  • Use Rufus or dd to flash the ISO image onto an external thumb drive.
  • Boot the drive in UEFI mode and the image will automatically flash.
  • Shutdown the machine, unplug battery and power adapter for 1min before booting it up.
  • Replace the bin image with another BIOS image if you intend to flash another image.

Flashing on Windows (for X210 & X2100)

  1. Download the BIOS package from below.
  2. Install the driver MEIsetup from the BIOS package to flash the BIOS.
  3. Right click update.bat and run with administrator.
  4. Shutdown the machine, unplug battery and power adapter for 1min before booting it up.

Flashing full BIOS on Linux (for X210 & X2100)

For 8th gen X210, the stock flashrom utility present on most modern distros is compatible. Look up on how to install flashrom for your distro.

For 10th gen X2100, you need to compile flashrom from source as support for 10th gen Comet Lake was only added recently. Follow the Github repo for more details. Alternatively, the compiled flashrom for Linux is included in the update packages as well.

To update the BIOS on Linux, set iomem=relaxed in the boot arg and run the following command: sudo flashrom -p internal -w bios.bin

Shutdown the machine, unplug battery and power adapter for 1min before booting it back up.

Separately flashing EC & BIOS (X2100)

  1. Download the latest BIOS update file as linked.
  2. Follow the instructions in the Github repo.

4th batch X2100 Comet Lake 10th gen BIOS

The OFFICIAL BIOS are the official updates from 51nb.

UNOFFICIAL BIOS are patches provided by the community. It includes more hotfixes and notably fixes the battery detection issue. More info can be found here.

ReleaseDescriptionDownload/Link
Official BIOS
Initial release
V15
Factory BIOS updateDirect link (MD5)
Source
Official BIOS
29 May 2020
V16
Resolves charging issues
Resolves sudden shutdown on battery
Battery can now be fully charged
Direct link (MD5)
Source
Official BIOS
2 June 2020
V21
Resolves sleep issue
Resolves internal mic issue
Direct link (MD5)
Source
Official BIOS
13 July 2020
V25
Resolves SD card issues
Resolves charging issues
Direct link (MD5)
Source
Unofficial BIOS
EC Update
4 September 2020
BIOS is exactly the same as V25, only EC is updated.
Hotpatching / EC debugging support.
Backlight table that allows backlight to go as low as 1%.
Correctly report battery state of charge on 9-cell and 4-cell batteries
Report power consumption from battery (“time remaining on battery”)
Fast charge 6-cell battery at 3A, and 9-cell battery at 4A. (X2100_V25 charged all batteries at 1.5A.)
Limit input power to 80W while charging battery. (X2100_V25 consumed up to 100W, which could cause trouble for 90W chargers.)

FN/CTRL not swapped
Direct link (SHA256)

FN/CTRL swapped
Direct link (SHA256)
Source
Unofficial BIOS
BIOS update

06 August 2021
BIOS config is updated from V25 official BIOS
BIOS is properly configured with sensible power levels (15W fallback).
CPU C states are enabled with options of promotion and demotion.
CSM completely disabled to avoid screen tearing.
Turn on CSM settings under the advanced section to reenable legacy BIOS OS.
RAM is set to 2666MHz all the time to reduce screen tearing.
IGP is set to 1GB for higher intel GVT-G resolutions.
CPU microcode is updated.
Intel ME is updated to 14.1.
GOP updated.
Linux (contains both EC and BIOS update)
(SHA256)

Windows (SHA256)
Unofficial BIOS
BIOS & EC update

15 December 2021
BIOS config is updated from 06 August 2021 unofficial BIOS
CSM is turned back on for users who faced issues with booting traditional BIOS OS
EC is further patched with improved power delivery, more key bindings and fan curves.
Relevant blog post
Linux
(SHA256)

Windows
(SHA256)
Unofficial BIOS
BIOS update

17 January 2022
Intel_HDA GPIO voltage adjusted from 3.3v to 1.8v.
Do not flash on old boards (>200 power-on hours). Only flash for newer boards.
This should resolve most ME issues. All other updates remains the same as the 15 December 2021 update.
Linux
(SHA256)

Windows
(SHA256)

ISO
(SHA256)

X210 Kaby Lake-R 8th gen BIOS

MD5 is different from my website than from 51nb as they are recompressed to save space.

DateDescriptionDownload/Link
12 January 2019OFFICIAL BIOS
Added SLIC2.1 to the BIOS from 3 July 2018
Compatible with 2nd & 3rd batch X210
Direct link (MD5)
Source
Patched community BIOS
Based on 12 January 2019
Patch notes here.
Compatible with 2nd & 3rd batch X210
Direct link
(SHA256)

Direct link
FN/CTRL swapped
(SHA256)

Source

Management Engine issue on the X2100 Comet Lake

The ME on the X2100 may have issues that develops over time as documented here.

Coreboot/EC

X210 Kaby Lake-R

Coreboot has been ported to this machine by Matthew Garrett for the X210 (8th gen Intel) available here. In addition, a very helpful forum member vladisslav2011 has patched the embedded controller to fix a charging bug and both coreboot and the EC patch is compiled by harrykipper and available on his github repo here.

X2100 Comet Lake

The 10th gen EC was patched by jwise and is available here. They were further forked by exander77. Coreboot was also ported by Matthew Garrett for the X2100 Comet Lake (10th gen Intel).

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