How to upgrade the Minisforum MS-01 BIOS
If you are running the Minisforum MS-01 in your home lab as a home server, if you are like me, you may have bought one of the first ones that came out right around the first of this year in 2024. If so, you may have an older BIOS from mid-December, like was on my original MS-01. There was BIOS released in March 2024 for the MS-01 which is the current latest version at v1.22. In case you want to know how to upgrade the BIOS, I am going to walk you through those simple steps for the Minisforum MS-01 BIOS upgrade.
Table of contents
Minisforum v1.22 BIOS version release notes
In case you want to know what is included in the v1.22 version of the MS-01 release notes, you can take a look at that below:
*****************************************
* BIOS Release Notice *
*****************************************
Release Date:
2024/03/12
BIOS Version:
1.22
BIOS Checksum:
DADF
BIOS Description:
1.Set 55w as pl1 default value
2.lastest batch factory BIOS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Release Date:
2024/03/06
BIOS Version:
1.21
BIOS Checksum:
47D7
BIOS Description:
1.add pl1/pl2 for 12600H
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Release Date:
2024/02/23
BIOS Version:
1.20
BIOS Checksum:
E909
BIOS Description:
1.modify logo&dmi for factory BIOS
-----------------------------------------------------------------Overview of the steps to update your Minisforum MS-01 BIOS
Let’s consider an overview of the steps to update your Minisforum MS-01 BIOS. Keep in mind that updating the BIOS is something you want to give attention to detail. Above all, don’t turn off the power when flashing or make sure the power doesn’t get turned off for some reason as this may “brick” your MS-01.
First of all, download the package that is found here: Minisforum.
Prepare your USB disk drive
If you have a USB “thumb” drive, you can easily prepare it for the files by using diskpart. Note, you will erase everything on the USB disk with the steps below which will prepare the USB disk with the needed FAT32 partition.
diskpart
list disk
select disk X # Replace X with the number of the disk you want to format
clean
create partition primary
format fs=fat32 quickIf you are running the BIOS upgrade in Windows
- Disable “secure boot” in BIOS
- Run as administrator run “AfuWinFlash.bat“
Upgrade the BIOS in UEFI Shell
First of all, you will need to prepare a USB drive with a FAT32 formatted partition as shown in the above section. Then follow these steps:
- Unzip file to root of FAT32 format disk.
- Disable “secure boot” in BIOS
- Boot into U disk, with uefi shell (F7 to choose boot disk)
- Use “FS0:” “FS1:” “FS2:” to find your BIOS udisk (mine below was FS0 as you can see)
- Use the command “ls” to check the files contained as you change to each one until you find your USB disk
- Run AfuEfiFlash.nsh
Below is a pic I snapped after entering the AfuEfiFlash.nsh command. You can see where I entered the command and it will automatically start running through the update steps. At this point, it is fully automated.
After the script progresses, you will see it get past erasing the old BIOS and copying the new. It will go through the process to verify everything and then it will automatically reboot your Minisforum MS-01. Also, don’t worry if it takes a couple of minutes to get video signal back on your MS-01 as this was the behavior that I saw during the upgrade process.
Wrapping up
The MS-01 is a great home lab machine that I am using full on as the core of my home lab now, replacing aged Supermicro Xeon-D servers. So far I haven’t seen any stability issues or problems to note. Everything has been working as expected. Part of keeping things stable and running as best possible is BIOS updates and other software upgrades. The v1.22 update has been stable so far, and I haven’t seen any issues. Hopefully this guide on how to upgrade your MS-01 will help any who might struggle with the documentation from Minisforum.
Hi
Can you explain “Boot into U disk, with uefi shell (F7 to choose boot disk)”
I used two MS-01 without screen but with VPRO and MESH COMMANDER.
Secure BIOS is disabled for me.
When I’am in the blue boot menu, sclicking to UEFI SHELL get an black screen and then return to BIOS menu…
When booting, if I pressed F7, I’m entering in other menu asking to choose a boot device. I saw my USB disk (FAT32 with 1.26 MS-01 files) but when I click on it, nothing appears .
I don’t understand how to get the shell for launching file on USB disk…
Thanks for your help
I’m in a similar situation as Pierre. Any further info? I boot pressing F7, choosing the flash drive as a boot option yields nothing. Attempting to boot using the UEFI Shell does nothing. Debian Linux is installed OS and SecureBoot is off.
Craig,
I didn’t see an issue with this on my side. But I will do another test to see.
Brandon
Pierre,
Did you get past this? I didn’t have an issue getting in there with the FAT32 disk and choosing the option at boot. Let me know what you found.
Brandon
I’m in a similar situation as Pierre, Boot while pressing F7, Choose to boot using UEFI Shell and it reverts back to the boot screen. Attempt to boot to flash drive and get the same thing. Secure Boot is disabled.
Hi there,
Thank you for these instructions, almost ok, but I discovered that some additionnal steps were required for me.
I was stuck at trying to update that Fu%#ck BIOS / opening the “UEFI Shell”. I took me quite a long time to solve this, so here is the solution for others that may encounter the same issue. In short, one additionnal step (the bootx64.efi file) were needed:
From a windows, I inserted an USB key
I opened a shell cmd.exe, with the “Run As” Administrator
I launched diskpart
list disk => to find my usb drive number X
select disk X
convert GPT => GPT mode is required i think, MBR mode won’t work
clean
create partition primary
format fs=fat32 quick
exit
On the newly created usb drive:
. copy all the files coming from minisforums BIOS update archive content (https://www.minisforum.com/new/support?lang=en#/support/page/download/108)
. download the “shellx64.efi” file coming from the UEFI Shell project (https://github.com/pbatard/UEFI-Shell/releases)
. rename “shellx64.efi” to “bootx64.efi” and put it on the usb drive
Insert the usb key on the MS-01 hardware turned off
boot the ms-01, hit del to enter the bios menu
select “UEFI Shell”
FS0:
AfuEfiFlash.nsh
1.26V BIOS zip file is missing some files. Specifically the “EFI” folder (containing “bootx64.efi”) is missing. This is why “UEFI Shell” isn’t working.
The solution for me was:
1) Copy EFI folder from “BIOS v1.22” (download fromMinisFormum site) to extracted 1.26V BIOS folder.
2) Enable GPT on the USB drive (see tomroc comment above).
Hope this helps.
Thank you for that roc! Good information.
Brandon
I have had nothing but issues with my ms-01, sadly its in production and the machine it replaced is long gone. I am running 1.22.
BIOS InformationVendor: American Megatrends International, LLC.
Version: AHWSA.1.22
Release Date: 03/12/2024
Every 3rd day or so it goes into kernel panic and locks up. Has done this with three different kernels thus far. I have a a couple 12900’s in production that don’t do this, running the same OS
CPU: 13th Gen Intel i9-13900H (20) @ 5.200GHz
Kernel: 6.8.12-4-pve
RKB,
I am wondering, have you tried running your MS-01 with the efficiency cores disabled? I am currently running ESXi on mine but have efficiency cores disabled. Wondering if this will affect your stability issue?
Brandon