Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro

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Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro NVMe SSD Bios PCIe Slot x2 To x4 Fix

Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro NVMe SSD Bios PCIe Slot x2 To x4 Fix

One of the cons listed in my review of the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro was the NVMe SSD speed was limited and capped to PCIe x 2 speeds and not x 4 which it should be, well thanks to Ferdinánd for letting me know about this bios fix that will correct the PCIe lane speed to be x4 speed. A user on the Xiaomi forums has posted a bios update that corrects this SSD speed limit and set the port to the correct speed. So this will increase the stock Samsung PM961 speeds greatly, below you can see the before and after results.

Shipped bios SSD speed:

After the bios update the PCIe port runs at full speed:

Newer Mi Notebook Pro’s shipping from the factory now will come with the latest bios (XMAKB5R0P0401) so this should only affect the first batch of Mi Notebook Pro i5 and i7 models. So check with HWinfo your bios info if you need to flash or not. Or run a simple SSD benchmark, if you get 3000Mb/s reads or close to that you have PCIe X4 on the M.2 slot so you’re fine!

Flash with caution, remember to have a full battery and let the bios update complete. Interrupting it will brick the laptop!

Source: Xiaomi.cn forums (Chinese)

[wpfilebase tag=file id=625 tpl=download-button /]

Instructions:

Step0 – Ensure Laptop is at 80% battery or more and that it is PLUGGED IN.

Step1 – Download Rufus (https://rufus.akeo.ie/) and format a usb to be “GPT Partitioning scheme for UEFI” and Filesystem set as “FAT32.” USB must be in the top USB port; usb boot does not work on the other.

Step2 – Copy files from extracted file (use winrar or 7zip to extract) then copy all files and make sure there is an EFI folder at the root of the drive. Shutdown laptop.

Step3 – Switch on and keep pressing F2 to enter BIOS. Once there, disable secure boot and clear keys, then go an enable USB boot. You need to set a supervisior password first (keep it handy for future reference). Look at other guides on how to use the BIOS. Press F10 to save changes and restart. Shutdown PC.

Step4 – Switch on and keep pressing F12 to enter boot selection menu. You will find the usb there. The UEFI shell should load until you see a fs: .

Step5 – Type unlockme in the to unlock bios. This is will boot into windows but there is a high chance you wont be able to login. Shut down the PC.

Step6 – Repeat Step4 and then type flash to begin flashing. This will reboot and start flashing. BE PATIENT and let it finish. It will boot into windows finally.

Step7 – Fingerprint might not work, you will need to type in your password to log in.

Step8 – Use same instructions as Step3 and enable secure boot and other settings you may want. Press F10 to save and reboot.

Step9(optional) – Login to PC and then right click start menu and then settings. Go to Accounts then sign in options. Remove fingerprint and then add it back again.

Ensure that you have ENOUGH POWER on the laptop as flashing disables charging momentarily. Keep it plugged in throughout all the steps above and then make sure you download the latest samsung drivers. (http://org.downloadcenter.samsung.com/downloadfile/ContentsFile.aspx?CDSite=UNI_SEC&CttFileID=6929458&CDCttType=DR&ModelType=N&ModelName=MZ-V6P512&VPath=DR/201710/20171026151637517/Samsung_NVM_Express_Driver_2.3.exe&OriginYN=N)

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools.html

Latest Intel ME driver: http://www.station-drivers.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=352&func=startdown&id=3214&lang=en

Latest Wifi Driver: http://www.station-drivers.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=352&func=fileinfo&id=3203&lang=en

Latest Intel Chipset Drivers: http://www.station-drivers.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=352&func=startdown&id=3172&lang=en

Video tech reviewer and tech blogger. I have a huge interest in the latest tech, tablets, laptops, mobiles, drones, and even e-scooters. Active in the tech community since 2008 days of the Omnia i900 Windows phone. Samsungi8910omnia.com, Samsunggalaxysforums.com founder from way back.

72 Comments

  1. I had a lot of problems with this untill I realized that I need to use Rufus version 2.18 so I can format the usb stick as required. Also I needed to switch from Legacy boot to UEFI, so finally I was able to boot from usb stick and upgrade the bios. I did use Windows with Legacy boot, but the usb stick needs to boot from UEFI, otherwise it will not boot. Thanks for instructions.

  2. Did this BIOS version make CPU voltage adjustments available through XTU?

  3. I tried to update to the latest v603 BIOS, but I keep getting this error:

    https://imgur.com/a/ErhdSls

    Any tips?

    • Sorry no idea, I didn’t even know there was this new version. Do you know if it has voltage unlocked and power limits?

    • I had the same error. Just remove your fingerprint and pincode ID first from your windows settings.
      After you typed in unlock me and the system reboots, log into windows with your password, then reboot again (F12 to USB) and then type ‘flash’ after the prompt.
      BTW no significant change in the fan speed up for me.

    • Hi, can I ask where di you get this BIOS?

  4. When I got mine, it came with the 0502. Is there any way to downgrade the bios version to 0401 so that I can tweak the cpu settings?

    • There is a way to flash older bios (downgrade) The issue is there is no flashable file for 0401 yet that I’ve seen.

    • Thats unfortunate, I am expecting one from the latest promo and was hoping for 0401, maybe someone will find a file that we can flash later and downgrade the BIOS version.

  5. shows us how to merge the two ssd to C drive because i want to expand my C drive on my xiaomi

  6. So now that the main m.2 port is running at x4 speed, what are the speeds of the secondary m.2 port (I thought I saw somewhere where that was also running at x2)? I’m interested in buying a 960 evo and putting that in the main slot and putting the stock PM961 in the secondary slot. If someone can post crystaldiskmark results of a setup similar to this, that’d be really helpful. Thank you!

    • After reading your comment, I have done a test of my secondary SSD speed (a brand new Samsung 960 EVO, just as the one you were writing about) and unfortunately it seems that the speeds are quite low for a SSD of that sort.
      Here are the CrystalMark Disk results: https://imgur.com/a/xl5Mp
      I upgraded the BIOS version to the 300 one, following this guide, so this version does not correct the problem. Maybe the 502 version does? I have seen that update circulating even in some comments to this post.

      • That’s really interesting actually. I know there’s updated firmware for the PM961, is there possibly an update for the evo? And, just to make sure, does your PM961 get around 3100/1600? If it is, then the main one is running at x4 while the secondary is x2… I was thinking that maybe the secondary would be at Sata3 speeds, not still pcie x2. If it is possible to get both at x4, that’d be sweet 🙂

        • Yes, my main Samsung SSD is running at full speed after the update. The problem is just the secondary one.

          • Hey any updates on this?

          • Only one SSD will be x4 on the bios that fixed it, the other slot will be x2 rate. So wise to just use a SATA3 850 evo or something.

          • Is there a Bios Version which fixes the 2. slot to x4?

            or is the 2. slot only connected with 2 pci lanes?
            would be nice to get these information 🙂

            Best regards from Germany, love the notebook so far. Update to 300 worked well

    • Is there a BIOS maybe an older Version that does not have th Fan turning on so early? I could live with slower drive speeds but not with a noisy laptop

  7. somebody uploaded an 502 version. but remember, that after flashing you will lost the possibility to change voltage on processor in xtu.
    original link: http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/t-14159950
    google drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-mA0XRNM39lp-i0DIoXJv0iWzHezy_OV

    • Changelog of 502?

      • Ciao Stefano, immagino tu sia italiano dal nome. Sei riuscito ad aggiornare il BIOS? Se sì, sapresti spiegarmi meglio di quanto fa questa guida come fare? Grazie.

    • Successfully flashed 502. The situation with fans haven’t changed much, looks like the borderline value is still around 40C. At least fans are able to stop now, but not for a long time. And yeah, mind that the Core Voltage Offset is locked now so you won’t be able to overclock CPU anymore.

  8. Hello Chris,

    Could you please make a clear video showing the entire process of how to update the BIOS in the Mi Notebook Pro?

    I really can’t understand very much of this guide because I’m a little noob about computers, and my trusted computer technician does not know how to fix the BIOS even when I showed him this guide.

    I would really appreciate it since I bought the Mi Notebook Pro on the 11/11 sales and I found myself with the old BIOS version.

    Thank you and Happy New Year!

  9. I got my Mi Notebook Pro (Mibook?) a couple of weeks ago and it has the XMAKB5R0P0401 bios.

    I installed ubuntu 17.10 on it successfully and it all seems to work out of the box :-). Unfortently, I then noticed that I could not change any settings in my BIOS. I can browse the menus but I cannot open any of the settings menus to change any of the settings. Then I saw that Canonical had pulled 17.10 from their site due to BIOS corrupting issues on mostly Lenovo laptops. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1734147

    So I suspect the Mi Notebook Pro might be affected? I suppose it makes sense.

    So, I can either live with it as it works / boots and I can still use the boot menu. Or I flash the BIOS and hope that it will fix it and not make it worse / brick it.

    What would you do?

    Has anyone else had this issue?

  10. Hi! I got dump of 401 ver, but I’ve no idea how to flash it without flash programmer. I’ve flash already my bios with 300 ver. and unlocked me region with unlockme.nsh, but if i try to flash it with patched image or with dump, i get error. i think there should be a way to do it with crisis recovery mode, but i couldn’t find the right image file name to do that.

    here is a dump: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xor5mLYv7NXBrwN7M0r8utaYZ7M7QhSi/view?usp=sharing

    • Where did you get it and who did the dump?

      • i got it from friend, he has top version from xiaomi notebook pro, and this bios was from box. he get dump with fpt without me region, and variables with H20UVE

  11. Glad that I came across this site and took the leap to purchase the i7 version.
    came shipped with the 502 bios so the ssd fix was already active.
    however, i wanted to be able to undervolt so i started attempting a downgrade.
    edit the platform.ini file in the extracted archive and then follow the steps that Chris provided.
    Locate the string

    [Bios_Version_Check]
    Flag=1

    and amend to Flag=0

    • I was shipped the same bios as you, since I’m not too good at this could you specify to which bios you rolled back to or provide a link with your reworked bios?

  12. I have a need for my Xiaomi Notebook pro from a slightly different direction. The laptop’s finish is so smooth that it has slipped and fallen from my lap a couple of times. I tried looking for rubberised/silicone laptop skins with bottom heat vent support.

    Unfortunately, I did not come up with anything. I’ll appreciate if Chris or anybody here can help me find a matching product.

  13. I have a problem: when the notebook goes into standby it does not turn on, the fans remain active, the screen is off and the power led remains on. I am forced to hold down the power button and turn off the notebook. Does anyone have the same problem?

    • I had same issue, check app starting together with system. My case MSI afterburner (+ rivatuner) prevent to shutdown.

  14. When I log into the BIOS it doesn’t let me disable secure boot. Anyone know why this might be?

  15. Thanks for sharing the info, i seem to have a new batch with the 401 bios, and really liking the laptop so far. Would be nice to have some Mi software that would keep software/firmware up to date though. but of a jungle going through the translated chinese forums. ill keep checkin in here and any new regarding the notebook pro.

    • I’ll also keep checking, the bios updates are such a pain to get hold of. I wish Xiaomi would have them at least listed on their website!

  16. The instructions I wrote so that everyone on the Chinese forum would understand how to flash it. It was not very obvious and the person who posted the bios file expected you to figure it out. Chris has nearly copied it verbatim here but its OK since I put in a couple of safeguards to help you out since flashing is always scary. It’s best to go out to get some fresh air while it flashes.

    The reason why the fingerprint no longer works is because the keys on the TPM2 within the Intel Management Engine [ME] (note that we have a virtual TPM here) will get fully reset when you flash. The update will reconfigure the Intel Management Engine. We can see this in the increase of the OPI link speed from 2GT/s to 4GT/s which prevents the PCIE bus from being bottle-necked. See here for an example of why: https://egpu.io/forums/pc-setup/skykaby-lake-u-cpu-opi-gt2-half-bandwidth-issue/

    The exciting thing is that the ME remains unlocked so with the right tools you can re-flash it. BIOS remains locked. You need to head over to win-raid to get tools to change the ME configuration. You can dump the bios with this 0300 update, get the ME configured and then flash it. Make sure you do not touch the Platform Engine in FITC. Use FPTW to flash, do a -greset and you will have tweaked the ME.

    There is potentially an increase in the Graphics performance so I would suggest Chris re-do a review testing this update out. His reviews make sense. There is also a possibility for temperatures running higher and battery life being a little less.

    I raised the potential of the OPI link in this post: http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/t-13979492
    Using the browser translator is the only way to deal with this website. You can login with your facebook or normal xiaomi account.

    My user handle on the bbs.xiaomi.cn forums is Mi_1757975919

    My original instructions made as I completed the flashing. See it will date after my Crystal Disk report.
    http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/t-13986845-3-o1#17

    Chris seems to have left out this updating the Intel ME post.
    http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/t-13986845-3-o1#18

    This guy thought I was techtablets…
    http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/t-13986845-1-o1#58

    This is my post saying I am not techtablets:
    http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/t-13986845-1-o1#64

    The great thing with Xiaomi is there is a community behind it, even if technical support is still lackluster. The posts you can translate will say millet a lot the time. Xiaomi is such a common word like Apple for the Chinese.

    Anyone who has not patch the intel vulnerability, go here:
    http://en.miui.com/thread-1169688-1-1.html

    No major issues to be noticed in this bios.

    • Thank you your work and this post. I hope you don’t mind me posting that as it’s super helpful. I did link to the original thread. I’m using translators so it’s not easy to follow everything.

    • Do you know how to properly dump and transfer a newer BIOS from another machine? Apparently new Pro’s go with XMAKB5R0P0401 or even XMAKB5R0P0502 preinstalled and they don’t have any problems with SSD speeds anymore.

      • http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/t-13986845#64
        It’s fine Chris. I wanted you to find a solution to the main issue with the laptop. There’s no thunderbolt but its ok. It has awesome battery life.

        The only way that seems feasible is an SPI flasher (extremely risky) to place it back (unless you have the tools to get it back to being flash-able with H2OFFT (this is the flashing tool loaded with the flash script. If you use the unlockme script, I think your entire bios can be dumped with fptw (do check if it works).

        1. Do all steps in original guide until Step5. Make sure you disable secure boot and so on.
        2. Using the copy of CSME tools suitable to your platform, run this command in an administrator command prompt:
        fptw -d spi.bin
        3. Entire flash is now dumped and can be flashed in portions,

        Honestly I’d avoid the 502 version since it disables under-volt offsetting which Chris has been so kind to show us how to use. http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/t-13969048 There are quite a few that are downgrading from it if you read the posts. It requires an edit to the platform.ini file.

        I’ve been trying to get the people on the Chinese Xiaomi forum to dump their bios and share…. http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/t-13979492-n5#5 < this was before someone posted the 0300 bios on the forum which he got from a XIaomi service centre.

        I am using translators too but I am picking up patterns such as "brush" as flash and "millet" as Xiaomi. Each glyph for them means a word so just bear with the translation. You need to show original page to navigate their forum then translate it back to read.

        • http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/t-14159950 <- chinese post

          0502 Bios is in the wild as a bios only update.

          Download at link below (link only available for 1 week)
          https://we.tl/NWPmPP6aj2

          As noted previously this BIOS version disables under-volting and it is the latest version out in production. I might play with it next year if no other version comes out but feel free

    • After my bios flash from 200 to 300, I’ve seemed to have lost my fingerprint. Every time I try to set up a new one, nothing pops up, can you please tell me how to fix this? Thanks.

      • Same, flashed yesterday.
        In Windows Hello configurations I can enter the fingerprint configuration, but it isn’t stored so I can’t sign in with fingerprint.
        If anyone can have a solution would be nice.

  17. Hi Chris,

    I know this is not the topic, but do you know about Daysky A3 Notebook?!
    https://www.gearbest.com/laptops/pp_1050959.html?wid=21

    It sounds really good for the price… $320 for 8gb ram + 128SSD+1TB HDD + Intel Celeron J3455 Quad Core 1.5GHz, up to 2.3GHz + 14′ FHD + WIFI: 802.11 a/b/g/n

    I’m interested but havent seen any comments or reviews…

    Just saw this one and in the comments there is someone talking about a bios virus..so I was a little bit afraid..
    https://blog.banggood.com/is-it-a-200-macbook-the-daysky-dk41-36712.html

  18. Last time i stoped using winrar….often errors, missing or corrupted with 7zip no problem. But this is important flash so better to be sure…

  19. I got before starts flashing this: Internal error 20. Permission is denied by the user. And it reboots system…

    • Ok, I’ve solved it

      • What did you do to solve it? Please share if others have that issue.

      • I’m getting the same problem, could you please tell us how you solved?

        • Run up to Step5. Errata in the guide: “type unlockme into the prompt and hit enter”. It should restart then turn off and try Step4 to boot into Tianocore shell and then let it set the drive to fs something. Resume at Step6.

          • Thanks now it worked, in simple terms, just dont let it boot to windows after typing unlockme

  20. I posted this on the Xiaomi Forums and then linked it to you Chris. It was extremely frustrating not being able to unlock the speed previously so i obsessively searched for a fix until I found it.

    I tried it first on my laptop before I posted.

    Before:
    ———————————————————————–
    CrystalDiskMark 5.5.0 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo
    Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
    ———————————————————————–
    * MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
    * KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

    Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1844.450 MB/s
    Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1342.318 MB/s
    Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 527.816 MB/s [128861.3 IOPS]
    Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 457.508 MB/s [111696.3 IOPS]
    Sequential Read (T= 1) : 1020.975 MB/s
    Sequential Write (T= 1) : 1258.613 MB/s
    Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 46.426 MB/s [ 11334.5 IOPS]
    Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 175.768 MB/s [ 42912.1 IOPS]

    Test : 1024 MiB [C: 37.0% (51.6/139.6 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec]
    Date : 2017/11/26 13:34:04
    OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 16299] (x64)

    After:
    ———————————————————————–
    CrystalDiskMark 5.5.0 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo
    Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
    ———————————————————————–
    * MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
    * KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

    Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 2866.684 MB/s
    Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1426.175 MB/s
    Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 533.716 MB/s [130301.8 IOPS]
    Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 449.791 MB/s [109812.3 IOPS]
    Sequential Read (T= 1) : 1141.668 MB/s
    Sequential Write (T= 1) : 1418.349 MB/s
    Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 46.820 MB/s [ 11430.7 IOPS]
    Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 179.053 MB/s [ 43714.1 IOPS]

    Test : 1024 MiB [C: 36.7% (51.3/139.6 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec]
    Date : 2017/11/26 18:24:03
    OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 16299] (x64)

  21. It seems that some users have found problems with the fans after updating to this version

    • Really? Not good. best to only update if that drive speed is a real issue for you.

      • I dont know if the affected users are only that were shipped out with 0401 BIOS version instead of 0200, the chinese forum (and another russian forum too) is hard to understand sometimes…

      • This is not true. I’ve flashed 300 over 200 and the fan behavior remained the same – they just dont turn off after a while – there’s always a slight background noise – doesn’t look like it affects battery life though.

      • If you’re running the update, can you check if there’s any problem with the fans and the thermal control pls? Would apreciate that

        • Yes, it remained the same. It just never turns the fans off completely. The same problem that caused this post http://c.mi.com/thread-466539-1-0.html and this post https://www.reddit.com/r/Xiaomi/comments/7b5ro1/mi_notebook_pro_fan_noise/ and a lot of other posts long before the BIOS update was available. And there’s still no fan control neither in 300 nor in 401 nor in 502.

          • Fans will cause a ruckus will occur if an app gets stuck running and using up CPU in the background. It can be anything from the anitmalware scan to the updater on logitech options. Best to slim down what starts with the PC.

            Fans never switch off fully unless you are unplugged and on battery saver for a bit.

          • I’m on battery saver and cooling policy: passive, it just doesn’t happen, not on battery not ever.

        • Can also confirm that the fans spin up way too early mine got delivered with the 502 version

  22. Can you reupload the .rar file? it seems to be damaged every time I download it :S

    • I’ve uploaded it again. Please try now. Maybe its google drive blocking it? But I’ve uploaded it, then downloaded it on other PC and extracted it with WINRAR, its fine here.

      • Winrar says it’s a corrupted file, and downloading from an android device says that it’s corrupted too 🙁
        I’ve tried also with 7zip, it seems to be extracting the files correctly, but not sure if they’re still damaged or corrupted. The download link is from google drive? The download link has said nothing about google drive

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