EdgeXpert MS-C931 — SOCFW 2.152.15 and PD FW 5.22 needed to fix driver-EC communication

[ka15e902e8]

System: MSI EdgeXpert MS-C931
Current BSP: GA2 OTA2 (2026-03-04)
OS: Ubuntu 24.04, Kernel 6.17.0-1014-nvidia
Driver: nvidia-driver-580-open 580.142

Issue

The NVIDIA GPU driver cannot establish full communication with the EC on the EdgeXpert. Specifically, the driver-EC
mailbox (used to read power budget and GPU configuration) is not initializing correctly. Symptoms:

- nvidia-smi reports GPU power limit as N/A and GPU model as Unknown
- GPU defaults to a conservative 2418 MHz clock (max is 3003 MHz) due to unknown power budget
- SW Power Capping events accumulate, periodically locking GPU power to ~13W
- nvidia-spark-ota-check reports EC/SOCFW/USBPD as <missing> — the tool cannot read firmware versions via its
detection protocol on MSI hardware

GPU compute is functional (~70W during inference) but performance is degraded due to the missing power budget
information.

---
Diagnostics (sudo dmidecode -t 45)

Firmware Component Name: FLASH
Firmware Version: SBP:R:2.148.24

Firmware Component Name: UEFI
Firmware Version: MSI_UEFI_40_1.6.0

Firmware Component Name: EC Firmware
Firmware Version: 4.1.60

Firmware Component Name: PD Firmware
Firmware Version: PD0 FW1: 5.0, FW2: 4.10
PD1 FW1: 5.0, FW2: 4.10

---
Root Cause

Comparing against the NVIDIA DGX Spark Founders Edition (OTA2604), which has full driver-EC communication working:

┌───────────┬─────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│ Component │ EdgeXpert (current) │ Founders Edition (working) │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ SOCFW │ 2.148.24 │ 2.152.15 │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ PD FW2 │ 4.10 │ 5.22 │
├───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ EC │ 4.1.60 (MSI) │ 3.3.2 (NVIDIA) │
└───────────┴─────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘

SOCFW 2.152.15 is the version that fixes the power delivery and mailbox communication on the Founders Edition
(confirmed on NVIDIA developer forums:
https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/dgx-spark-performance-degradation-gpu-power-draw-issue/361294). The EdgeXpert is
currently one SOCFW version behind.

---
Request

Please publish an updated BSP for the MS-C931 that includes:
1. SOCFW 2.152.15 (or MSI-equivalent)
2. PD firmware FW2: 5.22 (or MSI-equivalent)

The current GA2 OTA2 BSP (paired with EC9310N1MSI.40170.bin) is the only available release. A follow-up BSP pairing
newer SOCFW + PD firmware with an updated EC binary would resolve this.

Happy to provide additional diagnostic output if helpful.

 

[Athrun]

Thank you for your detailed analysis and for sharing the diagnostic data.
MSI has already started the development and validation of the next BSP release aligned with OTA2604, which includes updated firmware components (SOCFW, PD, and EC).
The validation process is currently in progress, and the updated BSP & OS is targeted to be completed and published via LVFS around May.
We appreciate your patience in the meantime.

 

[Athrun]

Thank you for your patience.
The DGX OS OTA2604 release, along with the related firmware updates, has completed validation and has been uploaded to LVFS.
The latest DGX OS image is now available for download from the MSI EdgeXpert official website below:

MSI EdgeXpert Download Page

Please proceed with the update and let us know if there are any further questions or issues.

 

[ka15e902e8]

Thank you. It is working properly now.