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**Brabbelbla** · (This post was last modified: 10-25-2012, 04:36 AM by Brabbelbla.)

Alright, went for it and flashed. And ik works fine. After some scary moments for me. So, UEFI boot, here I come.
@TimeWalker: thanks for uploading the BIOS.

I asked krzysio30 and he sent me his A16 capsule, which gave me same result: I couldn't do anything. Did a hex compare on his capsule and the A16 capsule I made before, indeed they were identical. He tried with my capsule as well, same result for him. I even downflashed my BIOS to A16 to make sure I was doing everything exactly identical as he did, same result. Only thing I could think of he might have a 3D model, whereas I have a non-3D model. And I have permanently disabled computrace, but that shouldn't cause these differences, am I right?

Just to be sure, the file should be named exactly (upper-case and lower-case) BIOS.cap, right?

And as a final thing, for those who are able to enter setup or the boot menu but not boot their OS with the recovery capsule: Windows PE (version 3.0 found inside here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/...px?id=5753) might be interesting. Gives you a lightweight Windows Vista/7/8-like OS to boot from USB or CD/DVD, should be enough to run WinFlash in case of a bad flash.

**kasar** · 10-24-2012, 11:16 AM

I am investigating several things now:

* create a bootable windows XP usb to see if we can flash from there by using the backup bios. (almost done, will give feedback when I check if it works or not.)
* investigate how to update CPU microcodes to see if we can give Ivy bridge support (need help for this ^^)
* add XTU support to the bios some people got it working by adding some modules to the bios: "PerfTuneDxe PerfTunePei PerfTuneSmm"
however I heard chance of bricking by adding modules is really high, need also help with that ^^

some interesting topics about XTU bios hacking

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-ST...ptio-Tools
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-s...t-run.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-cl...ds-27.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-cl...ds-28.html

**TimeWalker** · 10-24-2012, 01:05 PM

kasar thats a long todo list hehe Tongue

I was wondering if anyone was able to setup Intel's Anti-Theft with their XPS/Vostro ? I've read an official statement that AT is not supported on the Vostro line-up and it appears that support for AT only comes with new ultrabook machines. However Tiano bios has the feature enabled in the bios my default (also it's locked from the factory, so you can't really see it unless you unlock ME) meaning the hardware part is definitely there (may require fw update much like ucode) .. the software part is missing though .. and it requires a code to activate the service via Intel ... so, anyone have any idea ? Huh

In regards to modules, I was going to attempt something as well .. use S3Save and S3resume modules from A04 and integrate them in A11 bios to see if it would fix sleep issues for certain OS (*hint hint*). Dell is not really good at providing up-to date drivers for their hardware, so even though Windows 8 is due 2 days .. i won't be upgrading any time soon it seems.. I've asked DellCares on twitter and they said they will have new bios and drivers up on their support side by the end of the month. I just hope the new bios they are going to roll out (enabling SecureBoot and stuff as per Win8 requirements) is not a derivative of the 17R-SE bios .. because if it is - we're losing all the advanced options right away.

**kasar** · (This post was last modified: 10-24-2012, 04:01 PM by kasar.)

yeah, it is a big todo list ^^

mmm, I'm having troubles booting win xp from usb in a virtual machine, not sure if it is related with the vmachine or not.

anyway, while testing stuff, I found something wich could be way more interesting than having a big, heavy and useless windows installation on a usb stick wasting time and resources.

and it is a way of flashing from DOS.

I found a app named flashit.exe

it talk about fd files for efi, thats why I am not sure if I should flash the big wph file, or the small Fvrecovery.fd file wich is almost like the size of our BIOS.cap backups.

**TimeWalker** · 10-25-2012, 03:44 AM

Just checked my ucode btw .. its 0x14 .. Dell is slacking.

**jkbuha** · 10-25-2012, 04:29 AM

Guys - just an update - am preparing a howto for the ucode updating for Dell Phoenix bioses. Been really busy over the last few weeks and haven't had a full day to do this properly. Hopefully should be ready by tomorrow so we can start looking at automatically patching the ucode from bios updates.

On a related note - has anyone successfully managed to flash a bios from recovery mode (dos, win7/8, winpe, winxp?)

**kasar** · 10-25-2012, 07:00 AM

cant wait for that ^^

I sadly I wasnt able to boot any windows yet from a usb drive, I was just able to boot DOS from the usb, and all the flashers I tried didnt worked, tried to flash the main wph file or the fd, but both of them gave size error before start flashing so the flashing process aborted.

**TimeWalker** · (This post was last modified: 10-25-2012, 07:41 AM by TimeWalker.)

Windows PE most likely wont allow flashing because its not a full-fledged os, nor is it a lite os either. Its a derrivative with vesa VGA graphics support and as such winflash will most likely fail because it has to enter and leave S3 sleep state with the update capsule in memory to initiate the firmware update boot mode.

Win 8 is due tomorrow, meaning 'Windows to go' will be available to try.

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk 2

**jkbuha** · 10-25-2012, 07:50 AM

HOWTO update Microcode on PhoenixDell Laptops

Credits go to djjonastybe for the initial inspiration and howto for AMI Aptio. I have just modified the routine for the Phoenix specific code.

1) Download latest microcode from Intel's website. Latest version at time of writing is here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_D...e&lang=eng

2) Download the microcode extraction tool from here: https://rapidshare.com/#!download%7C556p...14%7C0%7C0

3) Find out the microcode (cpuid) of your CPU. For my i7-2620m the microcode is: 0x206a7. Use MMTool, CPUz or worst case GIYF.

4) Run the microdecode tool on the untarred intel file and extract all files to a subdirectory. One of the files extracted will contain the microcode in (3). Open this file with your favourite hex editor and copy all bytes to RAM/Clipboard etc.

Now this is the tricky part. Worked for me but need verification from other Phoenix mobo families.

5) Open up your latest (modded or normal) bios with PhoenixDell (ie: the BIOS1_xxx.WPH).

6) Click Advanced and select all the Control Options.

7) Click GO, and when prompted to modify files, open the F33E36...ROM binary (4MB+ file). Note the actual file size in bytes.

8) Do a little endian search for your cpuid. For my cpu from 3 above, 0x206a7 = search for "a7 06 02"

9) At the first result, look for the preceding 12 bytes before the cpuid. The byte sequence should be 01 00 00 00 (25 00) <-cpu microccde revision which should also correspond to the first bytes of the file contents from (4). Note that you can check the current vs new microcode in your bios vs the one you downloaded from intel.

10) Right this is where you need to be careful. Paste all the bytes you have copied from (4) in replace/over-write mode at the offset point (01) 00 00 00. The contents of the new microcode may be larger than the old microcode - don't worry if so, your new bytes will just land in a field of FF FF FFs. It's not an issue. What is an issue is that the resulting filesize has to be the same as the original.

11) Save and click ok on PhoenixDell. Reply Yes when asked to reintegrate the F33...ROM

12) You should have a newly updated microcoded BIOS Smile

Works fine on my 15z (with new 0x28 microcode). Please report back on all mobos!

**kasar** · 10-25-2012, 08:25 AM

huge thx jkbuha Smile

just need to confirm some thing

[Image: infoon.png]

relating to those software (intel XTU on the left, aida64 on the right)

my current microcode update is 0x23 (you have 0x28 updated)

about the cpuid, it says it is 000206a7, do this means it is the same as yours? (0x206a7)

also, is not clear wich file I have to use, here is the files the microcode tool outputed from the last microcode file.

Code:
cpu00000f25_plat00000010_ver0000002c_date20040826.bin

cpu00000f26_plat00000002_ver00000010_date20040805.bin

cpu00000f33_plat0000000d_ver0000000c_date20050421.bin

cpu00000683_plat00000008_ver00000008_date19991015.bin

cpu0000068a_plat00000010_ver00000001_date20001102.bin

cpu00000681_plat00000010_ver00000011_date19990921.bin

cpu00000653_plat00000001_ver00000010_date19990628.bin

cpu0000066d_plat00000008_ver00000006_date19990312.bin

cpu00001632_plat00000000_ver00000002_date19980610.bin

cpu00000681_plat00000001_ver0000000d_date19990921.bin

cpu00000650_plat00000008_ver00000045_date19990525.bin

cpu00000f27_plat00000008_ver00000039_date20030604.bin

cpu00000f4a_plat0000005d_ver00000002_date20050610.bin

cpu0000066d_plat00000002_ver00000005_date19990312.bin

cpu00000686_plat00000001_ver00000007_date20000505.bin

cpu00000f29_plat00000002_ver0000002d_date20040811.bin

cpu00000f07_plat00000001_ver00000012_date20020716.bin

cpu00000660_plat00000001_ver0000000a_date19990505.bin

cpu00000f07_plat00000002_ver00000008_date20001115.bin

cpu00000f24_plat00000004_ver0000001e_date20030605.bin

cpu00000665_plat00000010_ver00000003_date19990505.bin

cpu00000695_plat00000080_ver00000047_date20041109.bin

cpu00000f4a_plat0000005c_ver00000004_date20051214.bin

cpu00000f68_plat00000022_ver00000009_date20060714.bin

cpu00000686_plat00000010_ver00000008_date20000505.bin

cpu00000f27_plat00000002_ver00000038_date20030604.bin

cpu00000f32_plat0000000d_ver0000000a_date20040511.bin

cpu000006b4_plat00000020_ver00000002_date20020111.bin

cpu000006a1_plat00000004_ver00000001_date20000306.bin

cpu00000681_plat00000004_ver00000010_date19990921.bin

cpu00000650_plat00000001_ver00000040_date19990525.bin

cpu00000f29_plat00000004_ver0000002e_date20040811.bin

cpu00000f49_plat000000bd_ver00000003_date20050421.bin

cpu00000f0a_plat00000004_ver00000014_date20020716.bin

cpu00000f43_plat0000009d_ver00000005_date20050421.bin

cpu00000653_plat00000008_ver0000000d_date19990518.bin

cpu00000f12_plat00000004_ver0000002e_date20030502.bin

cpu00000650_plat00000002_ver00000041_date19990525.bin

cpu00000695_plat00000010_ver00000007_date20041109.bin

cpu000006a0_plat00000004_ver00000003_date20000110.bin

cpu0000066d_plat00000020_ver00000007_date19990505.bin

cpu00000681_plat00000008_ver0000000f_date19990921.bin

cpu000006b4_plat00000010_ver00000001_date20020110.bin

cpu00000695_plat00000020_ver00000007_date20041109.bin

cpu0000066a_plat00000008_ver0000000d_date19990505.bin

cpu00000681_plat00000020_ver0000000e_date19990921.bin

cpu00000671_plat00000004_ver00000014_date19980811.bin

cpu00000686_plat00000004_ver00000002_date20000504.bin

cpu00000f27_plat00000004_ver00000037_date20030604.bin

cpu00000686_plat00000002_ver0000000a_date20000504.bin

cpu00000f0a_plat00000001_ver00000013_date20020716.bin

cpu00000652_plat00000001_ver0000002a_date19990512.bin

cpu00000672_plat00000004_ver00000038_date19990922.bin

cpu00000673_plat00000004_ver0000002e_date19990910.bin

cpu000006b1_plat00000010_ver0000001c_date20010215.bin

cpu000006e8_plat00000020_ver00000039_date20051115.bin

cpu000006fd_plat00000001_ver000000a4_date20101002.bin

cpu000006f2_plat00000001_ver0000005d_date20101002.bin

cpu00010661_plat00000080_ver00000044_date20101004.bin

cpu000006f7_plat00000040_ver0000006b_date20101002.bin

cpu00000f62_plat00000004_ver0000000f_date20051215.bin

cpu000006fb_plat00000008_ver000000bb_date20101003.bin

cpu000006fd_plat00000080_ver000000a4_date20101002.bin

cpu000106ca_plat00000004_ver00000107_date20090825.bin

cpu00000f47_plat0000009d_ver00000003_date20050421.bin

cpu00000f34_plat0000001d_ver00000017_date20050421.bin

cpu000006fb_plat00000080_ver000000ba_date20101003.bin

cpu000006f6_plat00000020_ver000000d1_date20101001.bin

cpu000006fb_plat00000004_ver000000bc_date20101003.bin

cpu000106ca_plat00000008_ver00000107_date20090825.bin

cpu000006fa_plat00000080_ver00000095_date20101002.bin

cpu000106ca_plat00000001_ver00000107_date20090825.bin

cpu00010661_plat00000002_ver00000042_date20101004.bin

cpu00010661_plat00000001_ver00000043_date20101004.bin

cpu000006ec_plat00000080_ver00000059_date20060912.bin

cpu000006f7_plat00000010_ver0000006a_date20101002.bin

cpu00020661_plat00000001_ver00000104_date20091023.bin

cpu00010676_plat00000040_ver0000060f_date20100929.bin

cpu00000f64_plat00000034_ver00000004_date20051223.bin

cpu000006f6_plat00000001_ver000000d0_date20100930.bin

cpu000106c2_plat00000001_ver00000217_date20090410.bin

cpu00000f48_plat00000001_ver0000000c_date20060508.bin

cpu000006f2_plat00000020_ver0000005c_date20101002.bin

cpu000006fb_plat00000010_ver000000ba_date20101003.bin

cpu00000f48_plat00000002_ver0000000e_date20080115.bin

cpu000006ec_plat00000020_ver00000054_date20060501.bin

cpu000106c2_plat00000004_ver00000218_date20090410.bin

cpu000006f6_plat00000004_ver000000d2_date20101001.bin

cpu00000f48_plat0000005f_ver00000007_date20050630.bin

cpu00010676_plat00000004_ver0000060f_date20100929.bin

cpu000106d1_plat00000008_ver00000029_date20100930.bin

cpu000006fd_plat00000020_ver000000a4_date20101002.bin

cpu000106c2_plat00000008_ver00000219_date20090410.bin

cpu00000f41_plat000000bd_ver00000017_date20050422.bin

cpu000006fb_plat00000020_ver000000ba_date20101003.bin

cpu00000f44_plat0000009d_ver00000006_date20050421.bin

cpu00000f64_plat00000001_ver00000002_date20051215.bin

cpu00000f65_plat00000001_ver00000008_date20060426.bin

cpu00020661_plat00000002_ver00000105_date20110718.bin

cpu000006b1_plat00000020_ver0000001d_date20010220.bin

cpu00000f24_plat00000002_ver0000001f_date20030605.bin

cpu00000653_plat00000002_ver0000000c_date19990518.bin

cpu00000653_plat00000004_ver0000000b_date19990520.bin

cpu000006fb_plat00000040_ver000000bc_date20101003.bin

cpu00000f0a_plat00000002_ver00000015_date20020821.bin

cpu0000068a_plat00000020_ver00000004_date20001207.bin

cpu00000686_plat00000080_ver0000000c_date20000504.bin

cpu000006d6_plat00000020_ver00000018_date20041017.bin

cpu00000683_plat00000020_ver00000007_date19991015.bin

cpu00000f29_plat00000008_ver0000002f_date20040811.bin

cpu00000652_plat00000002_ver0000002c_date19990517.bin

cpu0000068a_plat00000080_ver00000005_date20001207.bin

cpu00000f25_plat00000001_ver00000029_date20040811.bin

cpu0000066a_plat00000020_ver0000000b_date19990505.bin

cpu00000f24_plat00000010_ver00000021_date20030610.bin

cpu00000652_plat00000004_ver0000002b_date19990512.bin

cpu00000f25_plat00000004_ver0000002b_date20040811.bin

cpu00000651_plat00000001_ver00000040_date19990525.bin

cpu00000f41_plat00000002_ver00000016_date20050421.bin

cpu000106ca_plat00000010_ver00000107_date20090825.bin

cpu00000f25_plat00000002_ver0000002a_date20040811.bin

cpu0000066a_plat00000002_ver0000000c_date19990505.bin

cpu000306a9_plat00000012_ver00000013_date20120716.bin

cpu000106a4_plat00000003_ver00000011_date20090421.bin

cpu000206d7_plat0000006d_ver0000070d_date20120522.bin

cpu00020652_plat00000012_ver0000000d_date20110901.bin

cpu000206a7_plat00000012_ver00000028_date20120424.bin

cpu000106e4_plat00000009_ver00000002_date20100308.bin

cpu000206d6_plat0000006d_ver00000619_date20120522.bin

cpu000106e5_plat00000013_ver00000005_date20110901.bin

cpu0001067a_plat00000044_ver00000a0b_date20100928.bin

cpu00020655_plat00000092_ver00000003_date20110901.bin

cpu00010676_plat00000001_ver0000060f_date20100929.bin

cpu000006fb_plat00000001_ver000000ba_date20101003.bin

cpu00010676_plat00000010_ver0000060f_date20100929.bin

cpu00010677_plat00000010_ver0000070a_date20100929.bin

cpu0001067a_plat00000011_ver00000a0b_date20100928.bin

cpu00010676_plat00000080_ver0000060f_date20100929.bin

cpu0001067a_plat000000a0_ver00000a0b_date20100928.bin

cpu000206f2_plat00000005_ver00000036_date20120412.bin

thanks in advance ^^

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