[Dell Latitude D630, Precision M4300 laptop SATA-2 unlock]

[GrzegorzWo]

Hello,

I found this topic because I read somewhere, Dell D630 Sata speed is limited to 1.5 Gb/s. I thought, that it is possible to upload modified bios (like I did in Lenovo ThinkPad T61), but I didn't find any bios with Sata 3.0Gb/s activation...

I read descriptions above, and tried to do the same on my PC. Under windows vista I had problems with phisical memory access (I have never done this before under Win), so I tried under ubuntu. Memory access is also restricted but you can access it simpler than under Windows.

According step 4 from riprop post. I also got simmilar error when hexdump reached 0x100000. I didn't check why (probably it is much more restriced or not configured) - it doesn't metter. The point is, if you want to reach 0xf6ffb800 address with hexdump, you would have to wait a little - this address is from the end of addressing range (almost 4 GB of data have to be dumped before).

To get value from address 0xf6ffb800 I used very simple C application:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>

void main(void)
{

int mem_dev = open("/dev/mem", O_RDWR | O_SYNC);

const uint32_t mem_address = 0xf6dfb800;
uint32_t alloc_mem_size, page_mask, page_size;
void *mem_pointer, *virt_addr;

page_size = sysconf(_SC_PAGESIZE);
alloc_mem_size = (((0x100 / page_size) + 1) * page_size);
page_mask = (page_size - 1);

mem_pointer = mmap(NULL,alloc_mem_size,PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,MAP_SHARED,mem_dev,(mem_address & ~page_mask));

virt_addr = (mem_pointer + (mem_address & page_mask));

printf("value 0x%08x\n", *((int *)virt_addr));

munmap(mem_pointer, alloc_mem_size);

close(mem_dev);
}

To run this application, don't forget to use sudo.
Result in my case was 0xe720ffc2. It is little different than expected 0xde127f03.. Maybe, because ABAR address is placed in 31..12 bits of 24h value? (Address would be 0x1edbf7 in this case. But 0x1edbf7 is not accessible like address 0x100000). Anyway, I checked 0xe720ffc2 value, I received from 0xf6dfb800. Bits 23..20 are equal ... 0010 b (SATA II already configured)! I am still not sure if address 0xf6dfb800 is correct to read SATA parameters from, but I checked what dmesg says about my SATA interfaces...

Code:

[ 1.187216] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: irq 43 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 1.187293] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 3 ports 3 Gbps 0x5 impl SATA mode
[ 1.187298] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: flags: 64bit ncq sntf pm led clo pio slum part ccc ems
:
:
[ 1.196083] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf6dfb800 port 0xf6dfb900 irq 43
:
[ 1.196090] ata5: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf6dfb800 port 0xf6dfba00 irq 43
:
:
[ 1.516246] ata3: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[ 1.516285] ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)

That means only one thing - SATA 3.0 Gb/s is already activated in my Dell D630 laptop
I checked this with gnome-disks benchmark, where average read speed from SSD drive is around 270 MB/s... It is around 2.26 Gb/s (much more than theoretical maximum 1.5 Gb/s for SATA I). Similar speed was reached on Lenovo T61 mentioned at the beginning...

So as a summary - don't worry, Dell D630 (with newest Bios A19) has already SATA 3.0 Gb/s unlocked!

Kind Regards!
Greg Wo

[bohunmike]

Hello,

I found this topic because I read somewhere, Dell D630 Sata speed is limited to 1.5 Gb/s. I thought, that it is possible to upload modified bios (like I did in Lenovo ThinkPad T61), but I didn't find any bios with Sata 3.0Gb/s activation...

I read descriptions above, and tried to do the same on my PC. Under windows vista I had problems with phisical memory access (I have never done this before under Win), so I tried under ubuntu. Memory access is also restricted but you can access it simpler than under Windows.

According step 4 from riprop post. I also got simmilar error when hexdump reached 0x100000. I didn't check why (probably it is much more restriced or not configured) - it doesn't metter. The point is, if you want to reach 0xf6ffb800 address with hexdump, you would have to wait a little - this address is from the end of addressing range (almost 4 GB of data have to be dumped before).

To get value from address 0xf6ffb800 I used very simple C application:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>

void main(void)
{

int mem_dev = open("/dev/mem", O_RDWR | O_SYNC);

const uint32_t mem_address = 0xf6dfb800;
uint32_t alloc_mem_size, page_mask, page_size;
void *mem_pointer, *virt_addr;

page_size = sysconf(_SC_PAGESIZE);
alloc_mem_size = (((0x100 / page_size) + 1) * page_size);
page_mask = (page_size - 1);

mem_pointer = mmap(NULL,alloc_mem_size,PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,MAP_SHARED,mem_dev,(mem_address & ~page_mask));

virt_addr = (mem_pointer + (mem_address & page_mask));

printf("value 0x%08x\n", *((int *)virt_addr));

munmap(mem_pointer, alloc_mem_size);

close(mem_dev);
}

To run this application, don't forget to use sudo.
Result in my case was 0xe720ffc2. It is little different than expected 0xde127f03.. Maybe, because ABAR address is placed in 31..12 bits of 24h value? (Address would be 0x1edbf7 in this case. But 0x1edbf7 is not accessible like address 0x100000). Anyway, I checked 0xe720ffc2 value, I received from 0xf6dfb800. Bits 23..20 are equal ... 0010 b (SATA II already configured)! I am still not sure if address 0xf6dfb800 is correct to read SATA parameters from, but I checked what dmesg says about my SATA interfaces...

Code:

[ 1.187216] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: irq 43 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 1.187293] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 3 ports 3 Gbps 0x5 impl SATA mode
[ 1.187298] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: flags: 64bit ncq sntf pm led clo pio slum part ccc ems
:
:
[ 1.196083] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf6dfb800 port 0xf6dfb900 irq 43
:
[ 1.196090] ata5: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf6dfb800 port 0xf6dfba00 irq 43
:
:
[ 1.516246] ata3: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[ 1.516285] ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)

That means only one thing - SATA 3.0 Gb/s is already activated in my Dell D630 laptop
I checked this with gnome-disks benchmark, where average read speed from SSD drive is around 270 MB/s... It is around 2.26 Gb/s (much more than theoretical maximum 1.5 Gb/s for SATA I). Similar speed was reached on Lenovo T61 mentioned at the beginning...

So as a summary - don't worry, Dell D630 (with newest Bios A19) has already SATA 3.0 Gb/s unlocked!

Kind Regards!
Greg Wo

Sorry for offtop, but i have Dell D630 with A19 Bios and i have limited SATA to 150 MB/s with my Kingston SSD. Can you do bios-mod for me with unlock SATA2 ?
I have installed XP.

Thanks,
Mike