[REQUEST] HP Envy 15-j004 (Touchsmart)

[Derduden]

Hello dear bios modders

I've got this HP laptop (Envy 15-j004) which I would like to unlock. It has a Insyde H20 bios with virtually no settings.
Link to bios images: Google Drive

I read that it could be RSA encrypted / protected, but I tested with Andy P's Phoenix Tool v2.50 and it doesn't say anything about this.

A weird thing is that my bios package from HP contains two images: 01961.bin and 01966.bin, but could be for different models of the laptop.

Link to bios: HP Envy 15-j004
j004 is only the scandinavian name, but it could be anything in the realm of 15-jXXX

So now is this RSA protected (The laptop is from 2014) and if so can I maybe do the EFI shell command method instead?
Or of course even better: Has anyone succesfully modded this bios already? (Couldn't find anything)

Regards Martin

[felipejfc]

It is RSA protected
not moddable atm

[Derduden]

It is RSA protected
not moddable atm

So can I inject changes via EFI?

[felipejfc]

Sure, you can try!
Here is a good material on that, its russian so use google translator


http://habrahabr.ru/post/182676

[Derduden]

Sure, you can try!
Here is a good material on that, its russian so use google translator


http://habrahabr.ru/post/182676

Okay I managed to do the procedure described in your link and it works
I can set things like virtualization and such.
But! I am unable to control the thermal settings, specifically the fan control.
I can set different temperature thresholds in ACPI and so on, but they seem to have no effect. I can also adjust the fan speed, but that also doesn't do anything.
I have two speeds on the fan which are set to 64 (Low) and 100 (High) out of a 100.
Should I post the uefi.log?

So far thank you very much fjfc for the information on how to access it!

[felipejfc]

It's a normal issue... I doenst know why it doenst work... In my notebook I have advanced menus unlocked and fans wouldn't act different if I change values there aswell...

It's not due to the method you are using, maybe @BDMaster have more information to give on this?

btw, very nice that you got injection working with EFI Shell

[Derduden]

Thank you
It wasn't that easy since my russian is a little rusty
What about overclocking settings? It could be that HP has put yet another blockage in the BIOS, who knows? (So no damage can be done neither through fan control nor OC)

[felipejfc]

maybe, but for that kind of mod, then a actual BIOS modding is required, EFI Strings can't help... overclocking is difficult even on unlocked BIOSES, there are some material no it on techinterno forums

[Derduden]

Personally I'm not interested in overclocking, since I've got a i7 4702MQ, which is already a beast.
BUT the noise of the fan is juuuuust a little annoying in an almost perfect laptop...
So if you or anyone knows a way to at least manipulate some thresholds or fan speeds that would be golden!

Anyway thank you for at least getting all the settings back

[Derduden]

Okay I went through the whole bios basically with every setting for controlling the temperature thresholds and fan speeds. No reaction and HWmonitor returns the same threshold values for when the fan starts and it makes the same noise as always.
Furthermore I tried to disable all policies regarding this and this had no effect either.

I am starting to think that HP has chosen to have these settings hardcoded into the bios somehow.

Now I guess my only option that I am left with is applying a voltage drop with a resistor on the physical fan itself.

I must say I'm quite disappointed in HP. My old Dell D630 with Ik8 fan control can be manipulated directly from Windows, so this seems like a really bad joke.

I looked into changing the DSDT table for the bios, set the ACPI version to 4.0 and tried to decompile / compile with Microsoft ASL 4.0 and iASL as well. Both gave a lot of errors upon recompiling, which is just further evidence that HP are really playing us hard...

IF someone has an idea or a thought to add to this please don't hold back!!