[SOLVED] - Dell XPS 14Z without panel

[melka]

Hi all,

First of all, thanks everyone for your hard work.

I have a Dell XPS 14Z with a busted case, everything works fine but it'd be too expensive to rebuild the case and I don't really need this laptop anymore, so I thought about turning it into a media center. I'd like to get it to run without the unnecessary hardware (keyboard, trackpad, ...) and also to remove the LCD panel and just keep the motherboard in a custom case.

The problem I have is that I can't figure out a way to get the laptop to boot with the panel disconnected from the motherboard. I'd like to keep this panel for another project (maybe make a frame to display net-art via a raspberry pi with an hdmi -> lvds board, kind of a diy electric objects' EO1, but this still needs to be tested...)

I've been searching the forum for some infos and I was able to flash the modded A06 bios for this computer, released by Donovan6000.
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-R...7#pid65897

I tried various settings in the advanced tab, under the Video section, and what seems to be a way to get it to not check if a panel is present is to put the primary display to PEG instead of IGFX or SG. When I reboot, video immediately start being output through the display port, but I can only get a blinking white cursor for about a minute and then the cursor stops blinking and I get the 8 beeps of death, can't even access the BIOS. I get this error with the LCD panel connected or not. 
Any other settings I tried always output the video to the LCD panel first and immediately gives me the 8 beeps if I disconnect the panel.

I found a thread on Dell's forum about the Alienware M18x R2 giving the 8 beeps if primary display is set to PEG, and it looks like deactivating Non-Turbo flex support solves the problem, but I don't see this option in the XPS 14Z BIOS.

Sorry for being a BIOS noob...

Does anyone have any suggestion to get this motherboard to boot, either via a combination of BIOS settings, or tricking it into thinking there's a panel connected ?

[melka]

Hello everyone,

I had a hunch that on boot, the computer was looking for an EDID on the LVDS port and would not boot if not found.
I desoldered an EDID EEPROM from a broken videoprojector and soldered it on the EDID lines on the LVDS connector (+3.3V, GND, SDA & SCL)... No more 8 beeps... I installed the HDD and windows boots on the HDMI output of the motherboard

My problem is that if I need to do BIOS modifications, I'll have to replug the panel, but since this computer is going to be a media center, I shouldn't need to go into the BIOS anymore.