(UEFI) Dell XPS 15z L511z modded BIOS - and HOWTO

[CodeRush]

It is possible to convert MBR to GPT and vice versa using PartMagic LiveCD, but it's not an easy process.
Also you don't have to use PFlash.efi and stuff. Make a full BIOS dump so I can write a converter between Dell's dumb BIOS image files (which reminds me the Inception, as I once said on AL) and normal flat BIOS image with all regions at their places. And that image you can flash with FPT (-bios or fully).

[TimeWalker]

There's a full dump from @kasar's laptop. http://www.mediafire.com/?33qqq6nxaac3xav
It seems like the algo to transfer data between a blank new rom and a rom on chip is somewhat similar to Asus'. NVRAM variables get merged from both roms, MAC address, express code service tag and other data is carried over and then reflashed onto the chip.

There's a DOS version of PFlash actually, but I never gave it a test.
ftp://ftp.icg.eu/Drivers/Printers/.../Dr...oenix/DOS/

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EC part of the firmware is missing though, it's on another chip, but is included in the capsule that DELL provides. It starts at offset 00400000h inside the OEM capsule.

[CodeRush]

EC part of the firmware is missing though, it's on another chip, but is included in the capsule that DELL provides. It starts at offset 00400000h inside the OEM capsule.

That is why they were forced to mess with PFlash.efi, I think.
Can EC firmware be flashed with userspace tools?

[TimeWalker]

Not that I know of. EC firmware is 132Kb, the PFlash indeed strips this part of the capsule and flashes to an SPI connected with EC in a subroutine, after flashing the primary chip regions. The W25X40VSIG (or AIG, i'm not entirely sure) chip is not even seen from FPT.

Platform: Intel® HM67 Express Chipset

— Flash Devices —

W25Q32BV ID:0xEF4016

Size: 4096KB (32768Kb)

We don't have a dump of the W25X40 from our machines, but here's one from a Foxconn Z75M desktop board that uses same ITE IT8158E EC controller: http://www.mediafire.com/?992snz85y0i2q96

[kasar]

@TW

well, Dell's computers are good, they have good hardware, but their thermal paste is cheap and sucks, their bioses are also, ... basic

however with both hardware and software modding the machines can be wonderfull

I love my machine like it is at the moment, it doesnt matter, if it have a crappy i3 now, it works fine and I have access to all the firmware thanks to the sockets and stuff we unlocked here ^^

@all

yeah, thats the complete backup I made of the bios chip,you can use it for analysis and compare it with other dumps, however it include all my hardware details like mac addreses, and some tag numbers,bios passwords and some stuff, so plz, dont distribute it outside this forums too much,that dump info is the thing wich make my laptop different than others, I think you know what I mean

about the missing EC info, well, there is another 512 Kb chip at my motherboard, I think I already posted the info on previous pages, however installing a socket there could be a little hard.

also if some of the original chip legs broke during the operation I will be unable to make the dump, I also dont have extra 512 kb chips arround. just the extra 4 Mb ones from the other chip, so things will be hard if something goes wrong, also the chip is located near a chip with very thiny legs, and I am not sure if the socket operation would be sucesfully performed without damage the other hardware components with my cheap soldering iron

also, what beneficts would have access or mod the EC firmware?

does it is really important to also make a dump of that chip? or it is ok with the one I already dumped?

[TimeWalker]

Sorry for exposing your data .. I guess I should have thought about it in the first place, like I did when you first posted it.. I guess I'm not paying enough attention to details lately.
The chip contents won't be anything different to what Dell is making you flash on there. In other words - the capsule's part with EC firmware will be identical to what's on the chip already, because it's just a basic firmware to drive the EC chip. The firmware gets reflashed during every BIOS upgrade/reflash operation. The problem is that there's are no tools like FPT to flash this chip directly.. only via PFlash. I suppose we need to try the Efildr16 DOS thingy as it doesn't look much different from it's .efi brother, but that's for later...

[kasar]

its ok mate, you didnt noticed before ^^

did you shared it on another forums, sites anyway?

lets try keeping it now just inside the team, at least for now

mmm, then I asume there is no need of making hardware mods to the 512 kb chip at least for the moment ^^

about the DOS flashing it is interesting, I want to make a Dos version of the crisis disk, it will be much faster to load and way smaller in size for uploading downloading ^^

[TimeWalker]

God.. Phoenix is taking sh*t to a whole new level... will you just look at it?
http://cl.ly/image/3d1X250E1q3d
http://cl.ly/image/0o2d0O132F1A
http://cl.ly/image/0Y2y3L1n3m1e

So apparently SeccureBoot is the future?
http://cl.ly/image/1O0I0J2b403h

God.. I don't want a new laptop with this crap onboard.

[CodeRush]

@kasar, I promise not to distribute this file. It's needed only as example of BIOS structure on that Dell mashines.
I don't know if someone have a detailed description of where that individual board data is situated, and it's hard to extract that data even if you have full BIOS backup with it, so I think it's not a big thing to worry about.

@TW, you can also try to use latest version on PFlash.efi from UEFI Shell, if I works there.
I totally agree with the new level of crap in SCT 3. Not a single UEFI implementation is perfect, but Phoenix ones are on the top of crappiest implementations ever made.

[kasar]

thx CR

about the data description, I think TW already made a detailed analysis of it.

and yeah hehe, new laptops looks like a toy for kids
I love the old desktop bios, simple but you had the control of all the hardware ^^