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

[follow_me]

what i mean was the L502x has 2 mpcie ports one for the wifi card the other for the tv tuner/wwan card but i would like to install and msata ssd
i reseached and read that while the port is the same the bios has to be able to extend the sata controller to the mpcie port in order for it to work
so i was wondering if some one here had a look at the bios for the dell precision m4600 or a lenovo or sum-thing if the required files or packages can be added to the l502x bios to enable the system to see the msata ssd

is that clearer ?

It's not possible because it's not a soft issue
mSATA is electrically compatible with mPCIe, but data signals are connected to PCIe controller instead of SATA controller, and it is a hardware issue and there is no way fix this by modding bios

Unless you can find a ssd with onboard sata controller designed to be used in mPCi-e port

[follow_me]

Does anyone know is it possible to replace built-in driver with a custom one from .efi file ?
and how to make it load at boot time ?

[humanitybg]

Thanks for the feedback. Do you know how to integrate the 540 and 550 roms into your bios (ie as per my first post) so I'll just attach the vbioses to the first post instead of a full bios?

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Sorry for the late reply mate, I was really busy with personal projects. It would be fine to add the roms, I would love to give it a try myself. I've tried it once before but with no success, about time things changed. =D

Cheers,
d*

[Skreem2]

ok thanks man well the ssd's with built in controllers are discontinued or really expensive its best i just get a regular ssd and replace my optical drive or sum thing cuz a 512GB ssd is alot of cash

[follow_me]

ok thanks man well the ssd's with built in controllers are discontinued or really expensive its best i just get a regular ssd and replace my optical drive or sum thing cuz a 512GB ssd is alot of cash

take a look at HDD Caddy
I've bought one of this - works fine

The only thing you should consider is that optical drive can be connected to SATA II port insted of SATA III (like in my l702x) - this means that max speed you can get is limited to 3.0 Gb/s (~375MB/s)

[HairyCube]

take a look at HDD Caddy
I've bought one of this - works fine

When you restart your computer (e.g. press CTRL-ALT-DEL while in BIOS), does the power to the caddy get cut off? I have this problem with the second HDD on my Vostro, was wondering if it's the same for XPS users. If it isn't, perhaps it's possible to find what's causing this behavior...
On Vostro, basically the second SATA port gets reset on every restart. Same thing happens to USB ports.

[follow_me]

When you restart your computer (e.g. press CTRL-ALT-DEL while in BIOS), does the power to the caddy get cut off?

I don't know - have installed ssd there

Most possibly, this behavior is meaned to reset odd in case of troubles, like bad disk slow detection, when odd became locked and you can't take out the disk from it

[HairyCube]

I don't know - have installed ssd there

Most possibly, this behavior is meaned to reset odd in case of troubles, like bad disk slow detection, when odd became locked and you can't take out the disk from it

You're probably right, but on Vostro it can't tell the difference between ODD and HDD. So it resets anything connected to the second SATA port. It certainly contributes to harddisk wear, not sure about SSD, but I would be very concerned about it. Also, check this out: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/...ve-is-cold
The guy had stutters, and OCZ toolbox reported a lot of power cuts with an SSD installed into the optical bay. I wonder if that's the case with XPS too.

I remember someone mentioned that XPS does recognize the difference (and supposedly doesn't reset the power if a HDD is detected), so maybe some modules can be ported from it to Vostro BIOS to support this functionality. But before I try anything, I need to confirm it

[Brabbelbla]

I have an XPS L702X with two HDD's factory-installed. Just tried, seems no power gets cut off or SATA ports re-initialized when resetting (Ctrl+Alt+Del) the machine, for both the HDD's and the ODD. HDD's remain spinning, and the ODD doesn't spin up.

[HairyCube]

Thanks... I found a lot of SATA and USB related stuff in the BBL region of the firmware, which means it can be bricked easily, so I can't touch it because I don't have the equipment needed for hardware reflash...
However, there are also some interesting modules in the BIOS region, I will try playing with those.