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

[TimeWalker]

Sure. Will be at home in a couple of hours to upload.

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk 2

[TimeWalker]

Here are vbioses 2104 from 3450, l502, l511 .. please note that there are diffs for xps 15z and xps 15(r?) vbioses .. which kind of obscures what might be the connector table.

[jkbuha]

Here are the diffs (my 15z on the left, your 3450 on the right

Code:

00000ACA: 6D D5
00000BE8: 40 00
00000C4B: 00 D2
00000C4C: 00 60
00000C59: 00 07
00000C5C: 00 05
00000C63: 00 01
00000C6C: D6 00
00000C6D: 60 00
00000C7A: 08 00
00000C7D: 04 00
00000C83: 20 00
00000C84: 01 00
00000D5F: 00 01
00000D61: 00 01
00000D62: 00 01
00000D63: 00 01
00000D64: 00 01
00000D65: 00 01
00000D66: 01 00
00000D67: 01 00
00001049: 4A 43
0000105A: EB EF
0000105F: 71 7F
00001060: 00 02
00001437: 20 00
000019D6: D2 C8
000019D8: 00 15

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Remembering what I did for the connector tables in OSX, it kind of explains why there is a difference in all three bioses. The port mapping table is different for all three connectors (LVDS, DP, HDMI).

@kasar, @Timewalker - what connectors do you have (ie: HDMI, VGA, DP etc) and if you know the port numbers for each?

Worst case we'll have to apply a diff patch to each newer BIOS...

[jkbuha]

I think I've found the connector table...

@kasar - I don't have time to do this now (and I dont have a HDMI/DP connector to test at the mo) but if you do, could you try the following:

1) From your original v2104 bios, could you copy range 0xc20-0xd1f into the clipboard
2) Paste it into your new v2130/v2137 bios
3) Reboot & cross fingers.
4) If fail, boot through recovery & flash original bios?

[TimeWalker]

http://puu.sh/1mJYX
http://puu.sh/1mJZh
http://puu.sh/1mK0f
http://puu.sh/1mK1h
http://puu.sh/1mK1F

From the looks of it I would say that this part here may be related to connector data:
http://puu.sh/1mK2G

65 2B 61 00 06 4A C8 00 00 58 AA 4A C8 00 00 58 AA 4A D2 00 = DP
65 2B 61 00 06 4A C8 00 00 58 AA 4A C8 00 00 58 AA 4A C8 00 = VGA

But .. none of the string that differ for my Vostro and match for both L502 and L511 can be found in 2130 VBIOS.

---

actually yes, it does look similar to SNB framebuffer from OSX ...

So you may very well be on the right track, jkbuha !

I have LVDS, HDMI, VGA.

---

Testet both VGA and HDMI again today .. both seem to work without any issues. Display wake from sleep and such..

[jkbuha]

so is it working with the patched connector table?

[TimeWalker]

I don't need anything patched .. or at least it looks like I don't
Inspiron 17R SE (from where 2130 is extracted) uses the same port configuration as my vostro: LVDS/VGA/HDMI.

[jkbuha]

Can you check if the range 0xc20-0xd1f is identical in both your original and the 17R roms?

[TimeWalker]

No, they don't really look identical to me ..
http://pastie.org/5191958
they aren't in fact identical at all for the most part.


On a side note ... I've awakened the Devil here .. my brain is toast.
I've initially started comparing A12 for L502 and L511 but turns out bioses are quite different therefore almost every module has diff on these two machines. So I went ahead and got A04 (which has no sleep/wake issues in OSX) and A07 which has problems .. and so do all the later versions.
So I've dismantled the capsule and arranged all the modules by size and started going through A04 and A07 modules side by side using Araxis Merge...
So far I've checked 110 modules (incuding freeforms and firmware volumes) ... the complete list is here: http://pastie.org/5191887
The modules which had changes to them are marked with a series of + signs .. the more there are.. the more important I fell is the module to this issue.
I want guys with L502 go through A06 and the follow up version of the BIOS and compare the modules I've noted with '+' in their XPS BIOSES to see which changed for XPS L502 and which were specific to my Vostro, because version A07 has had a lot of fixes for my machine .. so many modules were affected.

* A07 10/3/2011 Changelog:
1.Enable Discrete AMD VGA fixed mode Support
2.Implement new Fresco USB 3.0 module support
3.Enter S3 and then flash BIOS in OS,system will enter S3 after shutdown.
4.There are some BIOS options will auto-disable after doing some action.
5.Can't Coldboot to USB 3.0 ODD when set CD/DVD as first boot device in BIOS
6.The 3rd place bootable device will change to "disable" after some action.
7.USB HDD without electric power can't boot from USB 3.0 port.
8.Does not implement XHCI BIOS Handoff Correctly
9.System can't boot EPSA via press "Fn+PowerButton"
10.Brightness hotkey loss pop up after flash BIOS
11.Disable unused port 12.update ePSA to C_PG4213

The most probable to cause the sleep wake issue as known by behavior in OSX are USB/RTC/AHCI related modules:
SystemSmmUsbLegacySmm.efi
SystemXhciDxe.efi
SystemUsbBusDxe.efi
SystemAhciBusSmm.efi
SystemRtcRt.efi

These are the ones I'm interested to verify if XPS also had them changed across A06 and the later bios version which broke wake functionality.
Please cooperate
I still have like 200+ modules remaining to check .. but that's for later.

[kasar]

mine?

mine is already at the previous posts of this page as attachment

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/attachment.php?aid=4585

edit: didnt saw the last page, the forums are working bad again for me, slow and un acurate D:

my laptop have hdmi (directly conected to nvidia gpu), minidisplay port and integrated screen (directly conected to intel graphics.)

edit2: Illl check this stuff when I arrive at home