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

[nebster]

Well, SPI is just a protocol. If you just have any board such as an arduino or similar (maybe even your router), you can communicate easily with the flasher with a simple program.

@TimeWalker you can get surface mount "sleeves" which just rest on top of the chip and there's no soldering required.

[kasar]

@timewalker

ty

well, I am not going to remove a surface mounted chip either ^^

I was thinking more about adding wires to the motherboard on easy points to solder.

then I can add the conector easly and program the chip by adding a external/internal connector.

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mmm, aparently our flash device just have 8 legs, so it would be easy to attack 8 wires to the motherboard in worst situation ^^

[TimeWalker]

CodeRush is actually in the process of designing a cheapo flasher. I think he has finished his design and ordered custom pxbs this Monday. If all turns out great I can ask him if he has some tricks up his sleeves in regards to our chips.

@nebster Yeah I know about the clip on ribbons, but they are finicky and not really stable. At least the ones I had to deal with weren't. But I don't really feel like tampering with hardware since I have like 1.5 years of warranty on my unit.

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk 2

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That's a SIG part number, we don't nscesarrily have a SIG. Mine is a flat chip 100%, I've seen both it and EC ITE chip while dismanteling the unit.

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk 2

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Get the Quanta schematic online and see the pinout and the actual P/N. My Emerald Lake board has a surface-mounted SPI.

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[kasar]

here is the pinout of the W25Q32BV


you can also download the datasheet at this link

http://www.datasheetdir.com/W25Q32BVSSIG+4MB-FLASH

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ok, just checked the pictures I took from the mobo while I was doing the USB internal mods.

I took the pictures in hopes of find the ICS chip to OC the cpu, but when ppl told me that was missing from sandy bridges motherboard I lost hopes about doing OC by hardware

anyway those pictures allowed me to find the bios chip today

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/5921/dsc0080c.jpg



aparently is pretty easy to solder the wires

I think I will make the internal conector pins while I await news from the flasher method

[TimeWalker]

What can I say.. lucky you!

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[TimeWalker]

Here's your "on the lap" flasher:
[img] http://blog.dros.ws/upload/voskreshaem_g...-dq6/7.jpg[/img]

[img] http://blog.dros.ws/upload/voskreshaem_g.../700/9.jpg [/img]

SPI FlashROMs supported (new are marked with *) ***********************************************
Winbond:
W25Q10B (128kB)
W25Q20BV (256kB)
W25Q40BV (512kB)
W25Q80BV (1MB) - tested OK
W25Q16BV (2MB) - tested OK
W25Q32BV (4MB) W25Q64BV (8MB)
W25Q128BV (16MB)
*W25Q256FV (32MB)

http://blog.dros.ws/upload/voskreshaem_g...spipgm.zip
Or look for a newer one.

spipgmw.exe /i
To identify SPI, specify filename to dump

spipgmw.exe /u
To unlock

spipgmw.exe /e
To erase

spipgmw.exe /p file
To flash

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk 2

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Also, how small should FD and GbE be? ME is roughly 1.5Mb.. 1.33 to be exact, BIOS region is 2.5. What are you left with on a 4 MB chip? :O
Wanna see a complete dump badly.

I got hold of a Lenovo Y570 dump, will see if FD is actually the header of it .. when I'm around a comp that is.

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[TimeWalker]

yeah it's indeed in the header of the entire dump:


you can see FD is locked :|

[kasar]

@all

ok, I made the hardware mods to my laptop.

I has been the whole night soldering and taking appart the laptop meanwhile taking pincs but, well, I made two hardware mods.

* added hardware switch to disconnect internal battery (fast way of clearing password, date and cmos settings)
* added port for programer.


however, I noticed something weird.

I noticed there is another winbond chip in the board!

however it have a different name W25x40vsig



what do you think that is the objective of that chip guys?

I also read it is 512kb

well, anyway,I proceded with my original objetive:

the W25Q32BV


Before the mods (just old internal usb mods done)






[after the mod]















and here are the pics of the settings reset mod










now I will check the flasher timewalker posted, I think it should be easy to make a cable from the parallel port to the port I added to the laptop ^^

to make things clear for me too, I made a pinout from the port I added

[TimeWalker]

More hot glue lol .. it's never enough. Good job @kasar! And it was indeed very thoughtful to make a CMOS-reset switch.
To not to try and guess what's the other chip for I told you to get a schematics for your laptop's board. You know the Quanta name already as it has been discussed previously.
The LPT port is an easy soldering job .. and then it's only a matter of dumping the flash.

[kasar]

well, I added more hotglue to secure the connections after I took the pictures, its just that without hotglue the pics seemed clearer


yeah, the cmos reset switch feature is nice to have, I also wanted it, since when I will flash using the programer port, I will have to remove AC, battery and cmos battery to do a clear programming, so all I have to do now is toggle the switch after and before programing


about the other chip, I will check for more info later, anyway since it seems all or most interesting stuff is inside the chip I already made a flasher port, it should be ok.

mmm, I think I will need to go to an electronics store again, I dont have any spare parts at home, also I dont want to kill my wrt54gl jtag cable to make this one since the wrt54gl cable works fine and I use it sometimes.

so I may take some time to build the flasher cable.

as for the 3.3v, not sure if I can get them directly from the parallel port, so I may have to get them from usb by adding also a usb port with a resistor just to get power.

any other idea about where to get 3.3v?

a cable without a big or annoying external power suply would be interesting