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

[TimeWalker]

IRRC @kasar, you are getting home on the 3rd of January?
Nonetheless here's a V8.1.10.1286 infused backup of yours, lets see if it can boot up:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2573233/kasar_v8_infused.rar

[kasar]

woot! huge thanks

ME 8.1, cant wait for that

yeah, I am getting at home 3rd of january, will flash that and post results as soon as I will get access to my custom LPT programmer at home ^^

[jkbuha]

happy NY to all guys.

srry I couldnt connect before but it was a long night ^^

- same here mate... sounds like it was worth it!
Re: ME 8.x flashing - very exciting! Please keep us posted as soon as you try it out!

@TW - hope you had a great NYE as well.
Reading your post again I was thinking - is there any way we can patch our Dell BIOSes to UEFI 2.31? Perhaps using a more updated Dell BIOS such as the L521x for example?

[TimeWalker]

It wasn't that great to be absolutely honest, that's whole another story which involves how my relatives do not get together very well, but that shouldn't bother anyone except me. I didn't go out this Eve mainly because the weather was [censored] (rain, rain .. go away, come again another day :<) and pubs were completely crowded. Didn't feel like it was worth it anyway, I'm in real grumpy mood lately.. at least people liked my presents, or at least cared to pretend that they liked them...

Highly doubt it can be that simple, the firmware has to be rewritten from the ground up. Pulling and swapping modules from later machines will result in a Frankenstein-like bios with significantly greater amount of bugs that we currently have. Some stuff even has different syntax in terms of coding across 2.0 and 2.3.1 .. it's a huge leap to take. Besides the machines do differ greatly - machines are tuned to utilize ME v8, chipsets have different capabilities.. take 15z and L502x for example .. no noticeable differences and yet you get a complete brick when cross-flashing.

Actually, @kasar, this might have a greater chance of actually working: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2573233/kasar_v...sed_v2.rar

[kasar]

sorry to hear that TW, well, to be honest, my xmas didnt were also so exciting as I wanted to be.

after several moves, travels and different conditions , I became a little ill , also I was a little annoyed.
but well, I'm comming back tomorrow , so I will probably feel better

about the v2 version of your mod, what are the differences vs the first one?

should I also test the v1 version of your mod , or should I go to the v2 directly?

[TimeWalker]

Try v2 first.

[ryan_975]

wow, long long long ways since I bricked my L702x last June which netted me a spare L702x motherboard that I planned on getting enough parts to get running to experiment on... but that doesn't seem like it going to be necessary now. Great job guys.

[kasar]

hey all, I am finally at home ^^

however I am having issues again with the chip programing on windows, I will have to use another pc, I also have some extra work since one of my spare pcs died and I will need to take it appart and replace some parts, however I probably will be able to test it today or tomorrow.

oh, another thing.



I has been talking with twntysvns

he said his L502X machine got hard bricked by flashing a 15z bios on his machine.

for some reason now the END key trick doesnt work, but the right arrow works, like on the 15z. (curius, but since he flashed a 15z bios by mistake, it makes sense)

he tried the recovery method and it doesnt work for him.

so we both talked about the posibility of doing a hardware programing.

basically, build a hardware programer like I did, dump the contents of the chip.

then pick my working backup, and edit it by adding his hardware stuff like MAC address and tag numbers instead mine.

that probably will work, I sent him the schematics and info about to how build and get the required items and he acepted.

I think that is also worth of following, what do you think about it? any ideas or alternate solutions or it is ok like it is ? ^^

[TimeWalker]

that's why you never update the boot block :< (\bbl)
the only good solution is the one you have suggested - reprogramming via hardware. your dump shouldn't be hard to edit.. I only wonder if express service code is also somewhere in the bios or it's just a sticker information.

[kasar]

@tw

okay, we will go for it then

@all

okay,srry for the little delay ,I was messing with some old broken laptops and getting some them to work.


but I finally tested the modded roms timewalker edited with the ME8 firmware

I got access to a desktop PC with parallel port and usb booting to make the tests.

I also decided to label the chips in order to get better control and management of future tests





well, relating to the experiment results.

both versions booted the machine fine (TW's v1 and v2 modded chip images)

however, I also got this with both of them



what do you think guys?