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

[TimeWalker]

3350 & 3550 have Insyde, 3750 freezes, yes.

[TimeWalker]

People over at iXBT are also cursing idiots behind EC firmware for our ITE IT8518E chips, particularly people who coded thermal table with such a high headroom.. the fan tends to run almost constantly when plugged in, even though it's obviously isn't required. This chip is not documented, I have found only engineering data of the actual hardware... nothing more than that. I recalled that for 15z thermal table got updated, according to changelog anyay.. maybe @jakbuha you could take a look at EC part of the firmware capsule to see if there are any changes to a particular block of it (it's not huge, 132Kb IRRC).

* A11 8/13/2012
1.Modified the rule of reading adapter watt.
2.Modified BIOS setup menu browser refresh interval.
3.Update thermal table v1.7f

* A05 8/16/2011
1.Can't Coldboot to USB3.0 ODD when CD/DVD is set as first boot device in BIOS setup
2.Enter S3 then flashing BIOS in Windows, it will go to S3 after shutting SUT down
3.In Win8 system Bios does not correctly implement XHCI Handoff - the update is for embedded USB3.0 controller
4.Thermal table is updated to Rev. 1.7d
5.Code change - Send out ejection SCANCODE (0xE009) when MFG_ON and ACPI_ON
6.Unused USB port #5 is disabled

[jkbuha]

Sure TW, though I'm not sure which module or offset in the main binary I should be looking at? If you have any pointers for where to look - or even a byte sequence to search for - ill get back to you with the diffs.

[TimeWalker]

Cheers. EC firmware is at offset range 00400000h – 00420FFFh inside the F33 firmware capsule, starts with a block involving "ITE Tech. Inc" unicode string. I've been lurking around recently but haven't found anything in my EC fw, changes are too dramatic to distinguish anything..

[kasar]

oh, its nice to know the EC firmware is at the BIOS upgreade, I allways felt worried since I just installed external access to the main bios/ME chip and not to the EC chip.

I wondwer why they use two separate chips if there are some free extra/unused space at the 4MB one, I think they could also put the info from the 512 chip at the 4Mb one, I think it just complicate things ^^

[jkbuha]

Here you go guys - I've attached the ITE firmware for Dell L511z A08 and A11. There are differences for sure, but I'm not clear where the table is...

[TimeWalker]

lol, naming things "VBIOS" apparently has stuck in your mind for good now
will try to find this thing if it's even remotely possible .. i've disassembled my EC fw, will try to look for similar ranges.
there should be DST limit tables for PWM and FAN tachometer limits corresponding to the first table... it's a shame ITE hasn't put out an datasheet yet.

[TimeWalker]

I've just found out XPS13 has same chip for BIOS with same structure, if not even same SCT version ... the intel vbios is only SNB one, so
it must be SCT 2.0 like ours. There's one 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 45 0A occurence in PSA module which can unlock some menus presumably.
But that't not what I'm after .. changelog from A06 to A07 says "Win8 supported" which usually means nothing more than "Windows 2012" added to OSYS in DSDT..
There's another change: "Support new BIOS feature for battery", I've looked at PSA module and it hasn't any changes..
Actually I'm wrong ... for some reason a EC query has been added:

Code:

Method (_QB4, 0, NotSerialized)
                    {
                        P8XH (Zero, 0xB4)
                        Store (0x02, ^^^^AMW0.INF0)
                        Store (Zero, ^^^^AMW0.INF1)
                        Store (0xE02C, ^^^^AMW0.INF2)
                        Notify (AMW0, 0xD0)
                    }

Not sure what's the WMI code 0xE02C is fore, there's an Atheros BT module with such a PID, maybe to disable it or something ...

Dell hasn't even bothered to include Windows 8 in DSDT lol even tough they say "Win8 supported" in their changelog.

Code:

If (_OSI ("Windows 2009"))
                {
                    Store (0x07D9, OSYS)
                }

Only windows 7 is there... while on my vostro Windows 8 is properly coded in:

Code:

If (_OSI ("Windows 2012"))
                {
                    Store (0x07DC, OSYS)
                }

I still wonder what's the "BIOS feature for battery" .. but I have no desire to compare modules again If someone has - you are welcome.

Now, ITE IT8518E is also there - will try to figure something out ...
versions D13.For PHOENIX.EC Version.P0A28 and D13.For PHOENIX.EC Version.P0A27 from A03 and a A02 respectively have least possbile changes..
the only change from changelog betwheen these two says "Optimized system fan acoustics" so it can hint as to where tables are located, but oddly enough the firmware for ec looks somewhat different to my and what @jkbuha had sent me... but meh, worth looking anyway.

TODO:
-compare A02 with A03 and A03 with A04 to determine what has been done to suppress fan noise
-compare a06 to a07 to see what has been unlocked in bios in terms of battery

Changelog for XPS13 (L321x) is as follows:

A07
1. Win8 supported.
2. Support new BIOS feature for battery.

A06
1. Supports Win 7 & Win 8 PXE boot via USB 2 and SMSC 7500 Dongle
2. Resolves Intel iRST with TPM compatibility issues.
3. Supports TPM on Win8 .

A05
1. Supports Editing of Asset tag within the Bios menu. Support boot from USB LAN.

A04
1.Increased coverage of supported AC adapters
2.Updated LED behaviors for the keyboard backlight and the charge indicator
3.Improved S3 resume behavior
4.Further refinement of fan acoustics

A03
1. Optimized system fan acoustics

A02
Stock

[radosi]

I'm wondering where I can find DSDT aml file for 511z. I searched around but did't found any usable and I'm not sure that I can create good one with DSDT editor.

I Follow this instruction to install 10.8.2 OSx but can't manage with boot installation. system hang and restart on kernel patching probably because I use DSDT file from A19 bios 702x.

I have virtual machine with Lion for Xcode programming but want to try native OS.

If the is no way for 10.8.2, 10.7.4 could work for me too.

Thanks in advance.

[TimeWalker]

I'm wondering where I can find DSDT aml file for 511z. I searched around but did't found any usable and I'm not sure that I can create good one with DSDT editor.

I Follow this instruction to install 10.8.2 OSx but can't manage with boot installation. system hang and restart on kernel patching probably because I use DSDT file from A19 bios 702x.

I have virtual machine with Lion for Xcode programming but want to try native OS.

If the is no way for 10.8.2, 10.7.4 could work for me too.

Thanks in advance.

AFAK L502x DSDT is compatible, heck it's almost the same for all the models in the lineup.

My data mining on EC fimrware from XPS13 is not successful. I've started deciphering EC registers though. Here's a repo I created, because I've lost my original work on this subject :| never again ... https://github.com/Dolnor/V3450_commentary
Anyone with RWE, AIDA64/HWMonitor/HWInfo are welcome to assist .. don't know how useful this is, but I figured it might help looking for clues i EC firmware later on.