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

[kasar]

@timewalker

mmm, I noticed some more unlocked menus in the first picture of your post like "ICC Configuration" and "Intel ® Rapid Start technology" wich I doenst have on mine, however, I can see the text on the module

those are the latest pics of my unlocked bios.

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-UE...9#pid49699

do you have those unlocked on your laptop guys? or have more options?

I am thinking on testing put some of the 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 45 0A to 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 45 0A, it may also unlock some more menus.

[TimeWalker]

jkbuha once said that iRST setting comes up for him whilst he enters BIOS being in crisis recovery mode, otherwise it's absent.

[kasar]

oh, I see.

what about the "ICC configuration" one?

[jkbuha]

@jkbuha:
So, some noobish questions. Can you point me to how exactly you concluded that the EFI_IFR_SUPPRESS(_IF?) code-piece was a 64-bit unsigned integer and exactly what hex-values it was? And what do the register operations mean that you're pointing at? What information gets stored where?

Hey Brabbelbla - if you look at the actual string itself it's clear that it's 64-bit (01, followed by 7 trailing hex digits of 00 before next operand). Besides, the IFR spec itself says that it's 64-bit unsigned.

With regards to the register operations, this is more of an assumption on my part - I'd like us to focus on an operand that we know well (eg: disable HT) so that we can trace the respective x86 operands in the setup module that would access the MSR and set the respective bits. In theory if this is the case we should be able to apply this for practically anything that uses register settings, and create a respective menu item for it, now that we know how the menu system works.

Hope this makes sense

---

jkbuha once said that iRST setting comes up for him whilst he enters BIOS being in crisis recovery mode, otherwise it's absent.

Yes that's correct - the only time I've seen iRST is when I booted in recovery mode. I wasn't aware that there were more 45 0A operands to be set to 00. No harm in trying

[kasar]

Yes that's correct - the only time I've seen iRST is when I booted in recovery mode. I wasn't aware that there were more 45 0A operands to be set to 00. No harm in trying

I started doing that yesterday, there are a total ammount of 18 of them in my already modded advanced setup bios module.

I'm trying set one per one to 00 and test, no positive results yet, I will keep testing

[radosi]

As I follow this discussion for a month I realize that here are the people who have extra knowledge about dell bios and hardware.

My little story is not about help you in modding - sorry about that.

I lost my charger and use my xps wired with + and - wires to some regular 19.5V charger until waiting one user charger from ebay. I'm far away from my office for a month more so I want to know if someone has found solution to ignore stupid 1 wire AC power supply verification . I'm not sure weather I broke my host 1 wire read controler or ebay charger is bad or even the connection is bad. I have not oscilloscope here. Before an year my dell xps motherboard has a defect that not recognize the charger and dell change the MB for free, but now I'm out of service period.

Now to use my laptop I remove battery from MB because it is discharged and the laptop refuse to start or if I started it without battery and plug it after that, it immediately shut down power.

My BIOS is flashed with modded firmware form the first post and I have extended option in my bios.

If someone can help with this mode .. I'll be so thankful.

Regards.

[TimeWalker]

Hey guys, just telling you a lulz story here.. my morning started just great today, lol.

Yesterday I accidentally launched the L502x BIOS update on my Vostro, it got to a point of loading the capsule into memory. I then quit the app and carried on .. Now, at shutdown it restarted and flashed the power button LED which is a sign of entering the UEFI SHELL Flasher. So I immediately cut it off. Now, waking up this morning I had a nice surprise waiting for me.. Laptop booted and refused to read Biometric data at login, then I've noticed the sensor doesn't work -> great. After logging into Windows I immediately noticed internet wasn't working... none of the adapters were there, nor was the Bluetooth. The most bizarre thing was that USB ports didn't work either.. DVD Drive wasn't picked up either (even in crisis mode), so... I was really puzzled at this point as to how I will restore my BIOS, considering all my work for Vostro is on an external HDD... Luckily I had WinFlash from creating the BARTPE image yesterday and for whatever reason I had a folder called 'vostro' sitting on my desktop with an unknown BIOS file, the only file in this folder ... and I hadn't phoenix tool nor was I able to get it somehow to see what kind of BIOS it was. I've merely agreed to myself that if this piece of crap bricks I'm getting rid of it and not even attempting to fix it... Luckily (for the second time) it reflashed fine and booted into Windows. Everything seemed to work, I've proceeded to test USB3.0 port with an external HDD which for whatever odd reason was picked up as USB2.0 (I have a B/R led on the unit to tell what mode it's working at, red for USB2.0, blue for USB3.0.. it remained red at all times). So I was indeed mad for [censored] up USB ports and carried on reflashing all my valid mods countless times in a row - nothing seemed to fix the issue. Then I swapped the cable out from another USB3.0 drive and it was picked up with a blue led now, which was a huge relief.. I've inspected the original cable and concluded that ALL 5 PINS are bent to an extend that it's not even possible to try and bend them back... that's what happens when you are mad to a degree you want to trash everything around, heh..

Yeah, a fun story indeed.

[HairyCube]

Glad you figured it out TW... Though throwing it away probably wasn't a bad idea either!
I'm getting rid of my Vostro whenever Gigabyte P34G comes out. I'm really done with this laptop.

[TimeWalker]

Yeah, I'm kind of glad but at the same time I feel cheated on I'd rather say I'm done with Dell..

[Emy]

I am back with the modded Bios on my XPS 15z. I like to see lots of options in Bios and learn the use of each of them.
Previously I had some problems with the Bluetooth not showing up and not working at all, under modded Bios and original Bios.
Sometimes worked under original one, sometimes would not.
I had the motherboard replaced and loaded the modded Bios, everything is fine now, except when shutting down the laptop, sometimes instead of shutting down it restarts.
I am wonder if anyone encounter the same issue, and what might be the cause of it?