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

[kasar]

@jkbuha

well, sadly I have to OC from windows using intel XTU and my intel ME patch, sadly no bios overclocking yet.

kazard i am tented to solder a new bios and use a bios saver.

How long it take to get bios chip ?

Should I remove all the motherboard ? Or should I get it with minimal modification ?

Have you identified the LPC port ?

not sure if you mean hazzard or kasar, because there is no kazard user in this forum as far I know so I will reply ^^

take away the bios chip from the mobo depends how good you are with electronics.

you need get take appart the whole motherboard out the case in most cases, since the bios chip isnt visible into the laptop expansion bays usually

not sure what do you mean with the LPC port.

you have more info about how to desolder and solder the bios chip from the L502X laptop here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps...-more.html

look at the last section of the first post (more advanced mods section)

keep in mind that if you use other laptop than the L502X, you will not be able to use my ME patch since it will probably brick your laptop.

the chip and or chip location will probabl differs too

[TimeWalker]

Oh the [censored] at Intel, I've specifically bought a GA-H87 board because they enabled OC with latest bios release and now they push a uCode update to block it.. At least I haven't invested in a K-marker CPU yet and opted for an S-marker to save energy..

[broucaries]

@jkbuha

well, sadly I have to OC from windows using intel XTU and my intel ME patch, sadly no bios overclocking yet.

kazard i am tented to solder a new bios and use a bios saver.

How long it take to get bios chip ?

Should I remove all the motherboard ? Or should I get it with minimal modification ?

Have you identified the LPC port ?

not sure if you mean hazzard or kasar, because there is no kazard user in this forum as far I know so I will reply ^^

take away the bios chip from the mobo depends how good you are with electronics.

you need get take appart the whole motherboard out the case in most cases, since the bios chip isnt visible into the laptop expansion bays usually

not sure what do you mean with the LPC port.

you have more info about how to desolder and solder the bios chip from the L502X laptop here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps...-more.html

look at the last section of the first post (more advanced mods section)

keep in mind that if you use other laptop than the L502X, you will not be able to use my ME patch since it will probably brick your laptop.

the chip and or chip location will probabl differs too

LPC is low pin count. it is a bus behind the superio that go to the bios.

I own a L502X so no problem.

Bastien

[Brabbelbla]

I dropped my L702X. It fell. Screen broken. Being repaired. That brought me to attach a display to the mDP port, for troubleshooting purposes. Which worked, so I can now confirm that the mDP port works with the modified VBIOS.

[jkbuha]

Hi all

Been a while since I posted so apologies; have been working on other projects.

I think it's high time we upgrade our ME fimware; a quick google shows the latest is 7.1.70.1198; has anyone seen this in 1.5MB flavour?

I have an opportunity to open up the 15z and experiment with shorting some pins to enable the descriptor unlock; let's try one other shot at unlocking the ME

[kasar]

oh, finally some activity here

so,another version of the ME firmware got relased?

I didnt know ^^

will you just short the pins, or you will also dump the whole chip using a programmer?

having that dump saved my a-ss several times .)

I also can help you with the ME firmware modding.

ME firmware version update doenst need unlocked descriptor,I already did before desolder that chip.
it can be done with the executable included in my L502X thread at NBR.

however, enable overclocking and tweak with the firmware parameters need unlocked descriptor, you also will need FITC to edit it.

procced very carefully, bad FITC parameters on the firmware caused some bricks on my system, and since the bios recovery CDrom doesnt recovery or flash the ME section, the only way is reflash the chip externally with a programmer if things go wrong

[jkbuha]

Sorry kasar - been working more on the OS side these last few weeks, but it's now time to go back to basics

Yes the latest version of ME has been out for a while but I can only find the 5Mb version. If anyone has the 1.5Mb we can give it a look to see if it works.

I'm planning to short the pins for now; in a nutshell I'll be changing the battery and upgrading the RAM and as dismantling the 15z is a pain in the a$$ I was going to short the pins as well seeing as I'll be going through the hassle. Problem is I'm not sure which pins to look out for (I know it's close to the ALC269 but that's all) so any help would be appreciated.

Yes I remember what we went through with badly programmed FITC - but as long as we are careful we will succeed

[kasar]

np mate, we all have our stuff ^^

about the pinmod, I didnt made it yet, I would love to put a guide with pics on my l502x thread with an image of the chip and the pins to be shorted, but I dont have any idea about where is the chip, also since I have my descriptor unlocked at the hard way, I would probably not notice a difference while trying the pinmod by myself ^^

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-UE...5#pid53835

try asking CodeRush, he seems to know the details better than most of us ^^

FITC worked fine for me, it was just the procedure were a little tricky and the file needed some hex edits in order to work (remove some padding)

when your descriptor get unlocked I can give you more details about the FITC tricks and values to be changed in order to enable OC.

however is very recomendable you manage to dump your whole chip rom info (including all sections, descriptor, bios, ME ...), like I said, I bricked my laptop several times messing with the ME firmware and without the hardware mods, it would be now just a expensive brick

after unlock the descriptor, I think you are able to dump the whole chip info using the same app I used to flash the modded ME firmware and settings.

however, I did not tried yet to flash a dump from software, I allways flashed the hardware dumps, as I trusted them more.

[ReFiRnE]

People, I am kinda don't know what I am doing, but my dell xps 15z, overheats so much, and I found that it makes laptop much cooler, so atm I am in university and I will try to flash bios at this evening. Main question, can any one make a basic guide how to do it?(I am not sure, how to do all steps from first page) Because I only done with flash bios with dell drivers. And question is, can it affect badly on win 8.1? Hope get fast answer ! =)

[kasar]

@ReFiRnE

I suggest you download the modded bios from the first post and flash that one

talk with jkbuha for more info


@all

did you checked prema bios mods?

he seems using DOS flashers to flash his bios mods with just a DOS bootable USB stick and his files.

I managed to to find a way to turn the fan allways 100% or auto for my laptop

however I want to create a bios hotkey like FN+6 like he did on his bioses

I will pm him to talk about that and custom bios logo creation.