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

[gabiz_ro]

I can't find layout for this board so you need to locate these testpoints on board

[mc_teo]

Hi,

I've had the Dell 15Z (L511Z) for nearly three years now, and its always been pretty good. I have the i7 2620M, and Nvidia 525M 2GB model. I updated to Windows 8 just under a year ago, and since then the graphics card has been overheating a lot. For basic games it works fine, but anything relatively modern, it cuts all power to the laptop after a certain time.

I've tested it with HWMonitor, and FurMark, and it seems to get to about 95 degrees Celsius, before just turning off completely. I've flashed this bios and it says in HWMonitor its been undervolted to 0.83, but still when I run any games it just peaks right back up. Do you guys know of anyway to either undervolt is further (would this even help), or underclock it via MSI Afterburner or something, or add a global framecap? Basically any way of keeping it under 90 degrees.

Is there any reason Windows 8 would have caused this? I have updated the graphics drivers since (I don't think I updated them from Nvidia before the Windows 8 install)

Any help appreciated, thanks.

[kasar]

mmm, it could be acumulated dust on the heatsink blocking the airflow.

that happens after sometime, thats why I need to take appart the unit once per year.

[mc_teo]

mmm, it could be acumulated dust on the heatsink blocking the airflow.

that happens after sometime, thats why I need to take appart the unit once per year.

I did take it apart recently, as I thought it might be some dust shorting it out (turned out to be an unrelated issue. My hands pressing on the area beside the touchpad would cause it to hibernate, turned out that the freefall protection was too sensitive...)

[ucupsz]

hello kasar and all,
i've read couple pages back of this thread. interesting hack

I had lenovo T430. i can not flash modified bios using intel fpt.
when i tried to back-up, it gives error 26:
(Error 26: The host CPU does not have read access to the target flash area. To en
able read access for this operation you must modify the descriptor settings to g
ive host access to this region.)

do you think that modifiying flash descriptor will help me to be able to flash using intel fpt?

[kasar]

hello kasar and all,
i've read couple pages back of this thread. interesting hack

I had lenovo T430. i can not flash modified bios using intel fpt.
when i tried to back-up, it gives error 26:
(Error 26: The host CPU does not have read access to the target flash area. To en
able read access for this operation you must modify the descriptor settings to g
ive host access to this region.)

do you think that modifiying flash descriptor will help me to be able to flash using intel fpt?

yes, that error is caused due a locked descriptor settings.

to overide the lock you have some options.

* MESET.exe
* ME_PORT.exe
* prr2.exe

those apps bypass the protection by software on many computers, but not work on all, it works on a DOS environment, so you would need a DOS bootable usb , cd floppy, etc and run it from there, then without restart, you would need also a fpt.exe (dos version) and the file to be flashed (anyway I would made a backup from the whole chip before backup anything)

other options are hardware options.

you can do the descriptor bypass by shorting the two pins asked before at this topic.

or going to the hardway and reprogram the chip externally like I did to remove the lock.

give also a look to this topic

http://forum.techinferno.com/general-not...ptops.html

[ucupsz]

for an update,
1. i've changed the flash descriptor into FF FF using hardware flash programmer.
confirm the changes using "fpt -i" command.
Also successfully dump the ME section using "fpt -ME -d myME.rom".
previously, can't dump ME part with previous flash descriptor setting.
2. failed when tried to flash the bios part using "fpt -BIOS -f bios.rom"
bios.rom is the one that i modified.
the error is:
"error 28: Protected Range registers are currently set by BIOS, preventing flash access. please contact... bla..bla..bla.."
i tried in both windows environment and DOS (bootdisk).
still hardware based solution for T430 then...

hello kasar and all,
i've read couple pages back of this thread. interesting hack

I had lenovo T430. i can not flash modified bios using intel fpt.
when i tried to back-up, it gives error 26:
(Error 26: The host CPU does not have read access to the target flash area. To en
able read access for this operation you must modify the descriptor settings to g
ive host access to this region.)

do you think that modifiying flash descriptor will help me to be able to flash using intel fpt?

yes, that error is caused due a locked descriptor settings.

to overide the lock you have some options.

* MESET.exe
* ME_PORT.exe
* prr2.exe

those apps bypass the protection by software on many computers, but not work on all, it works on a DOS environment, so you would need a DOS bootable usb , cd floppy, etc and run it from there, then without restart, you would need also a fpt.exe (dos version) and the file to be flashed (anyway I would made a backup from the whole chip before backup anything)

other options are hardware options.

you can do the descriptor bypass by shorting the two pins asked before at this topic.

or going to the hardway and reprogram the chip externally like I did to remove the lock.

give also a look to this topic

http://forum.techinferno.com/general-not...ptops.html

[kasar]

congrats ^^

so, you managed to unlock your decriptor.

what is the output of

Code:

fpt.exe -i

you also can try now the windows version of fpt also known as fptw64.exe, it is more confortable to work from there.

did you tried to flash a whole modified flash image?

(all regions togheter)

Code:

fptw64.exe -f totalflash.rom

anyway never got that error.

in my case, after remove the descriptor lock, fpt didnt complained anymore.

(take in mind having a complete working dump externally is a must have, in case you have to reprogram it externally in case of a brick, you can also copy and modify that dump to test stuff, but allways keep a original copy of the dump.)

[kasar]

ok, my new proccesor finally arrived

I will take the unit appart in following hours, so if someone need me to take pictures of something from inside or test something, the moment to ask is now

I think I will also investigate the misterious aditional usb port I was looking at the schematics, I will post about it after the tests.

about the proccesor upgrade, I switched from my old crappy i3 2310m to a i5 2430m, not a big upgreade but well, not bad for just 25 eur, I will also have turboboost feature now for testing stuff.


also, I have some little money now, not much but will probably enough to order some flash chips.


@follow_me

just ordered two

W25Q128FVSG - 128Mbit (16MB)

[kasar]

ok, upgrade went fine hard modded the unit a little more, added another usb port to the unit.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps...oof-6.html

however, the missing resistors cause the device to not be detected properly, will test some resistors in following days, anyway if someone have a clue about what could be the resistor value, I would thank him a lot ^^