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

[kasar]

I got those

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-WINBOND-IC-C...46156955bc

W25Q128FVSG

I cant belive we will increase the flash space x4 for that little money!

this will be just epic

yeah, I also just read that some little time ago,that gave me lot of hopes of getting this working
that guy seems to have a QM67 chipset, however, I'm pretty sure, that will also be posible for our HM67 chipset with some modifications.


this mod will be even more incredible than our previous one, we will have more features by having bigger firmwares, and also Ivy bridge proccesors support!

I can imagine having a ivy bridge proccesor on my beloved L502X, it will be awesome

however, there are a lot of modding pending before it will work, hehe ^^

I also suggest getting a cheap ivy proccesor, like the celeron 1000m (wich is the cheapest ivy proccesor as far I know), so we will ensure it works before spending huge money on a decent ivy proccesor.

[follow_me]

that guy seems to have a QM67 chipset, however, I'm pretty sure, that will also be posible for our HM67 chipset with some modifications.

despite common belief, there is no low level difference between AMI, PHOENIX, Insyde EFI - they are share same base written by intel (PEI, hw init code , drivers) , modifying it by adding custom configuration utility and customizing drivers set to match hw installed (all that drivers are writen by hw manufacturer, not AMI,Phoenix or Insyde )

so porting is just finding out corresponding module and replacing current used one

I also suggest getting a cheap ivy proccesor, like the celeron 1000m (wich is the cheapest ivy proccesor as far I know), so we will ensure it works before spending huge money on a decent ivy proccesor.

I think it is financially unreasonable to buy IVB cpu for about 300$ to get up to 30% of cpu performance (especially in case when it is not a performance bottleneck )

[kasar]

good news, I also got my 16 MB chips




what should be the first step now?

dumping current 4mb chip, and fill the end of the file with FF or 00 until it get a exact 16 MB to be able to flash it on the new chip?

I think it is financially unreasonable to buy IVB cpu for about 300$ to get up to 30% of cpu performance (especially in case when it is not a performance bottleneck )

well, it depends, for example, I recently upgreaded from a i3 to a cheap i5.

upgreading from a sandyB i5 to a Ivy I7 will make a Huge difference.

but yeah, it depends the ussage of the laptop, in my cases I do intensive CPU tasks and I also like this machine a lot, so I dont want to upgreade it a lot (getting a new machine would also imply modding it fully again from cero, both hardware and software ^^)

[gabiz_ro]

Not so simple.
See chapter 3
http://komposter.com.ua/documents/System...Engine.pdf

[kasar]

oops, yep, I forgot that, we talked about some pages ago, so basically some tweaks are required in the descriptor to make it work.
thanks for the info

edit: I am having some troubles with the programmer now, it happen also with the previous chips, not sure if its the programmer battery wich is low.
will test the new chip on the programmer when I got previous one working again.

[kasar]

ok, fixed the programmer, it was it had dirty contacts, it works again after cleaning them

spipgm and flashrom software were outdated too, just updated it and flashing seems to work again.



I supose we will also need to update FPTW flash txt file to be able to handle the new flash device.

[follow_me]

Open your dump (created by programmer) using fitc - it will extract bios sections
Open xml attached
Change each section image location to file extracted by fitc (located at dump_name\Decomp)

build image (F5)
flash new image by programmer
test it

Descriptor should be unlocked (because I've created xml from unlocked dump)
I've increased bios section on 5M (now it 7,5)

  BiggerFlash.zip (Size: 12.72 KB / Downloads: 3)
if it will work ok - I'll build IVB image with bigger ME and ported drivers

I'll wait for your results

[kasar]

mmm, I have some questions first.

what do opening the xml with fitc does? (I allways altered the settings manually on fitc)

well, I supose it already changes a lot of stuff since it already changed the flashspace from 4 to 16 and other settings

however, it messed a lot the VSCC table with my original dump, I had 6 flash devices listed on the VSCC table.
by opening your xml file it list now only 4 devices on the VSCC table. (I supose that isnt good)

I noticed it also removed my Overclock tweaks from ME region settings :o

is there any way to do this manually by altering just the required settings?

I supose it is just to alter the flash space from 4 to 16, make some minor tweaks on the VSCC table.

and maybe other small tweaks.

[kasar]

here is my dump if you want to compare it with yours

http://www.mediafire.com/download/kagpip..._l502x.rar

[follow_me]

what do opening the xml with fitc does? (I allways altered the settings manually on fitc)

This is just settings I've changed

well, I supose it already changes a lot of stuff since it already changed the flashspace from 4 to 16 and other settings

It changed only flash space but baset on my firmware

however, it messed a lot the VSCC table with my original dump, I had 6 flash devices listed on the VSCC table.
by opening your xml file it list now only 4 devices on the VSCC table. (I supose that isnt good)

It doesn't matter how many did you have
It uses only one , found by device ID , so there can by only one device an it would be totaly fine

I noticed it also removed my Overclock tweaks from ME region settings :o

Yes , because it is based on my dump , and I don't have this tweaks

is there any way to do this manually by altering just the required settings?

Yes, you can - you should set flash density to 16M, set VSCC record to be Hi 0x40 Lo 0x18 , and adjust bios region size (I've set 0x00762000)