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

[kasar]

I have another idea, it can be temporal, however, asking someone to dump a easly of those dumps made with Universal BIOS Backup ToolKit 2.0.rar

and renaming the m14x r1 dump to BIOS.cap

we could test if it is posible to "preview" that bios.

I can also test that from yours, I mean, if you can send me a Universal BIOS Backup ToolKit 2.0 dump from your L702X , I will be able to verify it also works in that way.

if that works, I will also probably have luck with the alienware's one

however, the thing I really would need is m14x r1 full dump made by FPT or a external programmer.

that would be way easier to flash and make it works.

[follow_me]

Here is my Bios.cap
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ypoivux68rx51z/BIOS.CAP?dl=0

You can extract bios cap from the dell's bios update, no need to ask someone to dump it

[kasar]

yeah, I think I were able to get the cap file from a update by following timewalker instructions, but the alienware bios looks totally different for me.


ok, I will procceed to test your L702X BIOS.cap

I just were able to find this relating the m14x bios

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m...#post12003

there are already some modded ones , but not a single dump, even the ones made with the universal tool.

I checked the update proccess of the m14x r1, it is done with a different program, and it doesnt seems to work on mine, that is why I would need the full dump in order to flash it.

I also could try to flash only the bios region of the dump, everyone should be able to get a bios dump with the FPT , even with locked descriptor.

anyway, we need to find a friendly alienware user to disturb with our dump requests .... xD

[follow_me]

I've extracted m14x r1 bios capsule for you
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dws6tsw0n7n3ls...s.cap?dl=0

[kasar]

ok, got some news

your L702X BIOS.cap WORKED

I also found something interesting, the universal BIOS tool generates exactly the SAME file that "FPTW.exe -D -BIOS output.rom" generates.

that is awesome, because, we can actually "flash" any bios someone get via that universal app with this following command

"FPTW.exe -F -BIOS input.rom"

so, basically, those files generated by universal BIOS tool, can act as BIOS.cap file for booting/testing only, and also as file to be directly flashed after we tested it.


here you have all the required software ^^

http://www.mediafire.com/download/tkm646...S_apps.rar




oh, and about the m14x r1 bios capsule you sent me .... isnt it exactly the PALB0MEC.fd file renamed? :/

I'm almost sure that will not work, because I supose that file contains a lot of stuff including some kind of uefi flasher like our bioses.

also, the total size of our flash chips is 4 mb, including descriptor, bios, me ...., and ... that single file takes more than 4mb?

I am almost sure it isnt the BIOS.cap file we need

like I said, the easiest way to get it, is get a alienware m14x user, and ask him a bios dump made with the universal bios programmer, or something.

the size should be like 2560 KB in most cases.

it may be posible also to be obtained from PALB0MEC.fd, but I'm not sure how to do it.

[follow_me]

the size should be like 2560 KB in most cases.

You simply wrong here - bios size should be 2560 in case if you use 32Mbit flash , for example bios from MSI( which was with Ivy support) is for 64Mbit chip and bios section there is about 4MB like we have for m14 r1

And yes , it is the same .fd file

just try it - it may not work , but , it doesn't mean it is wrong, it can be because of lot of things

[kasar]

well, I will try then.

anyway, I supose this mean the alienware chip is bigger than our 4MB one?

that isnt good for flashing I guess .....

but well, I will try at least test it ^^

[kasar]

ok, tested it, and didnt worked D:

so aparently the alienware have bigger flash storage, I though they were the same :o

[kasar]

OK, some updates, I managed to dump my brother's laptop flash info.

he have a high end ivy laptop with the posibility of two GPUs in SLI

Managed to get the dumps by using MESET.EXE (to override descriptor security by software)
then used a DOS version of FPT to get the dumps


machine name: CLEVO P370EM


Flash units

EN25QH16 ID:0x1C7015 SIZE: 2048KB
EN25Q32b ID:0x1C3016 SIZE: 4096KB

I have following DUMPS

* DESCRIPTOR REGION
* BIOS REGION
* ME REGION
* FULL DUMP

the machine is able to run Ivy and sandy

the chipset is the hm77

since getting bigger size flash chips working on our machines didnt seemed to work, I think I will keep trying to get ME8 1.5mb firmware working on my machine.

I will try some tests, if someone wants to help and or is interested on give a check to the flash DUMPs from the other machine, let me know.

I also will send the DUMPs by private message to the interested ones.

[kasar]

ok, have some interesting news guys, I managed to get the ME region from the clevo, it is a ME8.1

I modified the settings in FITC to fit the ones from my laptop.
flashed, and guess what?

it worked

yes, the laptop is not only able to show things on screen, it also even booted windows.

I am posting right now from my l502x laptop with a ME8.1 firmware on it.

anyway it isn't perfect yet.

there are some stuff wich stoped working

In BIOS menu report unknow ME version

http://i.imgur.com/v0ndrO2.jpg

also XTU is unable to do OC anymore.

all menus are greyed out (even all my custom ME FW OC settings were also applied to the new fw, it doesnt even appear.)

I am also unable to get the ME version from the MEinfo windows app.

it seems that something isnt working, probably bios related.

however, I think this is a big success since this is the first ME8 boot working on a suposed "not compatible" machine.

so, I supose, now, there is only more bios modding needed to get the new ME working fully

here it is the ME region from the clevo, and my modified one from FITC with the L502X settings.

https://www.mediafire.com/?q436ttrlupcp76r

there was many people at this forum before with interest on ME8, I hope they still interested and watching this forum ^^

edit:
found this:

http://www.eurocom.com/ec/release%28137%29ec

laptop, hm67 and ivy bridge proccesor.

yep, it seems definitly posible to run ivy on our hm67 machines