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

[kasar]

Just recived a reply from them after I mailed them....

it looks like the anouncments are wrong

Hello Mr.Juan,



The HM67-3 motherboard with HM67 chipset only support Sandy bridge processor.

Our HM77-3 motherboard with HM77/QM77 chipset that can support both Sandy and Ivy Bridge processors.



Please check the files attached for the HM77-3 motherboard,thanks!

also, no bios attached to the email, only doc and pdf info and schematics.

[follow_me]

@kasar , goot job
Don't think you are wasting your time , You are not, everything is helpfull for us to figure out how to force our's MB to work at maximum

I think we need to find out how to use bigger chips , according to UEFI specs we need to have All the PEI modules we have in uncompressed state to be located in compile time defined positions on the flash whis means we need to translate internal addresses to adresses with new start offset (in case if we want to usea a bigger ME , it will move start of bios region further)
I think you should try one trick - flash raw dump, padded with zeros, but before you flash, edit ME region to use new flash chip and change all old chip id in code to new ones (from new chip) and try to boot this image
in theory it should work , because all offsets are the same, and flash art id shold be in raw form in all PEI modules (but there can be inverted byte order )
Can you try this ?

[kasar]

oh, not sure why I didnt recived email notification at reply at this time

mmm, not sure if I understood, I would need to flash the whole file padded with zeros, like I did, but then I would need to edit the file with the size of the new one. (we tried this before, and it didnt worked) the thing I didnt tried, is to edit the the chip ID in FITC, there are some flash profiles.

up to 6, not sure if I would need to edit the windbond profile with the newest chip, or add another profile with the new chip

also I dont know the exact values I need to add

each profile have this data


Vendor ID 0x??
Device ID 0 0x??
Device ID 1 0x??
VSCC Register Value 0x????????

each profile have different numbers.

not sure wich one I would need to set for my 16MB chip. (W25Q128FVSG)

or the ones corresponding to my default working 4MB chip (W25Q32BVSIG)


other stuff, not sure if anyone interested, but I found a site where I can buy used i7-2960XM CPUs on a working condition!

and it would be only 75 USD or 58€

this is awesome since it is an extreme CPU with unlocked multiplier, and theorically it is the best proccesor we can put in our G2 sockets. (if we dont get access to ivy, anyway I have been reading about ivy extreme proccesors, and the have LOCKED multipliers, so I think I will stay on i7-2960XM one because is the fastest sandy and also have unlocked multiplier )

usefull to test out unlocked BIOSES and modify the multiplier.

aparently they sell more, so, if someone else is interested on getting them to, let me know

I noticed someone got a working extreme edition CPU in the L702X laptop, however, I may need to order also a better ac-dc adapter since the extreme CPU have a TDP of 55w, instead the 45w from non extreme i7, or the 35W from i3 or i5

also cooling may need some tweaking in order to support that beast

[follow_me]

@kasar
sorry for messing up sequence

it is followming
open image in fitc
set flash part to a new one (there was predefined W25Q128FV somewhere in imeges, can't remember which image it was)

replace hex sequnce for device id in bios region

build image
pad with zeros , flash to device

Vendor ID 0x??
Device ID 0 0x??
Device ID 1 0x??

vendor id is the same as it was
manufacturer id - EF (same )
device id w25q128fv - 4018
device id w25q32bv - 4016

[jkbuha]

Morning all - Having returned back to my trusty 15z today I have updated the latest modded L511z BIOS on the first page with the following changes:

- New vanilla v2170 Intel vBIOS; should be working with all variants of L511z but *THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES THAT THIS WILL WORK ON YOUR 15z!*
- Updated Intel Microcode to latest 0x29
- Thanks to an inspiration by @Florin9doi I have also replaced the Network PXE Boot ROM with the much better & more flexible PLOP BOOT ROM. This will also allow 15z users to network boot with our Atheros adaptor as the respective vendor & device IDs have been updated.

Now a quick update on the other work in progress:
- I am still experimenting to determine if we can unlock the multiplier without having to replace the CPU.
- As per @follow_me's comments, we should be able to patch some of the SCT 2.31 modules into our 2.00 BIOS. The initial work I had done needs to be updated, and importantly I need to remember what had been done a couple of years back...
- @kasar I'll try and help you on creating the new image for the larger Winbond chips except that I don't have any ones myself so it will be just theory...

Anyone who tries out the new modded BIOS please let me have some feedback. It works perfectly on mine but I just want to make sure it does for everyone else.

Thanks
jkbuha

[kasar]

srry for not reply before, I have been a little busy at this weekend with the japanweekend event in madrid, I'm a big fan of those events hehe ^^


ok, I see, so aparently, to switch from chips, is easy, just is needed to be changed



should I also change this setting to 16MB?


or should I just leave it as it is and fill manually the image with FF until I get the 16mb size?

after confirm this, I will procees to flash it ^_^

jkbuha

I also want to replicate those changes in my L502X and maybe the L702X.

I think I may be able to do the microcode and vbios update since I already did it, I may be able to do if I pick your modded BIOS and copy the stuff from there (anyway, if you can send me the microcode file and vbios itself, I would be happy since it would make things way easier ), but not sure how to do the PXE Boot ROM to PLOP BOOT ROM


about the multiplier change, I think it is only posible with unlocked CPU, because it is hardware limited, it is a limitation set in the CPU.
if you want to mess with the multipliers, why dont you pick that extreme CPU for 70€ like I am going to do?
well, not sure if the 15Z have a G2 socket like the L502X have, I found pretty easy to upgreade the CPU in the L502X, however, not sure if in the 15z the CPU is soldered to the motherboard that would be a problem, and you would need expensive tools to unsoder and soldering the new proccesor.

also, in the case you desolder the proccesor, instead directly soldering a new one, I would install a G2 socket, it would make upgreades and proccesor change way easier, since I installed the BIOS socket, I became a big friend of the sockets, hehe ^^

[jkbuha]

Yeah I went to the same Japan Weekend in London a few weeks ago, good fun =D

So, here you go:

1) Microcode update is attached - very easy to do; follow my steps in the first post
2) VBios is attached (2920FC62-). You may need to patch the ports for the L502x, but it worked for all ports in its unlatched form for the L511z.
3) Plop is attached as well (AD13024C-). You need to replace the module just as we do with all the others, but modify the deviceid & vendorid for your own ethernet card to enable network boot. For more instructions go to http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/rom.html

Yes I do have a soldered CPU, which I was planning to try and desolder until @follow_me convinced me that it was a bad idea Still the G2 socket sounds like a good idea, though I'd need to check I have enough headroom between board and cover (the Dell z-series only have ~10mm spacing, to try and keep them thinner) but I'll see what I can find.

[kasar]

oh, thanks a lot!

it looks like I will have a lot of pending work hehe ^^

and yeah, installing a CPU socket on a motherboard isnt easy stuff, so if you dont have a friend with the required tools, I would focus on something else ^^
also, with the socket, the cpu would be a little more elevated, so you would probably need to mod the heatsink to work with the new environment.

probably the main difference between the 15z and the L502X is the thin design.

in the 15z, they sacrified some stuff in order to have a more thin design, that included the cpu socket.

thats why I choosed the L502X, I preffered more functionality than thin design, if I had more money when I bought it, I would probably choosen the L702X with a 555M GPU

[follow_me]

Little note about cpu miltyplier - there is no torubles with it if CPU has unlocked - we have a CPU settings menu (where "Fast strings" option is located) , there is option for multiplier , an you are able to change it if it is unlocked

about flash density - I think you should NOT change it
at this point I think we should have as little changes as we can , to know what exactly affecting system and not to decide which one from dozen changes prevents sysfem from boot

[kasar]

ok, I think I will start with the BIOS mods instead the bigger flash.

I will start with the plop one.

downloaded plpbtrom-0.6.zip and extracted exe and bin files. (I supose your rom file is just the output file from those ones including your vendor and device ID)

in order to got the vendorid and the device ID from my integrated LAN adapter (probably the one used in the network boot since I didnt saw any one working with the wireless minipcie) I went to the windows device manager and clicked on properties on the lan adapter, wich gave this.



VENDOR ID = 10EC
DEVICE ID = 8168

then I entered this command

plpbtrom.exe -vendorid 0x10ec -deviceid 0x8168 plpbtrom.bin plpbt.rom

the plpbt.rom resulted in an almost identical file from the file JKbuha sent me, there was some diferendes at the header of the file, so I supose the L502X and 15z have different ethernet hardware.

however, what is the PXE boot module rom name in your bios? %somename%.efi probably
or if posible tell me the size of the old file, that probably will help ^^

relating the bigger chip size, there may be another issue.
I didnt tested yet flashing the file, however, while looking for the PXE boot module, I found some suspicious module names.

(this one is the EC chip in my board)
W25X40FlashPartDxe.efi
W25X40FlashPartSmm.efi

MX25L3205DFlashPartDxe.efi
MX25L3205DFlashPartSmm.efi

(W25Q32BV this one is the one I installed a socket and dumped content to mess with the descriptor, BIOS and ME region)
W25Q32FlashPartDxe.efi
W25Q32FlashPartSmm.efi

W25Q80FlashPartDxe.efi
W25Q80FlashPartSmm.efi

EN25F40FlashPartDxe.efi
EN25F40FlashPartSmm.efi

EN25F32FlashPartDxe.efi
EN25F32FlashPartSmm.efi

W25X32FlashPartDxe.efi
W25X32FlashPartSmm.efi


wich make a total ammout of 7 entries per different chips.

there are 6 entries at the VSCC table of the BIOS, so not sure what it is the aditional chip.

maybe it is the small one containing the EC wich I saw in my motherboard. (yep, the l502x contains two flash chips, I documented it here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps...ost9508992)

anyway, in order to support bigger size chips, I think we will have also to do something with those files ^^

edit:

I am trying make the W25x40vsig (W25x40) to show up in FPT software, for that, I am editing the fparts.txt file trying to create a profile for this chip, but I dont know the values to add.
maybe someone can give me a hand? ^^ attached fparts.txt file

I think, it would be something like:
W25x40vsig, 0xEF3013, 0x400000, 0x1000, 0x20, 64, 0, 0xc7, 80000
tried it but the chip doesnt show in the list , only the W25Q32BV 4MB one appears :/

I noticed dell flasher is able to flash EC region, what I am trying is being able to access it, in order to backup it, and in case of need, modify it