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

[follow_me]

Just a though - what if we try to flash bios from L702X will it work on L502X? What risks? Or can it be modified to work on L502X?

You are not the first one - kasar did it , but it failed to boot anyway further setup screen

[kasar]

yeah I tried that, and it worked.

I basically used a full dump of a L702X chip and flashed it on my L502X BIOS chip directly by using FPT, it booted and I entered on the bios, I didnt tried to boot the OS since I think It would be a big mess for drivers and OS configurations, but well, it at least partially worked.

not sure if we can take advantage of that , for example by using some of the L702X modules on the L502X BIOS, they are almost the same machine, and the L702X seems to have more stuff.

so we may be able to unlock the L502X a little more using some of the L702X bios parts

[determo13]

@kasar would you be able take all RAID,OROM etc... related modules and modify l502x bios...? @followme managed to run raid on his system so it has to be something missing on l502x that presents on l702x. Maybe then we would have chance to run raid.... If you do that I can try and test it, run windows etc...

[kasar]

mmm, not sure if If can be that simple, but well, lets wait for @followme input to let us to know what changes he made and then we can compare the roms and try some tests replacing modules

[follow_me]

@kasar
I've used @Brabbelbla's version he posted in this thread - without any my modification i was working "right from the box"

I've tried to update OROM to be able to use TRIM with raid setup, but without any luck, also with the same result with UEFI SATA driver

First of all you need to confirm that both ports are belong to same controller - we have two ! First one is SATA 3 6Gbs , second one is SATA 2.0 - I don't know is it possible to create RAID configuration on separate controlers with OROM we have

@determo13 I suggest you to use sofware raid setup - it will have same speed as Intel RST , but with some limitations about system setup , which easier to solve than OROM issues

[determo13]

@kasar maybe you can guide me with the l702x modded bios, so I can install it on my system too and experiment with it. B.t.w do you have this modded bios on hands?

@follow_me Sorry I probably misspelled something in previous posts it's SRT(Smart Response Technology) not RST. And I don't need to build RAID I just need my SATA work with RAID ports. Then SRT going to work and my small SSD can cache my HDD. So software solution not working here.

[kasar]

@determo13

here is the related L702X bios flashing on L502X posts related

https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-U...O?page=173

well, for that you will need a external programmer

you can buy one or build one.

instructions on how externally program the L502X BIOS chip and how to make a easy LPT programmer are here

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

I flashed directly a L702X dump follow_me sent me

it contains the full chip image + wich include a modded L702X BIOS

you can ask him for the dump, I have it but since its a dump from his entire system I cant share it without his permission ^^

[determo13]

@kasar
I see, so there is no easy way to flash foreign bios to the system.... and I've read post you had issue with usb 3.0 and most likely would had issue with GPU too... it's shame you didn't turn RAID for testing propose.
Making my own programmer I would probably ended up with dead laptop )) 
Anyway if you going to further modify l502x bios with l702x bios modules, I'm always volunteer to try it on my system, thanks. 

[kasar]

mmm, well, you can try to flash by using the standard way of flashing the bios.
however, it would have more chances of even not boot.

also you would have no way of recover from a bad flash if the recovery cd rom I made doesnt work for crossflash issues.

I'm glad I made the external programmer and a global flash backup before going into advanced tests, else I would have a brick for sure.

well I had when my bios chip for phisically damaged, anyway I easly fixed it by ordering more of the same chips and reprograming them.

that basically turned back my laptop into working status.

mmm, relating raid, I basically dont know exactly where to start, I already modded the advanced setup .efi so RAID can be selected from there, and also tried to replace the RAID oprom module not sure if you tested it,or if it had some kind of partial success.

relating any other test from that I'm not sure what modules I can try replacing.

follow_me talked something about brabella's raid module, but I cant find it, if I could find it, I can try replace L502X's module with that one and test.

[determo13]

You well prepared I see, with this level of experiments I would end up using my laptop as a cutting board. 
And yes I've tested that modded oprom you posted, nothing much changed...
Maybe @Brabbelbla can help with that RAID module then....