Unlocking an HP Envy dv6t-7300 (w/ Insyde F.2A) ?

[AmagicalFishy]

Hey, everyone.

I'd like to unlock the advanced options in this HP DV6t-7300 (to adjust some VRAM settings), but there's some weird stuff going on.

According to msinfo32.exe, the BIOS is Inyde F.2A, 11/12/2013 (edit: SMBIOS Version - 2.7), but I couldn't find any links to this version on the HP website (or any BIOS version). I've found a couple of claims that the F.2A is here: http://rapidshare.com/files/262188568/3310.fd.html

I attempted the F.2A here: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-T...7#pid37557 -- but was met with an InsydeFlash "Not for this notebook" error. (Should two F.2A be different files?)

Apparently there are two versions of this laptop, one of which has an NVIDIA card. Mine has an Intel HD 4000. The HP website identifies my laptop as: HP Pavilion dv7-6c50ew (which it certainly is not). 

Here's a screenshot of the BIOS: 



I've done a lot of searching, but haven't found much in the way of my laptop specifically. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm pretty computer literate, but dealing with BIOS modding is a first for me.

[Da Vinci Code]

Hello!
Only sp5**** can be moddable, but not all.Your laptop produced after 2012 so bios is internal RSA signed.
If you have/buy HW SPI programmer, your problem will be solved.
You can try another way, look here
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-R...-EFI-shell
you found steps how to prepare USB BOOTX64.
F.2 bios in that topic not same as yours, besides that laptop produced until 2012 so it can be modded.

[AmagicalFishy]

Hello!
Only sp5**** can be moddable, but not all.Your laptop produced after 2012 so bios is internal RSA signed.
If you have/buy HW SPI programmer, your problem will be solved.
You can try another way, look here
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-R...-EFI-shell
you found steps how to prepare USB BOOTX64.
F.2 bios in that topic not same as yours, besides that laptop produced until 2012 so it can be modded.

Would you mind giving me a quick explanation (or even a link) of what an HW SPI Programmer is? 

I will definitely buy one if it's as simple as "buy one, everything works." How involved is the process?

(Thanks for your response, by the way. I was afraid this thread would get overlooked!)

[Da Vinci Code]

Ok. You must disassemble laptop, bios chip must be soldered out (7th leg contains a protect) and can be flashed by HW SPI Programmer.This work is for servicemen usually.You can read about Programmer here https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-R...5#pid74575
Users with HPs internal RSA signed bios use this method to change hidden settings in most causes:
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-R...-EFI-shell
You can try it.
If you want remove WiFi whitelist, HW spi programmer can solve your problem.

[AmagicalFishy]

Ok. You must disassemble laptop, bios chip must be soldered out (7th leg contains a protect) and can be flashed by HW SPI Programmer.This work is for servicemen usually.You can read about Programmer here https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-R...5#pid74575
Users with HPs internal RSA signed bios use this method to change hidden settings in most causes:
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-R...-EFI-shell
You can try it.
If you want remove WiFi whitelist, HW spi programmer can solve your problem.

Alright, I... probably won't get the HW SPI Programmer.

I did read all 32 pages of the linked thread, though. None of the tools for dumping my BIOS worked. I did find this: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-R...4#pid62594 which is exactly what I want, but, I don't know if my BIOS's options are the same (and I don't want to brick my laptop by trying them).

The most promising tool, Universal BIOS Backup Toolkit 2.0, gives me a "Cannot read BIOS" error. :l

So what I need to do now:
1) Find a way/tool to dump my BIOS (this is turning out to be the hardest so far)
2) Use Falseclock's PERL script to look at what options are available
3) Boot into EFI shell and change the appropriate VRAM option to 512mb (this requires learning a bit about w/e language is used)

Do you know of a current way to do #1? All the tools available don't seem to work here.

I actually use Linux primarily (only use Windows to play games), so I'm going to try dumping the memory from there. It'll also be easier to use the PERL script.

[AmagicalFishy]

Bumping.

Still trying to back up my BIOS so that I can run the PERL script. 

I've tried many tools presented in various threads (... so many threads) to no avail. Either they can't detect my BIOS or they flat out don't work. In Linux, I've also tried things like dmidecode, biosdecode, and dd if=dev/mem, but the PERL script doesn't run on any of these. Instead, it gives an "IFR_PACKAGE_SIG not found!" error. I think this is an issue with my PERL installation and not the script itself, but I'm looking into it more today (have to go to work). 

If none of this works, I'm going to try to find the size of the bios and its location, to scan the ROM directly.

Either way, if other people have more ideas, I'd love input

[AmagicalFishy]

Update: 

I've found a working .exe file (sp68425) and flashed my BIOS to Insyde F.2D. I extracted the .bin with wine in Linux.

The PERL script isn't working, but I'm not sure whether it's a problem with the PERL script or a problem with the .bin file.

Figuring that out is my next step

[AmagicalFishy]

Ok; managed to decrypt the .bin file and open it successfully with UEFITool!

http://i.imgur.com/Sx2Ivae.png

Now I just have to figure out how to find and alter the settings I need!

[AmagicalFishy]

Managed to find what my boot menu should look like:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Offset: Title:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0x8B850 System Configuration (0x62)
0x8D290 Power (0x40F)
0x8EC30 Security (0x12D)
0x8FAE0 Advanced (0x1D5)
0x99230 Main (0xFE)
0x994F0 Exit (0x182)
0x995C0 Diagnostics (0x48)
0x996E0 Security (0x3C)
0x997A0 Main (0x4)

I have the SetupUtility part of my BIOS opened in a hex editor. Trying to figure out the string of 00's and 01's that correspond to my BIOS menu, then I'm just going to unlock all of them. If they all appear in a consecutive string of 00's and 01's, shouldn't the offset be consecutive, too?

[AmagicalFishy]

Well, none of the 126 permutations of "01 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 00" exist in the hex file, so... Ship.

I'm trying with smaller sets of numbers; going to gather a list and see if any correspond reasonably to my BIOS menus. Then I'm going to brick my computer.