Hello rudeboy,
I will take a look at the BIOS that BDMaster provided in
Post #3 for what can be unlocked.
Standard unlockable items include thermal, CPU, ACPI and/or APM, graphics, memory, PCI, USB, SATA, etc. settings. I will also perform a Main/Info Menu upgrade. Unlockable items vary between BIOSes though. I will let you know what I find.
I use the following tools to modify BIOSes:
• HxD Hex Editor: This is the program that I use to perform the actual modifications.
• AndyP's PhoenixTool: Used to decompress and recompress the BIOS image
• PBE (Phoenix BIOS Emulator): Used to emulate the BIOS (only works on some BIOSes though...). This facilitates Main Menu upgrades and allows me to see what I have unlocked as well as provide screenshots to BIOS mod requesters for troubleshooting purposes.
• WinMerge: This is one of my verification tools. I use this tool for directory comparing of the extracted BIOSes (original and modified).
Verification process (I am going to leave a few parts out so that this isn't a novel):
When I complete a mod, I decompress the original BIOS image and the modified BIOS image into separate directories. Then, I perform a directory compare using WinMerge. This allows me to ensure that ONLY the module that I modified was changed (TEMPLAT00.ROM). I then use HxD to compare each individual byte that was modified in the TEMPLAT module. I verify that each modification accomplishes the intended purpose while not causing problems. In addition to this, I also manually verify each menu/sub-menu offset in case the manufacturer or myself have made mistakes (I have seen both before, mostly the former). During the verification process, I also test each menu and sub-menu in PBE (if PBE is capable of emulating the particular BIOS image). The verification process can take almost as long or even longer than the BIOS mod itself for quick mods, but it guarantees that all of my mods are safe to flash assuming I was provided the correct BIOS image to start with and the flashing process does not fail.
As for a how-to: I am planning on creating a beginner-friendly Phoenix BIOS modding tutorial in the future. For starters,
this can be a good resource to learn the basics of Phoenix BIOS modding. I learned primarily from experimenting with my notebook's BIOS image and then emulating the changes in PBE. I am going to try to dig up a few more resources that were helpful to me. If you are interested in learning how to modify BIOSes (whether you want to become a BIOS modder or just want to know how the process works) and need help learning, I will be more than happy to provide such help.
~Steven
