Forum RSS Feed Follow @ Twitter Follow On Facebook

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
[-]
Welcome
You have to register before you can post on our site.

Username:


Password:





[-]
Latest Threads
Z97-PRO(Wi-Fi ac)/USB 3.1
Last Post: Jedrek
Today 09:49 AM
» Replies: 4
» Views: 2264
Lenovo Z50-70: CPU update
Last Post: DeathBringer
Today 09:26 AM
» Replies: 5
» Views: 102
[Request] Acer Aspire 3050 unlocked BIOS
Last Post: prowindows62
Today 07:43 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 69
Fujitsu Esprimo P5710 - unlock [REQUEST]
Last Post: Maxinator500
Today 07:16 AM
» Replies: 18
» Views: 483
HP H-IG41-uATX 45nm microcode update LGA...
Last Post: goldenhill
Today 04:49 AM
» Replies: 58
» Views: 56556
Asus h61m-d & xeon e3-1265l v2
Last Post: DeathBringer
Yesterday 04:28 PM
» Replies: 3
» Views: 187
[REQUEST] - Acer Swift 3 SF314-41G bios ...
Last Post: ersan
Yesterday 03:03 PM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 141
[REQUEST] Lenovo G780 advanced menu
Last Post: Dudu2002
Yesterday 09:41 AM
» Replies: 43
» Views: 17052
[REQUEST] ThinkPad T14 Gen1 Intel BIOS W...
Last Post: SSV CHAOTIC
Yesterday 05:19 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 136
[REQUEST] Lenovo Ideapad 100-14IBD & 100...
Last Post: Dudu2002
Yesterday 03:48 AM
» Replies: 15
» Views: 6914
[REQUEST] Lenovo IdeaPad U310 & U410 (65...
Last Post: 5CarPileup
Yesterday 02:04 AM
» Replies: 1767
» Views: 380286
HP Pro 3500: CPU Upgrade
Last Post: DeathBringer
Yesterday 12:13 AM
» Replies: 20
» Views: 4586
[READ FIRST] Access Advanced settings th...
Last Post: Klinzah
05-02-2024 05:11 PM
» Replies: 424
» Views: 568947
[REQUEST] Asus eeepc 1025C
Last Post: sloseba123
05-02-2024 04:44 PM
» Replies: 87
» Views: 110483
HP EliteBook 840 g2 NVMe
Last Post: x86-64
05-02-2024 06:30 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 118
[Request] Dell 7400 2 in 1 Computrace/Ab...
Last Post: Lorand187
05-01-2024 10:34 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 167
[REQUEST] Gigabyte B75M-D3H BIOS Unlock
Last Post: topadefir
05-01-2024 12:56 PM
» Replies: 10
» Views: 4055
[REQUEST] Lenovo B590 (H9ETxxWW) Whiteli...
Last Post: samugarob
05-01-2024 10:08 AM
» Replies: 674
» Views: 168741
[REQUEST] Asus GL504GV BIOS Unlock
Last Post: merjeu
05-01-2024 09:28 AM
» Replies: 5
» Views: 1721
[REQUEST] Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC BIOS Un...
Last Post: George205
05-01-2024 09:22 AM
» Replies: 167
» Views: 68764

Mysterious UEFI Behavior on Biostar AM1MH with AMI v4 BIOS
#1
I want to relate an interesting thing I discovered with an AMI v4 (IV) UEFI -based motherboard I purchased recently - after I clear CMOS, the next boot I get a screen that shows me I can overclock to 3.6ghz using a base clock multiplier change, whereas on every boot thereafter UEFI shows what the manufacturer actually claims for the board, which is that you can only underclock (2.2ghz and lower, down to 800mhz):

Picture of the overclock setting working

Picture of what the options are after reboot

My system setup's relevant bits are as follows:
CPU: AMD Athlon 5370
Motherboard: Biostar AM1MH Motherboard
UEFI Version: AKBAT411
RAM: 1x4gb Crucial DDR3 RAM
HDD: 250gb SATA II Western Digital 7200rpm

The UEFI is plainly not working as intended here, but what's most interesting to me is the possibility that the higher base clock values could be permanently enabled if only we could modify this AMI UEFI appropriately. I am a total novice at this, but I was able to get a little headway by downloading the UEFI file from Biostar (they give it to you as a .bss file) and renaming it as a .rom file. This ROM was readable by AMIBCP v. 4.53
.zip   AMIBCP 4.53.0050.zip (Size: 309.1 KB / Downloads: 8) , which gives me the following:

   

The "USER" allowances were added by me; before they all said "Default."

Up to now, that is all the editing of the file I've done Blush . I haven't flashed it yet because I don't know if I will brick my device in so doing and I don't even know if it will accomplish what I want to do.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for unlocking the overclocking values in this BIOS? If you want to fiddle around with it  yourself you're certainly welcome to; I've included all the necessary data as attachments to this post. What's in it for you? I think if we can figure out how to do this here, then many Biostar BIOSes will benefit from the same modification; I think they tend to reuse this UEFI on multiple boards. This could be the start of a widespread edit helpful to many other people as well, especially since the AM1 community is starved for motherboards with good UEFIs.


Attached Files
.zip   AKBAT411.zip (Size: 1.93 MB / Downloads: 4)
find
quote
#2
A quick update on my progress... I'm afraid I can't get much further without understanding 

1. If my modification will be safe.
2. If it will even work.

I'm actually currently GUESSING that it will in fact be safe, but that it will not work. This is because the overclocking menu is available, but some of the menu items are not, so I don't think making the Custom FID menu set to "USER" will change anything - I'll have to find a way to reveal multipliers 22.5-36, which are the hidden items. If possible, it would also be good to reveal Core VID settings above 1.325, which is the default and will not yield as high of a stable OC. 

I have started to try to use UEFITool NE A32 to get a closer look at this BIOS, 

.zip   UEFITool_NE_A32_win.zip (Size: 3.39 MB / Downloads: 8)
but I'm afraid I don't really understand that program. I was able to use it to find what I think are the hard representations of the hidden multiplier strings, 
   
and also "BIOS String" representations thereof,
   

But I don't know what kind of edit I need to make in order to make these strings (and associated settings) visible and select-able. 

Anyone have a clue?
find
quote
#3
Is it possible to change the x8 default to a higher multiplier and get the overclock that way? Seems like a very dangerous course of action because obviously if we get stuck on a totally unstable clockrate the system is essentially bricked...
find
quote
#4
So how useful is this site, anyway? I really need help and I'd like to move along. Should I post this stuff elsewhere? What are some more active sites for BIOS modding out there?
find
quote
#5
Thanks to help from some folks in PM, I think I'm gonna have to use Universal IFR Extractor as my tool to find and remove EFI_IFR_SUPPRESS_IF statements...
find
quote
#6
Quick update: Universal IFR Extractor 0.5 is unable to read the protocols of the modules extracted from the UEFI's .rom file using MMTool 4.5 or 5.0. I'm guessing I'm doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what...
find
quote
#7
Look into module with GUID {899407D7-99FE-43D8-9A21-79EC328CAC21}
find
quote
#8
(11-06-2016, 03:29 AM)DeathBringer Wrote: Look into module with GUID {899407D7-99FE-43D8-9A21-79EC328CAC21}

Yep, this looks very promising. I've included the .txt body extraction file as provided by UEFITool: 
.txt   Setup_Compressed_section_body IFR.txt (Size: 328.37 KB / Downloads: 21)


This definitely is something we can work with, modify, and potentially insert back into the BIOS using UEFITool again!

First of all, thank you, DeathBringer!!! Second, how did you determine the importance of that particular GUID, if you don't mind me asking...
find
quote
#9
I just opened some modules from biggest.
find
quote
#10
New strategy, based on DeathBringer's help:

In the extracted module, go to line 0x3907B and start deleting "Suppress If: {0A 82}" and "End If {29 02}" lines. This will for sure unhide the menu items, but I am worried it will cause the file to be too different for successful overwriting of the default UEFI...
find
quote


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)